Our group, the morning we left
Last Tuesday I left for a trip to Maribel, a very remote region where we have several church plants. Usually we go by road, taking the TransAmazon hwy for about 4 hours and then a jungle road for another 5 or so hours. Usually during the rainy season (generally over by June) we go by boat, however that is a 3 day trip. During the rainy season the jungle road becomes impassable for trucks, but we thought we would try the trip for the first time by motorcycles. Five of us went, myself, Bud, Keith (missionaries) and two Brazilians, Naldo and Poli. We knew we were in for an adventure, but we had no idea...
The trip there was adventurous enough. The weather was perfect, no rain. But the jungle road has lots of standing water, which sometimes you can drive around, but usually the only option is driving through. In one such crossing Bud decided to take an "alternate route" and ended up at the bottom of a five foot deep hole. His motorcycle was completely submerged and flooded. We spent about an hour draining the water out of the oil and drying out the motor. It was just getting dark as we got on our way again. Then it was Poli's turn. Hitting a submerged rock, his motorcycle fell into the water. We went through the same process with Poli's bike, not arriving until 9:30 pm.
Our time visiting the communities went very well. We left the next morning on a boat and spent the next 3 days on the river. Here's a video about our time...
We decided to head for home a day early, on Friday. It had rained much of the night Thursday night, and we had only been on the road about 15 minutes when Bud realized he was missing the nut from his rear axle. We spent about an hour looking for it and finally decided to do the best to wire it in place and continue on. We stopped and asked several people along the way if they happened to have a nut we could use. It seemed to be a complete waste of time to me, you don't just stop and ask someone a question here, it turns into a much longer ordeal. Miraculously, however, a guy had a honda motorcycle with the same nut. He let us take it as long as we promised to give it to his brother who lived in a town that we would be passing through, where we could buy a new one.
Back on the road with fully functioning equipment, we started to feel good about things. The water we had passsed through on the way in was higher, but nothing was impassable yet. Then came a creek that a man told us he had to swim across, much too high for our motorcycles. Some locals told us the creek would probably be passable in the morning, and one man offered his house and even some food, we went to bed thinking we would be home the next day, only this one more creek and we're home free.
Unloading our equipment at the house of a kind stranger
who put us up for the night
After passing the creek in the morning, we rounded a corner to see yet another impassable river. We were able to borrow a rowboat in disrepair from a neighbor, and after fixing some holes with tar, we were able to cross the creek, one at a time with our motorcycles. And then yes, yet ANOTHER, flooded creek (I apologize for the repetition, but how do you think we felt?). We heard about a detour through the jungle, but waited a few hours for the water to go down a little more because of the swift current.
Crossing one of the many water hazards
We finally made it out of the jungle road and onto the TransAmazon later in the afternoon on Saturday. We decided we should just stay the night in Uruara, a city on the TransAmazon and about 4 hours from home. As we arrived into town, we realized the only bridge into town had been swept away by the rising waters. We were able to cross, amid about 300 onlookers and heavy equipment trying desperately to repair the road without running over the gawkers. After making some repairs to our motorcycles, we greatly enjoyed some pizza, a shower and a clean bed.
But surely, we thought, no more problems. It started raining just after breakfast. Just out of town we came to yet another river which had risen and covered the road. An entrepreneurial man showed up just after us with a boat. He charged $5 a motorcycle to ferry us across. We would have paid 10 times that.
