The Dirt Road to Santarem

This is how it looks when the water comes over your vehicle’s hood. Our truck does not have a snorkel. That bump in our hood is the air intake. Three times the water came over our hood on this trip, and the last time it came ten cm up onto our windshield, creating that satisfying feeling when you get to use your 4×4 like a 4×4.

We are heading into a hole on the driver’s side. Can you see the truck sliding into a hole of unknown depth?

On the way to Santarem, Deanna kept scrunching her eyes shut through the good parts while holding on to my phone, so I couldn’t take photos either. On the way back, though, she caught some of the good moments. All these photos are thanks to Deanna. Even so, it is hard to capture the emotion. As you can see in this photo, we are just coming through a big hole, and the water is running off the hood of our vehicle. If you visit us in the rainy season, I’ll see if I can work in a trip.

Sometimes we drove right into a sheet of heavy rain, which was the best the wipers could do on high speak. That is a motorcycle in front of us, pulled off to the side.

When I was younger, I longed for adventure. Then, after a wild storm that sank four of our boats on the Xingu River while we were at a remote retreat, I started praying for no more adventures, or at least less. Now I do my best to enjoy each moment God gives us fully,  the awesome boring days, the awesome white-knuckle days, and everything in between.

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