I love coffee.  I used to drink coffee to keep me awake during 24-hour halibut fishing openers in Kodiak.  I has a skipper on my crab boat that brought a 50lb bag of Espresso beans on the boat and would make the crew freshly ground super strong coffee BEFORE he woke us up every day.  I really came to love coffee shortly after I met Michelle.  I was at her cabin on Goldhill Road one night and she made me coffee with vanilla ice cream in it.  It changed my life.

I prefer my coffee in a large cup with a teaspoon and a half of sugar and Coffeemate (TM).  Many people have suggested cream or half and half to me, like I’m missing out on something.  I have to say here that Coffeemate (TM), for me, adds a wonderfully delicious flavor to my sweetened coffee that I totally enjoy.  No other non-dairy creamer adds the same flavor as Coffeemate (TM), nor does cream, etc.  Just to be clear.

Michelle and I have been drinking hazelnut coffee for as long as I can remember.  It used to be that the only place in Fairbanks you could get it was at Country Kitchen, but as the coffee movement in the USA grew, it became more widely available.  At some point we switched from fresh ground coffee to Folgers hazelnut coffee.  With six kids, you do what you can to save money.

Coffee availability in SA was a big concern for us.  Mary and Brian had been to Ecuador not too long before we were heading there and told us there was no good coffee in Ecuador.  This was pretty horrifying   What about the rest of SA?  We were going to Colombia so thing should be pretty good, right?  Just in case, we stocked up on Folgers in Florida before we shipped the camper over.  I think we had like 8 cans of coffee.  We also had a giant can of Coffeemate (TM).

In Colombia it turns out that most of the coffee there is for export.  When I was picking up the van and trailer from the port I was in a warehouse filled with coffee.  And I mean filled. One hundred pound burlap sacks stacked on pallets and then stacked on top of each other something like 40 feet high.  It was all unroasted coffee beans.  It reminded me of the warehouse they stuck the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  It was an unbelievable amount of coffee.  Inconceivable really.

As we drove south all too quickly through Colombia we came to the city of Caucasia. We saw our first supermarket in SA and screeched to a halt on the side of the road to head in.  We stocked up on many groceries, but one of the things we bought was a 5 kilo bag of ground coffee.  It was something like $35.  It turns out we should have bought more.

Our giant bag of coffee was pretty good stuff.  I have to say, Colombian coffee is really good.  We didn’t have any coffee worries at all through Ecuador.  We didn’t run out until our lengthy stay in Puno.  At the supermarket in Puno (Plaza Vea) they sold some coffee that turned out to be tolerable.  Altiplano was the brand.  It was pretty expensive, at least compared to the prices of other things in Peru, which were generally pretty cheap.  It was about $7 a pound.  One night we stopped into a smaller market that had coffee for sale in plastic bags.  It smelled pretty good so we bought it.  It was $5 for two pounds.  It was terrible and still sits in the cupboard to this day.

We has a lot of hopes for Chile after spending two months in Peru.  Good coffee was one of them.  Oh well.  So far we have tried four or five different brands of coffee in Chile.  They were all OK, but Chile itself is pretty expensive and coffee is no exception.  It runs $10 a pound for cheaper stuff (Haiti brand or Colombia brand) but quality coffee is way up there. Juan Valdez brand (REALLY!) from Colombia is $20 a pound.  We have not bought it.

We have quite a bit of our Folgers hazelnut coffee left, but it turns out that we are not liking it so much.  We ran out of Coffeemate (TM) a long, long time ago and it seems hazelnut Folgers is not the same without it.  Especially black.  Many of you who have been to our house may already have known this.  We did not, since we had been adding stuff to our coffee.  I don’t know what this means for us when we get home.  Will we continue to drink strictly Folgers hazelnut?  I don’t think so.  I am looking forward to moving back to fresh ground coffees of many varieties .  I am hoping to have a few or several different types of coffee on hand for whatever mood suites me.  But first I must talk about an unforeseen development.  NESCAFE!

