Paul has resolved the cause of our latest rattle. Something about the screws inside the brake servo pump coming loose. As this was new back in Belize and has only done about 3 months worth of driving days we were originally dismayed to think this might be a problem and much relieved it could be fixed with an allen key and some locking compound. We then took Landy into Latacunga for a test drive on Wednesday to make sure everything was working OK. We decided to set our leaving day as Sunday, giving us time to re-sort and re-pack the car after living in the cafe for seven weeks. On Friday we opened the tent up and gave it an anti-bug treatment inside. To do this we had to get out our mattress and duvet and took this as a good excuse to use them to sleep on instead of our sleep mats and sleeping bags – wonder why we didn’t do this much sooner!!
JCB drags car out
On Saturday we went off to Sigchos for a final meal in a restaurant there and to say our own personal goodbyes to the town. On the way back we pulled up behind a series of cars by the side of the road. One was stuck in the ditch, having skidded there when the driver braked on the muddy road. Everyone was helping out by digging away the edge of the road to reduce the level of tilt, until the local JCB driver turned up to finish off the job of pulling him out. As we all left, the main task of rescue completed, the driver was working out how to change the rear tyre, the only significant or obvious damage.
First thing Sunday morning I finally went to one of the homes where guinuea pigs are bred for the cafe, although many of the locals have breeding areas in the back of their homes. After a final lunch in the cafe and a tearful farewell we finally completed the drive round the Quilotoa Loop (the reason we were driving through Yalo in the first place, seven weeks ago). The scenery was amazing, all steep sided mountain valleys shrouded in misty clouds. The hillsides are all hand cultivated – no machinery could operate on fields set on a 60 degree slope. At one point we were driving at an elevation of over 4,000 metres, and we’re pleased to report Landy coped well at that height.
In a few places the road is being repaired. At one such place we came up behind what we found out was a saloon car stuck in the mud. In front of that was a Collectivo full of passengers definitely stuck in the mud. Paul put Landy in low range and we attempted to get past, but with little room to move we too got stuck in the mud just past the Collectivo. Our plan (obviously one of mice and men in this case) was to winch the other two clear once we had got past but now we had visions of ground anchors and winch ropes just to get ourselves out of the mud. Actually, mud is not a truly accurate word to describe what we were stuck in – more like a mud infused oil slick.
pulling himself along
Just as Paul was climbing out of the driver’s door he saw a large, loud, apparition creeping up the passenger side. A large Caterpillar earth mover was waving his bucket in front of him as he used it to pull himself along on his tracks. Getting ahead of us, our winch rope was soon attached to his bucket instead of a ground anchor as he pulled us free. It was a little alarming to see even his huge tracks slipping in the slippery oily mud. Once our rope had been deployed on the other vehicles that had been stuck we were off again, guessing the earth mover will be there most of the day moving various vehicles back and forth across this stretch of ‘road’ as we couldn’t imagine many being able to make it unaided.
Finally, we ended up back in Latacunga where we will be staying for two nights of hot showers before we move on to meet up with our contacts in Banos.
