The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round! The Racers on the bus go, “Please God, no more.”
Bolivia was one of our most adventurous, transient months on the race so far! We quite literally bounced around on numerous buses between several cities, partnering with organizations and churches along the way. It was a truly incredible month, but I can say honestly that I wouldn’t be too upset to never see another bus ride in my life. Try to follow along below on an overview of this month’s journey!
After 36 hours on buses from Chile to La Paz, we set up “home base” in an abandoned house owned by the main organization we partnered with. After getting used to the intense 12,000 feet of altitude, we painted a mural in the organization’s office building, visited children at a burn hospital, and got to see La Paz from a bird’s eye view on the teleferico. We worked with some of the coolest people this month, so we had a blast getting used to the Bolivian culture with them, especially in our first week!
From La Paz, we hopped on a 5 hour taxi to Caranavi (making a half-way pitstop in Coroico for a day) where we set out to find two girls from the documentary, “Most Dangerous Ways To School, Bolivia” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRnd8WlcIU . A man from Texas had seen the documentary and fundraised for the girls, then gave the money to us to find them. With only the name of the school and a mental image of what it looked like, we pinned a couple of locations along our winding (and honestly terrifying) jungle journey to check out the next day. For the full details of that adventure, feel free to hop over to my YouTube page to see how that turned out- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvI1zdBGMYE ! Also in Caranavi, we worked with Casa de Esperanza (House of Hope) orphanage, where we spent time with the precious kiddos, painted signs, and attempted to help fix the orphanages water supply by hiking a distance into the amazon jungle with giant machetes to the water source. After a week and smelling oh-so-ripe, we caught another 5 hour taxi back to La Paz.
We had a few days back in La Paz (half of us were sick, I pooped my pants, everything was fine) before boarding a 7 hour bus to Charazani. This was where the organization we partnered with lost 11 of its volunteers to a horrific bus accident in August of this year. 11 kids my age, setting off to help with a medical mission passed away after their bus lost control and fell some 600 feet off the mountain’s edge. We took part in a heartbreaking but hope-filled memorial service at the site of the accident with the families of those who passed away, as well as some of the survivors and other volunteers from the organization. Clouds rolling up the mountain and over us like thick fog, parting every now and then to reveal the mangled bus and random debris far below us. It honestly was such a surreal experience. Some families expressed their peace, others anger, most confusion, all just trying to process their grief together. We gathered flowers and made our way to the bus site where we prayed together and placed the bouquets. Someone found a hat with one of the families’ son’s names embroidered on the side and handed it to me. I felt so wrong tapping the dad on the shoulder and handing it to him. One of the heads of the organization with whom the young people were working quoted CS Lewis at the memorial service saying, “They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” And for that we have hope in the midst of suffering I can’t even begin to fathom.
After staying the night in Charazani, we had 6 more hours on a bus to Apolo where we landed at a church for a week. We helped paint the church, as well as an adjoining classroom, and visited a local high school to share about Jesus and about our travels thus far. The kids said that they thought all people from the US we’re tall and got plastic surgery, and they were appalled that most kids leave their parents’ house at 18 years old (whereas Bolivians live with their parents until they are married). We hiked 9 miles to a massive waterfall, drank lots of coffee, and enjoyed getting to know the little town of Apolo.
Partway through the week, we took an hour taxi ride to San Andes where we had been invited to a church anniversary celebration. The kids were wild. I’m talking rolling in biting ant hills, jumping out of trees, WWE brawls in the jungle weeds, swinging from bamboo poles. But gosh were they sweet. We spoke in the church (at 12:15am, that church liked to party ha!), and taught a Sunday school class the following morning before heading back to Apolo, then back to La Paz. Nothing like pot holes and 90° turns every hundred yards on the edge of 1000 foot jungle cliffs for 13 hours whilst puking out the bus window (@anniecluff) to really make you grateful for solid ground once you get back!
Though I feel like I’m 90 years old from 100+ hours of rollercoaster roads this month, we’re off again! 18 hours round-trip to see the Salt Flats of Uyuni tomorrow, then 12 hours on to Cusco, Peru for month eleven on Saturday! Starting out with a bang and hiking Machu Pichu, then back to the jungle for ministry for my final month on the race.
In ways this year feels like the blink of an eye. In other ways it feels like it’s been 4 years. Basically this has been the fastest, slowest, longest, shortest, most incredible dream of a year, and I cannot believe I’m heading into month 11!!
Stay tuned for more adventures, and of course, more bus rides. Fingers crossed our pants stay clean and we’re not puking out any windows!
