Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Another "Adventure" - Part Eight (video)

The video below gives you an idea of the road we traveled home between Arica and Iquique, (although I think that footage was actually filmed on our way to Arica on Friday.) I am so glad that Pedro was driving! I mentioned to him that I would rather not be on the high roads after dark, but of course that is exactly what happened. He is cool, though, and it didn't seem to bother him one bit.



All of us were so tired. When our journey was finally over, it took us 7 1/2 hours from the time we left Iquique until the time we arrived in Tacna on Friday; and 9 hours from the time we left Tacna until the time we arrived home in Iquique on Saturday. When you do the math, that is 16 1/2 hours' travel time out of a total 32 hours. (Maybe not the best plan with five kids in tow, so we will adjust accordingly when we do this again in three months!)

vanload of tired people

plus one crazy momma

We finally made it off the high roads and into the valley, only to find ourselves in pitch blackness except for the car headlights in each direction. The thought came to me that I would not want to break down in the desert. If somehow one ended up off the perimeter of the road, there is no way anyone would know until morning! Not long after the thought occurred we encountered a detour off the pavement and onto the rough desert dirt and sand. Blinded by oncoming headlights, our car jolted into a huge pothole we could not see and almost bottomed out. Scary! Thankfully, God kept the car going and it was the one mishap of the trip.

At one point when most of the car was quiet because passengers had fallen asleep, Pedro opened the sunroof and I leaned back to look upwards at the night sky. The Atacama Desert is known for perpetually clear skies and is home to astronomers and observatories. We've not had the chance to do much "astro-tourism" (did you know there is such a thing?) but I wanted to see the stars for myself.

They literally left me breathless.

I have never seen so many stars in my life, and so bright. I am woefully ignorant of astronomy but there appeared to multiple "star clouds" in the sky. It was so awesome and such a brilliant evidence of our awesome Creator God.

We finally reached home around 10 o'clock p.m. on Saturday night and fell exhausted into bed. What an "adventure" indeed!

The End. :)

3 comments:

HollyMarie said...

Steph I've enjoyed reading each part of your adventure! I can't believe you get to do it again in three months!

Terri Fisher said...

You had me in stitches, Steph! I'm sure it was not funny as it occurred, but now you can look back and laugh...unfortunately, you have to do it all again in three months! Hopefully there will be different border guards...they might get suspicious at your frequent trips!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness Stephanie! I can not even imagine how tired and grumpy everyone was... Craziness! I hope you are all adjusted back to your normal schedule now!