During the trip we realized Bud hadn't been baptized yet... just kidding, here Bud and Naldo check the depth of one of the flooded TransAmazon Hwy
Evidently the flooding was due to the heavy rain the night before. It's not uncommon for the road to become impassable, but this has been an unseasonably wet year. For sure the washed-out bridge going into Uruara and the river flooding the road going out of town were both very rare. If you've stuck around this long, maybe you'll enjoy this video I made of our return trip:
The trip there was adventurous enough. The weather was perfect, no rain. But the jungle road has lots of standing water, which sometimes you can drive around, but usually the only option is driving through. In one such crossing Bud decided to take an "alternate route" and ended up at the bottom of a five foot deep hole. His motorcycle was completely submerged and flooded. We spent about an hour draining the water out of the oil and drying out the motor. It was just getting dark as we got on our way again. Then it was Poli's turn. Hitting a submerged rock, his motorcycle fell into the water. We went through the same process with Poli's bike, not arriving until 9:30 pm.
Our time visiting the communities went very well. We left the next morning on a boat and spent the next 3 days on the river. Here's a video about our time...
We decided to head for home a day early, on Friday. It had rained much of the night Thursday night, and we had only been on the road about 15 minutes when Bud realized he was missing the nut from his rear axle. We spent about an hour looking for it and finally decided to do the best to wire it in place and continue on. We stopped and asked several people along the way if they happened to have a nut we could use. It seemed to be a complete waste of time to me, you don't just stop and ask someone a question here, it turns into a much longer ordeal. Miraculously, however, a guy had a honda motorcycle with the same nut. He let us take it as long as we promised to give it to his brother who lived in a town that we would be passing through, where we could buy a new one.
Back on the road with fully functioning equipment, we started to feel good about things. The water we had passsed through on the way in was higher, but nothing was impassable yet. Then came a creek that a man told us he had to swim across, much too high for our motorcycles. Some locals told us the creek would probably be passable in the morning, and one man offered his house and even some food, we went to bed thinking we would be home the next day, only this one more creek and we're home free.
Unloading our equipment at the house of a kind stranger
who put us up for the night
After passing the creek in the morning, we rounded a corner to see yet another impassable river. We were able to borrow a rowboat in disrepair from a neighbor, and after fixing some holes with tar, we were able to cross the creek, one at a time with our motorcycles. And then yes, yet ANOTHER, flooded creek (I apologize for the repetition, but how do you think we felt?). We heard about a detour through the jungle, but waited a few hours for the water to go down a little more because of the swift current.
Crossing one of the many water hazards
We finally made it out of the jungle road and onto the TransAmazon later in the afternoon on Saturday. We decided we should just stay the night in Uruara, a city on the TransAmazon and about 4 hours from home. As we arrived into town, we realized the only bridge into town had been swept away by the rising waters. We were able to cross, amid about 300 onlookers and heavy equipment trying desperately to repair the road without running over the gawkers. After making some repairs to our motorcycles, we greatly enjoyed some pizza, a shower and a clean bed.
But surely, we thought, no more problems. It started raining just after breakfast. Just out of town we came to yet another river which had risen and covered the road. An entrepreneurial man showed up just after us with a boat. He charged $5 a motorcycle to ferry us across. We would have paid 10 times that.
During the trip we realized Bud hadn't been baptized yet... just kidding, here Bud and Naldo check the depth of one of the flooded TransAmazon Hwy
Evidently the flooding was due to the heavy rain the night before. It's not uncommon for the road to become impassable, but this has been an unseasonably wet year. For sure the washed-out bridge going into Uruara and the river flooding the road going out of town were both very rare. If you've stuck around this long, maybe you'll enjoy this video I made of our return trip:
6 comments:
Awesome videos Josh. Gives true perspective to the work you are engaged in there. Love you guys. -h.p.
Great job on the videos!
Absolutely amazing. Bless your wife and children for allowing you to go on such adventures.
Dad
Happy Mother's day, we wish you the best of all blessings and we have made a little something for you:
http://everydaymmoms.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-prayer-for-mothers-today-is-that-our.html
God bless you,
EVERYDAY.M.MOMS
Wow - nice videos, Josh. I will remember this next time Kev goes on a trip and I complain. Perspective indeed. Glad you all made it back safe and sound!
You should write a book, Josh!! That's a crazy trip! Praise the Lord for His protection.
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