We were on our way to Canchamana [Cahn-cha-mah-nah] when a wrong turn was made. To read about Canchamana visit Matt Peter’s blog.
Our bus driver dropped us off at Canchamana alright, only he failed to remember that the city was destroyed by the earthquake. The road became impassable so our driver told us we would need to walk the rest of the way. “Okay, that’s fine.” we responded.
I spoke in Spanish something which roughly translated to, “You need to wait here. We were coming back at 8:30 later.” It makes sense, right?
“Si.” He assured us.
So we walked. The gullies in the road were brimming with brackish gunge that was once water. And the mud framing each puddle was just as suspicious.
We turned around at one point where the “path” became unwalkable only to see our bus driving away. I guess when he said, “si.” It really meant, “Yeah right, like I’m gonna sit here for two and half hours. See ya!”
Oh well, we were here already right? Not so. We were discussing what we remembered of the directions spoken to us earlier and realized that we needed to be way up on the mesa above the broken down village we were now at.
So, we turned around and spied our little yellow and red bus dancing down the potholed road taunting us with the prospect that we would need to walk down the road then up the hill to get to the mesa.
We weren’t going to make it in time for the service we were trying to attend so instead I offered that we trek to the beach and watch the sunset as it was already rapidly approaching time for a cowboy to ride off somewhere.
We took a lane we had passed earlier and God brought us unexpectedly into his glorious presence.
I have nothing to add here. So enjoy this verse as you behold a taste of what this was like in person. A special thank you to Rachel Hunt for taking these photos by sacrificing her desire to be in them.
“Though you have not seen him,
You love him;
And though you do not see him now, You are filled
With an inexpressible and glorious joy…” 1 Peter 1:8
