Traveling in My Younger Days

When I was a teenager I drove to Central America with a couple that made the trip every year to a few churches where they had met some of the local people. This couple were missionaries. And being a teenager I loved the idea of getting to drive them around down there.

We started out in my home state Florida and drove to the Border of Mexico at the El Paso crossing. It was exciting. This was my first drive down and we went all the way to the Honduras Border.

Over a period of 3 months we traveled through much of Honduras. We stopped and had church with different ones along the way.

We stopped in one town where the people were very familiar with the couple I was traveling with. They had been to this town several years in a row and were known by many of the locals. It was a special day for one of the locals as they were having a party out in the bush at their home place.

They asked if I wanted to come and spend the day with them. So I did and it was an experience that I still remember today.

They had a game where they raced up coconut trees. I was a teenager from the US out in the bush with people I did not know nor speak their language. I was alone because the couple I was traveling with did not want to spend the day at a party.

I did not feel scared or in danger at any time. It came time to eat a coconut still in the shell. I grew up in South Florida and we had always opened the shell by cracking it into small enough pieces where we could peel out the coconut flesh to eat.

But they cracked the shell, gave me a large piece and handed me the only spoon in their possession. I tried so hard to pry the coconut flesh out with this spoon that it broke!

Then, I was scared because I was an hour away out in the bush and had broken their only spoon. I had also managed to slice my thumb on the broken spoon. I still have the scar on my thumb to remind me.

We also traveled in the mountains of Guatemala and along the coast. We went swimming in Mexico City while staying at the Hotel Caliente. It was exciting and the people were all so nice and friendly.

Once when I was driving to a local market, one of the local buses met me on the road.

When they realized that I was a girl driver they went completely off the road in order to miss me. But then, this was many years ago when I traveled as a teenager. Things have changed some.

By : Marty_Townsend