Guest Post - Trip Of Perpetual Unknowns

Guatemala trip 11/27 – 12/6/23 

The trip of perpetual unknowns. 

We left on a Monday morning from 8450 Rice Road. It was a dark dreary morning with wind and light rain. Tristan and Bethany had spent the night at our place and Bethany’s family was there to see them off. After hugging my family goodbye, we headed to Mt olive church to pick up a bus that was dropped there by Eldwin Martin and needed driven to Belize. At Mt Olive we met Tristan’s family and they also said their goodbyes. From there we continued south on I-81 to Mt Jackson Va. There we met Brent Eby and fueled up the buses and grabbed some coffee. From there we continued south. Tristan’s bus could hold 63 mph on the flat and the 2012 Bluebird with a 6.7 Cummins was governed at 65. We kept the Bluebird behind Tristan’s bus which was a 2001 Freightliner with a 5.9 Cummins and a Manuel 5 speed. The Bluebird also had cruise, which was nice but the engine fan was bolted tight and was roaring constantly and the only heat it had was some mildly warm air coming up from the engine compartment through a hole that originally had a latch. During the day things were doable. Around 3 pm we stopped at the Davy Crockett travel plaza along I-40 to fuel up and Tristan bought Papa John’s pizza. We split it and hit the road again. As evening set in it got progressively colder. It actually never got much below freezing but sitting in that temperature all day and into the night I got colder and colder. We stopped every few hours for fuel and I got coffee but the cold kept getting worse. Around 2:30 A.M Tristan took the wheel for a while. I was shot. Getting old does have its drawbacks🙄. At one point I had closed my eyes waiting for a fuel pump and they had to holler at me on the radio to wake up. I wrapped up in a blanket and slept fitfully for a while but I could not get warm. Tristan drove for a few hours until he “woke up driving straight” and then I took the wheel again. I wrapped a blanket over my lap but still couldn’t get warm. Around 7:30 we stopped at a Waffle House in western Louisiana along I-10. Hot coffee has rarely felt and tasted better. We then headed over to Bridge City, Tx. There we met Eldwin Martin. He owned the bus that we picked up at Mt Olive church. Eldwin lives in Belize and a few times a year he goes to the states and buys a bus or so and drives them back to Belize. In Bridge City Eldwin’s guys installed a hitch on the bluebird we drove down and Tristan bought new tires for his jeep. We spent about an hour and a half there and then headed to Corpus Christi. Eldwin was negotiating on a pickup and told Tristan if he made a deal for him, he would buy us all supper. Part way to where we were buying the bus Brent split ways with us and went to find motels in Harlingen and we stayed the course for Corpus Christi. Tristan bought the pickup and he and Bethany jumped in it and I took the bus to the motel. We got checked in at the motel and Tristan went to the Transmigrate to try to pre-register. Brent and I went for supper. And that was the end of Tuesday.

