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South America Four Wheel Drive Trip - II.
[see part 1].
We thought
we would take this leg of the trip
easy but nothing is easy when you travel the back-roads,
but it is interesting and full of surprises.
Back in Peru
We arrived in Arequipa and found the car all ready
to go with new hand tooled leather door coverings
to spruce up the Land Rover plus a heater. Everything
was working great thanks to Ceferino and his entire
family.
Our first goal was to see the Colca Canyon
which is twice as deep as our Grand Canyon but a
lot shorter. Our guide Lisse who took the extra
seat for two days of hard driving knew every rock
and plant in the entire area.
The gravel roads over
mountain passes hovering around 14,000 feet
can really get to your head. Gladys did not want
to take the local medicine (coco leaves) so she got
altitude sickness. I chewed the leaves as instructed
felt great plus a small buzz.
August is really cold
this far south. A few days after we departed we
had the good luck to miss three feet of snow in
the canyon. We only had a few inches to deal with
but the locals with regular pickups were pushing
and pulling most of the time. Everyone said it is
due to el Nino.
Colca Canyon
Chivay is the main town above
the canyon rim with regular tours visiting the
town. Most of the tourists spend the night here
for it has hot water and heating in the hotels.
We continued on along the edge of the canyon for
about 30 miles to Cabanaconde where the suspension
foot bridge crosses the canyon. This farming village
with muddy streets and some electricity is
the drop off for anyone attempting to assault the
level 6 rapids of the Calca river. About 5 percent
of those who try, do not make it out alive.
The new hotel we stayed at had hot water but no heat.
The other hotel Valle del Fuego had the greatest pancakes
for breakfast but no heat, hot water or blankets.
Almost all the women in the entire town wore traditional
clothing finding people to speak Spanish rather
then the Indian language was a little difficult.
We had a quick visit to the local high school teacher's
home to give him instructions on building solar
stoves, given to us by Sam and Tara of Paonia, Colorado.
His wife was in an awful mess because the day before
the heavy rain washed two feet of water into her
house.
We took the long way back to Arequipa to keep
to the lower altitude and release Gladys from the
grasp of altitude sickness. I was happy to get back
to the paved road after going for about 200 miles
without seeing a gas station. The Land Rover was
into its second reserve tank for it gets about
12 miles a gallon up in the mountains. A taxi driver
we picked up had two flats and needed repairs.
He was about 80 miles from the tire shop and
was waiting for a lift for 6 hours. We were the first
car that passed him that day; was he happy that
we picked him up. The mountain gravel roads in
this area see one or two cars a day in good weather.
The next morning we left from Arequipa to Chile,
about a 7 hour drive. We started to hear rumbling
from the rear of the car about three hours out in
the middle of the desert and had to limp to the next
town at about 10 miles per hour. We found a great
garage in Moquegua a small farming center. The
mechanic broke down the rear end and found the short
axle completely gone.
[Starts
like this?]
You all know we keep an extensive
supply of parts, but two long axles do not make a
short one and we had to send to Lima for the part.
No shipping on the weekend so we had three days to
see the sight.
They really have a
great old fashion open-air market selling everything
from alfalfa to jeans. It was a delight seeing the
daily goings on and enjoying the people of the town.
One night the major entertainment was the girls
volleyball team beating Arequipa by three points.
The mechanic charged us about $18.00 in labor to tear
down and rebuilted the rear end, plus the parts
we purchased. If you ever need low cost repairs,
it is the place to go.
Chile
Chile at last but one little
problem - they stamped my passport saying that I could
not leave the country without the Land Rover.
Later we figured out a way to get around this little
quirk but it really caused some gray hair until we
found the solution.
This is a nation on the move with
all the action of a modern state set down in South
America. The police or military never stopped us
the entire time in Chile. We normally are pulled over
every hundred miles in the rest of South America.
The town of Arica where we pick up our auto
insurance contract has little bistros serving
great meals and wine on the sidewalks just as in Paris.
Running on, we entered the Atacama Desert
the driest desert in the world. This was the sight
of our first real sand storm after more than 1200
miles of desert driving. You cannot see more then
a few feet in front and the wind was howling up
to 45 knots. It slowed down the Land Rover to about
20 mph. I was thinking of stopping for my concern
that sand would be pulled into the engine. Again,
the small tank of the Land Rover gave us additional
concern for we were into our first reserve tank when
a gas station can into view right in the middle of
the desert. You can never have too much gas.
Iquique
the vacation resort and Antofagasta the mineral center
were just places to spend the night as we moved south.
The flooding in La Serena washed out the bridge
south but we just made it across in time; again el Nino.
After crossing the border it took four
hard driving days through deserts to reach Santiago
de Chile. You could almost say a switch was turned
on from the change to grass lands and wine country.
Flowers, another export, were growing all along
the road until we entered Santiago.
Santiago is a major city with a ski resort, with
the best skiing in all of South America just 50
miles for the center of town. Here is where we met
Alejandria Aranguiz, our auto insurance agent.
We even won a prize for being the first to purchase
insurance from her firm over the Internet. You could
put Santiago in any country in Europe and not know
it was part of Latin America for all of its sophistication.
Each night we visited a different night club for
dinner floorshow and dancing.
We again had a little
problem the car would not start except with a crank
or a push. Upon arrival at the official Land Rover
dealer in Santiago across from the polo fields,
the problem was resolved. While there we checked
a few things and found the compression was down
in the #two cylinder. The high mountain passes
burned a valve. To get out of the country I had
to legally turn the car over to Arturo de Lara the
service manager at the Land Rover dealer,
and have my passport signed by the customs to
leave Chile. Arturo said that when we return
our little truck will be right for the next
50,000 miles, as long as we keep to
the low lands.
Our next trip will take us to the bottom
of the earth, about 1500 more miles. You
all know about the extra seat for this should be one
of the best legs of our trip for its natural beauty.
© Roy & Gladys Halvorsen, 1997
See also
part 1,
part 3
and other
4WD Destinations
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