The morning my team left Guatemala was bitter sweet. On one hand I was leaving a family I had fallen in love with and who I invested a lot of my time with. A part of me would have loved to stay and continued my new friendship with the Lopez family. On the other hand, I was emotionally drained from all my transformations and growth throughout the month. I was ready to start the next chapter in the race and get the show on the road. I was also excited that we were going to be living with another team this month and couldn’t wait to meet up with them!
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Team Numa Team LOVEBOUND
Our travel days were NOTHING like I had expected. I don’t think I could make any of this up even if I tried. Travel days start early…. like four or five o’clock in the morning early. For those reading this that don’t know me well, I am 100% not a morning person and am pretty much a walking zombie. Our first bus ride was adventurous and bumpy to say the least. Most of us were able to fall asleep, but for some reason I got really car sick and had to stick my head out the window. The view was nice and the fresh air helped, however, my main concern was that I would be hit by oncoming cars, so I was apprehensive to close my eyes. Central American drivers are fearless and not timid to drive extremely close to oncoming traffic. We also did some off roading and drove through a deep stream created from the mud slides. Not something I could say I have ever experienced before, wondering if the van was going to make it across or start floating away. I feel enriched that it happened though. We also learned that when our driver said it was no problem to get us to our destination, that did not mean that he knew how to get us there. I still don’t know how we made it to the next bus station but we did.
We then waited 5 hours for our next bus which was the fastest 5 hours of my life. We filled the time catching up with the team we would be working with during the next month. Our next bus ride was about 6 hours long and not much to report there because I slept the entire time except when having to stop at the border. We finally made it to the hotel! I forgot what it was like to take a hot shower and not have to rush because you’re shivering. It was also weird to have a fogged mirror. Because we were in a touristy area we decided to eat dinner at Wendy’s and yes, it was amazing and a nice break from rice and beans.
Worshiping with the other team was my favorite part of the night. I was able to truly let go and focus on the Lord. It was nostalgic, calming, powerful and needed. Waking up at 3:45 in the morning was rough, but I knew I had the next thirteen hours to literally sit and recharge my batteries, so it wasn’t that bad.
When we finally made it to Nicaragua, we needed to take a taxi to the ferry because we are on an island this month. The closest port wasn’t even going to our island, so we decided to drive an extra two hours to the next one. When we finally got there, it was apparent that the dock was closed. Now what? We were hungry and stranded in the middle of nowhere with a limited budget. Bri, a racer on the other team speaks Spanish and explained our situation to the guards, and they let us sleep on the ferry that was leaving first thing in the morning. We all had a blast sleeping on the boat that night and didn’t have to worry about missing our ride because we were already there.
We found a quaint restaurant close by that was ran by a hospitable Italian man. The food was great and we loved learning about the Italian man’s life. On the way back we heard some commotion coming from a tree and were all startled because it was so late and thought we were the only ones out. Just as I was ready to run someone shined a light on the tree and we saw monkeys! A bit random, however, a pleasant surprise. Watching them swing was more entertaining than one would think and was a perfect end to our random travel day of driving all over the place, missing our ferry and then ending up sleeping on one.
