Our decision to drive to Honduras was a complex process in the making, and yet easy to make at the same time. Jake had spent the time researching the options of buying in Honduras, and the most trustworthy option was to buy in the States and drive to Honduras. I appreciated the opportunity this afforded us to bring belongings with us, and be able to start with boots on the ground as well as wheels upon our arrival. The freedom of being able to run to the pulperia for eggs if needed goes a long way to ease the stresses sometimes. Anyways, Jake come to the conclusion that this next chapter of our lives would start with a 1994 Ford Explorer. He had driven the same since he was in high school. And in summary he could trust what was under the hood, combined with his experience and knowledge, as well as a measure of God's grace to get us safely to Honduras. Amen.
Exploder 2.0 was purchased off of Facebook Marketplace while we were out in Colorado for Launch training, and we then drove it home to Indiana. Jake spent a week, plus or minus, making maintenance repairs. And then we loaded her up. Allllll the way up. This was definitely not our intent. We had no desire to look like a US vehicle traveling South, really the less attention we drew the better. But full it was, to the point that we even had to leave a suitcase behind. We weren't quite sure what was actually in that suitcase, but at that point in the process of packing, we pulled it and placed it down in the basement at the Brookston house along with whatever else was being left.
We left Brookston, IN at 5am 8/18/2025.
Afternoon recharge. Many friends had gifted us snacks and gift cards to help us on our journey. We had a cooler full of apples, tuna salad, chicken salad, protein balls, cheese sticks and then bags of chips, trail mix, fruit snacks, crackers, etc, etc, etc.
Our first stop was Dallas, TX. We stayed with my cousins, Scott and Jennie Stoller.
Turned out that Lisa H. lives 20 minutes from my cousins. She was at Togo the second half of my 4 months I was there in 2023. She has stopped by for a visit in Brookston, IN so it was fun to get to see her again.
Our second day was a non-driving day. We got new shoes for the Exploder. It needed some more off-road quality tires, but we decided to get one day of highway driving done on the old tires before switching.
We also tried to get our temporary vehicle import for the Exploder for Mexico. We stopped by the Mexican consult there in Dallas and walked up to the Banjercito where we were promptly asked if we had an appointment. No we did not. We were then told we could go in and ask them a question. So we entered a completely empty room were two officials were sitting behind the desk playing on their phones. But, No, they could not help us without an appointment. We left and immediately made an appointment for the following morning. Fail #1 of the day. Back at Scott and Jennie's we then tried to import my cell number to google voice so I could then switch over to a Honduran SIM while still keeping my US number. Long story short, that failed as well. So I transitioned my Verizon plan to an international plan and considered that a bandaide answer for the time being.
We got to spend the afternoon and evening with my cousins. We went with Scott and Jennie over to Mark and Lindsey's and had pizza and chatted for a few hours. Stephen (Mark & Lindsey's oldest) just started Sophmore year!
Foster, because he wouldn't join us for the group photo! :)
Day three we had better luck at the Banjercito! There was still no one in the rather large room. But we did have an appointment this time. So they took all our documents and our money and gave us our temporary import for the Exploder in Mexico in return.
I pulled Jake to a Bucee's.
He absolutely loved taking a picture with Bucee with me.
Jake drove. I studied.
Our next stop was Edinburg, TX on the border with Reynosa, Mexico. A med school classmate of mine, Veronica, lives and works there with her family. Jasmine had just woken up from her nap and needing to cuddle she went directly to Jake. Her little sister Arianna then wanted to cuddle as well. A couple of cuddles and hugs from Jake and she was set right again, tears dried up and she was ready to play.
Vero and her family, husband Cody, dauthers Jasmine & Ari and her parents Jaime and Laura. Vero and I had stayed with her parents one springbreak during med school. I sadly realized that one evening together was no where near enough time to catch up properly. But the schedule drew us across the border the next morning.
Border crossing at first light, Reynosa Mexico. 8/21/25 We had filled out all of our paperwork online for migration, etc. That, combined with the fact that when traveling internationally by air anymore you rarely actually get a stamp in your passport. Everything is so computerized. So we got through all of our checkpoints, our paperwork was verified and we waved on. We never made that last stop at the last building to have someone manually put a stamp in our passport.
Just South of the border we were stopped at almost every police check. Asked to pull over and asked to show them our migration clearances and our temporary import paperwork, but never asked to show our passports.
passing through Ciudad Victoria
Day four (8/21/25) We stayed at San Luis Potosi. It was the first night in weeks that we'd had to ourselves. The evening was rainy in San Luis, and we were just fine plopping down for the evening and just chilling.
Day five back on the road again. Heading to Ixtlan for the weekend.