Wednesday morning after sleeping in till 8 or 9 I headed a few miles south to a motel where Eldwin had set up headquarters. Eldwin and I started prepping the Nissan for towing. That included removing the front bumper, finding a suitable place to fasten the tow bar and run lights. After we removed the bumper, we got a parts list together and headed to Harbor Freight. The biggest item we needed was a tow bar. We searched Harbor Freight and Walmart to no avail. So back to the buses we went. At some point Brent came over with Bethany. She had done our laundry that we had and it’s good she did. Such opportunities do not always present themselves. Here at the staging area, we also met Justin Goff and James Kelly. Justin and Eldwin do this import business as a team and James runs equipment in for various people during the rainy season of Belize. During the dry season he runs a 10 wheeler dump truck of his own. Justin is a pastor at his church and lives approximately 1.5 hrs. from Eldwin. The two are close friends from what I could tell and as I said they do this work together. All three guys are from Belize. Learning to know these three was a great experience and I would love to go to visit them in Belize, get to know their families and community. Justin has an interest in people and in the spiritual well-being of people and also a great sense of humor. Eldwin is laid back but with a strong motivation about life. James was quieter. He said he doesn’t go to church but knows Jesus. It was interesting seeing him laugh because he would often soberly watch things. James had come into Florida and brought a bus over to Texas. As he was leaving Florida the throttle cable broke and he used his shoe string to tie it together. Hence, he was missing a shoe string the majority of the trip. Justin had brought a bus in from the Wisconsin somewhere and they had rendezvoused in Bridge City. One thing that ended up complicating this trip a little was that Justin and Eldwin had decided to pull one bus with another. While that is not uncommon, they had never done it before. Justin built the hitch in Bridge City and then at the hotel we gathered, which was in San Benito Tx. They did the wiring and hooked up air lines. So back to the prep work on the Nissan, maybe. Back at the hotel again it was realized that some paperwork needed ran to Eldwin’s broker at the border. Brent, Justin, Bethany and I piled into the Nissan and headed to Los Indio’s (the border town) and dropped off Eldwin. I should mention that Tristan was already in Los Indio’s doing battle with border paperwork. We stopped into to say hi to him, dropped off Eldwin and headed back. Too be honest the rest of the day disappeared rapidly. It consisted of parts runs, buying food for guys and in general trying to help where we could. Justin and James got things pulled together enough on equipment that we felt we could finish things up while in line. By evening we decided to stay where we were for the night and get in line by 5. We spent the night at the motel in San Benito. And the morning and the evening were the third day. 

Thursday morning, 4 A.M we headed over to the crossing. To our dismay the line was already out the lane past the gate. Shortly after we got in the line along the road, they closed the gate. One of the pitfalls of sitting along the road are the roving DOT that are based literally across the road. After a short discussion we headed back to Stripes (a fuel stop), got coffee and had another pow wow. A DOT cop was sitting in a parking spot there so Justin went over and told him about our situation. The cop agreed there was a high likelihood we would be inspected. So, we headed Maria’s yard. Maria is Eldwin’s broker. We spent the morning over there and late morning we went to a Mexican restaurant a few miles to the north. When we got back a few of us headed to the border in a pickup to check on the line. They had just opened the gate. We went roaring back to the yard, fired up everything we had and flat footed it to the border. We got about 200 yards inside the gate. We were in! We thought. We were in a line approx. 1/4 mile long that led to a yard that had around 12 rows that were approx. 200 yd long. The yard was full but approximately 1/2 hour later we were pulled in the yard. This was great! Things were happening! The only fly in the ointment was the clock. The Mexican border closed at 3:45. It was already after 12. Between twelve and 3:45 another 4 lines went through. We were the fifth. The one before us was cleared by the US but Mexico closed before they got in. To make matters worse they told us all we had to leave. The question was… when do we come back? The only place to park was along the road, where we didn’t want to be. Back to Maria’s we went. There was a variety of opinions on when we should go back. Some said 10 pm. Some said 6. It was a fine line between soon enough that you weren’t too far back in line and late enough that the police didn’t chase you off. Close to dark we saw the line was starting to build along the road and we made the decision to go park along the road and take our chances. Tristan was still at his brokers office trying to update paperwork and so I grabbed his bus and we all barreled back out to the road leading to the border road. The line was 1/4-1/2 mile long and building fast. The next several hours were a little nerve racking as the DOT stayed busy pulling truck after truck in to inspect. We weren’t sure where they were getting them but kept bringing them in one after the other. The police were also kept busy keeping the intersection clean. By morning the line was 1/2 mile or so past the light totaling a mile long. Later we would find out that in the next couple days it would build to several miles long. Christmas season, people told us. As if the evening didn’t have enough drama, Tristan’s broker lost his paperwork. After several stressful hours it was found with another customer who was in line. Once things quieted down someone ran and got pizza and Brent and I found a taco shack a few miles away and had a fine supper. We then all found various seats in the various vehicles and sacked out for the night. And so that ended Thursday. 

