"I Think We Busted Her"

I got to go back to El Coca with the Curtises in October to find an apartment for the missionaries that had been sent there. (I guess they had heretofore been living at the chapel—like I said, a mission is camping out for two years.) Coca is in the Amazon, and it’s hot and humid. Have I mentioned that Elder Curtis is the Energizer Bunny in disguise? After walking here and there and back again throughout the town, shopping for everything necessary to furnish an apartment, I guess my body rebelled and took over. I sat down on a curb and thought I was going to faint. Elder Curtis ran and bought me some cold water, but I still couldn’t recover. I bailed out of the rest of the afternoon and returned to the hotel to lay down, rehydrate and cool off. Later, I asked him, “Did I really hear you look down at me on the curb and say, ‘Look, Hermana Curtis, I think we busted her.’?”

Because we were there for several days this time, we had a chance to put on our P-day clothes and walk down to the river that flows behind our hotel. We took pictures. I told the Curtises to tell their children that they were filmed with the “mighty Amazon” as the background. It’s not really true, but it looks like it. I’m including pictures of the hotel as well. It’s gorgeous, and WAY beyond something you would expect to see out in the Amazon jungle. All this for less than $100 a night.

The Gran Hotel del Coca and the flowers on its grounds.
One more funny story about the hotel. When I returned one last time to train, I noticed the owner of the hotel (actually he's the son of the owners) out plowing under these beautiful flowers using a small Bobcat backhoe. I asked his wife, Karin, what he was doing. She said that the flowers were old and needed to be dug up so younger ones could rejuvenate the flowerbeds. It was obvious that other menial laborers were standing around watching him run the Bobcat, so I asked, "Well, can't the workers do it?" She smiled and said, "Oh, yes. He has many more important things to do, but he would rather run the machine than anything else." I smiled back. How well I know that feeling, having been married to Dan for so many years.