We have our bags almost packed. Freddie bought a new backpack. It's 48 liters and should be enough for the 4 day trek on the Inca Trail. We are excited and anxious knowing that we'll be backpacking in pretty high altitudes and there's good possibility that it will be cold and rainy.
By the time we begin our Inca Trail trek, we will have been in Peru for 10 days. We'll first visit beautiful Arequipa in the south where Paola is from. Paola is the young woman who moved in with us the day after Thanksgiving last year and took care of our kitties while we went windsurfing in Baja. We had no time to get to know each other before Freddie and I left her in charge of our most precious possessions. We came home a month later to find our home and kitties all well taken care of. Since then we have come to love Paola as a member of our family. We are so happy to be able to meet her parents in their home.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Friday, January 23, 2009
Our trip home was harrowing due to problems with our truck. The first day was great and we made it to Muleje. We filled our tank before camping overnight at RV park Sta Isabela. We didn't want to go back to Serenidad and the lousy showers. We would recommend Sta Isabela. The water was nice and hot and the showers were clean.
The next morning, climbing up out of the driveway, Big D, as we call our truck, was protesting. We got up onto the road, and on to the flat, and he shifted briefly into a higher gear, but failed to show any muscle. I gently pumped the gas pedal, waited for him to warm up, which he has never needed before, but it was tough to get up to 40 mph. We felt like we had got some bad fuel. Going up the hills to get out of Mulege was very tough. We were making 10 mph tops. We resolved to buy some diesel fuel conditioner in Sta Rosalia, which we did. It was only 7:30 on a Sunday morning, but the Pemex was open, and we got the additive on which we were placing our hopes. Well, it seemed to help a little, but not for very long. We really feared the hill going up out of Sta Rosalia. Lukily, no one else was on the road, so I didn't have a long line of cars behind me, and we urged Big D up the hill at 5 and 10 mph.
I guess you could say the good news was that we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery at the very slow speed we were traveling. When at last we reached S Ignacio, we went into the square and enjoyed a good cup of coffee at our favorite little cafe, walked around, and tried to relieve some of the tension. We were only down about a fourth of a tank, but we topped off, believing that if we added some hopefully good fuel to what we had, things might get better. That turned out to be a vain hope. We limped out of S Ignacio toward Guerro Negro, knowing that we had no choice but to continue trying to get to some place that might have a mechanic. We were hoping to make it to San Quintin because people we asked said that was where we might get help. We didn't stop at GN, but added 300 pesos of fuel at the pemex north of the border. I should have topped off the tank, but I thought it would be better not to have extra weight. The tank was 3/4 full when we headed for Catavina. At Punta Prieta I was hoping we could get some more diesel because we were using it at a higher rate driving in 1st and 2nd gear all the way. So now, in addition to the worries we already had, we started to worry about running out of diesel! We kept comparing what our truck's calculated range said with the km countdown on the road. It would be very close. Hill after hill we struggled. Would we make it to El Rosario? Darkness fell and we figured we'd have to camp on the side of the road when we were almost out of fuel. We came around a curve and saw town lights in the valley. Then we crossed the long bridge and knew we had reached El Rosario. We thought we had 60 km to go! The countdown on the road was to S Quintin and we had thought it was El Rosario. What a relief! We stayed at Sinhai again and fed the goats.
We added fuel in the morning, and after a conversation the night before in mama E's with some guys that called themselves Cummins experts, we headed for S Quintin intent upon changing the fuel filter. We struggled up the hills all the way and made it to S Quintin at 9 am hoping to go to a parts store and buy a fuel filter and get someone to put it in for us. Let me just say that this hope was also in vain, because after going in about 4 auto parts stores, we found one guy who spoke English and told us that Fram didn't make our filter any longer, and all the parts stores in SQ sold Fram. He showed us in the Fram catalog where it said "not available".
Now, the only hope left was to make it to Ensenada where there would be other filter brands available. I couldn't believe it! All this way and still no help. Big D had to hold on for 280 km more without a new filter. The English speaking parts seller sent us to a diesel mechanic called "El Coyote". He drained the water out of the water/fuel separator and cleaned the air filter. El Coyote said we needed a fuel filter for sure. We limped out of SQ headed for Ensenada where we were told Auto Zone would have our part.
Well, they didn't. I looked at the screen as the Auto Zone clerk searched on equivalent part numbers from three filter makers. The inventory came up zero every time! No! This can't be true! It was true, so I started driving through the city and looking for parts stores. I went to Napa, then in the small store that didn't have a name I'd heard of, the clerk made a phone call and found a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel fuel filter. I heard him say on the phone, "oooeeee! muy caro!" and I saw him write $430 on a piece of paper. The peso is now worth a little more than 7 cents, so this turned out to be less than $35 US. Fred had a cow. "How can a simple filter cost 430 pesos!?" I told the clerk to get that part for us. It wouldn't be there until noon the next day, and I had to leave a deposit. Then the clerk, whose name was Eddie, called a mechanic that would do the job. We left Eddie with hopes that we'd be on the road the next day, but fears that something would go wrong. We camped in RV Park Playa, which was $25 US and had decent facilities.
I spoke to Ian on the phone and he was ready to drive down to Ensenada with the part. "I located one at the Dodge dealer and it's $45." he told us. That made Fred feel better. Ian emailed me the instructions which were detailed and long, for replacing this thing. How could a simple mechanic get this right, we asked ourselves. We were worried.
