Pucallpa to Lima by Truck! - 14 hours

This past weekend we made our first car trip starting in Pucallpa and ending in Lima.  This trip will take a bus 20hours, a cab 16-18 hours, and our neighbor's truck 14hours!  We drove on the main road connecting the country's capitol to the jungle of Peru.  You will see from the photos the change in scenery as we move from the low flat jungle to the high jungle with lush vegetation to the mountains.  The highest point on this road reaches a height just under 16,000ft. which is higher than the highest peak in the continental US.  The country of Peru is incredibly beautiful and we wanted to share a few of these pictures with all of you.

We are spending this week in Lima for the FH retreat, then we will return to Pucallpa to finish packing, close the savings groups, and say goodbye to friends.  We will arrive in the US on the 10th of June and are looking forward to seeing you!

Also please keep Cael in your prayers.  He has been fighting a fever which has finally broken and now has a rash on his body.  The doctor believes he has Roseola, which is a common childhood illness that just has to run its course.   

This is an iguana that landed on our roof the day before we took off.  It jumped out of the tree that hangs over our house.

We followed this creek with several waterfalls along the rock's edges as we passed from the low jungle to the high jungle

You can see the vegetation and the rolling hills in the background.  This part of the road was paved but there were several areas where the road had been washed out or fallen into the water.  There is also about 200km of road that looks like the back roads of Indiana!

Here we are passing over the bridge you can see in the previous picture above.

You can see the sun rising and the fog beginning to clear off of the trees.  This road is on the edge of a cliff.

Cael did great!  He played and ate and watched shows on their portable DVD players.  He only became fussy the last 30 min of the trip.

Here you can see the road isn't paved and we are nowhere near any city.  There are double decker buses and semi trucks that travel this road on a daily basis...it really is incredible.

 

Here they are trying to flatten the road and pave it, but you can see some of the traffic that passes along the road.

I just thought this picture was a good view of the landscape.

The road still isn't paved and we are still in the middle of nowhere!

The first large city since Pucallpa is Tingo Maria (4 hours).  This is high jungle and where most of the drug trafficking occurs in Peru.

Here is just a glimpse of the main road through Tingo Maria.  There were mountain 360 degrees around the city.  Really a beautiful city and not quite as hot as Pucallpa!

Here we are moving out of the jungle and into the mountains.  The mountain out in front doesn't have much vegetation.

Here we have been on the road for 9hours and are definitely in the mountains 

(13,000-14,000ft) but it looks like the plains in the US.  Look at those clouds!

Here is a local shepherd with his flock of alpaca.

 

Here you can see the mountains and the local political advertisements.  This city is Orolla which is one of the most polluted cities in the world due to it being the main refinery area for the mines in Peru.  Don't drink their water!

Its a little cold here!

Yes that's snow!  We were in a snow storm for 5 min and then all the snow disappeared and we were back in clear weather.

This was the final view before we headed straight down to Lima.  We traveled 12 hours at a gradual climb and then 2 hours to get back down to sea level.