Day Five

(Editor's note: If you are using an Apple product, please read the Ed's note on previous posts.)

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

It's hard not to be a little anxious about tomorrow after today's events.

The general strike that has shut down Juliaca and its outlying slums was supposed to have ended last night, but it carried over into today.

That conflicted with the team's mandatory fun day in Puno, a seaside tourist town on the banks of Lake Titicaca. But we were going, the angry Peruvians, glass-strewn streets and burning tires notwithstanding.



It started out like a great adventure. Padre Luis talked a service-car driver to haul six of us to the bus station south of Juliaca proper. After 30 minutes of bouncing around on the back streets and dirt allies, and drawing hoots of derision from strike sympathizers, the fun came to a tense end when a woman came out from behind a house and began smashing bottles on the ground in front of our transport.

We dismounted and walked for another 30 minutes back toward the main highway. Padre Luis told us to wait while he walked to see if buses were running. He was gone for more than an hour, and the answer was, no, they weren't.

That meant an hour walk back to Juliaca. At one point, strikers manning burning-tire barricades demanded we pay a toll to pass and a few bottles crashed near us when we kept walking.

So, yes, today's troubles were more than sufficient for today. Tomorrow is getaway day and we have to get to the airport. Even if we have to walk, pulling two suitcases and wearing a backpack, it can't take more than an hour because that's what it says on Google maps. Uh-huh.

UPDATE: I just learned that the strike has been settled and we will be able to hire cabs to take us to the airport on Saturday morning. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Amen.