Dear friends and family:

We were up and on the boat at 5 a.m. It was an awesome display of God´s workmanship as the sky began to light up with mist rising off the river´s surface and lingering around the lush vegetation that carpets these majestic mountains. Praise God who made it all!



When we arrived in Yarina, we were warned that the day before 9 trucks were assaulted along the dirt road that leads to the next village. Myself and the three brothers with me had to get back to Tarapoto so we decided to "go for it" and took the only 4x4 that was willing to try the trip. God is good, he protected us and we made it to the next village (Pongo), escaping all thieves.

Things really got exciting from Pongo on. We'd experienced torrential rains for about 4 days in a row and village after village was flooded. There were landslides everywhere. They told us that the highway to Tarapoto would be closed for at least a week. Once again we decided to "go for it" and attempt to walk to where we might be able to catch a car to Tarapoto. 








Finally, when we got to the last and biggest landslide, a front-loader was there working to make a way through. We had to sit and wait in the dark for about 3 hours until they let us cross. It was a nice rest since we were completely exausted, very dirty, sweaty and hungry. On the other side there was a car to take us to Tarapoto and best of all.. hot bread to eat.. (we hadn't eaten for about 23 hours). Bread never tasted so good!!