Peru Trip - Day 3

Today began pretty early – I woke up around 3:00 and had problems getting back to sleep. I started thinking about how we were going to get all of our “stuff” consolidated down to fit on the donkeys for the trek, and even with Ade's 2 bags, I was wondering if we were going to make it. 6:00 came and the rest of the crew awoke to the sound of monkeys screeching – I had set the wrong alarm on my phone, so the National Geographic ring tone was set to that sound. Let me tell you it was not the sound they wanted to hear to wake them up. Anyway, they all got up, got ready to go, and by 7:00 we were all eating breakfast. By 7:30, we were on our way to the Andes Mountains.

We had about an hour and a half ride through Yungar to Anta, where we waited to pick up our final trip person. As we waited, we took a group picture and gave candy to local children and adults. Eventually he arrived, and we headed off to the mountains. At one point, the back of the bus hit the ground, and shortly after that, the driver asked a number of us to disembark. I thought we were all getting out, so we took all of our things and headed out. Then, after 8 of us got out, the bus started moving again – he was just lightening his load. It would've been nice if we knew that and we would have left our luggage on the bus. Gina, Rebecca, Dave, Thomas and myself were the lucky team members that ended up walking about 30 minutes up the hill to catch the bus after it cleared the more difficult areas. Gina did well, but the atmosphere changes were really getting to her. Anyway, when we caught up to the bus, it drove right by us, and we ended up riding in the luggage truck. That's right, flopping all around (trying to take pictures) we were like cattle in the back of this truck eating the dust of the bus that we were once riding in. We had a blast looking at the scenery go by, taking pictures of the bus, watching Gina move from one side of the truck to the other (depending on which side was closest to the drop offs next to the road).

I forgot to introduce our hosts...
Ade – missionary, guide, etc.
Pushpi – preacher/musician
Leopoldo – Preacher
Andres – Musician
Orlando – Musician / tech guy for the movies in the evenings
Manuel – Cook
Benjamin - Cook

Finally we arrived in a little village, and took out the balls, the candy, some New Testaments, and started interacting with the people. Some of the boys played soccer. Some played football. Some played frisbee. I met a little boy named Rusbel – he was an obviously quiet and shy boy, but he enjoyed throwing the football. Tony gave him a frisbee as we left.

We began our trek into the mountains, and I don't think it was what the team had expected.. We are in country only a few days, and we have been moving the whole time. The trek was just about straight up – we went from 10,000 to 11,000 feet in less than 3 hours. A number of the team were dealing with headaches, Tony was wrestling with stomach issues, but we arrived at camp early in the afternoon. Some laid down to rest while others played around. There really wasn't a lot of room on this mountain ( we were on a ledge of sorts), so they hung out and played cards. It began to rain, so we all made our way to the tents. The teens were playing cards in one tent, and the old geezers were sleeping in the rain. At around 6:00, we were called for dinner. During dinner they began showing a film, followed by the “Jesus Film”. After that finished, Pushpi said some words, then we sang and shared a little bit as well. Finally, we handed out Bibles to the people. This was a highlight for many of the team. As we headed for bed, Pushpi, Andres, and Leopoldo were playing and singing Quechan songs for the people.