The night passed uneventfully and around 4:30 Friday morning they opened the gate. We were able to get in the yard in line 3! Things wouldn’t start moving again till around 9 so some of us hung around and visited and others went back to sleep. I should mention we made multiple friends on this journey. Some were men from the Guatemalan church’s importing equipment and some were people we kept bumping into that were headed to points beyond Guatemala. After daylight a guy selling hot breakfast came wandering around and Eldwin bought us breakfast. Things were looking up! Around nine they pulled the first line in. A little after 10 we were pulled around to the title release office. As the guys were getting them stamped, we saw the DOT moving into place. Justin was the first out of the gate and he was pulled in. James was next and he was pulled in also but Brent was driving as they pulled into the inspection station. Eldwin was next and they waved him past. Tristan was last and he was pulled in. It was the general understanding that passengers were not allowed in the inspection station so Bethany and bailed out before Tristan pulled in. Brent was turned loose when the realized he was volunteering his time. Tristan got turned loose when he told them he said he was moving to Guatemala and his freight was his and other missionaries. Justin got the real deal. He got wrote up for 3 or 4 things but what really took the cake was that as he pulled out, he blew two tires simultaneously. Meanwhile we were working our way through the circus on the Mexican side. After the inspection site you pay toll on the bridge. Then you have to the shoulder 1/4 mile later and buy insurance for Mexico. It was at this point that Tristan was told the VIN on the motorcycle he was hauling was incorrectly entered on the paperwork. The next hour or so was consumed by communication with the Transmigrated office and efforts to get Justin on the road again. Eventually he got road service to bring out two tires and we got new paperwork delivered to us. We then inched our way to the clearing gate. You get a green light great. Red light means further inspection. We all got the red light. Except Justin. He wasn’t there yet. While various negotiations took place with the national guard and border patrol and Tristan and Eldwin we all went and got our passports stamped. Nothing went fast. Just before two we got released and we got to a “truck stop” on the Mexican side. While we were waiting Tristan got Bethany a phone that would work in Central America and we exchanged some money. Eldwin also hired a guy to do some welding on the hitches to beef up the bolts. We did some welding on Tristan’s hitch also. Almost two hours later Justin got there. At various points on this trip, we were thankful for how things turned out. Take Justin’s tire issue. Northern Mexico is controlled by the cartel. Had those tires blown 3 miles later we would have been rolling down through cartel territory and our repair options would have not been as attractive. As it was, we were running out of daylight (a requirement in cartel territory). So we got supper right where we were, thanked God we were across and headed to a motel about three miles down the road. This motel was nice. It’s also owned by the cartel. We rolled in just before dark and checked in. We were told we couldn’t leave till six. From what I understand the cartel owns the night and it’s best to stay out of their way. You “can” travel at night but the risks aren’t worth it. And that was Friday. 

