November 2008 Adventures

During our travels, we’ve tried to stop for the night before dark.  Being in a strange town with no Holiday Inns, means we sometimes have to find and check out 2 or 3 hotels before we find one that is acceptable, both in comfort and price.  Therefore, we tried to limit our driving to less than 300 miles a day.  In Chile, this was important.  The northern part of the country is mostly desert, so towns are very far apart.  We would sometimes stop early in the afternoon if the next town would be difficult to arrive at before dark.  We also have allowed ourselves days for “no driving”.  This has kept us from getting too sore from being in the truck all day.  One town we stayed in for 2 nights was Arica, Chile.  It is on the coast, and had a terrific central area for walking.  We’ve found that if we walk for about an hour each evening, our joints feel much better.

Remember in October when we wrote:  “One of our prayer partners in the US mentioned that perhaps the delay was God ordained to avoid troubles down the road – who knows.”  Well, we now know why we were delayed for those 4 days!  While we were in Chile, we heard that the border between Chile & Peru at Tacna was closed due to demonstrations.  We took our time getting out of Chile to let the problems settle and the road open.  When we finally did get to the border down of Tacna, what a mess we found!  Immigrations was easy, but customs told us private vehicles weren’t allowed to enter Peru.  But, Ed could “register” as an official “chauffer” and we would be able to enter Peru.  The border folks in Chile also told us to drive directly through Tacna, don’t stop for anything!  So, we finished the registration, and entered Peru.  We had never been in a riot zone before, so had no idea what to expect.  It was terrible!  There were rocks & glass all over the road, tires that had been burned, armored police with riot gear, and armored trucks at every intersection.  We quickly got out of Tacna, and gave a prayer of thanksgiving for our 4 day delay in Asuncion.  If we hadn’t been delayed, we would have arrived in the middle of the riots!

We traveled through Peru, and entered Ecuador on November 24^th.  Since then, our nice, enjoyable journey has turned into our worst nightmare!  As of this writing, we are still in Guayaquil, Ecuador, waiting on our truck to leave for Panama.  We can’t leave for Panama without our documentation; both to be able to retrieve the truck in Panama, and to enter the country of Panama.  Non-residents have to have a means to exit the country, so our bill-of-lading showing that we own a vehicle which will serve as our means to exit.

These are just a few of the highlights of our trip.  Please check out our travel journal at:  http://mytripjournal.com/Bakers-Nicaragua.  There you will find more details about our month of November.  BTW, during November, we drove 6,447 km, that’s 3,997 miles!

Please continue to pray for our truck to leave the port, our sanity, and our safety.  We couldn’t make it without your prayers!