Arrival

After a long 29 hours of travel, I am happy to say that my feet are on the ground in Montevideo.
Because I have chosen to deviate from the group's return date, I flew alone to Uruguay via Santiago, Chile, while the rest of the group went through Buenos Aires. My first flight was a 10-hour overnighter, but I only got one hour of sleep due to some rowdy passengers. The good thing was that the flight was very underbooked, and everyone was able to spread out and get comfy!
Afterwards, I had a five hour layover in Santiago, which I mostly spent trying to catch some light sleep while awkwardly bear-hugging my carry-on luggage... an interesting challenge!
I thought our plane was going to crash on the next flight. As we flew over the snow-capped Andes, I experienced the worst turbulence of my life: it feltlike we were going to drop and flip to the ground any minute. My heart was racing and I was praying hard, but when I looked out the window, all I could think of were those Rugby players that crashed in the Andes and had to turn to cannibalism to survive their 2 months of being stranded... not comforting! (Anyone seen "Alive"?)
Fortunately, I became friends with the Chilean man next to me who informed me that the turbulence is always extreme over the Andes in the winter.
(Fortunately, it will be summertime when I fly back!)


(This was my view of Chile around sunrise)

As it turns out, the guy was into ninjutsu, and he taught me some pressure points and Japanese characters. We talked about the Chilean miners that are stuck underground, natural disasters, engineering, art, and Christianity. He said that even though he knows ninjutsu, without Christianity, he is powerless. We had a nice time, which calmed me after seeing my life flash before my eyes!

Ronnie picked me up from the airport and we took the scenic route back to Casa ACU, so he could point out significant places. The sun was up, which I did not expect, and the temperature was lovely. The group went to dinner and dove right into delicious Uruguayan asado, milanesas, chivitos, and canalones!
We topped it off with dessert, and now exhausted,we're hitting the hay.

Thanks for your prayers!
Love y'all!