Friday, June 17.
We made it to Cascas, Peru! We got up at 3:30 Thursday morning to get to Denver International Airport for check in- all 23 of us. Katy and Sarah are my charges. The first leg of our journey took us to Los Angeles and then we took our last flight to Lima Peru. Going through customs in LA was minimally controlled chaos- a mass of humanity. I took a picture after we got through the check, and was immediately admonished for taking photos in “security”. I should have turned my flash off, which gave me away. I did not know that it was a security concern. This next leg took us 8 hours to complete in the air.
Each of us were allowed to take a 50 pound bag of personal gear and a 50 lb. bag of dental clinic gear. We waited and waited for our gear to come out in Lima,-which has a very nice- much nicer airport than LA. We met about 60 people of a medical team from San Francisco and another 20 people from an evangelical team from Chico, CA. All together, we went through and overwhelmed the security crew in Lima. They wanted no part of checking each of us and backing up the process. We sailed through and avoided some of the possible graft and need to bribe our way into the country with our dental gear. After we got through security, I looked back and took another picture of the chaos and again was immediately and firmly admonished by a security officer not to take pictures in security! Will I ever learn? That’s all I need – to be sent to a foreign prison !
We had Papa John’s pizza at 3 AM and then settled down for a restful 3 hour sleep in the airport chairs until our next flight to Trujillo. I did not think that I could sleep in the airport like I had seen others do at DIA, but I certainly did.
Our next leg of our journey began with a 6 AM flight to Trujillo, which took about an hour. Trujillo looks like the moon. I was very surprised to see this because Trujillo is the second largest city in Peru, and sits right on the northern coast. Almost no greenery in sight, except for a few isolated trees. Several fires burning trash. Rock, dirt and dust everywhere. The airport has a single omega shaped baggage belt in a room that is only 20 x 30 feet long. Everybody on the entire plane was crowded in to pick up their gear. Chaos once again- took about an hour. However, this time, I did not take a picture in security! We finally loaded our bags on an old Greyhound-like bus and headed up a windy dirt road to Cascas which took about 3 hours. We were told that the road is now better than it once was which has reduced the travel time by an hour. We stopped at several isolated buildings along the way where vendors tried to sell us soda pop or popcorn.- not many takers. Extreme poverty it appears in these sites and also in numerous small, dust -choked farms along the way.
As we climbed toward the pueblo of Cascas the agricultural fields became larger, more organized and more green and lush. Outside of town, an entourage of about 20 dirt bikes-some with two or three riders, were waiting for us, beeped their horns and led the way into the little town’s square. A small musical band of young people played drums and trumpets, enthusiastically, through a variety of songs that all sounded about the same. The little town square was filled with people waiving , some holding signs of welcome. The mayor gave a passionate speech of welcome and spoke of how much help and good we would bring to the people of the area, in Spanish but translated in English. We were then all urged into a government office building, up the stairs into a small auditorium with a roof but without windows. Again more ceremonial speeches of welcome, translated, by different government and church officials. They also expounded on the virtues of the wines of their region and trays of wine samples in plastic cups were distributed to each of us. The success of our visit was toasted with the flavorful red, but very sweet wine.
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