"Adventure by Chicken Bus" by Janet LoSole

 

Traveling the dicey, dangerous countries of Central America, Janet LoSole and her family undergo one harrowing adventure after another. Sometimes they literally defy death, and sometimes their efforts to stay healthy and in one piece fail, because of the ubiquity of toxins and other hazards. And one asks Why? Why would a Canadian couple - rational, by all outward signs - subject themselves and their two sweet daughters, still shy of their middle school years, to such misadventures?

LoSole provides a book-length answer. Janet and her husband Lloyd share a severe wanderlust, always agreeing on this point, and they couple this restlessness-on-steroids with a deep personal concern for the ecology of their home planet. The travel bug they feel has a conscience, too: they believe in and strongly advocate a responsible sort of travel that most effectively supports native families and cultures. They manage to perform well in this area; however, the reception they get from the natives ranges from open arms to surly to the downright fraudulent.

As travelogues go, this one is effective. It offers an honest and vivid look at an attempt to negotiate the challenging - and oftentimes dangerous - Central American tourism infrastructure. By some alchemy LoSole manages an expository piece on 19 months of intrepid Third World backpacking in some 220 pages. About three quarters of the way through I found myself fatigued by the pace and the ever-building litany of worry, illness, and baffling obstacle while navigating through the realm of unrelieved tropical heat and poverty.

They make it through, however, living to tell the tale, and tell it well. They satisfied their need to see an intriguing part of the world on their own terms. That is an accomplishment in itself. But the far greater accomplishment is this book: not only is it an impressive how-to - and more importantly, how-not-to - guide, but it is also an exhortation to pursue the sort of travel that treats local inhabitants and Mother Earth with equal respect and considered fairness.

If you are able and hankering for adventurous travel, take this book up first. It’s such an unblinking, thorough guide to engaging Central America on these terms, that it makes itself indispensable.