How appropriate that on day 31, exactly one month in, we had the most absurd day of Project:GoThere yet. It began as possibly the best day of our trip thus far. Waking up to a picture perfect sunrise at our incredible beach campsite in San Juan del Sur set the tone for a great day. The night before, we found an overlander-friendly beach that let us park our car and sleep in an open-air grass-roofed hut.
The day only got better when we drove to Playa del Coco (“playa” means “beach” for all you who speak as little Spanish as I do…). It was by far the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. The water was shockingly clear and two majestic cliffs bordered each end of this secluded paradise. The cliff on our right side, formed with warped rock layers on the open face with broccoli-esque trees for hair, was staring out at the eternal expanse that is the Pacific Ocean. The waves that we rode were the most quintessential National Geographic waves that I’ve ever laid eyes on. As the cherry on top, we hit that sweet spot of getting the perfect amount of sun without getting burnt to a crisp. Fast forward two military traffic stops, a million and a half potholes, and a washed out bridge that was being rebuilt. We started down what we thought was the road north to get back to the main highway and then on to border crossing #5 into Costa Rica. I say “thought” because there is no humane way to categorize what we were driving on as a “road”. It was simply a different genre of terrain to get a vehicle from one location to another. Our fearless drivers for the day, James and Karl, coaxed our four-wheeled “stallion” (Copyright: Karl Cassel 2017) to perform feats unfit for any Toyota Sequoia. We’re talking anything from small tree demolition to what seemed like vertical mudslide climbs. A quarter of the way through our jungle escapade, we were coming around a bend nearing the top of a hill. In a fraction of a second, we swerved to avoid a pothole that looked more like the abyss that took Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul (may they rest in peace), and instead drove the entire right side of our car off a foliage-disguised 2-3 foot embankment bringing us to a lurching halt. We completely bottomed out with our axle, spare tire, and a few other generic car parts (none of us really know anything about cars) lodged into the rocky dirt. After several disheartening attempts to free her with a combination of 4-wheels spinning and 3 dudes pushing, we started to realize just how stuck we were. We started digging. We grabbed our little orange garden shovel (aka. the poop shovel) and a few sticks to start chipping away at the unforgiving earth. Crawling on our bellies under the car to dig at a better angle, we gave up all notion of cleanliness. Trying to avoid having to set up camp in the middle of the Nicaraguan jungle, we officially kicked into survival mode and chipped away at the dirt inch by inch like nobody’s business. Three hours later, we had drunk 50% of the emergency water in our rooftop carrier, but we could finally see from one side of the car to the other. We were ready to try it again. One tiny detail I forgot to mention is that our front right tire was less than 4 inches (like actually less than) from falling down a much deeper ravine which would have for sure flipped our car and sent it tumbling down a hill into it’s potential jungle grave. So, needless to say, stakes were high. After laying hands on the car and praying over it, we were ready to give it one last shot. Through a swirl of tires spinning, loose dirt flying, and exhaust smoke pluming in our faces, we rocked it back-and-forth 5 times until it had the boost of energy to bust out of the rut and back onto that forsaken “road”. I was screaming on the final two pushes. When it finally broke loose, I felt like I couldn’t even support myself. I was so physically and emotionally exhausted that I started hyperventilating for the first time in my life and broke into tears. Truly a miracle that we got out of there. Twenty kilometers, a river crossing, and a few more terrifying rut-infested mountain climbs later we emerged out of that jungle in our bruised but unbroken Toyota and spirits. We still had to play another game of bureaucratic pinball for two hours at the border crossing (at night now) and drive 5 hours to our hosts in San Jose, Costa Rica. We were supposed to arrive for a nice game of ultimate frisbee at 8pm as a great way to get some energy out and stretch our legs. Instead, we rolled in at 2am caked in dirt and smelling like stale sweat. Great times had by all. Thanks be to God for keeping us safe, keeping our car from any significant harm, and even keeping us on schedule to arrive in Costa Rica. Those are the types of days that you can’t plan for, but you have to expect. Moral of the story: Google Maps can’t always be trusted. - Krum
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It has truly been a wild/amazing experience living on the road for the past handful of weeks, with more things learned than we can count. A few that come to mind… 1. Duct tape & peanut butter might be the greatest road trip companions ever invented. 2. The number of seats in a car is not always the maximum number of people it can carry. 3. God is using people in just about every capacity to impact others and further His Kingdom. Hospitality. This concept has been foundational in our experiences thus far as each of our hosts have gifted us with their own unique version. It has taken on all different forms as our generous hosts have let us into their worlds, showing us various sides to living out the Gospel. The idea of ‘home’ is pretty foreign to four Midwestern guys driving through Central America. However, those that have opened their homes to us have reinvented what that idea looks like for the next handful of months. Whether it is planting churches in Monterrey, Mexico; reaching kids on the streets in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; or discussing matters of faith within their coffee shop in Panajachel, Guatemala; our hosts have taught us valuable lessons that have impacted our ways of thinking while on the road. Most of these lessons are ones we have not learned in the last 16-ish years we’ve spent in school. As the four of us look to our own futures, hospitality is pretty foundational and is something we would hope to adopt in our own ways. MANY thanks to those who have given us a brief home away from home these past weeks, we are grateful for the countless stories, meals, and restful hours slept in beds/couches (instead of the trunk of our car). Finally, to provide a bit of recap, here are most of Project:GoThere’s stops in the first 27 days! San Francisco, CA —> Santa Cruz, CA —> Los Angeles, CA —> The Grand Canyon, AZ —> Los Alamos, NM —> San Marcos, TX —> Monterrey, Mexico —> San Luis Potosi, Mexico —> Puebla, Mexico —> San Cristobal De Las Casas, Mexico —> Xela, Guatemala —> Panajachel, Guatemala —> Antigua, Guatemala —> Guatemala City, Guatemala —> Copan, Honduras —> Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Head over to https://projectgothere.travelmap.net and check out each of our stops in a bit more detail with photos too! Take care, Karl |
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November 2017
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