Since I haven’t been able to post Facebook updates about what I’ve been doing in Peru due to a lack of internet at the base we are staying at, I thought I’d post a “What HAVE you been doing in Peru?!” blog post.
This will be lengthy but I’m about to give you over two weeks of my Peruvian schedule in two blog posts: one about traveling from Ecuador to Peru and one about the work we’re doing in Peru.
And I’m literally going to start at the beginning!
Our final day in Ecuador/our first travel day started out super relaxing! Catherine, Emily, Sarah and I were awake about 6 a.m. on February 1 so we could clean, pack and get everything ready to get on the road to Casa Blanca to meet up with the entire N Squad.
After everyone was finally ready, we threw on our packs and counted our money. As a team, we nixed a few unnecessary things from our team’s monthly budget in order to save some extra money to make our last day a breeze.
Perfect! We had enough to get two taxis to take us from El Tingo to central Quito!
The crowded, 2-hour long bus ride where we had to switch to four different busses and stand the entire trip with our 50 pound bags on our back and our day packs on our front and watch closely to make sure no one tried to take our stuff would only cost us $15. But we were not willing to deal with that.
So we opted to spend the $40 to pay for us to sit comfortably in a taxi with our packs in the trunk and allowed us space to move and breathe. As we cruised comfortably through the back roads to Quito, some of us were even able to get a 45 minute nap in! What a contrast in ways to travel!
After loving greetings, smoothies and burgers, N Squad was ready to hit the road for Peru! At around 6:30 p.m., two huge charter busses showed up in front of Casa Blanca! It was officially time to go.
About an hour into the trip, I plugged into my iPod and fell asleep across the TWO SEATS that I had for myself! I dozed off and woke up frequently for the next 12 hours until the bus arrived just before the Peruvian border at 7:30 a.m. on February 2.
We all hauled our bags off on the side of the road at the “bus stop” and the first bus load of people loaded onto our next bus saying that ours was coming soon behind. Well, that was an unintentional lie.
After standing on the side of the road with all our stuff, 30 white people, and 4 Ecuadoran Inca Link contacts whom were traveling with us to the Peruvian Inca Link site, a few of the locals told us that the next bus doesn’t come for close to an hour and a half and the likelihood that it would take us to the border was slim because it requires so much extra customs work and paper work to take a bus to the border. And that it probably wasn’t prepaid for, like we had been told, so that we’d have to pay out of our own pockets.
All of our squad leaders and logistics people, who were on the first bus, were not answering their phones, so we had no idea what to do.
They did tell us that there was a border station somewhat close that we might be able to walk to. We were told it was “only 10 minutes down the road”. If you know anything about South American sense of time, you can understand we were skeptical and prepared for the walk to be about an hour. But we weren’t sure what else to do.
We, once again, threw on our packs and saw that some people from the other bus had their packs under ours. Now we had about five extra 50-pound-bags that also had to be carried. A few of our strong men strapped on two 50-pound backpacks and we got ready to head out.
Then came the news that the locals weren’t sure if:
1) that customs station was open this early in the morning
2) they would be able to provide both an exit stamp for Ecuador and an entrance stamp for Peru.
An hour after the first bus of our squadmates had left for the border, we were still waiting on news on what we needed to do.
After an N Squad prayer circle on the side of the Ecuadorian road, an out-of-breath little boy came running to us.
Yes, the station was open. But, no they would not give us an Ecuadorian exit stamp; only a Peruvian entrance stamp. This presented a problem because you cannot “enter” a country without first “exiting” the previous one.
The little boy took another deep breath and said that he did, however, find a bus that was willing to take us all to the border- where the rest of our team was waiting- for $5 per person. Or we could walk to another “close” border station and try to get both stamps then find a bus to take us to the other official border to catch the bus to get us to our contacts in Trujillo.
The $5 bus sounded like a great idea to everyone!
