What day is it? I’m not sure I know.
Also, my watch somehow got set a day ahead so I’m extra confused.
The following is an account of how we got from Cusco, Peru to Sangolquí, Quito, Ecuador—a distance that spans approximately 2,000 miles:
Friday, April 21 at 4pm we left our house in Cusco, Peru to begin our journey to Ecuador.
We boarded our first bus at 6pm and were served a dinner of rice and coke.
Saturday, April 22, after 22 hours on the bus, we arrived in Lima for our ‘bus layover’ where we taxied to met up with another team that had stayed in the city for the month.
Hungry after a day of crackers and cookies for meals, we hopped on a tuk tuk to the mall to find some dinner. We grabbed some burgers at the mall a few miles away and rushed back to grab our taxi to the next bus station.
Our next bus took us 8 more hours north to Trujillo where we arrived the morning of Sunday, April 23 to be picked up by yet another bus which took us to the ministry site of another team that stayed in Trujillo for the month.
After what had been 31 hours on buses at this point, we had arrived at LDW.
LDW, short for Leadership Development Weekend, is where we reunite as a Squad and share with each other knowledge that we have learned and help each other grow. This LDW also marked a new team change.
Having arrived early Sunday morning, we were able to rest up a bit before starting our sessions on Monday morning.
On Monday, April 24, we were given our new team assignments and ventured out to a nearby beach for a few hours to start getting to know each other.
We returned to shower and have some dinner, where our guys surprised us with cake, a choreographed dance and bracelets they had made for each of us.
Tuesday morning, I presented on the history of the church, Janine led a session on resume building, Andre talked about servant leadership, Carmen taught on discipleship, and Caleigh shared her testimony of healing prayer in her life.
After some logistical announcements, we began packing up our bags once again.
Wednesday morning, we grabbed some more taxis to a mall to grab some WiFi, snacks, and restock our wallets. That afternoon we boarded a bus to the bus station at 4pm. After another 7 hour trip, we arrived in Chiclayo, Peru at around midnight. We loaded our bags into a taxi and tried to grab some rooms at a hotel for the night. After some confusion over room bookings, we eventually fell asleep at 1am.
Thursday morning we stayed in our hotel room until noon when we grabbed a taxi to the next bus station and checked our big bags before walking to the nearest mall for some lunch and snacks. After lunch, we went to the bank to exchange our Peruvian currency for USD (which is the currency of Ecuador).
At about 4pm, we boarded our next bus expecting to cross the border around midnight. We fell asleep to a beautiful sunset unaware of what would awaken us in a few hours.
Two hours south of when we were supposed to cross the boarder, we ran into a blockade of burning tires and debris in the Mancora District of Peru.
For the next 24 hours we were held hostage by a group of local fishermen who were holding a peaceful protest for their rights. In order to save fuel, the bus had shut off the power shortly after we stopped. We were told the police would arrive at 6am.
From midnight until about 10am on Friday, we waited in the dark as the heat slowly built up and the bus toilets reached their maximum capacities. We were told that if the protestors found out we were foreigners that we were at risk to be robbed, so we endured the suffocating heat with the curtains drawn tightly closed until it was evident that the protesters meant no harm.
The police never arrived, nor did the US Embassy, despite our calls and their reassurances that they were on their way with food.
For the next few hours, we sat outside in the shade of our bus rationing out the snacks that we still had left and our dwindling water supplies until around noon when the bus suddenly started up again.
We piled back in to flush the toilets and enjoy the air conditioning, and continued to wait.
Around dusk, our squad leaders who had ventured out to find food and water, had us come out to the street where we feasted on all the sandwiches, chips, and oreos that they could find at the closest store.
We brushed our teeth on the side of the road and loaded back into the bus mentally prepared to be there for the night.
At approximately 24 hours after we stopped, we felt the bus jolt and cheered as we once again were on the road to Ecuador.
At 3am Saturday morning, we finally crossed at the Peruvian-Ecuadorian boarder and at 7:30am, we arrived in Guayaquil. Once we unloaded our bags, we went straight to the ticket counter to purchase tickets to Quito, which would board at 9:20am.
After grabbing a quick breakfast, we loaded our bags into yet another bus.
After 9 more hours, we arrived in Quito. Fully exhausted, we strapped on our backpacks and caught two more local buses and a truck before arriving at our ministry site at about 10pm on Saturday, April 28.
So, in total:
2 trucks
9 buses
8 taxis
2 tuk tuks
89 hours on buses, and 198 hours (or 8.25 days) of travel.
Next time, I’ll catch the 5 hour plane ride.
While this experience was at times draining and disheartening, I am thankful for the peace and endurance that God gave our squad during this travel day. I am thankful for his protection in a situation that could have turned violent.
Even though while I was sitting in the sweltering heat of the bus Friday morning, I wished that the US Embassy would come and bring us back home, I’m so excited to see what is to come over these next two months in Ecuador and Colombia with my new team: 6 Chicas Plus 1 (follow their blogs on the left side of my blog).
Plus, now I can say I’ve been held hostage.
As we enter into these last two months, please pray that we can remain focused on what the Lord has for us here in Ecuador and Colombia. It could be easy to disengage as home is on the horizon, but pray that we can be fully present here as we also work to make plans for our futures after the Race.
Thank you for your faithful support!
