Day 31: Some maintenance and arriving in Peru (246 kms)

It was time for an oil change so we spent the morning at a garage in Machala doing this and some other routine maintenance. The mechanic's name was Raul and his preferred approach was to work on four vehicles at any one time. He was easily distracted.

His approach was not in line with health code either. The photo shows him cleaning my chain. He used his air hose to suck up gasoline from a can and sprayed it as a pressurized mist to clean the chain and sprocket. This mist was carried by the wind directly into the open window of another customer (who was waiting for Raul to return to finish a halfway completed oil change).

As we were leaving our hotel around 1pm a crowd of about 45 onlookers gathered to see us depart. The number was high, but the scene was typical.

The crossing into Peru was uneventful except that we missed the aduana building and had to backtrack the 15kms or so.

Once in Peru, we followed the Panamericana along the coast to Mancora, a little fishing and surfing town where I had my first of (many?) ceviches in Peru.