on the road

so all my crazy stories about getting back to Pucallpa on a “regular call ” flight that was running late, then was canceled and then was boarding 20 minutes later while my hubby was down at the ticket counter and the fact that we live in a country where someone can run into you car and grag their handlebars down the side and then when you get them to pull over they swear they didn’t do anything, seem to pale in comparison to my husband’s trip out to Oxapampa. He has arrived safely but only after 19 hours on the road, a flat tire, almost getting stuck in the river, the truck not starting (twice) and then they realized the lug nuts had all fallen off the rear wheel and they were about to lose the wheel. They looked in the road for the lug nuts but to no avail. They went to rearrange the bolt pattern on the whole truck just to keep the wheels on and make it the “half -hour” to town. One town was not 1/2hour away and two the lug bolts had fallen off many kilometers back and two of the studs were sheered off, two were so beat up there were no threads left on them, which only lest one stud and nut for the wheel. They sent someone to town, some how got it fixed with a hammer (mechanics in third world countries fix everything with hammers – it is quite a talent). They hadn’t eaten in hours (since their breakfast of fried fish and quinoa apple juice) so C shared his pb&j that I had packed him. All 6 sandwiches were gone in an instant – which is neat because they don’t eat peanut butter here. Anyway, I spoke with him today and he and Alan were looking for parts around town to fix the truck. The kids race is today and the men race tomorrow. On a really good note – C says Oxapampa is the most beautiful part of Peru yet (a cross between West Virginia and the Swiss Alps). Keep praying.

Oxapampa

Good morning all. It is 3a.m. and my husband just walked out the door to drive to Oxapampa. This is an area kind of like a mini Switzerland in the Andes Mountains. We hear it is beautiful there. The purpose for his trip however is not the scenery. He receivedand invitation to drive out there with a new friend to participate in a national MX race. The invite came at about 2 p.m. yesterday. (Impromptu like everything here).  This is only his second race and first at the national level. He doesn’t know this track and from what I here it is pretty tough. Please be praying for safety. Main roads around here have been closed for weeks do to striking “Cocaleros”. Apparently the DEA has destroyed many fields of coca plants and they are not happy. So, they are taking a different route around the strikes but the possibility of getting in trouble on the road, or having your bike stolen off the truck exists.
So why go? The new friend who invited him is not a believer and Christian is going so he can further his relationship with Alan, which started because of Christian’s involvement as a racer in the last event. We are very excited for this opportunity.

End of Vacation

Due to no internet access this has been sitting untouched on my computer for over a week . . . .I will add to the story but I am posting this now just in case there is no internet tonight.

Our vacation in Cusco has come to an end. We had a wonderful time visiting with our friends and fellow missionaries, the Dillons. On Monday and Tuesday of this week we had the amazing adventure of going to Machu Pichu. Monday morning we drove over the mountains with the Dillons (all 11 of us in their Land Cruiser). The road we took was small and winding and there was no promise that it would be open all the through to the Sacred Valley. The road was open but a t one point we had to get out and ask the workers with the huge truck to move so we could get by. We ate lunch on the conter of a small village called Ollantatambo. There are some amazing ruins in this town but since it cost more to get into those than to get into Machu Pichu we opted not to enter and just look from afar. From Ollantatambo we got new tickets for the train. Yes, we did stand in line for 3 hours last week for tickets but the only ones we could by in Cusco were for the 11pm train to Aguas Calientes were we would be spending the night. It is a two hour train ride so we really wanted to be on the 7pm train, but those tickets can only be purchased on Ollantatambo and only those local to the train can by them . . until 6 pm that is. So we waited at the train station until 6 pm and managed to secure new tickets on the 7 pm train (they only cost us an extra $18 so it was worth it.) We rode in the dark, through the mountains and arrived our hotel in Aguas Calientes around 9:30. The hotel was clean and had hot water. The 4 men were in a room that was over the river, literally. The girls and I were in a room up stairs where the train went by 15 feet from our beds. The view from the boys room in the morning was beautiful . . . .until we realized that all the buildings along the river’s edge, including our hotel, dumped all of their waste into the river. It wasn’t at all discrete and it was really quite sad. (once the kids realized this fact they would flush the toilet and run to the window to see their “waste water” shoot out the PVC pipe and into the river.)
We ate our breakfast and left early to catch the bus up to the top of the mountain. Machu Pichu was amazing . . . prime real estate up there. However, now, there are way too many people. Tourists, tourist everywhere. I now understand fully why the Peruvian soccer team is never in the World Cup . . . . because there team is made up of a bunch of Gringo Tourists!!! (That was a joke)

Vacation in Cusco

Vacation is a much needed breath of fresh air. We had been busy every moment of everyday – right up until we left Pucallpa. Christian and I still had work to take along with us, but for the most part vacation has been very refreshing and relaxing. We are staying with our friends, the Dillons, and we also stayed in the center for three nights. We spent days just walking around Cusco and next week we head to Machu Pichu. we want to do as much as we can so we need to be extremely economical. Two soles per adult to get into the museum of natural history was a good expenditure. (Almost all of the “jungle insects” on display we have had in our house at one time or another.) Twenty-five soles per adult to see the cathedral . . .no thank you.

We did find a very economical way to make a trip to Machu Pichu very feasible. Most tourists pay hundreds of dollars to visit. being that we are Peruvian resident we can take the local train for 10 soles each way ($3.50) and cheaper entrance to the ruins. But mind you, we had to go line up with the other Peruvians at 6 am and wait in line until 9 am to get our tickets. Turns out the people in the front of the line had been there since 4 am. We will drive out to the sacred valley on Monday, take the train to Aguas Calientes, where we will spend the night and then take the bus to the ruins Tuesday morning. I hope it will all work out fine. We meet a very nice lady who owns a new hotel in town and one of her staff found us a hotel in the valley . . . .we shall see how that turns out.

I think the highlight of the kids vacation has been taking a bath at the hotel (we don’t have a tub in Pucallpa) – and eating McDonalds (they weren’t so crazy about the Indian food Christian had them try yesterday). It has been a wonderful week of hanging out together – trying not to think about the craziness that awaits us when we go home. We have had a wonderful time staying with Scott and Meghan. We had a sitter tonight and went out to dinner. It was delicious. After dinner Meghan brought us to a place called “The Tea Room” for cheese cake. She had been there once before with some missionary women for a mother’s day luncheon. Little did we know that after a certain hour the “Tea Room” turns into a gay lounge/bar . . . .at least it was good cheese cake.