this morning i drove to vilcibamba….which is a really really small town about 45min south of loja. there’s nothiing to do in the city….although there are apparently some nice hotels/hikes nearby. i didn’t have time to spend a whole day or night…..so i drove back to loja in search of catacocha. in loja, i met a nice guy from catacocha, and he recommended a hotel….and told me that the food there was really really awful. it took me a bit longer to get there, since i took a wrong road for about 45min….but made it. the drive to there was literally through the clouds — it was nice to escape the cool dry heat from below. catacocha is a really small mountain town. i got a nice hotel room there for $10, which was literally across the street from the main church and plaza….not bad. i’ve never seen a church as packed as that one (then again, i raarely visit churches that are in session)…..i think the whole town must have been in there (minues a few people, who still had their shops open).

the next morning i decided to get my tire fixed. earlier, when driving from panama to colon to dropp off the car at the port, i ran over something big and hard. it created two puncutres on thee side wall of the tire. in the us, you’d probably throw the tire away. here, with tires being very expensive (about 1.5 – 2x the price in the us), they find ways to patch them. using some rubber cement, some old tire rubber and an inner tube, he patched it up…..all for $14 ($6 labor, $8 parts). i hope the patch works (i didnt have a chance to test it yet).

the drive down to the peru/ecuador border in macara was more of the same. however, the peru/ecuador border there was the best so far. this year, they’ve only gotten 85 tourist vehicles (mostly motorcycles) — it’s a pretty slow/calm crossing point. in ecuador, they checked me for h1n1 (blood pressure, pulse and looked at my throat), then i handed in some papers and drove across the little bridge to peru. peru’s immigration was also really easy; although, it was much lower tech than ecuador’s. in ecuador they use a printer to stamp your passport with several lines of information. in peru, they did everything (including car immigration stuff) with pen and paper.

i then proceeded to drive to chiclayo….getting there about 6pm. northern peru is like northern mexico, but with better radio. the landscape is a desert/sahel. some places actually remind me a bit of timbuktu…..with a row of small shacks/houses….and then nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. unfortunately, like mexico, it’s also got little shanty towns all along the freeway, which have poor little shacks, garbage all around, and smell bad. chiclayo seems like a nice little city…and i stayed at a really friendy hotel (hotel santa catalina). the owner’s son just moved back and is in the process of transforming it into a backpacker hostel. he’s got some exciting ideas, and is in the process of changing the name to Muchik hostel. Ogres (the son), then took me to a nice little restaurant, showed me a parking lot for the car…..and told me some bad news: the drive to huaraz (to meet francois and tessa) is actually like 13-15 hrs…..on the map it looks like 6. welll…..off to bed, since tomorrow i’m waking up at 5am.

today, i drove from cuenca to loja. it was another scenic drive through the mountains. this time, though, part of the drive was along really steep mountains….which made you feel pretty small and powerless.

i’ve driven almost 10,000 miles in just under 2 months. i’ve also passed into the southern hemisphere! if you’re wondering about gas…here’s some data from the trip thus far:
+so far, i’ve burned almost 310 gallons. my average mpg is about 31.
+so far, i’ve spent about $800 on gasoline.
+so far, the most expensive gas station has been one in nicaragua (costing $4/gal).
+so far, the cheapest gas has been in ecuador (price at all stations is $1.48/gal).
+so far, the average gas price has been about $2.60.
+i’ve just started switching to super (instead of regular). the high altitude here is causing engine knock…hopefully the super will minimize that. super here costs about $2.10/gal — so it’s much more expensive than regular.
+so far, 99.99% of gas stations have been full-serve (vs. self-serve).
+so far, i’m only aware of one gas station attendant that tried to rip me off (by charging an extra $10 to the credit card….luckily i caught the ‘error’ in time).

i have all the numbers written down….so if you’re interested in more detailed information, please add a comment.