Barranca, Perú

Odometer: 206,677

Written by Bárbara

We left Barranca around noon, heading to Huaraz, close to the Cordillera Blanca where you can find the highest mountain in Peru, Mount Huascaran (6768m). The road Barranca-Huaraz ascends from sea level to 12,900 feet, with spectacular landscapes of snowy peaks, farming fields coexisting with the desert, and areas of beautiful creeks, and wildflowers. Every now and then we would see big orange spots contrasting with the light brown desert landscape, to then realize that these spots were formed by hundreds and hundreds of golden corns grouped to dry under the sun. We thoroughly enjoyed this tranquil road, only interrupted by small villages with peasants working on the fields, women carrying huge loads or working with wool as the walked by the road, families chatting in the front door of their houses, and occasional herds of cows, sheep, and other animals blocking the road.

At 12,900 feet above sea level, I was starting to feel a bit short of breath, and with little energy. Cris seemed to be experiencing the opposite effect: he was so excited by the landscape that he seemed ready to run a marathon. We arrived in Huaraz just before dusk, and spent the night at the ugly Hostel Landauro, which was convenient because it had parking space, and we were too tired at that point to explore other sleeping alternatives. We did not sleep that well that night, perhaps because we were still getting used to the altitude and the dry climate, which makes one feel as if sleeping in an airplane. Or perhaps, we just got too used to sleep in our camper...

July 16, 2002

Huaraz, Perú

Odometer: 206,912

Written by: Bárbara 

Our goal for the day was to visit the Huascarán National Park. We headed to the park early in the morning, hypnotized by the landscape that we could already anticipate: snowy mountains and glaciers contrasting by a deep blue sky, crisp air, paths bordered by wild flowers, and clear rivers kept us euphoric.  Our first stop was the old town of Yungay, which was buried by an avalanche coming from Mount Huascaran in 1970. According to our guide, the avalanche was the result of quake with epicenter in the ocean. He said that in three minutes the avalanche covered the whole city, killing approximately 18,000 people. Nowadays you can only see a few remains of the city: a destroyed bus, one of the church's walls, part of the old cemetery, and four palm trees that survived almost miraculously. What use to be a thriving town is now a big cemetery (campo santo) covered by flowers. 

After a first hand view of what nature is capable of, we felt tremendous respect (borderline fear) for Mount Huascaran, the mountain to which we were getting closer and closer. We were able to see the Huascaran perfectly as we approached it, which was lucky since it's top is usually covered by clouds (or so we were told). According to a popular belief, the clouds surround the mountain to cover it's shame for what it did to Yungay.

A gravel road goes from the new town of Yungay to the Huascarán National Park. When we arrived to the Llanganuco lakes, inside park, we almost could not believe that such a fantastic landscape was even possible. The turquoise color of the first lake was so strong that it seemed unreal, and the snowy mountains constituted the perfect backdrop. I believe that even Chance was aware that we were in front of an exceptional landscape, he seemed so happy, jumping around, and running like crazy! When we were coming back from the trip something unexpected happened: Guapo presented a seemingly serious mechanical problem...

July 17 & 18, 2002

Huaraz, Perú

Odometer: 207,026

Written by: Cris

Warning: the following paragraph is somewhat technical, skip if not interested (but you won't know the whole story!).

Coming back from the lakes yesterday, and with 3 hitchhikers on board, the oil pressure idiot light went on. We pulled to the side of the road immediately and checked everything. To my dismay and perplex ness, the cooling system was full to the top with engine oil, and the engine had almost run out of oil. My first thought was a leaking head gasket. I added all the spare oil I had in the vehicle and kept driving to Huaraz, not very far away, and constantly checking the engine temperature and oil pressure. By the way, I am so happy to have installed all the auxiliary gages before leaving the US; they have been helpful all throughout. We were lucky enough to locate a VW mechanic that same night (yesterday), who not only said he could help us, but accepted my proposal of us sleeping inside Guapo in his shop. So that was the beginning of our experience at Hernáns shop, which lasted three days and was, overall, very positive. In the morning, Hernán confirmed his first diagnostic last night: leaking oil cooler (which works as a heat exchanger by running coolant next to the oil, thus cooling the latter). Despite being brand new, the oil cooler had developed a leak. The oil system working under more pressure than the coolant system caused the former to transfer to the latter. The result was that every single component of the cooling system (radiator, pipes, hoses, tanks, water pump, heating system, etc.) had been impregnated with oil! A small nightmare yes, but at least the engine was undamaged. Once the problem was established, the next challenge was to locate a Vanagon oil cooler in a country that has no Vanagons, and from a mountain town in northern Peru...well we got very lucky, a big VW distributor in Lima had one in their warehouse (dont ask me why). Upon payment through a bank transfer, they sent it overnight and by the next morning we had it at the shop. In the meantime, Hernán`s workers and myself had completely disassembled the cooling system and cleaned all the oil. I noticed that the radiator had developed a small leak, so we took care of that, too. Once everything was installed back in Guapo, we spent a long time rinsing the cooling system of any left oil by adding water from one end and letting it pour from the other while running the vehicle until the water came out clean. Needless to say, Guapo got an unscheduled oil and filter change. So that is the story with the mechanical problem in northern Perú.

The other side of it was that because of spending those three days at the shop, we got to know Hernán, his assistant Lupe, and most of the workers there. Hernán is a very creative person and an admirer of the German engineering, who as well as fixing automobiles and trucks has designed and built several pieces of machinery, owns an assembly that produces some kind of slow-burning coal brick that is used to heat water, buildings or food, has designed water tanks that work with those bricks, owns a company that rescues vehicles that fall from the steep mountain roads in the region, performs maintenance and fixes the machinery and vehicle fleets of the nearby mines, and many other enterprises.

The stories and photographs that he showed us showing the many rescues to buses and trucks that had accidents in the local mountain roads are unbelievable. In short, Hernán and his team work (mostly above 12,000 feet above sea level) building roads and salvaging vehicles with cables and manual winches (!). Sometimes they take days, sometimes they find dead people inside, and sometimes they rescue vehicles from under the water. A very interesting profession, in my opinion.