Embarking on a homeschooling field trip to Central America is stressful enough, but add in perilous bridge crossings, trips to the hospital, and a lack of women’s underwear, and you have the makings of an Adventure by Chicken Bus, a tale of one family, buckling under a mountain of debt, who sells all worldly possessions and hits the road.
Drowning in debt and disillusioned with the workaday world, Janet and Lloyd sell their worldly possessions and embark on an adventure by chicken bus to Central America as part of a homeschooling field trip for their daughters Jocelyn, 8 and Natalie, 5.
Their journey begins on a sleepy island backwater in Costa Rica, where getting there proves as dicey as saving endangered sea turtles from poachers in the dark of night. Eventually, they set down roots in a small village, learning to live like the locals on very little money. After one year, they gain confidence to explore neighbouring countries, exposing what it takes to travel long-term with two children amid the chaos of border crossings, erratic drivers and creepy crawlies lurking at the edge of the jungle.
In Panama, they bounce around like turnips in the back of a vegetable truck to reach an isolated monkey sanctuary. From Honduras, they weather a violent ocean crossing to Belize. In Guatemala, they ascend the ancient Mayan temples of Tikal. In between tales of begging rides from total strangers and sleeping overnight in the jungle with an Indigenous family, Janet makes a case for using public transportation called chicken buses but emphasizes how to minimize risk so that by the time readers are done, they will be inspired to travel with their children.
After completing Adventure by Chicken Bus, readers will:
• Understand how traveling like locals, using public transportation known as “chicken buses”, reveals cultural and economic realities faced by people of the developing world.
• Learn how to make a difference by engaging in community-based travel, in keeping with the UN’s 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism.
• Know what it takes to travel long-term with a family.
• Understand the concept of unschooling, a form of homeschooling that uses daily experiences rather than a formal curriculum as a primary educational resource.