Going Where Tourists Don't Go

My Story

Hi, I'm Johnny Monsarrat.

When I was a student getting my MBA, I realized that this was the last time I was going to be a student, so I took some creative writing courses as well. The courses inspired me to try some fiction of my own. I got excited about the idea of writing a science fiction novel. There are a lot of biotechnology fields, such as human cloning, that are illegal in developed countries, but you just might get away with it in a developing country. Of course, developing countries like Haiti and Nepal are also great places to find ancient cults and religions. I wanted to mix the two genres, writing a book about a biotechnology center with connections to cultists, and you could not quite be sure whether the supernatural was involved. Was the Devil himself secretly running this facility, or was it just a dictator who took a popularity cult to a new level?

I was inspired by The Messiah Choice by Jack Chalker, which is not a very good book, but it has a fantastic theme. And of course Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the James Bond novel and film Live and Let Die. These works all explore how religious fear allows villains (or devils?) to dominate communities. Writing my own novel along those lines became an idea I didn’t want to let go of.

After my mother passed away, I had a little bit of money, and decided to travel to Mexico with my then girlfriend, partly as a tourist, and partly with this nutty idea that I was "doing research". Instead of visiting Northern Mexico, which is quite developed and would contain few surprises, I wanted to visit Southern Mexico, which is basically Guatemala. It didn't matter that I lacked an outline for the novel, and that I had only a vague idea what I wanted to write about. I had no doubt my trip would give me some excellent details. Seeing Mexico as a place to dig deep into rather than explore as a tourist on the surface led to a number of great adventures!

I never wrote the book, but I sure took away a number of insights about Central America, which I am glad to share with you. So please take a look at Johnny Monsarrat's Mexican Adventure.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you about your feedback on this content and about your own adventures!