 We were rolling by 6. Saturday morning went well. We made a bathroom/breakfasts top and around noontime we made another pit stop. There was a taco stand out front and a number of us got tacos. I grabbed a plate of three and put a little of the all the sauces they had on them, including some peppers. As I took my first few bites, I realized that I may had bitten off more than I could chew. No pun. The heat was…. incredible. The thing was, the flavor was also very good. It took me a while but 1/2 hour later along with a bottle of sweet tea and a tum, I finished the tacos. The problem was, they were not finished with me. I’ll stop with that. As we left the pit stop another problem developed. Tristan was driving and as he pulled out, he seen Justin on the side of the road but thought he was waiting on us. Almost immediately we got a message from Eldwin to stop. Justin’s bus (which was the Bluebird we had brought down) had derated as he pulled out. The bus had emission controls on it and they had malfunctioned. A blockage had formed in one of the DEF lines and DEF was blowing out of the exhaust. Ultimately, they were able to do an electronic delete on the side of the road a few hours later we were rolling. One thing I remember also while we were sitting by the road was the loads of jalapeños going past. A few hours later we got fuel. Everything looked good and we continued south. The only thing eventful on that stop was Bethany’s photos of lemon trees. We were now out of cartel territory and ready to run in the dark when we needed to. We were coming into the outskirts of a city somewhere north of Tampico when the hitch on Justin’s bus completely dropped off the frame. They hadn’t inspected it up under the bus. The towed bus rammed the back of the pulling bus and nearly scooped it off the ground and also sheared the airlines to it. Brent was riding with Eldwin and ran back and jumped in the bus to help control it. They hooked a chain to it and pulled into a fuel stop close by. We hit the edge of the road by the fuel stop only aware that “something had happened." A few minutes later we became aware of the situation and realized we’re were going to be there awhile and needed to get off the road. I also realized I had a new problem. Apparently at our last stop as I climbed in and kicked my boots off one had fallen back down the steps and out the door. Take offs were at times done on the fly and the door wasn’t always shut because of the heat. Now what?! Suffice to say for the rest of the trip I was relegated to a pair of Bethany’s slides. And I was thankful for them. But they were my best boots! Anyways we had more issues. Night time was coming on and these boys needed a welding shop. Somehow, they found a welding shop and while they were there the owners wife made them Mexican eggs for supper. Brent and I tramped around for a while looking for tacos but couldn’t find them. Eventually we found a burger stand and Tristan and I took the jeep over to get burgers. We could have walked but we had to navigate a sketchy area to get there. The burger stand was nice. Seemed to be family run and was clean. Burgers were great. We headed back to the bus and barely had time to get our stuff eaten when Eldwin showed up ready to roll. It was now around 8:30. So do we roll or do we sleep? We drove for a few hours till it was decided that we would get a motel where we could get showers and sleep for a few hours. We rolled into a hotel off the side of a small road and when I got out, I felt like it was 1953. Everything looked old but not worn and tired. The motel was possibly the nicest old motel I have ever seen. Old wooden doors. Old style blankets on the beds and old trim and bathroom fixtures. But, thank God, a mini split on the wall. We agreed to be up at five. It was now just after midnight. And that was Saturday.

