29.08.: San Pedro de Lloc

29.08.

This time I had a hostel decorated with love. The breakfast was prepared according to my wishes. Oatmeal, fruits, and mandarins from my own harvest. Yesterday I visited the hostelsenorita's sister, whose hallway was too narrow to park the vespa there. "It doesn't matter," said the senorita, she called the Gregorio hostel and signaled to me during the conversation that there were rooms available and my vespa had a place as well. After the phone call, she added that it was her sister who managed the Gregorio hostel.

Here the guest should not only sleep, but also feel comfortable - my breakfast place

The attention to detail demonstrated by the hostelsenorita is worth taking a photo

Sufficiently strengthened, I am already sitting on the vespa at 10:00 and have set a goal of 400 km. It should be doable. The Panamericana is barely trafficked, the wind is coming from behind, and it will work even without a foam pad.

But what I didn't expect is that there are several bottlenecks along the way. Larger cities where the Panamericana passes through and brings long traffic jams and poor signage in the cities. This causes me to lose a lot of time. I adapt to the Peruvian driving style, overtake on the right and left, drive on the shoulder if necessary to pass the columns and get out of the traffic jam as quickly as possible. The police occasionally check, but leave me alone. I don't know why, they would have every reason to have a serious talk with me.

Quiet times are taken seriously here (also a motif that I don't want to miss)

On the way, I often see completely isolated houses that are actually inhabited. What kind of life must that be. The next city maybe an hour away, the neighbors not in sight, a life in complete isolation flanked by trucks and cars passing by the property during the day.

This vastness of the landscape keeps making me stop - the black is not a speck on your monitor, but a black plastic bag carelessly thrown out of a truck driver's window - no matter how hard the EU tries. They gather in the slopes along the Panamericana and not only there

Despite everything, I have a nice ride. Just like yesterday, the landscape changes very quickly - but it is astonishing that trees have actually been planted in this barren desert. Whole groves covering the hills and all already sprouting, even on the median strip they have been planted and here too the soil seems to provide enough nutrients and the roots, at whatever depth, find water.

Another appearance is made by the sand dunes. We know them as one-color from the beach, here along the Panamericana, they are dusted black. How, I wonder, can young plants survive there at all if the vehicles emit so much dirt.

Between two and three, I have to get off the vespa, eat the mandarins given to me by my hostellady, and my gaze falls on an irregularity. At first, he doesn't notice it, but it remains in his memory: stop! there was something... I take a closer look and realize that the rear luggage rack, which has to carry the two gasoline canisters and the two tires, is bending downwards. Upon closer inspection, I find that a bolt is no longer gripping and, as a result, the luggage rack will break free from its anchorage sooner or later. Alert level A! I am not in the lonely desert but, thank the two guardian angels, in a small town that has a workshop repairing cars, tractors, and mototaxis. In the entrance of the workshop, I am critically observed, I tell them about my problem, at first they want to send me to another workshop, but then they allow me to roll onto the premises. The mechanics are loudly urged to take a look at my problem. They don't need to be told twice, as they don't see such an exotic vehicle every day - besides, it brings variety to the mundane mechanics' work. After the luggage is unloaded, we realize that a crossbar is broken on both sides and that's why the bolt has slipped out of its anchorage and can no longer provide stability to the luggage rack. It needs to be welded. The maestro can weld, but he only takes care of my problem later. Patience, patience. I was so well on time, I would definitely have beaten yesterday's record, but now I'm preparing to stay overnight here.

Finally, he finishes repairing a motorcycle and immediately gets to the point. One screw doesn't want to loosen and all the tricks that Wilfried taught me don't help. But someone who can weld is not impressed by a crumbled screw head either.

The broken parts are brought into the correct position using hydraulic pressure so that the weld will hold

A hex screw is quickly welded on, and with this, the crumbled screw can be easily defeated.
We would have cut off the head, drilled out the thread, then used a tap to cut a new thread... the guys have no respect for anything and always find a solution. When it's dark, the luggage rack is welded, the bolt is securely back in place while I pack up, I'm being watched by a large circle of mechanics. There are comments and bursts of laughter, the reason for which I don't understand unfortunately. I pay the maestro 100 soles (30 euros) and another 20 dollars for the crew. Nice farewell, and I hope the weld holds and the other crossbar doesn't come up with any foolish ideas. My hostel is the complete opposite of the previous one, it's also only 10 soles cheaper.
The first room is facing the Panamericana, there is no door to the bathroom - I have to get out of here. In my current room, I can also hear the trucks, but more indirectly. I can sleep with the window open.
Just over half of the journey is done and another adventure has been passed.