Three days to remember

Where to begin.  It's been a pretty wild three days.  I kind of posted an update from cerro Azul but the computer i was using there was a real piece of work.  Sorry if this post is long but here's an attempt at a real update:  After three days of chillin, surfing, and sleeping in Kombi I resolved to wake-up early and hit the road for southern Peru.  I didn't realize that I was in for two strait days of driving 10 hours a day through some of the wildest desert I've ever seen.  I've driven through a white out before but this is the first time I've had the chance to drive through a sand out.  Kombi and I drove head on into a sand storm for about an hour and a half going maybe 40km/hr in third gear, downhill.  Wild shit and by the end of it sand had worked it's way into every orifice of Kombi and myself.  If you look at the route I took to get to Puerto Inca from Cerro Azul you'll see that I passed right through where the NAzca lines are drawn.  IF you're not familiar with these things check them out.  Also the desert from Nasca to the pacific ocean where white sand dunes the size of east coast mountain demise right into the ocean.  There's a road right down the gut of this canyon seperates the sea of sand and gives any driver the most spectacular views desert, sea, canyon, and the Andes in the far distance.  I can't write worth a shit so I'm sure none of this is coming off like it should.  Dammit man the terrain itself inspires so much awe that it's difficult to put into words what driving every kilometer solo has done for my concept of my little world.  F.  Again this is a situation that it's better to google for pictures than to rely on mine(most of which I took whilst driving) but I'll attach a few to this post to give you an idea.

Day two of that drive took me from Purto Inca to the town of Mollendo.  I figured I had less KM's to cover and more time, so I really took it easy out of the gate stopping on several beaches and having coffee and lunch and taking it all in.  I probably shouldn't have done that as after a non-stop 7,000 ft accent from the ocean to Arequipa it was starting to get dark as I descended to the coast once more. It made for a spectacular sunset but it also left me with an hour or so of driving at night which is not only stressful but dangerous as hell.  (Edt note:  Kombi's eyes don't exactly point strait.  The right one points strait down and the left off into oblivion somewhere.  I'm going to fix this.)  By the end of these two days I was completely exhausted from simply having to wheel Kombi for such lengths of time.  She's a real hoss on the open road, and even more of a devil when you get into high mountain switchbacks and such. 

Day three was supposed to be a quick jaunt from Mollendo to Ilo in about 3 hours over some dirt roads and pleasant seaside driving.  Wrong again G. Not only did the drive itself take me five hours with the dirt road being more large, permanent rocks than dirt, but Kombi gave up the ghost on the clutch about 30K out of Ilo.  After some quick investigation I found that it was a snapped clutch cable so I finally found a practical application for "Grind em till you find em."  With no clutch I limped Kombi into the outskirts of town and set to finding the parts and such I needed to fix her up.  A few hours later, some ceviche and a beer and here I am washed up and sitting in a Canitna relaxing after a few days of what feels like some of the hardest work I've ever done.  All in all somewhere around 1300KM and several 10 of thousands of feet in elevation gain/lost.  It seems like one test after another on this trip and I'm sure that aspect isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Headed to Boca Del Rio tomorrow for hopefully some empty beaches and surfing for a few days.  I'm right on the border with Chile and hope to cross sometime around Christmas.   Happy Holidays guys.  Talk to you soon. 

Love, Kombi and Role