So, to make this very long story end quickly, I'll say that we did get the part the next day. The mechanic installed it in less than an hour and charged us a hundred pesos ($7.20 US). We got on the road at 4:30 from Ensenada and Big D was his old self again
Freddie drank his way through two ballenas during the afternoon with a little help from moi. By the time we reached the rude US customs agents at the border, we were too tired to worry about much else other than just getting home. After being searched, we haded up the 5 and were home about 8 o'clock. 
The next morning, climbing up out of the driveway, Big D, as we call our truck, was protesting. We got up onto the road, and on to the flat, and he shifted briefly into a higher gear, but failed to show any muscle. I gently pumped the gas pedal, waited for him to warm up, which he has never needed before, but it was tough to get up to 40 mph. We felt like we had got some bad fuel. Going up the hills to get out of Mulege was very tough. We were making 10 mph tops. We resolved to buy some diesel fuel conditioner in Sta Rosalia, which we did. It was only 7:30 on a Sunday morning, but the Pemex was open, and we got the additive on which we were placing our hopes. Well, it seemed to help a little, but not for very long. We really feared the hill going up out of Sta Rosalia. Lukily, no one else was on the road, so I didn't have a long line of cars behind me, and we urged Big D up the hill at 5 and 10 mph.
I guess you could say the good news was that we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery at the very slow speed we were traveling. When at last we reached S Ignacio, we went into the square and enjoyed a good cup of coffee at our favorite little cafe, walked around, and tried to relieve some of the tension. We were only down about a fourth of a tank, but we topped off, believing that if we added some hopefully good fuel to what we had, things might get better. That turned out to be a vain hope. We limped out of S Ignacio toward Guerro Negro, knowing that we had no choice but to continue trying to get to some place that might have a mechanic. We were hoping to make it to San Quintin because people we asked said that was where we might get help. We didn't stop at GN, but added 300 pesos of fuel at the pemex north of the border. I should have topped off the tank, but I thought it would be better not to have extra weight. The tank was 3/4 full when we headed for Catavina. At Punta Prieta I was hoping we could get some more diesel because we were using it at a higher rate driving in 1st and 2nd gear all the way. So now, in addition to the worries we already had, we started to worry about running out of diesel! We kept comparing what our truck's calculated range said with the km countdown on the road. It would be very close. Hill after hill we struggled. Would we make it to El Rosario? Darkness fell and we figured we'd have to camp on the side of the road when we were almost out of fuel. We came around a curve and saw town lights in the valley. Then we crossed the long bridge and knew we had reached El Rosario. We thought we had 60 km to go! The countdown on the road was to S Quintin and we had thought it was El Rosario. What a relief! We stayed at Sinhai again and fed the goats.
We added fuel in the morning, and after a conversation the night before in mama E's with some guys that called themselves Cummins experts, we headed for S Quintin intent upon changing the fuel filter. We struggled up the hills all the way and made it to S Quintin at 9 am hoping to go to a parts store and buy a fuel filter and get someone to put it in for us. Let me just say that this hope was also in vain, because after going in about 4 auto parts stores, we found one guy who spoke English and told us that Fram didn't make our filter any longer, and all the parts stores in SQ sold Fram. He showed us in the Fram catalog where it said "not available".
Now, the only hope left was to make it to Ensenada where there would be other filter brands available. I couldn't believe it! All this way and still no help. Big D had to hold on for 280 km more without a new filter. The English speaking parts seller sent us to a diesel mechanic called "El Coyote". He drained the water out of the water/fuel separator and cleaned the air filter. El Coyote said we needed a fuel filter for sure. We limped out of SQ headed for Ensenada where we were told Auto Zone would have our part.
Well, they didn't. I looked at the screen as the Auto Zone clerk searched on equivalent part numbers from three filter makers. The inventory came up zero every time! No! This can't be true! It was true, so I started driving through the city and looking for parts stores. I went to Napa, then in the small store that didn't have a name I'd heard of, the clerk made a phone call and found a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel fuel filter. I heard him say on the phone, "oooeeee! muy caro!" and I saw him write $430 on a piece of paper. The peso is now worth a little more than 7 cents, so this turned out to be less than $35 US. Fred had a cow. "How can a simple filter cost 430 pesos!?" I told the clerk to get that part for us. It wouldn't be there until noon the next day, and I had to leave a deposit. Then the clerk, whose name was Eddie, called a mechanic that would do the job. We left Eddie with hopes that we'd be on the road the next day, but fears that something would go wrong. We camped in RV Park Playa, which was $25 US and had decent facilities.
I spoke to Ian on the phone and he was ready to drive down to Ensenada with the part. "I located one at the Dodge dealer and it's $45." he told us. That made Fred feel better. Ian emailed me the instructions which were detailed and long, for replacing this thing. How could a simple mechanic get this right, we asked ourselves. We were worried.
So, to make this very long story end quickly, I'll say that we did get the part the next day. The mechanic installed it in less than an hour and charged us a hundred pesos ($7.20 US). We got on the road at 4:30 from Ensenada and Big D was his old self again
Freddie drank his way through two ballenas during the afternoon with a little help from moi. By the time we reached the rude US customs agents at the border, we were too tired to worry about much else other than just getting home. After being searched, we haded up the 5 and were home about 8 o'clock.
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