The coffee aisles in supermarkets (or any market that has coffee) are filled with instant coffee.  Seriously.  There is something like 3 feet of shelf space for ground North American style coffee and then 25 feet of instant stuff.  Ryan had brought some Nescafe from the US with us and we (Michelle and I) decided to try it.  It turned out to be not so bad.  Really.  We followed the directions exactly to see what it would be like and it was pretty good!  Best of all, it was really easy to make.  Just heat up some water and pour it over the instant coffee in a cup.  No need to get out the generator and the coffee maker, find the filters, measure out X amount of coffee, make sure we have enough water (always an issue in SA since any water we consume, we buy), etc.  Most importantly, since we have all moved to black coffee (except for Ryan, who was already there), it tasted good.  And we can make it quickly anytime anywhere, which can be pretty important when you’re traveling like we are.

Now I’m not saying we are switching to instant coffee on a permanent basis.  I don’t really know what this means.  I am still looking forward to stocking up on coffee as I mentioned earlier in this post.  I am curious to see what happens when we get back.  I can certainly see the advantages instant coffee can present when you need coffee pretty bad.

One thing I know, I sure do miss good coffee.

March 13 was the scheduled departure from Puno.

The night before, we had a sad goodbye with the Grifo folks.  Ryan helped them with an English lesson CD on their computer for awhile and we looked through our hard drive of music and listened to Whitney Houston and Madonna (their choice).

We woke up early, secured the camper for travel and ventured into town one last time to pick up some last minute supplies – also Annabelle, Sylvia and Max wanted to climb to the top of the Mirador.  The Mirador sits on a hill above Puno, a 1,027 foot ascent up steep streets to a staircase of 622 steps.  Half of us had already climbed so Mark took the kids while Jack, Ryan and I ran to the mercado.  Jennah stayed in the camper.  The plan was to meet up at noon and have lunch and then leave for Chile.

We split up and Ryan, Jack & I headed for Scotia Bank (yes, there is a Canadian bank here) to withdraw money.  When we got to the ATM, I didn’t have the card.  I have the only card as Mark lost his wallet at the gas station with the sodium cyanide trucks.  I guard the ATM card – where could it be?  I think you all know the answer this already.  We began the ascent of the Mirador but I was certain Mark didn’t have the card, we had stopped to buy something on the way into town and he didn’t seem to have the card.  We texted Jennah but she couldn’t find the card so we grabbed a taxi and returned to the camper where the card was not found.  We hopped a combi and returned to wait for Mark.

And guess what.  Mark had the card.

We still had shopping to do and lunch so we decided to just postpone leaving.  Because we like Puno.  We spent a wonderful last day shopping and talking with Puno friends.  Ryan and Jack got interviewed and video taped by a team of high school students who had a project for their English class.

School here is all boys or all girls and everyone wears a uniform.  Sylvia LOVES the uniforms.  She asked me if there were any schools in Fairbanks she could go to wear she could wear a uniform – and I said home school requires a uniform!  So she is most excited to buy one, they sell them everywhere.  There were some things I wanted to buy anyway.  They sell these things I would call knitted sock tights.  They are thickly knitted footless tights and they are $2.40 USD a pair so I bought Sylvia two more pairs.  So warm for winter!  Annie didn’t think they were very stylish.  Ryan got his hair cut ($1.60 USD) and the daily lightning and thunderstorm rolled over the lake so we headed to the van to wait out the rain (we hardly ever drive the van, we usually take a combi but we had a lot of groceries to buy so we left Trek inside to guard the van).  We got to the van, hung out with Trek, dropped off our bags and waited out the storm.  Once it passed, we headed to the music store so Jack could buy a mamaquena.  He has been wanting one since before we arrived.

Jack, Jennah and Ryan headed to dinner and the rest of us went to the mercado.  We had to do the last vegetable and fruit shopping trip.  We returned to the van to drop off the bags and the mamaquena before heading to Plaza Vea, the hyper mercado, for water.