 A little after five Brent and I headed up to the bus. Tristan and Bethany were waiting but Eldwin was nowhere around. About twenty minutes later he came stumbling out. During the night the Nissan had been backed into. Thankfully the guy that did it was decent and had looked up the owner. So, Eldwin had spent an hour or so dealing with that and was further short changed on sleep. We headed south. We rolled steady all Sunday morning. Tristan’s dad, Terry, was preaching at home so we tuned in for that and the announcements at the Rowe. The scenery was awesome and we actually had a good view of the gulf coast We could see the waves breaking on the shore. We rolled through small villages and climbed hills with orange groves and coco trees. Late morning, we hit the shoulder for a minute to let James catch up. Tristan stepped into the stair well of the bus and grabbed a brush and swept off the steps and rearranged the shoes. Suddenly James was behind us. I released the brakes and we started rolling. As I grabbed second gear Tristan shouted. My shoe!! He leaned out the open door and cry of regret let loose. I glanced in the mirror and I saw a small brown object disappearing in the distance. But the convoy was rolling. Tristan had barely owned the shoes 72 hours. As frustrating as it was, we couldn’t help laughing. We laughed until it hurt. Two people losing one shoe each in two days. We rolled steady until late morning. We were using the toll road system and it wasn’t cheap and Tristan was running out of pesos and exchange options were few. We stopped at a very nice rest area for a potty break. While doing a hitch check we noticed Tristan had a loose bolt. Tristan and I tightened it and, in the process, it snapped sending Tristan rolling. For a variety of reasons by this point Tristan was…. not happy. This was where pastor Justin stepped in and gave all of us who were there our Sunday morning sermon. He said,” Tristan, this morning I was listening to Luke 10 where Jesus sent out his disciples to heal and preach and they came back rejoicing at the power they had over demons and how they could heal. Jesus said, in so many words, that’s not a big deal, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. This hitch isn’t a big deal. Rejoice that our names are written in heaven. “We all needed that. We kept rolling till midafternoon and we were all hungry and Tristan was about out of pesos. The truck stop we were at had a small barista inside and a little cafe back out of the way a bit. We were nearly at our split off point. Eldwin bought us all lunch or supper and they headed out. We had prayer and headed to find pesos. I had driven all day so Tristan took the wheel. In a small town somewhere, they found a place to exchange money. We thought we had a lot more toll road but a short while later we realized we were done with toll. We headed due south and Eldwin’s crew was headed east towards Belize. Towards evening we did another potty/snack stop and I started driving again. We seemed to have entered a different area of Mexico and speed was controlled by Tupelo’s (speed bumps). As it got darker, they were harder to see. We soon realized it was helpful to have a second person watching for the tupelos. They were not always well marked. We rolled through villages and towns straining to watch for speed bumps, pedestrians and vehicles with no lights. Brent said it was the only time we ever drove that he didn’t mind being yelled at. For a while Tristan and I became concerned about a car that seemed to be tagging us but Brent said we were just stressed out. Who knows. As it got later a headache set in and my neck got stiffer and stiffer. Mexico has a unique system where they turn what we call a two-lane road into three. The shoulder is utilized as a slow lane so you run a lot of the time straddling the white line or passing with minimal clearance with the opposing lane. As we climbed the mountain dividing east coast from the west coast traffic got crazy. Slow trucks (and they haul heavy), doubles, cars, busses, all trying to fit. And road construction. Just passed the top we stopped at other trucks stop for a potty break. As we pulled into park, I felt myself crashing and I knew I was done driving for the day. The military was hanging out there, a sight that was becoming common. I bought water and hit the recliner and Brent took over driving. The rest of the night was a blur. They were doing major road reconstruction. Sometimes it was paved and other times not. At one point we ended up on the wrong side of the barrels and Tristan had to jump out and move them so we could get back where we belonged. We got off the mountain and came into the town at the base of mountain on 185 just south of the 200. I was miserable. I think I was dehydrated. Tristan and Brent found a motel and next thing I knew we were back in the back side of some small hotel. All I wanted to do was sleep. I dragged myself inside and was thankful again for beds and showers. Hot or not. We had been on the road for a week.

 Monday morning was brand new day. I felt better and was ready for coffee. And what’s not to love about a new week in a place where you’ve never been before? Brent took the wheel and we were on the home stretch for the Guatemalan border. For a while we had open two-lane highway but soon, we were bumping through small towns again, tupelo to tupelo. In one of the towns, we pulled over and bought tacos. Around three we got to Cuidad Hidalgo Mexico, which was on the Guatemalan border. Tristan’s broker had agreed to meet him at a fuel stop so while we waited, we got fuel and stocked up on drink. Soon the broker showed up and we relocated to another gas station a short distance down the road. We thought we were going to be there awhile and paid for a spot. About a 1/2 hour later the broker showed up and said she had bought a spot for us down the street. I failed to mention that the line for the border was as far as we could see along the road we were on. It seems Mondays are busy days. Were followed the broker down the street and in a short distance she pointed to left. There was an open spot in the line. Tristan whipped it in and pulled up in front of a little cafe with a thatched roof framed by bamboo poles. Beside it was an open-air truck repair shop like you see so much of in Mexico. And, wonder of wonders the cafe had a little block structure in the corner that was a bathroom. We were set. We had shade under a tree, food, a bathroom and in one end of the bathroom a pipe came through the wall that you could use as a shower. We were already understanding that getting through Monday afternoon wasn’t looking good so we settled down for a wait. Our hitch was showing the strain of the journey and two of the welds had broken so Tristen pulled the jeep up to the repair shop and had them welded. Then we settled down to supper at the canteen with our broker and had Mexican eggs. That’s scrambled eggs with your choice of meat, peppers, beans and hot sauce. We discussed our laundry needs, getting a hotel and eventually Tristan and Bethany followed the broker, her name was Rosa, over to the hotel. Sometime later Tristan returned with Rosa on her motorcycle. Things had gotten somewhat exciting after they had left us and he was not impressed. She had taken them to an ATM to get quetzals out and as he was leaving the ATM 3 cops surrounded the jeep. Tristan thought they probably had seen him at the ATM and were trying to get money. Rosa confronted the police and as we later found out told them that Bethany was pregnant and that there was no way they could treat them that way. So, the cops stood down. We were to learn that Rosa could hold her own in nearly any situation. Between the ATM and the hotel, they were pulled over again. Eventually they got the jeep into a secure area and they were able to get checked into the motel, which had no laundry. Tristan picked up what he needed at the bus and headed back to the motel. And that was the second Monday on the road. 

