Charles Galt:  

Does anyone remember the time back in high school when I was driving my green Fiat 124 Sport Coupe and we loaded it with 13 teenagers plus a keg of beer and made it over 5 miles to a party without breaking anything or crashing? Who was in the car? Anyone remember? After High School, it will be no surprise to hear, I did not go on to college. The rest is just another life story, although one you'd be unlikely to guess. I worked various jobs for a while and then I traveled to Central America via New Orleans, Key West and Ft. Lauderdale on my way to Rio, Brazil in my green FIAT! I never made it as far as Rio, only making it as far as Guatemala and the Honduran border... I have wonderful stories to tell of that trip...It was quite a six month adventure. Over quite a few beers my story includes harrowing tales of everything from machine gun toting bank guards, security stops, border crossing customs adventures, Visa challenges, foreign language school, thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes (no I didn't hire them but they were colorful nonetheless), gas station con artists, crooked bank staff, beautiful women, hot Latin fiestas, vehicle break-downs, unlikely repairs without parts, beautiful blue water rivers and waterfalls, food poisoning, snorkeling with giant mantas and sharks, assorted gringo characters, rebel guerrillas, getting stranded overnight deep in the jungle near the top of a volcano, big stupid mistakes that should have cost me my life, terrifying night time passage down huge mountain passes in driving rain with giant trucks, their drivers saying prayers and making the sign of the cross before departing the gas station to head down (there are reasons for the rosaries and giant illuminated crucifixes!), driving through deep mud in remote locations, getting stuck in up to the doors, getting towed out by friendly passerbys in a 4wd pickup, paying them with cigarettes and simple toys for their kids, warm Caribbean waters, burning hot volcanic black sand beaches on the Pacific, crazy big surf, a drowning pig in a river being pulled out to the ocean, it being saved by a heroic young swimmer, fishermen in canoes braving violent high surf - who could not swim! , going fishing in salt marshes with some young children who taught me to catch shrimp with a cast net and fishing for catfish with hooks and fishing line on a soda can, finding out how baby catfish have razor sharp poison barbs that hurt like hell!, sleeping in a "hotel" with a bed made of nothing but wood and twine, with bats flying around inside, illuminated by lightening flashes during a violent thunderstorm, camping outside to the sound of screaming howler monkeys in the night, exploring ancient Mayan ruins, eating goat and other unidentifiable meats, trying to get non-english speaking locals to somehow convey to me what I was being served, beyond "carne", (picture young Senorita's pantomines of a goat's beard and horns and bleats), children in super remote indigenous villages who screamed and ran in wonderment and delight at the sight of me, a white man, (driving a green Fiat with NY plates) I'm sure they'd never seen one... I only saw military vehicles out there, visiting sprawling impoverished campesino sites, living in affluent Antigua with it's beautiful church ruins, destroyed several times by the nearby Volcan de Agua, the list goes on. When I got back from my trip, partly by bus, partly hitchhiking, I got sick as hell with Hepatitus and spent nearly 6 months convalescing before making a full recovery. I really wouldn't have to make up much to make a good movie storyline, all I'd really had to do to make it a hit would be to have died, but then I would've missed half the fun! I later traveled to Europe spending most of my time in England visiting my brother, and in Duesseldorf, Germany, where I worked as a decorator, hanging wallpaper and painting. I moved to California in 1989. I eventually gave up ...Expand for more