We are in Guayaquil, Ecuador and have made arrangements to ship the
vans to Balboa, Panama. The ship leaves on Thursday and we are flying
to Panama City on Friday.
We've had a great time with my daughter, Jennifer, who is flying back
to California this afternoon. She's had a real sample of the life of
Caravana: altitude sickness in Cuzco, sunburned twice, diarrhea, and
major bugbites including infected fly bites requiring antibiotics. She's
driven from sea level to 16,000 feet and back down in one day, including
a rainy, foggy, dark mountain pass. In addition, the automotive aspect
was thorough in that my tires, which survived all of the Patagonian
gravel, finally gave it up. We got stuck in the sand on the beach and
2 days later, in Cañon del Pato, Peru, the tires started blowing.
I had 2 flats and Tyler had one, so we had NO spares at all and we were
stranded at least 2 hours from the coast. Many thanks to the great soul
who advised me to bring along an inner tube. It got us out of
the canyon and to Trujillo for new Michelin tires.
This isn't to say that we haven't had fun! It's been wonderful and
exciting for all of us. We visited Machu Picchu as well as Cuzco, the
floating islands of Lago Titicaca, Arequipa, the Nazca lines, Punta
Hermosa (a beach just south of Lima), Lima, the Cordillera Blanca (a
part of which is Cañon del Pato, an unbelievable desert canyon
which scared the heck out of Jenn), the northern Atacama desert, and
Guayaquil, Ecuador). I'll miss her more than I can say.
As soon as I have the total cost of shipping, I will
post it since the Other Caravana group may find the
information useful.
Jeanne
