New boots

Our faith in Peruvians was well and truly restored on Monday (16th) when we met two of the nicest people we've met so far on this trip.  Our joy at finally finding the official Fiat parts shop was short-lived when it turned out they had neither our windscreen nor CV boots (the rubber cover around the wheel joint) in stock.  We suspended our search for the windscreen and were sent around the corner to The Street Of Shops That Sell Car Spares to hunt for CV boots.  After asking in a few shops with no success we got to Roberto.

He was the first guy to actually come and have a look at the van to see for himself what size we needed.  He then spent ages looking up the part number and specifications, and when he didn't have it in stock, instead of sending us to the next shop like the others had done, he called a load of shops for us.  

(Roberto on the phone!)

Alas, the exact part we needed remained elusive, but Roberto did have one of a similar size (it's the end diameters that are important, he explained) and said we could at least try it.  When we asked if he could recommend a mechanic, he got back on the phone until he found somewhere with enough headroom that could fit us in straight away.  He even sent his son, Alejandro, with us to give directions, and said if the part didn't fit, he'd send an alternative to the garage!  

The Friendly People Gods must have felt they owed us a debt after the weekend because the garage owner, Manuel, was just as genuinely friendly and helpful as Roberto.  

When we arrived, Manuel and his staff were in the process of rearranging cars so we could get the van in.  Then both of his mechanics spent the rest of the afternoon working on it.  

With the wheels off, we got to see the steering joints properly and how the scammers had painted them black to make them look new.

Below is one of the bits we were having replaced.  The ring of rubber in the middle had split from the piece in Manuel's right hand.  

After seeing the amount of grit in the grease in the joint we realised the covers must have been damaged a while ago and so probably weren't cut by the scammers.  In fact they may well have done us a favour by helping us notice the problem before it became bigger and more expensive!

The new covers we were having fitted turned out to be a bit shorter than the originals, so Manuel drove us back to Roberto's shop to see if he had a closer match!  We couldn't believe how far out of their way they both went to help us.

After deciding that we already had the closest match we were going to get, we headed back to the garage to put everything back together.  

Three hours later and we were back on the road!

All for the unbelievably low cost of £19 for parts and £44 in labour.