ODO: 329,015
There are a few more work days before we can continue. After one, we check into our second Lima hotel: The JW Marriott. This is our go to hotel when we have things shipped to us, and we are currently waiting on brake pads and wiper blades. Our hotel status gets us upgraded to a suite. Not a bad way to spend our yearly free night!
What was supposed to be one night turns into three as we watch the tracking for our parts run later and later. We use our extra time in Lima to visit a free Hello Kitty show at the local museum, it’s pretty cute. And there is also the cat park, where we get to pet many, many cats.
Finally, just as we’re getting used to this new luxurious lifestyle, our parts arrive. Now its resupply and hustle south time. We have a date with our new friends in Bolivia for a week of off-road adventure. Well after dark we find a beach camp. It’s unclear to us what this will look like in the morning, but there seems to be a cliff, and possibly a lighthouse. On our way to camp we try an experimental dinner: canned veggies and frozen chicken in the rice cooker. It’s delicious, and zero effort, and we timed it so it finished as we pulled into camp! This may be our new go to meal.
The morning reveals a deserted beach with a lighthouse and tiny dead crabs everywhere. Several quad tours pass by as we get organized and pack up. Our first stop is back into Paracas National Reserve. The small bit we saw during our work field trip made us want to explore more. Like last time, it’s very windy, but unlike last time we get to head much deeper into the park. The landscape is all sand dunes of various colors, clear blue sky, and beautiful ocean. From time to time we come across another vehicle, but otherwise the park is all ours. Until we come across a beach deep, deep into the park (or so we thought, it turns out there is a medium sized city about thirty minuets away), that is more crowded than anywhere we have been in way too long. This is not for us. There is another road that leads to the very end of the park, but we cant find it, so instead, head towards our planned camp for the night.
As we are turning around to leave the beach, we blow a vacuum hose. Not good, but not the end of the world. Hose reattached, the truck is now running funny. Shoot. We limp into camp, a resort parking lot in a small oasis neighborhood just outside of town, nested in a valley of sand dunes. We hike half way up the dunes to watch the sunset, with all the other tourists. There are several twelve seater vehicles touring people around the dunes, dodging all the people exploring on foot. Once the sun is gone it cools off a lot, which is always a concern of ours, so we sleep quite well here.
Small children running around the parking area wake us up at 6:30am. Everyone has a mission this morning: Berne is going to troubleshoot the truck, and KoKo is going to climb to the top of the sand dunes. The sun is hot this morning, which means the sand is hot too. The climb to the top is hard. Like really hard. Like almost give up several times hard. After many rest stops, and encouraging text messages, KoKo summits the dunes. The views were just barely worth the struggle. The way down is much faster, five literal minutes compared to the hour and half to summit. Meanwhile Berne’s troubleshooting has not turned up anything other than worry. Both of us are hot and tired so we get into the pool for a quick cool down while we discuss the plan for the day.
Cleaned up, we head into town for our date with the local off-road mechanic. Their troubleshooting tells us it’s likely a very simple fix. So much relief. New parts will arrive in the morning, and instead of sending us away until tomorrow, the mechanic lets us spend the night inside the shop. It’s very interesting camping inside a building, but this one is pretty secure, including three large guard dogs that only come out at night. They sound terrifying, but they assure us they do not come inside the shop. This is false, one of the dogs gets into the shop twice, one time surprising Berne. It was completely unconcerned with his presence, so maybe not the best guard dog.
The shop opens between 7:30am and 8:00am, so we are up and packed by 7:15am. Our parts arrive first thing and the work begins. The diagnosis is bad coils, which makes sense since these are the original coils from 2010, and haven’t lived an easy life. Berne nearly has a heart attack when they finish up and ask him to turn the truck on. It doesn’t start. Now what?! One of the new coils is bad, so an old one is swapped back in and we are set! Oh, and they swapped our brake pads, and fixed our broken turn signal. Good start to the day. After a quick resupply we are out of here. Nazca, yes, that Nazca is our destination. Because it’s late in the day we only see one of the free spots, but its pretty amazing. Camping is allowed at The Cat, but we arrive after dark, so we’ll see it in the morning, and hopefully some of the other more famous lines.
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