TOP TEN UNEXPECTED THINGS ON OUR TRIP



1.       Visas are calculated in calendar days, not business days, as we had been told. Thank you, God, that we decided to go early.
2.       A bus from a respected company can run out of gas before it reaches its destination, even in the middle of the Atacama Desert at noon.
3.       If you chomp on a dead bee in your dessert on the bus, you are just supposed to consider it proof that it was made with real honey.
4.       "Ladies of the evening" sometimes travel . . . and work . . . on buses.
5.       Even though you have relied on a bus company for years, it might turn out to be incredibly, incredibly bad.
6.       Celebrating Thanksgiving with other missionaries can be a wonderful experience, even if it wasn't what you had planned.
7.       Thunderstorms look awesome from above.
8.       The dish called Picante Tacneña is more or less chitlins in hot sauce.
9.       Two cats can completely cover a corduroy sofa cushion with cat hair in about a week if no one is there to clean up.
Coming home is probably the best part of traveling.