Our Road Trip - Part 5 - The Pictures that may have saved our Lives

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I left Macas fairly early on Thursday so that we could get home in the early afternoon. We had about 5 hours of driving ahead of us.

We turned west and started driving through the Andes. The road we were on was a dirt road just last year, but since it was newly paved, we were excited about trying it out. But, we should have taken heed when we came across places like this.


As we climbed into the Andes, there were wash outs and land slides to navigate. There were even signs saying that the ground was unstable. It is the rainy season here in Ecuador. The ground is soaked through and it had rained the night before. We just drove straight ahead and enjoyed the scenery.

There was one particular look out that was beautiful. Chuck asked me if I wanted to pull over and take pictures. Of course I did.



We were stopped for about 10 minutes. While we were stopped two passenger buses past us and several other vehicles.

After taking the pictures we continued on for about 3 miles and came on to this scene.


The bus in the picture is the first bus that passed us while we were stopped.


We got out of the car and walked up to survey the damage. We were shocked to see such huge boulders covering the road. Chuck and I shuttered to think what might have been had we not stopped to take pictures, as we would have been in front of that bus.

We knew that we would not get through this mess any time that day so Chuck said he knew another route. We turned around and went back to take another route through the rained soaked mountains. We started on the second route and got about a mile into it and came up on this:


Holy cow!! This road was completely covered too.

So the trip we were going to take....

turned into this:


We were three hours from Cuenca when we ran into the landslides but since we had to back track to get home the three hours trip turned into two days of driving.

We held our breath that the roads that we were back tracking on were clear. We were fortunate because although it was raining, the roads were fine.

I took this picture through the front windshield. Riding in the rain can be a bummer.


We got home safe and sound late Friday afternoon.

This Sunday, I am flying to Columbus, Georgia. I will meet our daughter, Kylie, and grandson, Bryce there. We will be driving across the south and southwest. I plan to post on the blog as we make our way cross country.

Chuck is staying in Cuenca, minding the "store." I'm gonna miss him, but look forward to the fun adventure.

Have a great weekend...

Love,
Nancy