Mark went to open the back of the van but the lock had been smashed in!  The door was unlocked!  We do not keep the generator in the car but all of Mark’s tools are there and I left my smartphone in the car because of the rain.  It appears that someone tried to break in and then Trek kept them out.  We gave Trek a lot of love and praise! Mark decided to run to Plaza Vea while we stayed in the van as the back door no longer locked.  Its a quick trip, we were a block away.  Max, Annie, Sylvie and I were sitting in the car when the bad guy returned!  Outside there is very loud music playing all the time (at this time, it was Jump!) so he must not have even thought to look for people in the car.  Trek growled and I looked toward the back and the guy was trying to open the back door!  I told the kids to STAY THERE and jumped out of the van with my keys in attack mode but the door opening made the guy run away faster than I could catch him – and really what would I have done if I had caught him?  It was very exciting.

Mark returned with water and there were 4 excited different versions of the story.  We returned to the grifo where the folks there were incredulous that this had happened to us twice!  In the morning, Mark took the smashed lock out and headed to a shop where they are repairing it so we will be able to lock the door.  We are waiting for his return to leave Puno.  The Grifo folks came and got Ryan to fix their printer and then wanted him to go to  Sillustani to pick avocados in the avocado field but its a 3 hour trip so he stayed here.  Or else we would never leave Puno.

Like everything else in Peru, the lock was carefully saved and rebuilt where in America it would have been thrown away and a new one ordered.  It cost $18 to rebuild the lock.  While the lock was being rebuilt, Jack & Ryan hopped a combi into town to pick up a few guinea pigs as farewell presents for the Grifo family and some seeds for the garden in Alaska.

We are heading to the Atacama having decided to skip Bolivia.  24 days on the shores of Lake Titicaca has been enough like Bolivia that we decided we didn’t want the hassle right now.  We may change our mind later but at this time, begging for gas sounds pretty awful.  Bolivia is even poorer than Peru and that is hard, too.  Other overlanders have told us that we should bring rice to give people as gifts.  Also it is the rainy season and the salt flats are muddy.  Bolivia is officially on hold.

We said another goodbye to the Grifo people.

Repair #1 was changing the transmission fluid and seeing if we could get the code read.  The fluid was burnt, brown and stinky, not red like it was supposed to be.  We got the fluid changed for $20.  I would do it myself normally but it requires removing the whole transmission pan and disposing the old fluid.  I didn’t want to have to figure out how and where to get rid of the old fluid, plus I usually get covered with the stuff and I didn’t want to do that either.  For $20, it was a no-brainer.   The new fluid cost $50 and was a pain to find.  The guy changing the fluid for me has his friends drive me around to six different “lubricantes” stores looking for Ford tranny fluid, a rarity in Peru.  After an hour and the second visit to one store, we found two gallons.  I made the guys who drove me around take $4 for the effort.  They didn’t want it until I suggested they buy themselves some beer.   The scanner the mechanic had didn’t fit our old Ford computer plug, so no reading.  The code light began flashing again on my way from the repair shop to our camping spot (a gas station, of course).  Frustrating.

Repair #2 was installing new front brake pads.  I had already put new pads on once in Ecuador.  We had come down a massive 6,000 foot mountain decent (one of at least a dozen so far) and the pads were smoking and making the “change me now!” sound.  We stopped at a gas station on the highway and Ryan and I took a taxi into the town another 1,000 feet down the hill.  The driver drove us to a part store and by some miracle, there were Ford F-250/350 pads there for $20.  I couldn’t believe it!    Anyway, $20 pads wear out pretty fast in the Andes and it was time for a change in Abancay, especially with a new venture into and up and down the Andes ahead.   In Ecuador there were lots of Ford trucks and cars, but Peru was different.  I wouldn’t see a Ford for days, and when I did it was at least 40 years old.  There were no pads in Abancay.  In South America, that doesn’t matter.  Why?  Because you just go to the brake specialist who grinds off what ‘s left of your pad off the shoe (think asbestos, shirt over mouth in front of bench grinder job), puts on some nasty smelling glue, and cuts new pads to custom fit your shoe.  Not only that, but Abancay, being at 8,500 feet on the way to Cusco, meant these guys knew brakes.  At least 60% of the streets in this town were at least 20% grade, with several being well beyond 30%.  San Francisco has NOTHING on this place.  Now I have the best looking metallic pads I’ve ever seen on the van, at a cost of $28.

