This morning I enjoyed a final sunrise over the lake, a wonderful breakfast of rice, beans, toast, and fruit, and I gazed at the beautiful view one last time. Our day of traveling began at 10:00 with a two hour bus ride to the airport. It was refreshing to be in air-conditioning and to get some American food (a Subway sandwich). I also enjoyed being able to flush toilet paper in the bathroom rather than placing it in a waste can. We had an hour and a half flight to Panama City, Panama; the back half of the plane was packed with World Racers. I bet the flight attendants have never received such enthusiastic praises for the meal of a sandwich, chips, and chocolate. Airline food never tasted so good. Our layover in Panama City was not long enough; I got to use the free wireless Internet for about 15 minutes, but I wished for more time. Our flight to Lima, Peru was about 4 hours long and included an even better hot meal of pasta, salad, vegetables, bread, and Oreos; it was amazing. A local missionary couple was at the airport waiting for us with two buses. By the time we retrieved our bags and loaded into the bus it was about 1:00 am local time which was about 2:00 am our time. The buses took us to a church that has graciously opened its doors to all 47 World Racers. We finally arrived at the church at about 2:00 am local time and about a dozen church members greeted us with big hugs and kisses. I was touched by their warm welcome and amazed that they would stay up so late to greet us. The church is perfect for our group; it has a roof and a bathroom. We don’t have a shower, but we have gotten pretty good at bucket baths. At about 2:30 am we had finally settled in which felt like 3:30 for us. Tomorrow we have are racing around the city. We have to be ready by 8:00 am.
