The Day before the Open Sea

We loaded up our stuff Monday morning and like noted previously said good-bye reluctantly to our new found friends. We met our captain and the majority of the other passengers and loaded up in Jeeps. The idea was that we had to drive to the opposite side of the county near miramar to arrive at the carribean side where the boat is. The trip was to be the cheapest and was supposed to take anywhere from three to five ours. We left at 9am and arrived at the boat at 9pm.

Hold up #1- The road was blocked by some locals claiming some problem with the water, so we waited at a local restuarant for an hours or so.

Hold up #2- We are making our way through the muddy roads a line of two trucks and a jeep. The rain begins and our driver crosses himself rather seriously. Unbeknownst to us what lies ahead, we venture on. As the rain continues the road gets muddier and the hills get steeper. My heart starts to jump and the jeep starts to slide every which way across the road up a rather steep hill. We get half way and start to go backwards. The driver stops and tries again. Once again we go backwards and sidways straight into the side of the hill.

The other two trucks had made it and the front one cotninued on. Mere, me, our friends Amrei and Pierre loaded out of the jeep and pondered our predicament. Soon the other truck starts to back down the hill thinking he is gonna pull the jeep out. Very unlikely. All it did was get two cars stuck in the mud half way of this hill.

After 2 or so hours of mud sliding, pushing and pulling we were able to get the jeep down the hill and with everyones help we attached it to a thick rope and were able to get it to the top.

Hold up #3- Before we were able to get the truck up the same path our captain shows up with the from diver. They had tipped over about 20min further up the road. After we get both cars to the top we make our way to the fallen soldier. Every hill is about the same and we deboard at the bottom to lessen the wait and watch as our brave drivers go slipping and sliding up the muddy slopes.

When we arrive to the flipped truck it does not look good. The front left tire is stuck in a hole and the poor truck looks like a sad beetle stuck on its side and unable to get under itself. We rig the other truck and jeep, one behine the other to pull the truck rightside up. It actually worked quicker then expected though the truck was not going to run. so we were down to two cars.

Hold up #4- At this point it was getting very dark and we began to realize the the raod we were on was the midnight trail for the drug smugglers. We knew we had to hurry so we crammed everyone in the two remaining cars and somehow made some headway. The previous day we learned that another crew had lost two cars to the road up ahead so we were met by some locals who had to take us by boat since the river had taking over the road. The boat was slower than the cars but actually was a pleasant ride and I got to see the aftermath of the fallen jeep from the day before. It looked quite peaceful resting along side of us in the river.

Finally we made it to the boat for a late evening swim to wash off the mud and greet the crew. It was a day well spent and I was tired.