Multi-religious experience

Sometimes you find yourselves in situations you really wouldn't want to be part of but there is absolutely nothing to do but trail along. Yesterday was such a time. After a 4-day trek in high altitudes getting on a bus and head back home (or to Huaraz in this case) should be a piece of cake. Well, it just wasn't. This was where the real adventure began.

Packed into a minibus, the most common public transportation in Peru, together with about 16 other, we started to climb on a serpentine gravel road. At the top I looked out of the window and saw the most amazing serpentine road going down on another mountain. I turn to Yarden and just when I'm saying "look at that crazy road" I realise that it is the road that we are going down. It is a narrow road, sharp curves, plenty of crosses as memorials over people that didn't make it and we're sitting in this minibus that has seen better days. I squeeze Yarden's hand hard at every curve and release it a bit every time we make it through. Yarden says that he definitely hope there is a God and I answer that I believe in all of them at the moment. Whoever will help us through I'm ready to pray to.

Half-way down the road the minibus stops. In front of us is another bus that also has stopped. Turns out the other bus' steering wheel stopped working. Not something you want to happen at a serpentine road. Everyone gets out of the buses, we speak a bit to a couple from the other bus, that we met on the trek earlier. They seem a bit shaken and don't look forward to get into the bus again. After an hour the drivers fixed the problem and everyone gets on the bus again. The couple joke about having us call their mother's if they don't make it, it doesn't feel completely as a joke... The rest of the way down is nerve-wrecking. I try not to look at the road.

In Yungay we switch to another minibus to Huaraz. This time it's a paved road and it feels safe. Should take about 1,5 hours to get back. After 1 hour a high noise sounds and the driver brakes fiercly. Everyone gets out of the bus, gets their bags and tries to catch another ride as fast as possible. We end up staying on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere for about 20 minutes until another minibus stops and picks us up. We finally arrive to Huaraz at 7 o'clock at night and I have rarely been so happy to be alive!