So when I mentioned that “Bye Bye Bolivia” would be my last post, I did not know that I would have eight hours in a bus terminal. I thought you all might like a travel update while Fearless Chazak is in the midst of it.
We woke up this morning at 5:00 AM to depart at 6:00 AM. Our original departure time was 9:00 AM but with all of the stuff going on with the protests, MC and I decided it would be better to leave earlier. Our bags were packed all ready to go and 6:30 AM rolls around without any sighting of the cars that would be driving us to Potosi. This is a perfect example of cultural dissonance with timing. Eventually the cars arrived and we left by around 7:30 AM.
After driving an hour on some quite bumpy, gravelly roads, we made what seemed to be a completely off-road turn into a more sandy terrain. Thank goodness the drivers have done this before because how they knew when to turn is beyond me. We hadn’t gotten more than 15 minutes in the new setting when our car (we were following) came upon a the other car in our caravan and a stuck bus with people trying to dig the sand out from under the wheels. Everyone in the car with me, including myself, thought the other car had stopped to help out of the goodness of their hearts. No. They had stopped because in their attempt to get around the bus over a small hill of sand, their car had gotten stuck. Fire up. This is one of the many reasons we all signed up for the World Race. It took about an hour for them to get their car free and then we were on our way again. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Holes,” that is what the landscape looked like where we were stuck only rather than being unbearably hot, it was cold.
The drive was incredible. I probably should have taken advantage of the time to sleep but I just couldn’t look away. We were driving through the Andes Mountains and let’s just say that there were, in fact, mountains upon mountains and my personal favorite, hundreds of llamas. Where Michigan might have deer crossing signs, Bolivia has llama crossing signs. It made my day. The landscape changed from mountains with vegetation, to primitive living accommodations, to sand, and looking like a desert. I have not had much experience with mountains so these were incredible. Despite their majestic nature, my heart is still wired for water. It got me thinking about why I love bodies of water so much. I think it’s because where mountains are huge and powerful yet unyielding, water is constantly changing. Interestingly, the changing water is able to shape the mountains by carving in its obligatory gravitational decent. I love that. Now I realize that any geology majors would argue that there are countless other things that shape mountains, but just go with me on this. I think it could be analogous to the Holy Spirit with us as human beings. We are stubborn creatures and tend to be unyielding but with the gentle flow of the Holy Spirit we are morphed and shaped into the people God intended for us to be.
Got a little deep there, product of many hours in the car. What should have been roughly a four hour car ride turned into a seven hour trip. So I sit here now composing this blog post safely in the bus terminal. Our bus will depart at 9:00 PM this evening and theoretically will be eight hours to La Paz where we will have two days in a hostel before we officially head to Peru. If you don’t bring your sense of humor, you’ll never make it through these travel days. I’ll post again when I can!
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The first part of this post was composed before getting on the bus. Just wanted to give a follow-up. We rode in a semi-cama (half-bed) bus for eight hours without a bathroom. Fortunately, the bus made a stop and my teammate, Shannon, and I made quick work of use of the restroom before the bus set off again. We officially left Potosi at 9 PM and arrived in La Paz at 6:30 AM. We are staying in the same hostal that we stayed in upon our initial arrival in Bolivia. It’s considerably warmer here and it will be nice to have some time to relax before heading to Peru. Sorry for some of the inconsistencies in timing between this post and “Bye Bye Bolivia”…figured it was better to post what I had written so you could all get more updates. Hope you’re doing well!
