Hi Friends & Family!!
It’s been a about two weeks since this happened & I finally can write about it. Not because I was traumatized but because we have been busy with ministry. 
I promise we are safe & sound! I know the wording sounds strong but I’ll explain what happened. I say hostage because according to Merriam Webster the definition is “a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge pending the fulfillment of an agreement, one that is involuntarily controlled by an outside influence”. We definitely fit the criteria.
We were held hostage by a group of fishermen that were rioting on the Pan-American Highway on the 27th of April at midnight. They decided to close down the entire highway leading to the border as a political statement. The fishermen were upset that the government has allowed oil drilling in their seas; it’s costing them their livelihood. I grew up going to not so safe areas of Mexico and my Costa Rican bestie grew up on the hood. Both of our moms had been telling us all the things they had recently heard in the news and had the mom premonition of our travel days being dangerous. With all of that we both knew this was no bueno! However, we remained calmed and took the time to see how we could serve. Mostly I was going to be the back up for Andre, my best friend, because that girl knows how to handle.
So where do I begin?
I checked my watched around 12:37 a.m. texting my parents and prayer warriors about the situation. We knew there were protestors outside our window but we didn’t know anything else other than they were fishermen per the Peruvians yelling at us to close the window’s curtains. Our driver and about 15 of the other passengers that were Peruvian called the police station. They were told we would receive back up around 6 a.m. The bus was shut off so the protestors wouldn’t think we would leave, the weather was hot, so this meant no A/C until 6 a.m. Most of our squad was sleeping. My best friend and I decided to stay up to help in any way we could. The Safety Coordinator (Gabbie) and Squad Leaders were aware of what was happening at the time. Andre & Gabbie decide to make the announcement for the squad to know the situation but most people went back to sleep. Andre noticed there was busses in front of us that were stopped, tires and debris being burned to not let us go through. Behind us were hundreds of people, I couldn’t keep count, they were drunk and laying in the ground. They laid a log and parked their cars/tuk-tuks behinds us so we couldn’t go either way. The fishermen at one point shook our bus and were throwing rocks at it. At another time there were men with flashlights walking around flashing them into our bus. The Peruvians asked us to keep our window curtains closed in fear that they would do something worse if they knew there were Americans inside.
I slept for about 2 hours but was woken up by the heat at 4 a.m.; it felt like I could hardly breath from the thickness of the air. The fishermen were loud and laughing so I went towards the bathroom that was located at the back of the bus to see if I could hear what they were talking about. I couldn’t so I just stayed awake. Around 4:11 a.m. I felt a ray of hope as the bus was turned on. The bus driver was just turning on the bus to get some airflow but the rioters were upset and started yelling. He quickly turned off the bus. Then 6 a.m. hit and there were still no police officers in sight. We were two hours away from the border! It felt so close yet so far away with our situation. Around 7 a.m. our Safety Coordinator notified our organization and we decided to have them call the Embassy as well. Gabbie, our Safety Coordinator, ended up calling the Embassy as well around 8 a.m. and we were promised help/food but we knew things can take a while especially during these situations (side note: the food and “help” from the embassy, to get us out, never came). Around 10 a.m. we were allowed to get out of the bus. We were able to talk to some of the protestors; they said it wasn’t a personal problem but they wanted to get the government’s attention on their political agenda. They were allowing people to leave the buses but the buses weren’t allowed to move. We weren’t give “permission” to leave from our embassy so technically we couldn’t leave. There was a nearby city that was about 15 minutes away, an hour walking, per our bus driver were he could pick us up if we decided to leave the bus. He would pick us up and we could decide to walk with our luggage or leave it behind. We talked to leadership and thought this was a great option. However, some of our squadmates had seen a tuk-tuk driver being harassed and almost turned over, while others saw a police officer drinking alongside the rioters.
Either way we decided that it was best to walk but then we received a call from the embassy asking us to wait. It was a call at perfect timing we thought. They said they had talk to the ministry of tourism and someone was going to pick us up. Around 12 p.m. we were able to get some water; praises! Around 2 p.m. I was finally able to take a nap but it was short lived as I was woken up around 4 p.m. by the bus moving (Total hours of sleep at this point are around 4). Some police officers were finally showing up and it started to get violent so our driver decided to move. It gave us about 10 feet of distance from where we were originally at. Around 5 p.m. Andre and I split a potato sold by a woman. She was all sold out and only had enough for us to buy two; one for Maddie and Andy and one for us to share. Brad, one of our Squad Leaders, Andy and Andre decided to get us food at a store nearby but they had to take a tuk-tuk. We were a little bit nervous for their safety but they were courageous and wanted to get the squad some food so they ventured out. They arrived back with bread, cheese, ham, peanut butter, jelly chips, cookies and water. Around 6:46 p.m. I was able to talk to some of the fishermen (women) and they let me know they were shocked we were still here. They asked if we were Christian and I joked with them how we were fishermen of men. *wink,wink* I asked them when would they let us go and they said about midnight it was all supposed to be over. Hallelujah! I notified leadership and we all were hopeful. Shortly after we were asked to get back in the bus because they were expecting police officers to throw gas bombs. The bus was turned on so we were able to have A/C and the lights on. Around 11:43 p.m. I was woken up from my nap when the bus was turned on. After close to 24 hours of being held in a deserted area we were happy to leave. A 7 hours bus drive still awaited us and we had to still go through customs in about 2 hours; we were just happy to hit the road.
Thank you family & friends for all the prayers. I know that it’s not a coincidence we were in the “safe zone” of the riots. We were told by the Peruvians in our bus and the fishermen that the coast was covered by these riots and the areas in other cities were worse. We will be traveling to Colombia soon, on a bus, again. I PLEASE ask for your prayers during this time since we will be heading out to our last country!!
I prayerfully ask you to consider donating to my last month of personal expenses. If anyone would like to donate you could do so via Venmo, Cashapp or PayPal. Thanks for all you love, support & prayers! Less than 40 days left to finish the race & I know I couldn’t do it without you.
To find me on Venmo, CashApp or PayPal
my usernames are:
Venmo: @Jacqueline-Jimenez-17
CashApp: $jklynjmnz
PayPal:paypal.me/JacklynJimenez or [email protected]
