Day 4: Walking to school (Esteli)

Day 4: Walking to school (Esteli)

In the good old All Saints' years my walk to school took me down past the allotments and up Marlborough Road to Broomhill Lane, where I'd have a quick pit stop at Rav's shop to pick up a bag of millions to get me through the day.

Walking to school in Esteli, I start surrounded by mountains and complete the bulk of my 30 minute journey on the mighty Pan American Highway.

It's not pretty, and I spend a lot of time avoiding ditches, burning rubbish, being run over and random horses but it's so worth it because it's like walking down a piece of history.

I'll hold my hands up now and say that other than the name being familiar, I knew bugger all about the Pan American until last year when the BBC aired a documentary where comedians Ed Byrne and Dara O'Briain drove down the length of it.

The history of the highway is not the story of a road, but of a vision.

The idea to create a grand road to connect every country of the Americas was put forward in 1923.

Fourteen years later, 14 countries signed the convention which would make the vision a reality. They were: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Canada and the United States.

In 1950, Mexico became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the road (go Mexico!)

Today the Pan American runs through (officially and unofficially) 17 countries and has offshoots that lead to four more.

The idea of the PA is approaching its centenary - it's 94 years since 14 countries got together and thought, 'you know what, wouldn't it be nice if we were all a bit more connected?'

Fast forward to today when you have a xenophobic tyrant spewing poison to crowds baying for a wall.

Walking the Pan American to school each day feels like a small act of defiance. I'm walking on a road built on the hope of unity and I'm sticking two fingers up to hate as I go.

Day 5: Madres de Heroes (Esteli)

Day 5: Madres de Heroes (Esteli)

Day 3: In praise of Esther...(Esteli)

Day 3: In praise of Esther...(Esteli)