The only bonus of things ever getting THAT bad is of course, that things can only get better!

Once the correct pump arrived and was successfully fitted we were essentially free to leave Cusco for good…BUT we still had the camera to wait for! Seing as we had the time and while we were at the mechanics anyway we asked a radiator man to check our leak and asked if he could do anything.
He looked at it for 4 hours, charged us $20 and said he couldn’t fix it as it meant taking the whole thing out…so essentially we had just paid $20 for him to look at it but we were beyond caring…PLUS, the mechanic who had fitted and removed 3 pumps, been to recover us twice, set fire to our engine AND stored our van for 3 days only charged us $48 so we drove away and decided to worry about the radiator another day.

From then on we decided to take a different view on things; everything had its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage – Luis had managed to work some magic at the offices with the camera and it was FINALLY on the bus to us in Cusco from Lima.
DISadvantage – We paid an additional $300 to get our camera and a MONTH of precious time!

Advantage – We had had time to deal with Peggy’s poor behaviour and get her road ready.
DISadvantage – It had been the fuel pump all along. The one thing we paid dearly to have replaced in Colombia! We had also replaced almost everything in the engine since!

We did still have a radiator leak but we decided that worse case scenario we could sling an egg in it and we would have a few more thousand miles!

Advantage – We had free accommodation and wifi for our stay in Cusco outside the hostel, only paying for showers.
DISadvantage – we doubly blew our budget having to stay in hotels while Peggy was fixed and in Taxi’s to a from the mechanics and pump shop!

Lessons learned…

Advantage – we believe that everything happens WHEN it happens for good reason.
DISadvantage – We can’t continue to moan about it!!

So..all that aside…we were almost free to get back on the road! We were ready to get to Chile and see something new. We had loved Peru so much and had such wonderful adventures with such great people but a month in one place is just too long for us.

We literally drove to the bus station and waited for the bus with our camera on it  to arrive . We watched the bus pull up, collected our package and sat in Peggy, ripped off the packaging and found some pictures on the camera from our friend in England and Luis which really made us smile, and a much appreciated bottle of Pisco, yet another gift from Luis!

We were so relieved! Finally we had a camera…but we were also so ready to leave so instead of our planned speed drive around Cusco to take all of the pictures we had missed out on…we literally drove out of town that very minute and hit the road towards the border!

The open road was bliss, we wound down the windows and enjoyed the wind in our faces and the watched the colourful landscape zoom past us. The camera was amazing and we took so many pictures as the sun slipped behind the snow capped mountains and cast an orange and pink glow on everything it touched. We were free again and it felt so good!

We drove until long after dark, trying to cover as much distance as we could. We managed 400km and when we stopped we laid and listened to the silence around us and appreciated it so much. No dogs, no cars, no roosters, no people just us, the moon, Peggy and the quiet.