A Very Long Journey (Sunday)

It didn't help that I was up at 5:30 am - not after last night's late bedtime (2 am)

But it didn't seem to hurt all that much either.

I packed and did all those last-minute things one must attend to prior to leaving (except there's no mail here to stop).  And then, shortly before Geralis was due to pick me up, the heavens opened, rent by lightning and booming with thunder and raining so hard I couldn't see out past my own balcony rail.  It was impressive in a kinda scary sort of way.

Luckily, the rain abated at least somewhat by the time she arrived, and we got over to UTP quickly.  The "Dean-mobile" (a small van) awaited us.  We straggled in, and then loaded up to leave.  We had planned to get off by 2 pm but it was almost 3 before we hit the road.  We picked up Eucleades - it was still pouring rain - and then set off.

Slowly, as we progressed to the West, the rain calmed, turned into sprinkles and then stopped altogether.  By now, I know this road fairly well.  It's my 3rd time on it and I am starting to know when to look for things.

 As usual, we stopped in Santiago to refuel (ourselves and the car)  I had Arroz Combination - rice with chicken, ham, and pork - and it was terrific (though copious).  After Santiago, we took a new road to avoid the road works on the main Pan American Highway.  I wish it had been light for it, but it was interesting nonetheless.  Shortly after I mentioned that we would have to be watching for deer were we in Minnesota, there was a plethora of dogs in the road.  I haven't seen any other dogs here - but now, it seemed like every dog in the country was hanging out in the road ahead of us.  We joked that maybe the sign with the cow on it was really a sign with a dog.

The road twisted and turned and rose and fell all the way to the border control checkpoint.  There, we re-joined the Pan American Highway and bumped our way into David.  There was, predictably, a lot of truck traffic making it hard to pass, which made it seem like David was teasing us.  "Come closer," it beckoned, but then there was yet another truck in front of us or, just as it seemed like it would be OK to pass, a truck coming toward us.

And then, seemingly suddenly, we were in David.  Elba and I are sharing a room, and it's safe to say that we were in bed almost immediately.

Early morning tomorrow.  And many miles gone before we could sleep.