The Journey of a Lifetime

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." -- Miriam Beard, author, from USA Today, November 28, 2008

Back home for one week now both Frances and I recognize the wisdom of Beard's statement. Inspired by the wide variety of lodgings we inhabited throughout Central America--all plain, simple, comfortable, and uncluttered--Frances was compelled to purge our house. As we cull through our possessions and papers and sort through our basement, closets, and drawers we're also reassessing how we choose to live. How can we live more freely? How can we not be owned by our possessions? How can we simplify and delight in that simplicity?

For me, travel is one of my greatest teachers. Starting with a six week bike trip I took through Western Europe immediately after college to the present day, I've learned lessons on the road that rival years of classroom lectures. Those lessons have stayed with me longer and affected me more deeply because they were rooted in the art, architecture, landscape, culture, history, natural world--and people!--that I met, talked with, touched, felt, and heard. My mind was filled with new information but so, too, were my body, emotions, and spirit.

I'm often surprised when friends or family members admit that they admire our courage for taking this journey through foreign lands. Certainly there were times when we felt fearful or uncertain during our travels. But the insights and information, the surprises, frustrations, adventures, beauties, and bounties that we encountered, filled us with energy and inspiration that carry us forward.

Years ago I scanned the book, "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats" by Peter Menzel. This photo book showed one family per country from Australia to the United States (and many countries in between) posed beside one week's worth of groceries. I was struck by how prepared, packaged, unnatural, and unhealthy much of their standard fare seemed. One country stood out from the rest. The family from Guatemala was surrounded by fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, and beans. "I want to eat like that family eats," I thought to myself.

Not surprisingly, as soon as we entered Guatemala, we were greeted by huge, bountiful, and beautiful markets. Fruits and vegetables were piled high. Grains, spices, and unknown foodstuffs tantalized nose, mouth, and eyes.

During a walk through a market enroute to Rio Dulce we were enticed by bags of unidentified chunks of a green fruit or vegetable sprinkled with salt, lime juice, and chilis. When we asked our bus driver, he said, "Oh, that's green mango. Since it's not ripe it tastes sour, tangier. Do you want some?" We tried it and liked it ... What a treat! Green mango remains one of my favorite taste discoveries from this trip.

The picture of a Guatemalan family surrounded by their food made an impression on me. And, yes, I still believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. But experiencing some of those foods myself--without a camera lens between us--was so much better.

Surprise! Guatemala

Just to set the record straight ... our own private island wasn´t all peace and bliss. We did have some complicated manipulations going on with the man who found us this island and provided services as our water taxi. But that is an entire story in itself. We´ll tell that another day.

Yesterday we were hijacked and ended up in Guatemala instead of Belize. At least Frances thinks we were hijacked. I think that this is the return route we were meant to take BUT I wanted to go to Guatemala and Frances did not.

It all started at the water taxi. When we arrived before 7AM, we were told there was no taxi to Belize City on Tuesdays and we´d have to wait a week to get there. However, a man at the site assured us we could get to Punta Gorda, Belize if we paid him $40US each and $25US each to get on a different boat. He kept pushing us, saying that we had to make up our minds quickly since the boat was leaving at 8 am.

Finally we said yes since we weren´t inclined to spend another week in Puerto Cortes, Honduras. But, after we naively hopped into Flash´s truck and headed down the road we slowly discovered that Flash intended to drive us to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. There he would drop us off at a boat scheduled to leave Guatemala for Punto Gorda, Belize. SURPRISE!

The drive was beautiful. So much so that by the time we reached Puerto Barrios we were ready to switch to the bus instead of the boat and spend a bit of time in Guatemala. In addition, our taxi ride with Flash got us through immigration quickly and easily, the best experience we´ve had so far entering a new country.

In downtown Puerto Barrios, Flash asked a bus conductor about border crossings into Belize and then, magically, we were immediately placed in the front seat of a small van heading to Rio Dulce, Guatemala. The bus driver, Manuel, was wonderful. He told us he´d lived in California for two years and his English was very good. By the way, Flash revealed to us that he had lived in Boston for 10 years so his English was good as well.

During our trip to Rio Dulce Manuel shared a tremendous amount of travel information with us and truly eased our way into another new country and culture. This was especially helpful given the fact that when we got out of bed yesterday morning we had no plan to visit Guatemala on this trip at all.

We´re on another adventure and plan to spend the next three to four days in Guatemala before entering Belize through another border crossing.