Repair #3 We have been having problems with the van starting and I couldn’t figure out why.  Starting the van had devolved into getting out the generator, hooking up the battery charger and making several attempts to get her going every day.  I was getting pretty frustrated.  I had the starting system checked in Denver (a long time ago) and it was determined we needed a new alternator, which we got, but everything else checked out.  The current theory was we needed new battery cables, or possibly new batteries (we take two).  I yanked the 3 cables in question (one got replacedearlier, in Texas, I think) and went off to find new ones.  I ended up with three guys back at the van who, after a few minutes, I learned didn’t understand my problem, even though “necesarios nuevos cables” was pretty straightforward, I thought.  I’m pretty sure they were just trying to get some money out of me, so I sent them away.   When I disconnected the one battery cable from the starter solenoid, I found that the generator/charger method of starting the car had taken its toll on the connection.  The plastic cap on the solenoid where the cable connects had cracked due to too many starting attempts (I know, I know) and the bolt came right out of the unit.  At this point, Repair #3 evolved into something else.   Across the street from our gas station was a metal worker who we’ll discuss more in Repair #5.  I asked him if he could recommend a good auto electronic repair person in Abancay.  Yes, he said, see that aluminum door right up the street?  He is there.  I would have never known as there was no indication that any sort of shop was there at all.  Just a lovely house where he had his shop and worked out of.  I brought him the starter and the battery cables and found out my cables were just fine.  Thus endth Repair #3.  The starter, however, led to Repair #4.  

Repair #4 So now the starter (actually the solenoid) was missing the threaded part to bolt the cable from the batteries on to it.  I pretty much figured we would be stuck in Abancay for another week while a starter came in from I don’t know where.  I took the thing to the aforementioned mechanic up the street and showed him the problem.  It turns out this guy had been an automotive electrical mechanic for over 40 years and had saved EVERY spare piece to ever come off anything he worked on.  He took the solenoid apart, which involved melting solder and such, and found in his box of like 200 plastic solenoid caps the ONE (and only) to fit my solenoid.  Unbelievable!  He bench tested the starter, which worked fine, and the solenoid, again fine, and put them back together.  There was a problem.   There was no electrical contact in the solenoid to fire the starter.  He decided this was because the solenoid housing, a metal tube about 2 inches around and 4 inches long, was too long for the contact to be made with the new cap.  He sent me back down the street to the metal worker we’ll talk about shortly to cut off a quarter inch from the tube.  Two dollars to the metal worker and 30 minutes later, I was back.  Everything got put together and checked out great!  Back in action.  Total cost to the electrical mechanic: $27.50

Repair #5 This isn’t actually a repair, yet.  After the starter was reinstalled, it had a new problem where it would turn on and try to start the car even when the key was off and not even in the ignition!  Hmmmmm.  After all the other stuff that I had been dealing with up to this point, I was starting to lose it.  I’m sure the family would attest to that.  Michelle, ace researcher of the world, got on the internet and in a few quick minutes found some Q/A session where a guy with a Ford (maybe it was a Jeep) had the exact same problem.  The suggested treatment was to whack on the starter relay with something and see if the problem went away.  This was done and the car stopped trying to start itself!  Hooray!  Problem identified.  However, now the car wouldn’t start.  It turns out the relay was shot.   In retrospect, this problem had been getting worse and worse for at least two years. There had been several time in Fairbanks when it was cold I would have to start the car by jumping the relay with a screwdriver, so this really isn’t any surprise.  I yanked the relay and headed back to the electrical mechanic to see if he had one.  Out he yanked a “Made in the USA” relay from another box of about 50 of them, tested it (it worked like a champ) and for $8 more, I had another relay.  I have decided to keep using the old one with the screwdriver method and am saving the new (used) one as a backup for whatever reason I may need it.

