We are still parked in the Las Mercedes campground in Arequipa. However there is good news filtering through. The trash collection strike is over with a city offer to pay the workers a one time bonus of $550, and also to purchase protective equipment for them. The newspaper was at pains to point out 728 employees are in the union but all 750 will get the bonus. Already the streets are clean which is lovely.
But the streets are also empty, even Layne noticed how little traffic there is as supplies of fuel run low. It’s easy to cross streets that are usually bumper car traffic jams and there is very little horn honking for slowpokes. And yes, we still have no bananas at the supermarket. Arequipa is running on minimal tourism and shrinking propane gas supplies for cars as the miners keep the highway to Lima tightly closed.
Police turned up in force in the town of Ica which is the center closest to the Nasca lines, a huge tourist attraction. 300 cops cleared the blockade which I suspect followed a complaint that tourism was drying up and people with empty planes had no one to fly over the lines in the desert. Money talks. However you still can’t drive to Lima and I heard a rumor blockades are in place in the mountains now which closes a very long slow winding Highway 3 between Cusco and Lima. You can still get decent coffee in Arequipa, happily even if you can’t get a bus out of town.
A Chilean couple came through the campsite yesterday. They came north from their country through Bolivia and they showed me a dent caused by a protestor in Bolivia throwing a stone at them. They are young and I suspect they tried to run a blockade to get that kind of attention, but I remain glad we could not get a visa for Bolivia. They left the campground for the Chilean border last night and have not returned so the highway to the south must be open I guess. It’s all rumor and innuendo around here.
Renzo our mechanic has studied our eflex fuel system from the States that Layne brought in her luggage, he’s watched the video and says first thing Monday he’ll install it. That means GANNET2 will able to digest Brazil’s heavily ethanol tainted gasoline. We have dental appointments Tuesday and Wednesday so I’m hoping we can start thinking about leaving Arequipa next week.
Now we have to hope the road to Lake Titicaca is open so we can get to Puno, see the famous reed islands at last and get Rusty his exit papers for Brazil. The road out of here may be in sight though nothing in Peru is certain at the moment.
