After leaving Huacachina, we continued south. Our next proper stop was going to be Arequipa on Monday (20th) to meet up with Joanne whom we'd met in Santiago, and was now volunteering in Peru. Everything had been going smoothly. We'd even managed another dip in the sea at a beach en route where we stopped for lunch. But about 90km from Arequipa, Paul suddenly realised the brakes weren't working properly!! Luckily, we weren't in a dangerous situation; he managed to get the van over to the hard shoulder and glide to a stop with the minimal braking power we had. It wasn't a problem with the actual brakes - Paul said it felt like the power assistance had failed, so we were able to stop, but only very gradually.
We were in the middle of nowhere so decided to drive on for a bit very slowly to see if there was a mechanic in the next town a couple of kilometres away. There wasn't, but the officer at the police station advised us to go back to a small town about 10km away. The return journey was mostly uphill, so not too scary. After a bit of asking around, we were directed to a mechanic who seemed to be operating on a farm (there were cows in a pen not far from the tarpaulin shelter he came out from behind). But when he didn't appear to know how to operate a jack, we told him not to worry and continued our search for a proper mechanic!
We eventually found one who actually tested the brakes for himself. He then checked the rear brake pads, but of course they were new, so no problem with them. He said he wanted to check the front ones as well, but by this time it was about 6.30pm so he told us to return in the morning. Fortunately, there was a petrol station nearby which had a truck park behind it and they let us camp there for the night.
Enter Mechanic Paul! Frustrated with the mechanic checking the brake pads when the problem was clearly to do with the power assistance, Paul decided to do some of his own diagnostics, armed with just a head torch and a basic tool kit.
About 20 minutes in, he goes: "Christine, can you get me a plastic bag and lots and lots of toilet paper, please?"
When I stepped outside in to the dark, Paul looked like a mad scientist who'd just ripped the heart out of an animal - he had his head torch on, his hands were covered in oil and he was holding a small part that had oil dripping out of it.
He'd figured out that the vacuum pump didn't seem to be working. While it was good to know what the problem might be, it was also worrying because it would probably be very difficult to get a replacement pump - practically impossible before we were due to fly home.
After a restless night's sleep, the next morning Paul cleaned the pump and refitted it, hoping that it might help.
It didn't. By this stage, we were thinking we might have to have the van towed to northern Chile, where we'd have to sell it for what we could get before flying home.
With our mood rather low, we headed back to the mechanic to see if Paul's diagnosis was right. He agreed that the failing pump was probably the problem and after checking that everything else was as it should be, he spotted that a small part of the pump had worn away, so it wasn't spinning properly.
I half expected him to say "You need a new part, love" (or whatever the Spanish equivalent is) but instead, he took the pump to his workbench and started welding!
When he came back, he'd welded some metal on to the pump to replace the bit that had worn. Paul and I both said, "This will be amazing if it works." And bloody hell it did!! We couldn't believe it!! From thinking we might have to be towed back to Chile, to being back on the road, in half an hour!! And even more crazily, he only wanted to charge us 20 soles (less than a fiver!) so we gave him extra for a beer.
After testing the brakes (and our seatbelts), we headed back on the road to Arequipa. I started messaging Joanne to tell her we were on our way, but before I could even send the message, we were brought to a halt by a march in the road.
The townspeople had gone on strike, so lunch in Arequipa was off the cards! We joined a queue of traffic (protected by riot police) and ended up sat in the van with the engine off for about two hours.
We found a way to pass the time though (and also found that the mobile phone holder, which is too small for either of our phones, holds a deck of cards perfectly!)
After a couple of hours the march ended, so we did eventually make it to Arequipa and Joanne, and were rewarded with beers bigger than my head!
