Flashback to Guatemala

The bus trip in Guatemala was the scariest of my life. It involved a con man, a very seedy end of town and, scariest of all, the repeated gunfire as we drove by some of the poorer areas of town. Those of you who know the story will be worried at the title of this blog, but you should know at the outset that if I can write and publish this story, I’M OK!

My current bus trip should have been about 20 hrs--24 hours on the outside--but as I type this, we are pushing past the 28 hour mark with no end in sight. We are in the process of climbing the steepest part of the trip and will pass though 16,500 feet (if we make it up!)

It seems that much of what could go wrong has, but we are still moving, so there is still hope. On the upside, we may not have to find a hotel tonight; we may still be on the bus! We have had a bad tire hump from the start, and I think that has slowed us on the parts of the road where we could have made time. The police have stopped us more than once, because of some bigwigs on the road or something. This made me nervous as we are not in the most stable part of China right now, and I’ve found that the presence of bigwigs tends to increase political instability. There has been no bombing or violence that I know of, but, as I reminded myself, there is always a first.

It happened as we were stopped by the police just outside of Yushu. I was quietly reading a spy novel (thanks to a donation from Ray) when a blast went off! I might be getting slower physically, but I am amazed at what my mind could process in a fraction of a second.

Sidebar: I wish you could see the slope and switchback we have just come up--truly like nothing I have ever seen since the last time I climbed this hill. Unfortunately, it is too dark for a picture. I bet Gareth knows the view of which I speak. Oh, I bet you want me to get back to the story...

I heard the blast and the shrapnel hitting the bus at the same time which meant, I reasoned, that the explosion was very close. A fraction of a second later, there was the sound of glass shattering, but not our glass. There was no smoke on my side of the bus, and my window was open wide enough to dive out of if need be. I noted clouds of smoke fifty feet away on the other side of the bus. My mind flashed back to Guatemala: If this was a roadside bomb, would there be gunfire to follow? If I was a gunner aiming to kill, I would not want to be on the bomb side of the bus; I would be on the other side, the side people would be fleeing to. MY SIDE! I opted not to jump out the window.

The smoke cleared and no gunfire ensued. I learned that very large wheeled loader on the edge of the road had ruptured a rear tire on the side facing us. There was no bomb, just a very large tire. The shrapnel was rocks, and the breaking of glass was the rear window of a cab just ahead of us. I think I need to read a different type of book, Ray, or maybe…