Had to take a photo of Mexican trucks, passing trucks that are passing trucks themselves. All while navigating curved mountainous two lane highways. Both Jake and I get a kick out of Mexican driving. I call it a dance. Everyone reacts to everyone around them, and it allows for some very unique driving patterns. See above. I love driving in Mexico.
We made it to Ixtlan in time to have lunch with the Gerbers and Anelyse Gerst who also just moved to Ixtlan. After lunch we spent the afternoon playing Clue with the Gerber kiddos.
We spent the evening with Ariel, Lupita and their family. Tried to nonchalantely snap a photo of all of us walking 6 wide down the streets of Ixtlan.
So then tried again with everyone's attention. Joel then had opportunity to hide from the camera.
Coffee and postre. The kiddos immediately roped Jake into playing games with them.
Amelia and I.
Enjoying tacos!
I'll never get tired of this view in Ixtlan. Jake and I went for a short run in that Saturday morning. Felt really good to stretch our legs a bit and honestly take things slow for a day.
On Sunday we went to church in Ixtlan. We balanced the time after church saying farewell to everyone with getting back on the road.
Almost immediately out of the gate, google maps, got very very confused. Which then confused me, and at one point we even ended up going North (a.k.a. the wrong way). And then the road we were on got shut down for an accident. But ultimately....about 3 hours in total we spent in circles and stopped. I took a screen shot of the ultimate culprit. If you can tell the road we are on according to google maps is shut down and unpassable. Which it was in fact open and very passable. Ultimately, in the end, we got to our next stop of Puebla, Mexico
Rainbow on our way to Puebla.
Day 8 (8/25/2025) Driving from Puebla to Palenque. Passing by Pico de Orizaba, the highest point in Mexico.
Mexican road construction crews would often have their own version of a dummy flagger.
Exploder 2.0. Very thankful for those blackout plates. Another story for another time.
We made it to Palenque.
This is the path to our little room for our stay. We enjoyed a swim before dinner at the hotel.
Rest day in Palenque. We drove to the parking lot and then walked to the site of the Mayan Ruins.
butterfly landed on my hand
Can't really read this, but was in the museum explaining the Mayan calendar. I appreciated it.
The next stop was Cascada Misol-Ha. (Misol-Ha waterfall). I ideally would have choosen the Cascada Agua Azul (Blue waters waterfall), but by the time we finished at the ruins we didn't have enough time to make it to Agua Azul without feeling rushed and then getting back late. So we choose Misol-Ha, and were very happy with our decision.
Mossy Rock (inside joke from Togo in Australia)
Behind the waterfall Misol-Ha is a grotto which you can pay 10 pesos to explore. They provide you with the light to do so. Definitely worth it.
so many bats calling the grotto home.
From Palenque we headed to the Southern border of Mexico. 8/27/25 The roads were no longer the paid tollways we had enjoyed thus far. They were winding mountain roads with lots and LOTS of topes.
The Saturday we had spent in Ixtlan we had looked into our upcoming border crossing. We very quickly determined that the original border crossing site Google maps wanted us to take.... was not actually an option as there were no aduanas for us to legally make the crossing there. So based on our next destination of Guatemala City we remapped and then determined to divide the day in two.
This brought us to Ciudad Cuauhtemoc. We stayed at an airbnb for the night. We decided to fill up the Exploder to have one less thing to do before border crossing in the morning. Of course we had to back track past the police guard posted on the road. Though we had previously passed this checkpoint, this time around then asked us to stop. They immediately asked us where our front plates were. This happened to us four different times in Mexico and once in Guatemala. We are asked to pull over because our lack of front plate draws attention from police. Funny thing about this, I proceed to go into explanation that we are coming from the United States and in Indiana front plates are not obligatory. To which, without fail, they responded in surprise that we are coming from the States. So I guess we can feel good that the trusty Exploder was not drawing unwanted attention, and at the same time we learned a lesson. Make sure you have front and back plates driving through Latin America. Anyways back to this particular guard, he dwelt a long time on Jake's driver's license picking apart all the dates, and then a long time on the fact that our side windows were tinted. But long story short, he let us through, we got our gas and then waved on our way back through yet again returning to our airbnb for the evening.
Exploring Ciudad Cuauhtemoc.
The Mexican Banjercito and Aduanas was right down the road from our airbnb in Ciudad Cuauhtemoc. So that was our first stop on Day 11 of our trip 8/28/2025. We canceled our temporary import at the Banjercito and then as directed stopped by the Aduanas. The border patrol took a look at our passport and informed us that he couldn't let us leave, because technically, we had never come. Without a stamp in our passport saying Entrada, we never actually entered Mexico, and therefore he can not give us a stamp saying Salida. He was of course a reasonable fellow and we arranged to simply "enter" Mexico again, which of course included paying for the migration again. He stamped our entrada and then 20 minutes later stamped our salida, and we were on our way headed towards Guatemala.
