I can’t believe this is only my second day in Peru. I’ve driven about 800 miles in Peru already.
I’m in Lima, Peru right now, driving a little faster than I want to. Why? Because there is a certain desire to finish this journey and go home. It is definitely starting to tax me. I need to take some time off, but I don’t seem to have the time. I knew this trip was going to be stressful. But this stressful? I had no idea… If I knew, I may have stayed home.
But I’m on the other side of the world now and it’s too late to turn around. I need to go another 5000 miles to get to my destination.
But the problems are definitely piling up. Although my Spanish is somewhat getting better, it’s my car that’s giving me the most problems. My brakes are still fairly bad, although it doesn’t seem to be getting worse. The accelerator is sticking, and today I visited someone named Rico, who seems to be running some kind of a car workshop. He fixed me up with some rubber band to keep the accelerator from sticking, but it’s only temporary. Hopefully, it doesn’t break, but I got another set just in case. I just never thought it would come to something like this.
Which brings me to my biggest regret right now: buying this Mercedes. There are absolutely none down here, or anywhere I’ve travelled in Latin American for that matter. I’ve seen a few, sure, but I should have brought a Nissan or a Hyundai or Toyota or Kia. They’re much easier to find and easier to fix, and I don’t think I’d be worrying too much if I had those right now, although who knows, I might have had more troubles with those cars, but at least I would have been able to fix them.
Also, I am regretting that I sold my 94 Honda Accord before I left. Sure, there were some things wrong with it, but I still liked that car. It was my parents’ insistence that I get something newer so that it doesn’t give me as much trouble. But it wasn’t giving me much trouble other than the fact that it was lowered. I’m going to buy a newer Accord, a 2004, but I could have definitely used the cash for something else.
I dislike Lima with a passion. It’s not as bad as Colon, but it seems to be almost as bad city with 8 million people. I drove through communities all left in ruins to seemingly rot, and there are only glimmers of delightful places. I think I would have driven straight through and stayed somewhere else if I could have. I was hoping to find a decent mechanic here but it’s way too big. And everything is fenced in, so much so that it’s scary just looking at it.
I think if I wasn’t having so many problems with my car, though, I wouldn’t be so worried. But hell, it’s all part of the adventure, right? And I still have another month and a half to finish the journey, sell the car, and get back to the world that I know and love.
Being down here makes me appreciate what I have so much. I am truly lucky to have been given the opportunity to grow up and study in the United States. It truly is the land of opportunity, and it’s all so much more obvious through my travels. My mother had the gift of foresight. And the gift of patience. I don’t know how she waited so long to get to where we are today.