Palora, Ecuador

Do you remember the theme song for Gilligan´s Island?
“Just sit right back and I’ll tell a tail….
A tail of a fateful trip…
…a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour…¨

Our recent trip to Palora started out as a 5 hour drive that turned

into a 12 hour drive one day and a 4 hour drive the next. It all started to go south when Lucy heard on the radio that Tungarahua was erupting. Tungarahua is a volcano that we have to drive right by to get to the eastern part of Ecuador. We stopped at a gas station and all the phone calls started. What should we do? Should we turn around? Go one of two long ways? Wait it out? We decided to keep going another hour or so to the next big town and see if the conditions improved.

We pulled into Riobamba and ate lunch. Conditions hadn’t improved so the decision was made to go one of the long ways... “But not to worry they have been working on the road and it’s in good shape” If someone tells you that don’t believe them!

So we set out from Riobamba about 1pm. The road started out good and then we started to find the work crews who were working on the road. Then the bumps, potholes and waiting for machinery to move started. About 2 hours in we had a flat tire on the sprinter. It was changed and we were on our way again. Then we peaked the mountain pass and started down hill. It was gorgeous scenery!

The road started to get narrower and bumpier and then we started fording rivers (8 in all.) Did I mention I was pulling a trailer with the all luggage on it? One river in particular was pretty deep but we made it through. The young man that was with us to show us the way kept saying one more hour... one more hour... after like 5 hours I stopped believing him.

We finally saw the lights of the city of Macas around 7:30pm so we knew we were going to be able to sleep in a bed and not the sprinter for the night.

We arrived in Macas around 8:30pm or so to find out it was the weekend of their town festival. So you guessed it... not many hotels with rooms for 26 people. We found one and were grateful for the place to stay even if it wasn’t even a ½ a star hotel.

The next morning we awoke to find out that they were going to have a parade and that the parade route would pass right in front of our hotel. We had to move fast to get out of down town or we would be stuck there until the parade was over. We loaded the trailer and discovered that that trailer had flat tire. The guys on our team changed it in record time. I should stop here and say even in all this God was giving us little blessings. Across the street from our hotel and from where the boys were changing the tire there was an espresso machine. Hard to find in Quito let alone in a town in the middle of nowhere. So while the boys were changing the tire I went and got coffee for the drivers! And no I didn’t feel guilty about it. ;o) ok maybe a little.

We went and found a tire shop got the tires fixed and set out again. We had been hearing all along that the worse part of the road was Riobamba to Macas and that after Macas the road was new, paved and wonderful.

As we rounded the corner to leave Macas we came

to another river.We had two choices, a very narrow temporary bridge or through the river. The river looked pretty deep and the bridge looked really narrow. My first thought was so much for all the reports about the good roads. We made it across and I am happy to report that the roads were good until the turn off to our Ministry site and home for the next 4 days, Palora.

At the Y to Palora we knew the roads would get ugly again. In fact this road was to be the ‘adventure’ for this trip but what really happened was that that this road was a piece of cake in comparison. We arrived at the Pastaza River we knew we would have a swinging bridge to cross.

It was actually not as scary as I thought it would be. It did creak a bit when I got out to the middle, but I couldn’t feel the bridge moving from inside of the car.

We finally made it to Palora. We ate lunch, unloaded the bags and went straight to the river. We needed a break! Then we went to work.

It was an amazing trip. God is so good and we were able to see Him answer prayers in amazing ways!

Fortunately we didn’t end up like Gilligan, stuck on an island but I will always be over prepared for trips now!

Our trip back to the seminary was totally uneventful. The road was open and we made it home before dark. God is good!

Next week I should have pictures ready to post and tell you about the work and ministry we accomplished on our trip.