Mesilla Guatemala, border town.
Guatemala border in the town of Mesilla. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. We had to take care of all the import and customs steps in person there at the border (none available to do prior to arrival at the border like in Mexico). But because everyone was so helpful, the whole process was very smooth.
cool building we both appreciated while maneuvering through Mesilla
That day we reached an elevation of almost 10,000ft as we wound our way through the mountains of Guatemala towards Guatemala city. There weren't the crazy number of topes yet still the going is slow and the grade steep both up and down.
Coming into Guatemala City!
We stayed with Kate Dotterer, who we were at MTI with back in January. She is working with the street kids in Guatemala City.
We stayed a day in Guatemala City. While Kate was at a meeting with her team, we went exploring in Zona 1. I choose the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura and we went there first. Jake choose to visit the telephone museum... which we didn't quite make it there. ;)
I took this due to the multiple layers. We were in the front of the lobby of the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura waiting to start a tour. The TV screen shows a welcome to the building, but in the reflection you can see juxtaposed from the Palacio a very standard almost cold-war era appearing apartment building. And then you can see our own reflexion sandwiched between the two.
We enjoyed what we saw, but the tour was rather limited. There were entire areas we didn't have access to, and we wanted to explore more. We were also thankful that we were inside at the time as it started to rain.
Took this picture behind some temporary walls that had been placed with artwork displayed. We were more interested in what wasn't on display for us to see.
I did not catch the significance of the clock. But I took a picture with the plan to google it later. Well now I've googled and am no wiser, for still can not determine the significance of the clock at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura in Guatemala city.
It was raining as we left the Palacio Nacional. This is the church across and to the side from the Palacio.
So we found a really cute cafe, La discoteca and passed some time. I regret that I did not ask the owner his story, he was definitely a foreigner now calling Guatemala home. I feel like I missed a very interesting story.
Once Kate had finished her meeting we made our way back to her apartment to meet up with her again. We went exploring. First went to Parque Erick Barrondo, named after a Guatemalan Olympian from the 2012 London Olympics.
We did get caught in the rain, so we ducked into an empty baseball field and sheltered for a short while until the rain abated. Then we ventured out again. On our way back we tried to investigate Kaminaljuyu. Turns out it means hill of the dead and is an archeological zone with paid entrance only. So we sadly turned around again and told Kate that once she does have the time and visits the Hill of the Dead she would then have to let us know how it was.
Day 13 was the last day of our trip. 8/29/25. We started out from Kate's apartment in Guatemala City at 5am. It was a smooth exit from the city at that time on a Saturday morning. We got to the Guatemala/Honduras border just after 12 noon.
This border crossing was smooth as well. But very backed up with semi trucks waiting to cross. Thankfully we tested our ability and just drove around the trucks and the guards motioned us through on the other side. We again did our on migration (definitely made sure we got stamps), and then temporary import on our vehicle. The Honduran agent taking a look at everything in the back of the Exploder decided to pick on the fact that Jake had packed his two computer screens. One was okay, but two not acceptable. In the end, he didn't actually charge us the extra tax he said he was going to and sent us on our way with instructions that if ever stopped and asked to make sure to say that they were computers and not TVs.
Ever since crossing into Guatemala we had switched from Google maps to
Waze due to our own experience with Google maps in Latin America ,combined with accounts I'd read on line that Waze was better farther
South, as well as other missionary friends reporting their own use of
Waze. However, when leaving Guatemala Waze was dead set on taking us a route that was out of the way for us and would take longer. After some research online about the border crossings we decided to head to the border at Corinto and eventually Waze gave in to the choosen route and agreed.
Once in Honduras Waze was then again taking us on a route, not long, but still indirect in getting us to the Hospital, which was our goal for that evening. We took the same approach breaking off from the highway to take a short cut.
Which included this...
and this
and this.
And in the end, the shortcut probably ended up taking just as long as if we had stayed on the long and round-about route that was paved.
We arrived 8pm to the gates of the Hospital. 15 hours after leaving Guatemala City, all around a long day, but not bad. We were happy to be there.
Thankfully, they had thought to put a mattress in the house, a single lamp, a pedestal fan and a coffee maker. We were hot and sweaty, and slept even without being able to take a shower. On Sunday we didn't feel up to socialize yet and ended up listening to church from back home. We then unloaded the Exploder.
Exploder 2.0 happy to be at home in Honduras
Indiana Lingo made us a card welcoming us home. It is the first item to go on our fridge in our new home.
