Luxury is heavy

We are now in Lima. We initially wanted to avoid it, but apparently our camper thought differently. It is again bothering us with mechanical issues; this time the first and second gears are slipping. We were in the Cordillera Blanca, a beautiful place in central Peru when it started after fifty kilometres on a dirt road. We usually try to avoid dirt roads, but in this case, it was the only option to reach the cordillera. It was a very scenic drive on a narrow road first at the bottom of a canyon and then overlooking it with plenty of tunnels. These tunnels are one way, so we had to honk every time before entering to make sure that no one was coming the opposite way. Whenever it happens, the smaller vehicle has to backtrack regardless of its position in the tunnel. It happened to us once with a truck, we had to backtrack for about 100 metres, that was quite a challenge. These tunnels have no lights and are very narrow. Fortunately, we are a team, so one could guide shouting “a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right, etc” until we reached the entrance, let the truck pass, and made another attempt, successful this time. To add to the fun, it started to get dark and to rain as well, but we eventually managed to reach our campsite. We drove at an elevation of over 4’000 meters (about 13’000 feet) with peaks covered in snow hovering at over 6’000 meters (20’000 feet) all around us. We are both definitely in a better shape than our camper; this is actually better than the other way round! 

The camper is still running but we do not want to risk being stuck in the middle of nowhere, so we will have it checked and hopefully fixed in Lima. Let’s hope we are  not stuck for another two weeks or more… We have many mountains to climb in southern Peru and Bolivia, so we definitely need a first and second gear. All things considered, I think we should have chosen a smaller and lighter vehicle, but ours was the smallest we could find in the US. We are carrying along some stuff that we never or hardly use: the bathroom and related water tanks, a micro wave we used maybe ten times at most, air conditioning that we never used; not mentioning our golf clubs that we have been carrying along all the way and never used once. All we need really is comfortable beds and a little stove to make coffee in the morning. All the rest is heavy luxury, that takes its toll on the mechanic. So fingers (and toes as we say in Ghana) crossed and let’s hope for the best!