Repair #6  As suspected, the batteries wouldn’t hold a charge.  Two new batteries, the car starts like it was brand new, every time.  $240 (Ouch!)

Repair #7 I had been having a problem with the weight distribution system hooking the trailer and van together.  The brackets on the trailer where the bars mounted were getting mangled.  I finally figured out this was because where the bars mount into the trailer hitch was wearing away.  After 25,000 miles on the last trip (this unit was acquired in Cody, Wyoming after the one we had broke) and another 12,000 on this trip, I again was not surprised.  To fix the problem I needed some metal added to the pivot points on the bars and the holes they went into on the hitch.  Here comes the aforementioned metal worker.  He fixed it all right up, turned them so everything was nice and smooth, all for a total of $20.  Plus he had sent me to the electrical mechanic who saved my sanity. And he gave me a few beers.  What a guy!

Repair #8  During all of this I decided it was a good time for an oil change.  I had done this in Texas, about 6,000 miles ago, so it was really necessary for another 1500 miles, but what the heck, right?  It turns out that with all the hauling the trailer up and down the Andes, the oil had started to break down.  When I pulled the plug, a way too thick black sludge started to come out.  Wow.  No wonder the engine temp had been rising faster lately.  Two gallons of oil and another $50 and The Blue Van is running like a champ.

All in all, we spent a week in Abancay for repairs with what was supposed to be a transmission fluid change.  It ended up being so much more, but getting all this done in a small town where I can get around easily (unlike the axle fire in Lima) was worth the time and money.  Knowing that all the problems I know of that had developed over the last few months have been addressed is a great feeling.  Much less stress for me.

Another food cart that we ate from had these banana shaped things that were filled with potato like things, but Mother said it was probably plantain. Yesterday Ryan and Mother went out for a vegan lunch. After they came back all of us went out. We meandered around, and stopped at a grocery store, where we got cookies and apple soda, which was… interesting. It started to get dark, so we headed back to the hotel around six. After that, Ryan and Dad headed out alone to get food alone. They came back with these little dough things filled with egg and cheese. I opted for having a bologna sandwich instead. There were various grocery stores around and Saturday night we bought bologna and bread to make sandwiches.

Today Dad left to go deal with the trailer and van stuff, since it’s ship arrived today. Mother thinks we’ll leave tomorrow.

Our hotel room(s) are small, with white walls. There’s a bunk bed in the corner, and the top bunk is right under the air conditioner, so it’s really cold at night. There’s a big bed where Dad/Mom sleep, and then a little bed that can slide underneath their bed, which is where I usually sleep. Though last night, I got to sleep in the bunk. Score! The bathroom is small, and the shower is situated between the toilet and sink, so it’s kind of hard to shower.
Jack and Ryan’s room had two beds of equal size, and their bathroom is actually seperated with a curtain. One day, the maids rearranged the sheet on the beds so it was shaped like a bow.
®©Jennah©®

We arrived in Cartagena, and when I stepped off the plane, it was so hot, I assumed it was from the plane engines. Unfortunately, not. It was always that hot.
We hailed a taxi to the hotel, where we had reserved two rooms. Ryan and Jack had one whilst Mother, Max, Annie, Sylvia and I had the other. The hotel had internet and air conditioning. We spent the remainder of the day in our hotel room, only leaving to get bread to eat from a bakery.

At nine o’clock the next morning, we stepped out into the heat to explore Cartagena. We meandered around, going to a castle, and whatnot. I started to almost pass out from lack of fluids and heat. We bought some sodas and went back to the hotel.

We got to the officer about 8:30 and gave Arturo the receipts.  He then had to go to customs to do things that are still unknown to me.  He dropped Ryan and I off at a Starbucks near his office where we were going to wait until he was done.  Then we could get the titles to the van and trailer back.

