4 Lessons from Central America

 Travel can teach a person many valuable lessons–acceptance of differences, adaptation, flexibility–but some places are more trying than others. In some travel destinations, the only challenge might be finding someone to refill your margarita glass, but I prefer to steer clear of those areas, to venture off the well-worn path. It is in these remote places, filled with local flavor and authenticity, that I have found my greatest life lessons.

I am not a stranger to Central America (I lived in Panama for 6 months at one point and have traveled to every country, minus El Salvador), but I hadn’t set foot in that fascinating strip of land between Texas and Colombia in a few long years.  During that hiatus, I forgot many of the lessons I previously learned in Central America. Last month, when I exited the San Pedro Sula airport, they came roaring back.

Here are my top four:

1. Practice Patience
Whether you’re waiting for the bus, in line at the only ATM in town, or waiting while the hotel clerk figures out why your room is double-booked, it pays to have patience.  Buses don’t always arrive on time, meals might take nearly an hour to reach your table, but what’s your hurry anyway? It is ingrained in the American mentality that efficiency is the best policy–whisk into a restaurant, immediately order drinks and food, chat absentmindedly with friends while you’re catching up on work emails and adding events to your Google Calendar, gulp down your food, pay, run out the door to your evening pilates class.  That’s not the way in Central America.  You are meant to sit down, make meaningful connections, stay a while. If you let events unravel at their own pace, you’re more likely to find enjoyment in them.

2. Have Trust
I was startled for a moment when a small child clambered into my lap in a severely crowded micro-bus in Guatemala.  Then, I shrugged, put my hand on his back to keep him balanced, and watched as his mother struggled to fit into the tiny space between the seat and the door, while shuffling another child into place. People trust people in Guatemala. It’s a novel thing for most Americans–handing our kids off to strangers, allowing someone to take our bags and tie them to the top of a bus, buying mangoes off the woman with a basket of fruit on the street–but this kind of trust is almost unavoidable in Central America. If you want to get from Point A to Point B, and you want to do it on a budget, you’ll be crammed into public buses with everyone else. There are tons of horror stories about armed robberies and petty thievery on buses, but I have never experienced that. Mostly, the buses are filled to the brim with ordinary people trying to get to work or visit their cousin in Antigua.

That said, you should not, of course, completely let your guard down. Trust, yes. But be street smart as well. Don’t wave your money around or keep your cell phone in your front pocket. There’s a difference between having trust and being careless.

3. Quiet Your Mind
If you’re like many Americans, you have a packed schedule and little downtime.  And, whatever downtime you might have, you spend filling with TV, Facebook, or YouTube cats. Do you ever take the time to sit, be mindful of your surroundings, and do nothing?

When I started my two-week long vacation last month, the lack of distractions agitated me. I found myself sitting in the middle of a four hour bus ride to Copan, alternately looking out the window and fidgeting with my guidebook, attempting to keep up small talk with my travel partner. Silence bothered me; the lack of productivity bothered me (I could have been writing or updating my Twitter account, or…). I stopped. I realized where I was and what I was doing, and focused on relaxing.

It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Focusing on relaxing.  But it’s what I had to do for the first few days to stop myself from feeling antsy and unproductive.  Eventually, it wasn’t so hard to keep my body still, focus on my breathing, and watch the scenery as it slid by. Now that I’m back in the states, that kind of quiet is difficult to find at times, but I’m making a concerted effort to pursue it.

4. Open Yourself To New Experiences
You could travel to Central America and get by just fine on pizza and burgers, only speak English, travel only by charter bus, and only visit obvious tourist attractions. You could. Or you could try that thing on the menu you’ve never heard of, engage locals in conversation, attempt to order food or ask directions in Spanish. Either way, you’ll probably be perfectly happy and have a nice time on your trip.  However, if you choose to be a little daring, to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone, you’ll likely enjoy a fuller, richer experience…and you’ll find a whole set of adventures, tasty food, and interesting people to add to your life’s fabric.

Happy travels,
Kate