 Tuesday morning, we had breakfast at the cafe with Tristan’s. At 9 the line started moving. It moved about 300 ft and stopped. Tristan had jumped in the bus and pulled up and stayed with it. About an hour until Rosa took him to the border. He spent the day dealing with border officials, phone calls, taking the raft across the river to deal with more border officials, another raft ride back to Mexico, phone calls with banks, friends for advice etc. Meanwhile Brent sat in the bus and I sat at the cafe with Bethany. That day I also got to know the man that had the truck repair shop. He spoke little English bought from what understood he was a Christian also helped rehab people who were on drugs and needed Jesus. In late afternoon the line moved again about 500 ft and things came to a stop. We knew that was as far as things would go for the day. Tristan came back from his day dragging his tail. We realized that we would be sleeping on the bus and the location would not be as ideal. We did not want to walk much after dark so we ordered our food and trucked up the road. Earlier in the day we had witnessed a fight in front of the cafe when two groups of people had got into a fight over where they were in line. The fight had continued later in front of the bus. Rosa had shown up at the right time and helped Brent keep his place in line. As Brent said she could be a fireball when necessary and when she knew she had helped her customer her smile was a mile wide. Things were getting tense as people got closer to the border. We ate our supper by the bus and watched trucks go in and out of the lot beside us. That night Brent and I slept on the bus and Tristan and Bethany slept in the jeep. And that was our second Tuesday.