We boarded the bus at 9 a.m. and, after a quick ride, we arrived at the customs stop and had to file out, fill out an exit form and entrance form and wait in a long line in a stuffy, crowded, super hot room in order to get the stamps on our passports to proceed to Peru.
After another quick ride, we arrived at the “official border”, whatever that means, at around noon. We had a few hours to relax as our logistics and squad leaders figured out our next bus.
Thankfully, God provided us with some WiFi while we waited and I got to check in with my family, knowing I wouldn’t have internet at the base in Peru.
The leaders came back and told us that we were booked to leave the station at 8 p.m. and we had until then to explore the surrounding touristy area.
We ate at a crappy restaurant and got crappy service. We exchanged the US dollars that we had been using in Ecuador for the Peruvian soles. We ate ice cream. We played cards and got loud. We were definitely making memories!
When we all got back, we decided to head over to the station early and see if we could convince them to leave early. We walked quite a while in the humid, disgustingly hot Peru sun and I honestly found myself praying a few times for the strength I needed to make it to the next station. When we finally arrived and took off our packs, it looked like most of us had been swimming. We had sweated so much that our heads, faces, and every inch of our clothing was covered in dripping sweat.
As we loaded the double-decker bus, we were hit with a nauseating smell. At first we thought it was the 65+ sweaty people loading the bus, but then we realized it wasn’t. There are no words to describe the way the bus smelled. It was so hot that we were sweating more in the time it took to load the bus than we did the entire walk to the station and the odor from the bus was enough to gag people. What a joy that loading process was! 😉
At 6 p.m., the bus was loaded and we were on the road again!
After about an hour, we encountered a customs stop. Everyone had to get off the bus while they checked all the cargo for drugs or whatever they were looking for. At this point we were all starving and had to use the bathroom. So, we lined up for the concession stand and the bathrooms.
Nope.
We were told we had no time for that and were rushed back onto the bus.
At 8:40 p.m. , we finally stopped at an outdoor, roadside café for dinner. They served fried chicken on rice and chicken sandwiches and nothing else that was listed on their menu. Awesome… Not what a lot of us wanted while cooped up in a bus.
We wanted cold stuff.
So, we ventured next door and bought ice cold Powerade and ice cream bars. The dinner of champions, right?!
At 9 p.m. we were back on the road again. As an attempt to get comfortable and sleep, I climbed under my seat and rested my head on my penguin pillow pet on the seat in an awkward sitting position. Surprisingly, it was comfortable. I plugged into my iPod again and slept until we pulled up to the next “station”.
At 6:30 a.m. on February 3, we finally arrived in Trujillo, Peru on the side of the road. Then another bus arrived to take us to our host site at Inca Link.
After an hour of non-existent, bumpy dirt “roads” winding through the middle of nowhere, we pulled up to a large gated compound and were told we were home.
36 hours and 32 minutes after we began our adventure to Peru, we had finally arrived!
After being told we’d be camping, you can imagine our surprise when we were led to bunk beds complete with mattresses in our rooms. We were all excited about using our tents, but we also realized how hot and humid it was and it could be really miserable in them.
Then we were stuffed full of breakfast of bread and jam and REAL coffee. After a month of powder, dissolves-in-hot-water coffee, I was missing real coffee.
I swear that first cup of coffee put some hair on my chest or something. It was so good! It was strong like Dad makes it! I felt like I was at home.
Towards the end of the line, we ran out of coffee and the locals were dumbfounded. Oh, turns out that what we were drinking was the concentrated coffee and we were supposed to fill it about ¼ full of the coffee brew and ¾ full of the hot water.
Hahah
Oooops!
It’s not supposed to be as strong as Dad’s. Just goes to prove my Dad is nuts for making coffee that strong. And shows that I inherited his nuttiness because I enjoyed drinking it while everyone else was choking it down and adding a pound of sugar…
Then we found out that we would not be doing one ministry this month, as a team, but instead we would be changing ministries every week. And that begins part two of this blog!
