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The next morning our engine would hardly start!! We checked our front battery with the engine running. It was 13.2 so that meant it wasn't really charging enough. Our fan belt has been slipping lately so we thought we'd just get it tightened en route. We set off uphill and past a police checkpoint and toll. At 2,500m our battery warning light came on. Oh sh**! We're not going to make the pass up at 4,700m so we turned around. We'll just drive back down to sea level and get it sorted out.
Well that plan didn't work because after going downhill for 20 minutes our engine was getting too hot. Why?? We're going downhill for goodness sake! Hmm ... nothing for it. I pulled over at an old quarry car park. Our overflow coolant bottle was bubbling away!! And a quick check underneath gave us the reason - no fan belt!! It must have ripped and come off. Double sh**!
Whilst waiting for the engine to cool down we searched for another belt. Of course, we had lots of replacements, just not the right one! Then we checked our Fiat manual and found out we can't jump start a diesel! Oh boy, we can only hope it starts with the key! We also worked out that the fan belt not only charges the battery via our alternator but also runs the cooling system. Hence we were almost overheating despite going downhill. But ... if we got started and drove down in neutral we shouldn't overheat right? Well I guess we had no choice but to try.
We discussed all kinds of different options like skipping Cusco and Bolivia and just heading south along the coast to try and get into Chile. Then going over the mountains into Argentina to get across to Uruguay for storage. That route was also fraught with problems due to Covid rules in Chile plus we'd still have to go over a high pass. So we'd have to find a new fan belt somewhere no matter what.
After 90 minutes we tried the engine. After lots of cycles it finally started. Yippee! Then I drove in neutral, barely using the brakes, racing around some bends and cutting corners. We're supposed to drive with lights on but without a belt we couldn't use anything that was going to drain the battery, including the emergency 4 way indicators. I only put us in gear to get us up some uphill stretches and only put our lights on to get past the toll (only charges uphill traffic) where the police were checking traffic going uphill.
Our best invention was using a swinging motion to keep us going along flat stretches. Together we weigh 120kg and our "swinging" worked!! God knows what the other drivers thought!! But then Kirsten started hyperventilating! The worry and the swinging motion were the reasons but I couldn't stop!!! I kept telling her we were going to make it and I carried on swinging alone whilst she got herself a bag to put over her nose and mouth. Thank God she knows what to do.
I just had to carry on wanging us around corners and I even overtook some farm vehicles in neutral!! We got back down in 2 hours, looked up mechanics online as we were approaching a town and pulled directly onto one with a bay, without asking! I left the engine running whilst Kirsten, who had thankfully recovered, jumped out to ask. We thought we'd have to wait a few days for the right belt but they had one that was almost the same size. It would fit but they'd have to adjust our alternator to get it on. It only took 1 hour and cost us $15.
It was 3-30pm by the time we left so we drove to a free spot on the beach at Pisco we found on iOverlander owned by Victor. We sent him a WhatsApp and he met us there. He's a marine biologist. When the Pisco beach area was destroyed by a tsunami he set about cleaning the beach up and teaching kids to clean up - something desperately needed in Peru!
It's a lovely spot on the beach so we decided to stay for a second night despite not having power for our phones. Unfortunately, away from the beach area it was depressingly horrible, with lots of rubbish and large packs of nasty looking stray dogs! But we did manage to watch our football team win for once and, because the others lost, it meant we actually have a chance to get promoted again!! Wonders never cease!
After our beach stop, (and the last time we'll probably see the pacific ocean for a while), we stopped for shopping and tried a bank but couldn't get money out. Then we set off back into the hills to try and get to Cusco. Would it work a second time?? Let's hope!
We drove back up, paid the toll again but this time there was no police check. We managed to get up to a petrol station for the night that was only 2km further than where we turned around last time. It was a quiet night but we parked next to a destroyed coach - that must have been a bad accident where the bus clearly went over the side of the mountain! That certainly didn't make for peaceful sleep!
The next day it was beautiful weather and a fantastic drive up and over the first pass at 4,500m and then down to a plateau at 4,000m. We pulled over for a photo stop and coffees. We checked our belt - it was really loose!! Sh**! We thought we'd sorted out that problem. We drove back 10 minutes, stopping on the way because it sounded like we'd lost something - a screw maybe? We couldn't find anything so we carried on back down to what we thought was a roadside repair vehicle parked on the side of the road which we'd seen on our way up.
It turned out to be a complete waste of time because they weren't roadside repair but police. They tried to check out the problem but it was clear that we knew far more than they did about the problem! So we asked if they knew where the nearest mechanic was. There answer was neither here nor there. We shouldn't have bothered!! So we continued downhill back to a small town (Rumichaca) we'd driven through and, after asking a few people,we found Vladimir (unfortunate name in light of the war!) who spent 1 hour helping us.