 Wednesday morning Rosa was there shortly after daylight. She took Brent, Bethany and I towards the border crossing to a more modern diner. We had barely arrived when the line started moving for real. We watched Tristan creep past and then sat down to breakfast. The owner had spent 14 years in the US and knew English. When breakfast was finished Rosa took us across the street and said we needed to take a cab and that she would tell him where to go. A small cab pulled up with two passengers. There was room for 4 passengers. We were 4. They opened the door and said get in. I thought- there is no way. So, we tried. On my first attempt to shut the door it bounced off my thigh. On the second try it shut. We followed Rosa to the border crossing for people. She marched us past the line of waiting people and said “go there”. So, we did. When we came to the building on the other side she was there. She walked us through each step of the process, disappearing when she needed to and showing up again just when we weren’t sure what to do. Once we were on the Guatemalan side, she sent me with her son across town on his motorcycle. I had no idea where we were headed. We stopped on a quiet street and he opened a gate and motioned come in. So, I did. We walked up to a porch and he pulled out a chair and motioned to sit. So, I did. After waiting awhile Brent and Bethany showed up. We all took our chairs back under a roofed in area and waited. We figured out that this was the headquarters from where Rosa operated. An office was inside and many people came and went. Meanwhile Tristan had got into the immigration yard and was inching forward. He got money exchanged, got the money wired to wherever it needed to go. For a while we weren’t sure if the money would hit the bank in time for him to cross. But praise Jesus, it did. Late afternoon though, Rosa was still uncertain if Tristan would get across before the yard closed. It, she said if it did, she was certain she could get him out for the night. We decided to get a hotel. It had been too many days without a shower and we were running out of clothes. Rosa said she would take Brent to get a motel and our clothes to a laundromat. Eventually she showed up for Bethany and eventually she came back for me. The motel was a neat old place with a pull in parking area for cars with suites on both sides. Brent had got a suite for Tristan and Bethany and a room on the second floor for us. The A/c didn’t work in their room but he had taken it anyway. The hotel had been designed before air conditioning and was ventilated so that cooler air moved through it. There was not a computer in sight. Guests were written down in a notebook and all the rooms had traditional keys with heavy iron badges on key rings. I loved it. Water must have been heated on the roof because it was mildly warm after a while but that wasn’t much of a problem because the bathroom had no air conditioning. Only the bedroom did. Around 5 we headed out find food. Tristan’s future was still uncertain but Bethany was hungry and Brent had a sore on his foot that needed salve. I wanted to see the city. We meandered down the street looking at the shops. The guy at the motel pointed us toward and area with shops around a park. We found a shop with some medication and Brent showed the guy his foot and he pointed to a small tin. We bought it. Then he pointed us to a guy that changed money. It turned out to an older couple that sat on a little wall along the street with an armed guard. We were like...ok! They each had a lot of cash. Turned out he spoke excellent English. He said he had spent 25 years in Canada. Why was he here now? We wondered. We asked him where to eat and he took us to an open-air restaurant where he said he ate lunch every day. He helped us order and then went on his way. We had a very good supper and then went on a tour of the town park. The town, Cuidad Tecan Unam, was decorated for Christmas. A church was on one side of the square and it had its doors open. A manger scene was set up and many people will about, visiting and just sitting and enjoying the evening. One thing that impressed me about Guatemala during my short time there was how family friendly it felt. More attention is given to things for the children than in the US it seems. We found some souvenir shops at bought some small items for our patient families at home to try prove that we hadn’t completely forgotten about them. At 6:40 pm we got a message from Tristan. He was through! We now had a bit of a problem. Tristan wanted to go! Brent and I felt it would be best to leave around 3-4 so we would be able to judge the roads better. None of us knew what the roads were like. Tristan was on an adrenaline high which probably wouldn’t last the whole trip. Brent talked him into to staying and Rosa found him a place to park the bus just outside the city. He brought Rosa over and we bought her supper. She then left to finish his paperwork and we headed back to the motel. We told the people at the front desk when we wanted to leave and parked the jeep accordingly. Later that night Rosa dropped off the paperwork. We set the alarms for 3 and hit the hay. And that was our second Wednesday. At 3:30am we were at the jeep. Tristan’s room was dark and quiet. At 3:40 we knocked on the door. In ten minutes, Brent and I were hanging onto the back of the jeep as we headed to the bus. At 4:01 we were headed to Guatemala City. At first, we could make no time because of all the tupelos. As it got daylight however the roads improved and as we headed towards the city they got better and better. The sunrise was beautiful! We gradually climbed in elevation and then turned north and really started climbing. For the first time in our journey, we had to really watch the water temp on the bus. I had driven for 3-4 hours and then Tristan took over for the last leg. He finally found a gear the bus would pull in and left it there. As we climbed, we had beautiful views of the mountains our left. Guatemala has some fascinating mountain formations. We saw sheer cliffs of hundreds? of feet and volcanic mountains, one that was obviously active judging from smoke that we saw coming out of it. It was fascinating watching the altitude climb on my phone. The mission headquarters sit around 5400ft. We eventually reached the top and then fought our way into the city. The traffic was terrible but Tristan was almost home. We nailed two curbs coming in but we weren’t stopping. Around 11 am we pulled into the MAM headquarters in Guatemala City. Praise the Lord! We had arrived. Over 3000 miles and two international borders. Tristan and Bethany were at their second home. 

 

Miss Rosa (our broker), Mr Adrian, Mr Brent and Us

 Note: Written by Mr. Adrian Martin. He was a friend that was along on the trip.