On the Road Again

On the road again, and this time for real!  On Saturday, Peace Corps took us from some pretty amazing hotels to our sites.  Invinha, here I come.  The trip took about 9 hours (6.5 hours on a good day).  Our driver is my new best friend…not.  He decided that he wanted breakfast an hour into the ride, pulled over and disappeared for about 40 minutes.  We all figured he was just grabbing something and would bring it back to the car.  This was while we waited inside the 90+ degree car.  We stopped off in Alto Molocue to drop off another volunteer, picked up the driver’s ‘girlfriend’, (she’s at least ten years younger than he is and was probably 16 or 17) had lunch and tried to continue on our way.  Wait, where’s the driver again?  …another 20 minute wait. 

            We’re off again.  The chapa passed by mountains upon mountains, termite hills everywhere, palm trees, and mango trees.  It was really amazing.  The roads alternated between dirt and paved the entire trip.   After Alto Molocue the driver had the decision to choose paved roads, which would take 4+ hours or dirt back roads that would take about 2 hours on a good day.  Of course we took the dirt roads.  It was all great and dandy until we saw the storm clouds coming.  Travelling up and down mountains on a dirt road when it’s raining isn’t my ideal choice, but it was too late to turn back. 

Here are some good condition roads! 

The driver had never driven these roads before, and it appeared he had never driven on wet dirt roads either.  When we skidded down mountains, he would slam on his breaks and make us tail out and slide even more.  When he was going up mountains he would drive in the depressed ruts where all the cars had driven before…that’s also where all the water was streaming down the mountain, so there was absolutely no traction there. 

The people in the car suggested that we wait out the storm, but the driver refused…obviously he (and his girlfriend) had somewhere to be.  Yes, I’m only a little bitter about my new friend.  Thankfully, we somehow made it and the sister’s (the nuns that run my school) gave us (my roommate Hannah and me) a warm welcoming.  Invinha, here we are.