The Trip

In order to properly communicate my feelings and reflections on my recent trip, I think it is necessary to divulge some of the more important prior expectations. The basic intent was to travel from Quito down the whole continent to Santiago, Chile...by bus. The plan was to make two stops only to stay with friends in Guayaquil, Ecuador and in Lima, Peru. The other benefits were to be a ground view of the landscape and to save a lot of money on travel costs. With that naive perspective we set out the night of December 2nd on an overnight bus to Guayaquil.

That first bus ride, although it lasted only a short 6.5 hours, was a true revelation. We were introduced to all of the perils and horrors of bus travel as we sped down a two lane highway which descends the Andes. Char and I were the only passengers who didnt sleep a minute of the ride and when arrived we laughed at how startling the trip was. We both thought it was something of an exceptional feat how the driver managed not to get us killed. Being that we made the trip so dangerously fast we arrived before sunrise and before we could think about calling our friend Diego in the city. About 7am Diego came by the station and took us to his home. Diego, Viviana, and their two kids welcomed us very graciously. After a modest nap and some food the family left us to lounge poolside and shoot hoops all day in the warm sun.

We spent the entire afternoon right around here

We felt far away from Quito that first day even though we were just a few hours donw the road. That day and the next we spent with the Matheus family in much needed relaxation, sharing meals and exploring the city of Guayaquil. It was hard to leave Guayaquil after such a wonderful couple of days.

Diego, Viviana, Charlie, and myself

The trip to Lima from there was 26 hours as advertised, which is surprising. We slept, had intriguing company, and even enjoyed the meals. I awoke in the morning to to find ourselves in the middle of the world's driest desert (who knew it was in Peru?). The bus arrived in Lima early in the afternoon, unfortunately too late to connect with our friend in the city. So we hopped a cab to a hostel near the city's waterfront. We spent less than 24 hours in Lima but found it to be a nice place (or maybe I am just thinking fondly about the Starbucks we found there).

We departed the next afternoon in a Business Class bus in hopes of arriving in Santiago 52 hours later. To clarify, a Business Class bus should never be ridden for more than 10 consecutive hours. There was no comfort and no service and certainly no one was conducting business in that thing so I would say the title was misleading. The only saving grace was that we had maintained a positive attitude, and I dont think we fully appreciated how important that was. From Lima to Tacna, Peru (a border city) was 20 hours and we got off the bus and were told we had one hour before departure to Santiago. We ate quickly and found an internet locale which we used to write a few quick emails and to forget about how hopelessly lost we were in a South American desert. This was the point on the trip when we learned how easily a one hour break can turn into a five hour wait. We agonized over how little information and communication was taking place between the driver and the office attendant. All we were told was that the bus had been taken to "maintenance" and would be back soon. Soon does not mean soon in the sense that we know. Soon means whenever they feel like bringing the bus back. I think this is when we realized how much frustration we were going to encounter in the course of all the bus travel. I am still pretty sure our driver was just over at his mom's house having some beers or eating a casual meal.

However it happened the result was absolutely awesome. We boarded that bus as the ONLY two passengers for the remaining 32 hours to Santiago. We laughed for a good ten straight minutes out of excitement and surprise. We enjoyed almost the entirety of that bus ride because we had freedom to roam, we controlled all the DVDs (and put them in English - which cannot be overlooked), and the Chilean landscape looked a lot like California for the last 8 hours. We got into Santiago shortly after 11pm and were met immediately by Kellie Hicks and her surrogate family, los Loyola.

I think the best way to show Santiago and what we did there is to put it in pictures so here they are:

Karim and Carmen Loyola


Out to dinner, enjoying import beers...cant have that in Ecuador

Sushi dinner with Char, Kellie, Leo, and Kay

We taught Chileans the tradition of making ginger-bread houses...mine took 2nd place because they all copied my palm tree idea

A send-off lunch for our new friends Nelson and Barbara

Char and I were given specially made Christmas CDs by Comunidad Vida church

We paid a visit to the port city of Valparaiso to see another part of Chile

A famous house in Valparaiso

One of the many elevators which transport you around the city

Valparaiso neighborhood

There is too much to describe in Santiago and so the photos will tell the story. We met a number of great new friends and got to be a part of a really special community for a week. The weather was beautiful and it was an unforgettable time. The only problem was we had another 4 days of bus travel ahead of us.

The trip back was significantly more difficult than the trip there. We didnt have any exotic destination and we knew how much desert we had to endure. To make matters more thrilling we experienced two bus breakdowns and much more traffic on the way home. Charlie and I were so beyond frustrated that we could not even communicate with one another. We simply endured the return trip and tried to remember how great Santiago was. By the time we got home to Quito (at 3am on the morning of December 23rd) we were so exhausted emotionally and physically that we are still recovering. The trip was well worth the entire array of experiences but it was not all fun by any means. When we continually are asked to describe our trip we have resorted to calling it an adventure, and I think that is what best captures the whole experience.

Happy New Year!