After eight bike shops in four hours I gave up. I managed to buy a replacement saddle (mine had broken in two places) and a couple spare tubes. My rear rack, which I had partially welded in La Paz, had broken again in two places and was completely trashed. People took one look at it and shook their heads, “no hay”, they have nothing like that.

Meanwhile, my fancy spare $45 Schwalbe Marathon tire did not sit on the rim well and kept popping off when I inflated it. I had never seen that before. The bike mechanics were puzzled too. I finally called Schwalbe and asked them about it. The guy said , “it must be out of spec. due to a manufacturing error. You can send it back for a replacement.” Great. Thanks a lot. So I needed three new tires now, and found zero.

So I resigned myself to the fact I would be stuck in Lima for a time. After several phone calls and research I found replacements for the rack and tires on the internet and ordered them expedited to Peru which will take about five days. Then I can only pray they will get through customs.

It´s not all bad. There are worse places to be stuck for a week. There are plenty of museums here and no shortage of things to do. But I am already behind schedule and this will not help. Watch this space.