from casma, i decided to take a shortcut up to huaraz…..a dirt road instead of a nice paved one would save me 2hrs. in retrospect, that was pprobably a bad idea. why? well, i very nearly totaled my car. how? well….first i started smelling gas fumes (leak in the gas line?), then my brakes didn’t work too well (leak in the brake line?), then my speedometer/odometer stopped working (broken electrical cable?), then i think my clutch felt a bit different (worn out transmission?) and finally my wheels made clicking sounds when i turned. all this, on a dirt road with no guard rail on the side of a steep mountain. surprisingly, though, my exhaust pipe is still in one piece!

i finally made it to huaraz and stopped by a mechanic. that was a good idea. for $10, he replaced my fuel filter and said that’s probably where the fuel smell came from (the filter is old and dirty). the brakes are working fine now, and the fluid level is fine…..so not sure what happened there….maybe just air in the sstem? (being at 3k meters,the air expands too) the wheel clicking is because the cv joints are finally starting to fail (i’ve had broken boots for a while….so they’re running dry) — but tomorrow he can replace the boots for $15 (in the us, it’d cost $200). the speedometer is actually a short in the system (the fuse is blown)…so we gotta find that short….to get the odometer working again! the transmission seems fine….but who knows. and they also found two other things: 1) the oil they used in tegucigalpa, honduras is way too thick….which is why my car is slow to start-up in the morning (they used 20w50) and 2) an unplugged hose on the air line is why my check engine light has been going on/off for the last 4 years.