Travel

The Scooter Ride to Some New Year’s Clarity

The Caribbean Adventure Continues

This won’t be the first article about the end of the year that you’ve read and it likely won’t be the last. A bit of reflection, introspection and forward planning is a natural thing at this time of year.

But I won’t spend too much time looking back, nor project too far forward and instead just be where I am right now, which this year happens to be on an island off the coast of Honduras called Roatán. It’s a beautiful part of the world, no question.

There would have been no way to predict 365 days ago that this is where I would be at this moment. The year did not turn out as initially planned, but all was not lost.

Good things happened. I started writing on Medium almost exactly a year ago and experienced the highs and lows, successes and frustrations that come along with that. I learned a bit more each day as I went along and connected with some truly inspiring people, and felt my writing improve through practise and feedback. I did a yoga teacher training program in Guatemala in April and it has impacted my life immeasurably. I started making my own products and selling them at local markets while I lived in Jamaica, while contemplating and executing ways to move away from industrial food production. Diving into all of these has been its own reward.

But like Billy Bragg said, “you have to take the crunchy wiff the smoove sometimes”. A long relationship ended and as a result of the fact that it was being conducted abroad, its conclusion turned my life upside down. Briefly.

I made the decision to end seven years of living as an expat in various parts of the world and instead return home to essentially start over. Not an easy thing to contemplate, nevermind undertake, at this stage of life.

But it turns out that it’s absolutely necessary sometimes. And it’s certain that your own growth and moving towards an understanding of your true self only really happens when life throws its tests at you. Things happen, to everyone. There is no avoiding it. And a life empty of trials and tribulations is a life not completely lived, I would argue.

Each time that you overcome one through your own self-belief and action-taking, strengthens you. Each time you are put into a situation, you can say to yourself, “I have been through X, surely I can figure this out.”

Anyway. That’s probably enough of this kind of self-affirmation for today.

Yesterday was scooter rental day and my good friend Derek and I, with whom I am travelling for the first time in a long while, decided to put our adventurous spirits to use and see a bit more of this island. So far, we’ve spent most of our time in an area called the West End.

We’ve found our favourite taco place as well as a spot where we can sample some fine Honduran rums and watch the sun go down. It’s quite laid back and chill and the locals seem friendly. The expat population is the same mixed bag it always is. Things are safe, but not overly sanitized. It’s a big scuba diving area and seems to attract people that we’ll call travellers.

The only other part of the island we had seen in our first few days here was a beach area called West Bay. It became apparent on our arrival that the contents of three different cruise ships had been disgorged here and we realised, as a result, that this was not our kind of spot. We’ll call the people we encountered tourists, as opposed to travellers. I think you know what I mean.

But there had to be parts of the island that featured neither of these two kinds of people, but instead would give us an entry into the local culture and colour, if we’d just go and look for it.

Well, we found it. It was about halfway across this 70-kilometre-long island that has one main road that things appeared to change. The switch from more developed and tourism-oriented gradually faded into a more rural and real vibe. Lush and green as far as the eye could see.

The road turned from well-paved with sidewalks and lots of room for vehicles of various descriptions to more winding and potholed and more people walking, interestingly. Eventually, even that ended and the road in front of us was gravel.

It’s here that the adventure really began, both literally and figuratively. Unsigned side roads that appeared off the main road called our name. Sometimes they lead to dead ends and sometimes to a pack of barking dogs. But sometimes they brought us to a virtually unpeopled beach where a cold beer was magically available.

However, it’s at this point that a good piece of advice, again both literal and metaphoric, would come in handy. When you get that far out, pay attention to your gas tank. The zest for life and curiosity about the adventures it provides must also be done with a bit of care and attention, lest you find yourself in situations not of your own choosing.

And perhaps then, another road will open. Which it did, once we white knuckled it back a half hour to the last gas station that we remembered passing.

It was with full tanks and hearts that the next unforgettable sight presented itself to us, in the form of the small fishing community of Oak Ridge, about halfway up the island’s south coast. It’s what I’ve always imagined that the Caribbean should look like, but have rarely found in a non-contrived, untouristed kind of way.

The point is this: yes, we didn’t know where we were exactly. Yes, the dogs on the side of the road concerned us. Yes, we weren’t sure how the locals would feel about two yahoos zipping through their community on a couple of lawn mower engines with wheels. Yes, we didn’t know where this was leading us.

But none of it mattered, and none of it matters going into a new year either. There is a main road, and it’s made for most of the people to travel efficiently. It is paved and flat and well signposted. It’s a good road, it’ll get you to where you think you need to go.

Stay on it, if it’s what you want. But remember that there are always other roads that might not immediately give you all the answers. Do you need to know everything right now? Does the year need to be completely mapped out right this second?

2022 was a better year than 2021, which was a better year than 2020. Things may be going in the right direction but they will also change unrecognizably in the next 365 days, if you keep your mind open, your heart open and most importantly, your road open.