While at Starbucks, SC Line called and said we needed to have Hazardous Material paperwork filled out for the two propane tanks we had on the trailer. After a little investigation, I again found that this was something I needed a customs broker to do, and it would cost about $150 to $200.  Arturo was already costing us $170 and I didn’t want to spend more money, especially to ship two tanks I could buy when we got to Cartagena for less money.  So SC said they would take the tanks off for us.  I hope someone gets to use them on their grill or something.

One more mysterious piece of paperwork we needed was called the Bill of Lading.  I am told this is something like your boarding pass to a plane.  Arturo wanted to know who was going to handle it for us.  He could not.  We ended up contacting Martha Gonzalez, a freight forwarder, who was suggested by SC and said she could help us.  This turned out to be a great thing.

Martha was also in Doral and picked Ryan and I up at the Starbucks and took us to her office.  It turns out the bill of lading isn’t supposed to be issued until the vehicles got on the boat.  She works with SC Line regularly and personally know the owners.  Since we were a special case (hey now, you all pipe down!) she was able to get them to issue the paperwork early.  Also, Martha is from Colombia, and handles freight shipments all over South America.  She spent some time setting up our arrival in Cartagena so everything will go smoothly once we get there.  She also got me the opportunity to travel ON THE BOAT with the van and trailer (it’s about who you know)!  Unfortunately, the dogs could not accompany me, so I had to let that one go.  More about that later.  It’s too bad…..they even have a pool!

After about two hours of hanging out with Martha, everything was done.  She did have to hang onto the titles for the vehicles until they are loaded onto the boat.  This was in case customs had to inspect them to determine if they were stolen or not.  Apparently this is the biggest concern US Customs has for shipping vehicle out of the country.  Martha drove us to the metro station and we began our journey home.  It was about 1:45 pm.

Ryan and I were taking a Greyhound from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa.  We took the train from Doral (or wherever it was Martha dropped us off at) to Fort Lauderdale.  This took about an hour.  We then walked to the Greyhound staion, which was about 2 1/2 miles away.  We got there around 5:15 pm.  The bus  left at 7:00, so we went to get some food, our first of the day.  At this point I was pretty beat.

Our bus stopped in Orlando where we had to switch to another bus.  We had an hour layover and then head out to Tampa.  We got in at about 1:15 am.  Michelle and Max picked us up in my parents car and we got back to the house about 2 am.   Finally, the adventure within an adventure was over.

We are driving a van with a camper trailer down through Canada and then heading south towards Texas where we will pause for my older brother Ryan to take his SAT.  After our brief side track in Texas, we will head down through Mexico stopping along the way.  After we complete our Mexican exposure we set sail for Guatemala. Once through Guatemala we will continue southern through Honduras and then Nicaragua and then Costa Rica and finally Panama.  Panama marks the end of the Central American part of our venture.  We will have to find a ferry to take our vehicles over, otherwise we will have to fright them across which would be expensive and require lodging.  Once we make it into Colombia we head down into Peru.  All through this there will be loads of fun, shopping and other stereotypical American touristy ventures and hopefully a little bit of monkeys.  The next place we get to is one of the main milestones of this trip and that would be the country of Bolivia but Bolivia is not the end of this journey, for a matter of fact we are considering going as far as Ushuaia.  I kind of hope we go to Ushuaia because penguins live that far south.  After all that we come back to Alaska.

I will be taking with me some clothes and a jacket or two.  I won’t have cell reception but I will still take my phone for entertainment and such.  A few books will also be accompanying me. I play the bagpipes but because the bagpipe is a very expensive instrument I will only bring my chanter for fears that the journey might destroy it.  I have software called Celtic Pipes that allows you to play bagpipe sheet music on the computer, I will be using this as well as a few weekly check ins with my teacher via Skype.

I have most wonderful mother ever, she’s willing to home school me during an epic trip to South America; that gives parenting points.  My mom and I have been through a lot together, I remember when I broke my arm and my mother stayed at the hospital all night while I had surgery.  I also remember the first time my mom let me walk our local fair alone, I was so happy that day because I finally could go be a kid with my friends.  I make sure to stay out of trouble so my mom and I will continue to have a healthy relationship. I love you mommy.