First, we had to drive up onto metal ramps - not easy because there's not much room on the top and nothing to stop us falling off if you go 2mm too far!! After checking us out he told us we'd lost a screw!! That must've been what we heard on our way down. We got everything out to look for one that would fit but didn't have one. Eventually, our mechanic found something that would work and it took him so long to tighten it that we realised the previous mechanic hadn't tightened up the screw properly!! Damn!
At least we could drive again but we also realised we'd left a rubber mat back up at our photo stop place. When we got back over 3 hours later, it was gone! Another double sh**!
We'd lost quite a lot of time and didn't have much daylight left but we made it up and over the 4,750m Abra Apacheta Pass. Phew!! It got dark at 6pm so I had to drive 90 minutes in the dark to get down to 3,275m, the lowest point on this stretch for quite a while! There was also a convenient petrol station where we could park for the night. It went down to 7°C in the evening! It was going to be a cold night!!
Unfortunately, it wasn't just cold but noisy too! Oh well, at least it was safe. Our next stretch was a drive through a valley then up to 3,800m and down to a viewpoint. It took us 90 minutes to get through a large town called Ayacucho - bad roads, narrow streets, hot and dusty!! Out on the other side we hit roadworks and were lucky we only had to wait 5 minutes before being let through. There had been a bad landslide.
Of course, only having 5 minutes to wait, meant we were at the back of the queue and behind lots of trucks! We wound our way up to 4,250m, overtaking some trucks along the way, and then over a wonderful plateau of grassland. It was a perfect road, at least 80km and no trucks!! Where did they all go?? After the plateau we drove down switchbacks to 2,800m where we parked up at another petrol station just after 5pm.
We had super scenery again the next day. We went uphill to Andahuaylas - a large town where our GPS lost us!! Once it found us again it was completely wrong! So we had to go back to prehistoric times and rely on road signs pointing towards our next town called Abancay! After our unwanted detour we finally got back onto the main road and drove along a long valley that was fairly level. We had great views of high mountains and glaciers. Then we crossed into a different valley that was red sandstone and vegetation. An amazing change from one valley to the next.
We finally dropped downhill, went through 3 police checks and could see something on the hillside in the distance. I thought it was a huge rubbish tip but it turned out to be the town of Abancay!!
That evening Kirsten took a turn for the worse - diarrhoea, sickness and she hyperventilated! We think it was because we had a lot of fat in yesterdays meal - fried cabbage and potatoes with cheese. It was a favourite recipe of ours in Colombia which we called Olga after the YouTube cook! I guess we won't be eating that again! Fortunately, an hour later, it had all passed and she was back to normal!
We didn't sleep much due to fighting dogs and the next day our GPS lost us again in Abancay. It's a horrible town - roads all churned up, large potholes and dirty. A catastrophe! Maybe thinking it looked like a rubbish tip from the distance was an apt description after all!! We ended up using MapsMe to get out of the place and hit super sharp switchbacks uphill. We were behind lots of trucks and the weather was getting greyer and greyer which seemed to match our mood!
We managed to get into the next valley which was cloudy with some rain. We parked up early at 4-30pm because it had been an exhausting day. We were only 15km from Cusco but we knew it wouldn't be easy getting to the campground and decided to leave that for tomorrow. We parked at a brand new petrol station which didn't have any stray dogs (yet), and was really quiet. Not sure how long that will last but we were grateful for the rest. It dropped to 4°C overnight so we needed fleece blankets and hot water bottles. They would be essential for the next month or so!
After 5 driving days we finally made it to Cusco but it was a real adventure getting to the campground. There were 3 possible routes - the easiest was also the longest by far. So we tried out the shortest route. Oh boy!! We went down extremely steep and narrow roads to the bottom of the valley on the outskirts of the city. One street was really narrow, one way and cobblestone with very high footpath walls on either side of us. There wasn't much room and I worried we wouldn't be able to make the left turn at the bottom!!
Fortunately it widened out right at the end so I could turn left onto a main road and then we drove steeply back up the other side to the Quinta Lala campground. Walking downhill into Cusco would be easy. Getting back would be really hard, especially seeing as Cusco is at 3400m and the campground is almost 200m higher!!
We were welcomed by Milli the host and we parked up and plugged in. The water isn't potable so we set up our water filter that we had used in Colombia. We contacted the storage place in Uruguay we were aiming for but they said they were full!! We couldn't contact them earlier because we hadn't known if we could get into Peru let alone get down as far as Cusco. So now we would have to look into different options - hopefully there would be some!
Finally we had a wonderful hot shower. Heaven, after all the petrol stations!
