well, i’m now in juliaca…just outside of lake titicaca. today i saw some more cool inka stonework at moray, then drove into cuzco. in cusco, my exhaust pipe broke again (since lima, it had been broken just before the muffler….which was loud….but not as loud and polluting as the second break before the catalytic converter). so, i stopped by a repair shop and paid $7 for him to weld the whole thing back up. afterwards, i started my drive towards lake titicaca. the first town i stopped by had a nice church, but it was too early in the day for me to spend the night there. the next city was a good time to stop…but the city/hotels were pretty bad. so, i decided to head all the way down to lake titicaca….well, to juliaca…which has nice hotels.
because it was kinda far, i had to drive at night. peruvians have no high-beam etiquette. none. in my experience here, the best way to get on-coming cars to switch to low-beams is to keep your high-beams on….kinda like a game of chicken. most will finally give up and switch. of course, some will stick it to you by turning on their high beams again at the last second. cars behind you are no better, often keeping their high beams on, even when they’re just 20 feet back. i also, may or may not have outrun a police car. i’m not too scared of the cops anymore, so i’ll sometimes pass them (in this case, another car passed the cop first). afterwards, the cop put on his highbeams, then switched his lights so only his right beam was on (which i think is a sign for me to pull over). i figured that if he really meant it, he would put on his siren or pass me. but, i lost him in the dark. the third experience on my night trip was the road detour just outisde of juliaca. the nice paved road detoured into dirt…well, actually, into a desert-like terrain. a few minutes into the detour, i nearly drove into a ditch. at that point, i looked around, and noticed another bus a couple hundred yards away…to the side of me. luckily i was able to get back on course and follow the bus to safety.
tomorrow, i head to lake titicaca, then to chile, then to iguazu falls.
