Travel days are often stressful, tiring and looooong. Traveling to Guatemala turned out to be the most eventful travel experience I have had so far on the race. What was supposed to be a 3-day travel experience turned into a 5-day one, and it was interesting to say the least.
Here’s how it went down.
Thursday, December 6th//Pacasmayo-Trujillo
We left for Trujillo, Peru on the 6th from where we were staying in Pacasmayo, Peru. It was a short van ride and then we were reunited with Team Esther. We stayed with them for the night, celebrated Cami’s birthday on the rooftop, and packed for our actual travel day the next morning.
Friday, December 7th// Trujillo-Lima
We left Trujillo and traveled by bus with Team Esther and Team Tribe to Lima, Peru. We left on schedule and arrived to the Hostel in Lima, greeted by our other two teams (Abundance and Silverback) and pizza. We settled in for the night, took some nice, HOT showers and went to bed.
Saturday, December 8th// Lima-Lima Airport
On this day, we hung out in Lima and did some logistics things as a squad. This was also our last day with our team leader, Olivia. We talked about who the new raised-up leaders would be (woohoo SJ and Selina!) and talked about how we would be traveling out from here. We were scheduled to leave the hostel at 7pm that night and head to the airport to eat dinner.
7pm rolled around and we were right on target. We loaded all of our things into taxi’s and headed to the airport. Our flight wasn’t supposed to leave until 3:20am, so were just going to hang out with our team leaders until we had to go through security, which with the world race, security always happens 4 hours before our actual flight.
We get to the airport and load all of our things into the building. Once we find a spot to set everything down, we started planning dinner arrangements. Shortly after we started our plans, one of our squad leaders rolls up and says that one of our flights is scheduled to leave early. When I say early, I mean TWO HOURS EARLY. How does that happen? So now we are scheduled to give rushed goodbyes to the people who have poured into us for 3 months while showing dinner down our throats. With teary eyes, we leave our people at about 9:30 and head into security.
Here’s where things start becoming weird. Our squad was split up into two different flight groups. My group, the large group, was the flight that was moved up. We had a small group of about 7 people who still had an on-schedule flight. My group was supposed to board at 12:35am and leave for Bogota, Colombia at 1:35am. We didn’t end up boarding until almost 1:30 and left shortly after.
Sunday, December 9th// Lima Airport-Bogota Airport
We arrived in Bogota at around 5 in the morning. Our gate wasn’t determined yet for our connecting flight to Guatemala City, so we found a real comfy, empty gate and set up camp there until 9:30am. I slept very peacefully on 4 airport chairs, and I always fly prepared with my sleeping bag stuffed in my pillow and my handy-dandy facemask.
At 9:30, we woke up and checked for our gate. Perfect, Gate 37, just a short walk away and then we can relax again. We made our way over, and decided we would relax until we boarded at 11:05.
11:05 rolls around, and no one really notices we have started to board the plane. Since when we left Lima and boarded an hour ate, it didn’t really seem like a problem that we were a little behind schedule. Also, being at an international airport, all of the announcement were in Spanish, and naturally none of us were really paying attention to the announcements because we thought we were at the right gate.
12:05 quickly approaches, the time our flight should be taking off, and one of my squad mates hears the final call for our flight at Gate 46B. Panicked, we all grab our things and sprint down to our gate praying that they will let us on. I mean how could a flight leave without 33 people? It wouldn’t do that, right? Haha, wrong.
The doors were closed and we were not getting on that flight. Defeated, we all sit in the corner of our gate trying not to panic.
Here’s the order that God began to reveal Himself to us during this situation.
- Our squad leader Aly and our logistics leader Kori were OVERWHELMINGLY peaceful with the situation. I know they felt horrible, I know they were frustrated, but they took on the situation with so much grace and assured us that everything would be okay. They did all the works, and did it with such a gracious heart and attitude. God revealed Himself through their calmness.
- Our bags never made it on the flight. What are the odds that they didn’t put 33 bags on a plane? What are the odds that they went through all the luggage and pulled out every single bag of who wasn’t on that plane? There are no odds because stuff like that doesn’t just happen. Thanks God that our stay in Bogota was made more comfortable with our personal belongings.
- We were supposed to be stranded in Bogota. Maybe staying at the airport, maybe having to drop money on a hostel, but stranded none the less. When we found out that we would probably be staying a night (or two) one of my squad members remembered that she has family (she has NEVER MET) in Bogota. She called them are they agreed to house all 33 of us for however long we needed, free of charge. I saw God through the hospitality of people who have never even met us, and offered to love us anyways.
- Our tickets were supposed to cost $16,000 which isn’t exactly in “world race budget” We ended up receiving the tickets for, wait for it, FREE. 33 tickets for NOTHING. That’s grace in the most tangible form. We weren’t paying attention to the announcements, we missed that flight, and god provided grace in the form of a literal ticket. So underserving and He continues to freely give, literally.
This is my squad leader, Aly’s blog link on her experience of our travel day. Give it a read please.
https://alybadinger.theworldrace.org/post/i-met-jesus-and-she-works-for-avianca-airlines
Sunday December 9th// Bogota, Colombia.
9pm that night, after being in the airport for a full 16 hours, we were headed to a home stocked with snacks. We left the airport with free tickets, a group leaving the next morning and my group leaving a day after that. We left with our bags holding all of our belongings, and left filled with the hope that we have a God that is always for us. We are highly-favored in the Kingdom. We are his children, and He NEVER leaves His children stranded.
Monday and Tuesday, December 10th+11th
A small group of us left at 7 am the morning of the 10thand I got to stay in Colombia for one more day. We were given breakfast and lunch and had a personal tour guide who took us to the best places in Bogota. I left at for the airport at 7am on the 11thand finally arrived home to Guatemala at 7pm.
Home and filled, God started out our three months in Guatemala doing HUGE things in our hearts.
Travel days are hard and often messy
but all the time, through it all, He is good.
