Sat June 23 we headed out to the airport (normally just under 2 hours) for our trip South. We try to visit our churches and pastors 3-4 times a year and this year we were late due to the civil unrest in March and April. The further we went the snowier it got. Made for some pretty scenes.
However, with some 30 miles to go (it's 80 miles to the airport) the snow got so hard this is all we saw:
It was a near whiteout and we were glued to the windshield looking for clues to find the edge of the road. I think we averaged 15-20 miles an hour that stretch. Once we got to the airport they told us all flights were cancelled and to come back tomorrow. We headed home. The snow eased some and we saw quite a few people had had trouble driving. Here a tandem semi is crossways on the highway:
We were able to make it by on the shoulder, the vehicle shown (with dual tires and chains) couldn't make it. We were, once again, so thankful for a good STL vehicle!
We returned Sunday to the airport, roads were better but covered with
packed snow the last 30 miles. Made it to Punta Arenas (1.5 hours in
air). The next morning we went to the airport again and took the
smallish plane to Puerto Williams (1.2 hours).
Here, the loader is putting our luggage in:
Puerto Williams was covered with several inches of ice with packed snow on top. Our driver made it most of the way to town before getting stuck. Rhonda and I had to walk the rest of the way and get help. It was so slippery we couldn't stand up beside the van. Fortunately we had ice spikes for our shoes and once we put them on we didn't have any more trouble.
We visited with our pastoral family and shared in a service. They had a decent turnout in spite of the weather. Here Rhonda is with a few of the folks.
We headed back to Punta Arenas Wed without any trouble. There had been numerous stories of the folks trapped there over a week right before our trip. We were glad it didn't happen to us and we did enjoy quite a view of the mountains beside the Beagle channel on our way out.
In Punta Arenas I called the place we stay and were told they didn't have our room as someone else decided they wanted to stay longer, sorry. We tried a real nice hotel the airline put us up in one time when our flight had been cancelled. They not only had room but gave us the same rate they gave the airline! Making it almost the same price we pay for the cheapo place we usually stay! We visited with our pastors there and had a great time.
The airline called and said our flight to Balmaceda had been cancelled and would not be re-scheduled. They offered to fly us to Puerto Montt (2 hours) and put us up for the night then fly us to Balmaceda (1 hour). Seeing as how we didn't have much choice we did that. While in Puerto Montt we were able to visit the couple we met on our first trip to the islands. Juan is from Easter Island and his wife, Guillermina was the lady we rescued that first trip. They were the ones who gave me that tooth I wear on my hat. Guillermina has breast cancer and is being treated in Puerto Montt. We were able to visit with them, pray for them, encourage them, and buy them a nice lunch. We are glad they are now part of the Kingdom!
We made it back home Saturday evening, the thermometer in the living room registered 45f so we got a fire going right away. By bedtime it had warmed up to 60 in the living room (the bedroom is lots colder) so we sure appreciated the down comforter. Good to be back!
