After 29 hours of travel we have safely arrived to
our ministry site in a farming town just south of Los Chiles, Costa Rica. It
took a 16 hour ferry ride, a hour long boat ride down a river, 1 km hike with
all of our belongings, a 45 minute double decker bus ride, and a 15 minute ride
in/on top of a small SUV down winding dirt roads but we made it to our jungle
home. World race travel days are full of adventure and rarely go as planned,
however I am beginning to enjoy the slight chaos and craziness that accompanies
each travel day. To let you in on just how crazy our travel days can be, I have
included a time table of our past travel day. It is kind of long but quite
entertaining! Enjoy!
10:00 AM
-Pack bags
11:15 AM
-Check out of room
11:45 AM –
Realize Mary and Tracy have yet to return from their errands. Lindsay and
Ashley volunteer to go find them so we can catch our ferry on time.
12:15 PM-
Mary, Tracy, Lindsay, and Ashley have yet to return, start to get slightly
worried
12:30 PM-
The girls make it back safe and sound. Leave our hostel and walk to the dock 45
minutes behind schedule
1:00 PM-
Stand in and out of lines several times in an attempt to board the ferry boat
1:35 PM-
Get on the ferry boat and realize it is quite rocky but have hope that it will
settle down once we start moving
Hanging out on the deck of the ferry.
1:50 PM-
Lindsay and I start to make jelly and banana sandwiches, using candy canes to
spread the jelly due to a lack of knives
Lindsay using one of the candy canes to spread the jelly.
2:00 PM-
Scheduled Departure time
3:08 PM-
Actual time of departure, realization that the ride is not going to be a smooth
ride
5:15 PM-
Attempt to take a picture of the awesome sunset while being thrown from one
side of the boat to the other
The AMAZING sunset the Lord painted for us!!!
6:00 PM-
Due to the setting sun I can no longer see the horizon. Motion sickness begins
to set in.
7:05 PM-
Reach Ometepe Island, the ferry’s first stop, and thank the Lord for a brief
moment of calm water.
9:00 PM-
Sleep on a bench until 12AM
12:00 AM-
Wake up to find a random man sitting at the end of the bench I was sleeping on.
Realize that we are stopped at our second stop, roll over and go back to sleep
2:30 AM-
Wake up due to lack of feeling on my right side. Attempt to readjust to a
better position without kicking the man at my feet.
5:30AM-
Wake up from sleeping off and on
6:37
AM- Arrive in San Carlos
6:45 AM-
Get off the ferry boat
7:15 AM-
Finally get our packs after the entire contents of the ferry were unloaded. We
are reminded that immigration opens at 8 and the next boat to Costa Rica leaves
at 10:30
7:25 AM-
Walk with all of our stuff to the park adjacent to the immigration office. Let
the wait begin.
Taking over the park with all of our packs.
7:42 AM-
Debating what we can pull together for breakfast from or limited food sources.
7:47 AM-
Becca from team Brady begins to serenade us with her guitar
8:10 AM-
Greg and Lindsay return from the local market with sweet bread, cookies, and
bananas for breakfast. Find out we may take a bus instead of a boat
9:08 AM-
Find out the boat is the only option, head to immigration
Making our presence known in the immigration office.
9:45 AM-
Finally get called, grab our stuff to go, the boat driver sees us and says no
way
9:50 AM-
Sit back down to wait for the next boat scheduled to leave at 1:00 PM
11:18 AM-
Get called back again, stand in line to get stamped for Costa Rica
11:50 AM-
Get on the boat surprisingly early which NEVER happens…EVER!
Our packs taking over the front of the river boat.
1:12 PM- We
finally leave. Never get excited for something being early.
2:15 PM-
Arrive in Los Chiles, Costa Rica. Go through what we thought was immigration
2:35 PM-
Start walking to bus. Pay a tax for using the port
2:45 PM-
Get to actual immigration
Waiting in front of the immigration office.
3:05 PM-
Passport Stamped! Now to figure out where we need to be and how to get there
4:25 PM-
Walk to the bus
4:37 PM-
Arrive at bus station to wait…again.
4:56 PM-
Get on an awesome double decker bus, obviously on uppder deck
5:57 PM-
Get dropped off on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere. Attempt to
catch our 50lb packs as the bus driver throws them at us.
6:00 PM-
Our contact meets us to drive our packs to the farm, informs us that he will be
back in 30 minutes to pick us up, we begin to wait on the side of the highway
6:05 PM- We
all sit down in a circle for an awesome worship session on the side of the
road. We pass around a 3 liter of Pepsi and sweet bread for everyone to share.
Our roadside worship session.
6:25 PM-
Jobie (from team Brady), Becca (from team Brady), and I all decide we can’t
wait for a bathroom any longer and decide to venture into the darkness to find
the perfect bathroom spot
6:27 PM-
Decide we would rather pee in the middle of a small dirt road just off the
highway, instead of the surrounding grass. We all turn off our head lamps and
pop a squat in the middle of the road while keeping an eye out for our
returning contact
6:28 PM-
Ashley decides she can no longer wait for a bathroom and pops a squat in the
middle of the road, while we keep a look out for any oncoming cars. Moments
later I see headlights approaching and tell Ashley to pull up her pants because
a car is coming.
6:29 PM-
Our contact pulls up right where we had just finished using the bathroom
6:35 PM- We
managed to cram 12 people and 8 backpacks inside our contact’s small SUV and
realize that the remaining three men would be riding on the top of the car.
6:50 PM-
Pull up to our farm house, bringing an end to our crazy awesome travel
day/days!
Internet is
extremely limited this month, but I will try to blog as often as possible.
Thank you SO much for your support!
