Further Bridge Adventures

My most exciting (that is, dangerous) adventures always seem to involve bridges. Case in point: last weekend's trip to San Javier.

By Wednesday afternoon I was feeling pretty nervous about the upcoming trip to San Javier, because I'd been told by several people that the one-way bridge that is the only way across the Rio Grande (the Bolivian river that runs northeast of Santa Cruz which must be crossed in order to get to San Javier) had recently been closed for hours at a time. Getting across it would be chancy at best, both going and coming back. This was especially a problem because we were supposed to get back to Santa Cruz Saturday afternoon, in time to get ready for the Jr/Sr banquet that night. Katie and I had a long discussion about the possiblity of being stuck on the wrong side of the bridge, and came up with a plan that included life jackets, long knives, and belly-crawling through mud (okay, so we let our imaginations run just a little bit wild).

Anyway, praise God (why do we ever doubt?) we had no trouble at all getting across Friday morning, and made it to San Javier without incident (though we had a close call with a little girl who almost darted across the road in front of us, and we also passed a horrific accident that involved two double-trailer semi-trucks). We had a great time hanging out with Elliott, and also met another single American guy who works for the Peace Corps who is living in San Javier (his name is Geoff - you can pray for Elliott as he witnesses to him and that Geoff will be open to the gospel).

Here we are, the two Danas and Katie in front of a blooming toburochi tree (also know as a pregnant tree) in the plaza downtown San Javier.

We left "bright and early" Saturday morning...or at least that was the plan. It was a little after 10 when we actually got on the road, but we had smooth sailing all the way to the bridge. Again we didn't have to wait at all, just drove right onto the bridge. Now, let me describe this "structure" to you. It's actually a train trestle that they adapted for cars by laying boards horizontally and vertically across. The problem is they didn't actually attach any of the boards to one another, so everything's loose.

Things were going okay until Dana drove up onto the end of a board and the other end flew up in the air, and her tire got stuck in the hole. She carefully backed up off the board, but it stayed up. Katie got out to investigate, and discovered that there weren't any cross-beams underneath that particular board, and if Dana tried to drive over the hole her tire would fall through the bridge. Katie tried to move the board, but it was too heavy for her to lift by herself. Her struggle was observed by the two Bolivian men in the jeep behind us, who enjoyed it immensely and made no move to get out and help her.

Finally one got out, only to offer to drive Dana's SUV over the spot for her, since we were obviously silly women who didn't know how to drive over a bridge. It was only after we pointed out the huge hole and the fact that no one could possibly get over it without the beam in place that they finally helped move the board back. We breathed a huge sigh of relief as we made it to the other side. I don't think I'll try crossing that bridge again in a hurry! Anyway, all's well that ends well...praise God for watching over us.