Four and a half months out from my winter trip is where we are on the calendar and it doesn’t seem real yet. I have a one-way flight booked, but no itinerary in place, no hotels organized, no plan. What I do have is a desire to be off the grid, away from technology and free from that habit of checking in with the world back home. It is far easier today to stay in touch while travelling, but I remember when that was not the case and just getting a phone line out to make an international call was an all day affair. It’s now far easier to stay connected while travelling internationally, but it’s important to remember that travel once came with far fewer conveniences. And in my opinion, that’s how we learn some of the best life lessons and what it means to really travel.
Some of my first adventure travels happened the summer after graduating from university. A good friend and I decided to head to Central America instead of attending what would have been a very long and boring graduation ceremony. Our plan was to drive across the US to California, then south to the Mexican border and continue through all of Central America to Panama and back by land. We had a road atlas, our backpacks and a few essentials like malaria pills, water purifying tablets, some American Express Travelers Cheques (remember those?) and good hiking boots. Beyond that, our preparedness kit included little, and the few plans we had would soon be rerouted by circumstances beyond our control.
There was no route, no plan, no idea how long we could stay on the road with our small budgets, and no plan B for when that car broke down a few days later near Flagstaff Arizona. Every decision was made in the moment, and for me it was by far the most valuable three months I ever spent for all of the life lessons I learned along the journey.
When the car broke down and a mechanic said it was not worth repairing, we sold it and made our way to California by train. From there we had a friend drive us to the border of Mexico (Calexico in the USA and Mexicali on the Mexico side) where we began our adventure by land, heading south by buses and pick-up trucks and dugout canoes as far south as Panama and back. There were towns so remote that our $20 travelers cheques caused all kinds of confusion and we would walk out of banks with piles of cash in places where the largest bill they printed might be less than the equivalent of 50 cents. We rarely saw other travelers and when we did they were usually Peace Corps workers. It felt like uncharted territory in many places back then.
One night we had to sleep in a small shed behind a family barn because the town had no official rooms for rent. Another time we were given space on a church floor in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas because journalists from around the world had booked up all the hotels while covering the aftermath of the Zapatista uprising. Another memory that stand out from that trip was arriving to central Menagua late at night and being astonished by what looked like a tent city. It was after a recent earthquake and people were still living in makeshift corrugated steel structures. We wandered around in search of someplace to eat and eventually were invited to eat at a makeshift restaurant along the side of one of the steel houses. People were welcoming and there was always music playing and a party atmosphere despite some pretty dire living conditions. Even with obstacles like these along the journey, we managed to visit every country (except Belize) in Central America on that trip without any plans, reservations, credit cards, internet connection, or cell phones. I learned to scuba dive on the island of Utila in Honduras, climbed an active volcano in Guatemala with armed military escorts because robberies at gunpoint were still pretty common, was bite by a stray dog near the cloud forest of Costa Rica and had to decide if I wanted to be evacuated by helicopter to a US military base in Panama for rabies shots. All of these unexpected moments and split second decisions are what make the most memorable stories on any adventure. And maybe because of these early travel experience I find myself still longing for this type of trip. Little to no plans, just a taste for adventure and a desire to see more of the world.
