Mototaxi Junket Day 11: La Oroya to Huancayo (121km) Once again, my plans to make some serious progress fell by the wayside due to my mototaxis chronic mechanical issues...but I had a great day in Huancayo with a really awesome family and even got a personal tour of some Inca ruins! Woke up at 5:30am in La Oroya and hit the road at 6:15 with plans to drive all day and hopefully catch up to the other teams in Ayacucho. It was an extremely cold morning drive, but the road was good and followed a meandering river, slowly dropping about 800 meters in elevation. By the time I pulled into Huancayo at 10am, my mototaxi was making a groaning sound reminiscent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Ugh. Here we go again. After a quick breakfast, I drove through the sprawling city to the lovely sound of screeching medal in search of a mechanic. You could practically see the sparks flying. I spotted a father and his four teenage sons fixing their own mototaxi, lovingly adorned with a giant Batman logo. I asked them if there was a mechanic nearby. Of course -- they said that they were mechanics! Moments later, I was surrounded by the entire family -- 4 boys, 2 young girls, mom, dad, and all the cousins and aunts and uncles in the neighborhood...all helping to fix the Rubber Ducky Mobile. Turns out the terrible noise was coming from the central axle with gears that turns with the two sections of the drive chain -- the metallic discs that keep the wheels turning smoothly on the axle were mangled to shreds and needed to be replaced (Im not sure if rotors is the right term here, but its the best word I know for it). While they were at it, I also asked them about my drive wheel, which is nearly bald and has no tread left...they told me I should replace it before driving to Cusco. So that too. Also, my rear view mirrors broke off, and I bought new ones for them to install. One of the teenage boys, Antoni, took the lead and did most of the repairs, while I chatted with the family and distributed rubber duckies to all the kids -- 9 in all in one stop! The family fed me lunch and told me about some Incan ruins on the outskirts of town, and then invited me to go check them out when the mototaxi was fixed. Of course I said YES! Rubber Ducky Mobile back in operation again, I went with mom, the 4 brothers and 2 sisters on a family trip to the foundation of a pre-Inca temple from the Wanka people and got a private tour! The most interesting part were the running water wells that still work to this day and are still used by local farmers. Very cool experience. On the drive back, the boys discovered that my mototaxi had even more problems starting and idling -- they decided to take apart the carburetor and give it a cleaning before sending me on my way. Sure enough, the thing was full of sediment and FILTHY. Unfortunately, after a valient attempt to reassemble the carburetor, the Rubber Ducky Mobile once again wouldnt start. By now it was 2:30 in the afternoon, and two hours of trial-and-error quickly passed by before we decided to tow my mototaxi to a professional mechanic to get it fixed. The other mechanic figured out the problem pretty quickly, but by then it was 5pm and it was getting dark... so much for making much forward progress today. Now Im staying in a guesthouse in Huancayo, and once again have my alarm set for 5am. There are three official days left of the Mototaxi Junket left before the finish line party on Saturday. I have 800km to go over some of the worst and most perilous mountain roads in the world. Im at least a full day behind the Swiss and Romanian teams (they are 240km ahead in Ayacucho), and probably two or three days behind the teams at the front of the pack. I imagine Ill be completely on my own for the next few days... Theres no room for error if Im going to finish this thing on time. Tally-ho! WEBSITE / DONATION LINK: mototaxi.therubberduckies
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 06:38:04 +0000
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