September 11, 2018 – September 18, 2018
Derek made arrangements for new tires for the truck in the Peruvian city of Arequipa, and they didn’t come too soon…we were losing pea sized chunks of rubber and had started to lose air and although we hadn’t had a real flat tire since Colombia, we were anxious to get the new tires installed before we headed into the remote regions we were hoping to visit in Bolivia. We decided it was also a good time for new brake fluid and to replace the brake pads.
We drove from our nice camping spot at Hostal Las Mercedes to the tire shop. There seemed to be a lot of confusion surrounding our arrival. Eventually, we managed to decipher two important pieces of information: first, we were at the wrong location and would be following a driver in a company truck to the proper location, and second, we would need to pay cash for the tires……$1,160 US dollars! Yikes!
The staff suggested that we go with the driver to their bank where they were pretty sure we could use our credit card to deposit the required cash into their bank account. Once there, however, the bank teller said that this was impossible. As it turns out, their bank was right next to a local branch of a Canadian bank with which we have accounts, and so we withdrew US cash from the machine until we reached our daily limit. That, with a stash that we had hidden in the camper, was just enough to allow us to pay for the installation. Good thing we had a hidden “emergency fund”, but seriously, get a visa machine guys!
A few hours later they had installed the new tires and the the brake pads that we had brought with us from Canada. The rear brake pads had been worn down to the metal. Derek asked if the rear brake rotors should be machined to remove the scratches left from the metal on metal action, but they assured us there was no problem and that the rotors were safe.
We climbed into Seymour and Derek headed out into the busy, congested roads of Arequipa. He immediately had a sense the brakes were not right. Crap! We weren’t completely without brakes but they were definitely not what they should be. Derek decided that with very careful driving we could nurse the truck back to camp.
We made it back and Derek crawled under the truck to see if he could determine the problem. He had had some concerns when he saw how they had bled the brakes, and thought that we would have to bleed the brakes again, ourselves. But when he got under the truck, he saw that one of the brake bleed nipple valves had been broken off, another had been replaced with an incorrect size bolt and was cross threaded and a third was rounded off and seized. There was no way that we could bleed the brakes ourselves, and, not wanting to return to the same shop, we asked the friendly hostel owners for a recommendation.
Long story short, we ended up at a very professional shop called Mundial Motors, where they machined our rear rotors, extracted and replaced all of the bleed nipples, replaced the fluid with a proper vacuum system, bled our brakes properly and then got Derek to take the senior mechanic along for a short test drive to ensure that all was well. We also got a recommendation for a welding shop where a day later we had a crack in our exhaust system repaired for about $8 dollars.
Seymour, happy to be at a more professional shop!
In between the three separate garage visits, we explored the beautiful old colonial centre of Arequipa, got some laundry done and washed the truck. We had dinner at an excellent restaurant called ZigZag, (we didn’t take any pictures, so check out their website if you are interested) where we were given a beautiful table on the second floor at a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the church and park across the street. The building was beautiful with a vaulted stone ceiling, a spiral metal staircase designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel (as in, the Eiffel Tower in Paris!) and stained glass windows fronting the washrooms. Additionally, the food was exceptional.
Our experiences in Arequipa were dominated by the truck repair efforts but, counter to our expectations, Arequipa was an interesting modern Peruvian city with a beautiful old colonial centre and many interesting churches, squares, old streets for pedestrians only, restaurants, and hip little cafes and bars. We could have had to spend our spare time in a much less welcoming place. And so, with the tires and brakes in top notch condition, a clean and shiny truck and a bag full of clean clothes, we headed out of town towards our next destination, to see giant condors at the Colca Canyon.
Pitcher of Pisco Sour at a small turkish restaurant we found one afternoon. There were several loft seating areas above our table and the staff was preparing hookahs for other clientele to enjoy..very hip.
Beautiful turkish glass lamp shade.