I often expect domestic airlines to be less nice than international ones. Governments want to put their best foot forward for foreigners. But that is not true for LAN. The plane we boarded in Lima, headed to Arequipa was clean and comfortable. Of course, it looked especially nice after standing in the Lima airport for seven hours. The mid-flight snack was also good: club crackers (buttery), a circular chocolate bar with chocolate cream inside (yum), and Costal Nik sugar wafers (even more yum).
The most interesting part for me was watching the land forms we were passing over. OK, call me a nerd, because I was truly entertained by the view. Once we cleared the fog that engulfed Lima, we climbed up and over a region of plateaus or mesas cut by canyons and valleys. It was hundreds or thousands of square miles of barren land. Even from our cruising altitude of whatever thousand feet you could tell nothing was growing on the tabletops or had been for a very long time-no logs of dead trees, no dried up grass, not even a tumbleweed. Every twenty or thirty miles a canyon broke the plateau. There, where small amounts of water and minerals gathered, plants were able to thrive. People settled in some of these low areas, built terraces and farmed. I wondered who would travel over these desert plateaus to find a place to live, and how they could survive. Soon it would be me, albeit briefly.
The airport in Arequipa was very simple, just the necessities. A runway, taxiway and terminal building. A farm tractor pulled the baggage carts up to the plane, no doubt this was its part-time job. We walked through the arrival doorway into a courtyard. Apparently a permanent roof was not a necessity. Protecting us from the elements was a white canvas tarp. It was stretched over a center beam and attached with ropes to the inside of the walls. Now if you are a visual person you might wonder if I got that right. Yes, I said 'inside.' I, too, wondered what they do when it rains; doesn't the floor flood? I can't answer that because I didn't ask and they didn't say. The up side is that you don't need lights during the day.
So if a permanent roof is not necessary, what is? Well a luggage conveyor that runs outside the building for about 20 feet and then into the courtyard, making a large loop and back out again; a baggage scanner to check bags for fresh fruit; and dogs employed by the department of agriculture who earn their kibbles and bits sniffing bags for fruit. Evidently, they don't want us to bring plant diseases into the region. But don't get me wrong the terminal was a nice, clean, efficiently run place. I just hope they get a roof before it rains.
We loaded ten weary travelers and their luggage into a 22 passenger bus and headed for Pastor Pablo's house. We used this bus all week, and felt safe because our driver was named Jesus. So when we went any where it was, "Jesus take the wheel."
The team was back together again for lunch. There we met some really valuable members of the mission team. HGBC thinks of the Peru mission team as 13 members of our church, but God's team is bigger. Pastor Pablo Carhuachin is a tireless worker for the Lord and a great administrator. His wife, fixed our lunch, and kept the home fires burning while we traveled. Gaby and Andrea, two of Pastor's daughters, traveled with us along with Adrian and Jose (Gaby's boyfriend). Bruno, Jose's brother, had translated for last year's team, but he was only able to help us one day this year. These were our translators, but God sent others as needed. Additionally, there were pastors and church members in every church who gave of their time to make our efforts successful.
After about 27 hours of traveling we were sitting in Pastor Pablo's home having lunch, but we weren't finished. Our team was now 18 people and we loaded the bus for our final destination-Pedregal.
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