The Blue Sun Mod

[MoreDread]

no you will just have to go exploring on your own =)

having done this mission means that you can now travel in the restricted zone
(marked by the borders around those 5 different cities you can see right from the start)

there are a few other cities and other sectors outside + theres a chance to get random encounters with bandits... those are a good way to hone your fighting skills and collect some loot.

for that it is very advisable NOT to miss that drunkard guy in the bar in santa maria.. because he will give you your first car.

beeing able to put loot in your trunk is essential if you wanna hunt bandits and not loose most of the loot after battles and it also greatly increases your traveling speed. (note that there are a few missions that don't work if you have a car... mainly escorting the german guy in puerto viejo and the assault on the convoy if you decide to work for tanya. if you want to do these missions, simply ask a bartender to look after your car for a while.)
the drunkard will also allow you to do quite a few missions for the corrupt policeman in sagrada. just give it a try, these missions are hilarious. you can fire him afterwards if you don't like paquito..

and Dr.Q was mentioning benicia, she is basically a free merc.
talk to the foreigner in the campecino hospital, he will ask you to save her from his overprotective father in santa maria. then instead of delivering her to her lover right away, you can just keep her in your team for free until you need that spot for hiring an 'actual' merc. (theres a non-violent way to solve this quest.. look around the forums if you can't discover it yourself, i explained it somewhere)