Our 4 day trip to Asuncion was extended to 10 days after our car broke down trying to get back home on Wednesday. Thursday all day we tried to call the bus line that went to San Francisco find out the departure schedule but could not get through. At first no one answered and then in the evening it was always busy. It wasn’t until 10:00 at night that we got through and were told that they were on strike until the 10th of October. We called a second bus company that didn’t go directly to our town but we thought would get us close. That option was to leave either at 1am or 5am and ride 10 hours (as opposed to 6 hours). In the end we would still be 1 ½ hours from home. That option did not sound appealing!
Our San Francisco team mates were having a meeting in Villarrica Saturday morning (on the road half way from Asuncion to San Francisco). A new plan was formed: we’d take a bus to Villarrica and they would take us home.
Saturday at 9:30am in the pouring down rain we boarded and settled in for a 4 hour bus trip. Jeff, Joshua and Tyler shared two seats and Ginny, Micah and I shared two seats. Ryan rode behind us in a seat by himself. It is normally a 3 hour car trip but the bus stops every 10 minutes to let more people on. The new people stand in the aisle and flop over onto the people sitting in the paid seats. I was praying that Micah didn’t have a dirty diaper because I would have grossed out everyone hovering over us. The aisle was jammed packed and I (mistakingly) thought that no one else would fit. But the bulging aisles didn’t stop the plump ticket man from squeezing through to collect his money or the round ladies with chipa (bread) piled in a basket on their head or the gum/soda/cell phone/wallet salesmen from pushing their way up and down the aisle the entire trip.
Once in Villarrica we piled into the Floyd’s car. Tony, Jeff with two kids on his lap and one on the console were in front, Jean and I with 5 kids sat in the back. At 6:00 we pulled into San Francisco. It was nice to finally be home sweet home.
As for the car, we are waiting for a bearing assembly (car part) from the US.
Ginny and Micah on the bus from Asuncion to Villaricca
The bus stop in Villaricca. there was no way these people were going to move aside to let us off. We had to use elbows just to get off the bus.
2 comments:
Glad you're back home.
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Oh wow. That makes me sick just thinking about all that. I hope your "car part" fixes the problem so that you never have another day(s!!!) like this!!! :) Crazy!
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