The AN•visible 

• The Story of La Perla •

La Perla is the only car of the Heart of AN. Since we live one kilometer from the main road, she provides a vital service of transporting us and supplies. We were without her presence from May 18 – June 8. Here is her story….

On May 18 in the midst of our May Events, our seven year old car, La Perla broke down in the middle of the road on the way back from running errands in Urubamba. The motor simply stopped working. A closer inspection showed that the motor was extremely overheated and there were no fluids left in the cooling system. After filling the cooling system with water, which some nearby workers donated, and waiting until the motor cooled down, the engine simply did not start any more. The dashboard definitely showed no sign of overheating in the cooling system.

A friend and neighbor fortunately arrived to help. We first put another gallon of cooling fluids into the system (which an hour earlier was already completely full of water) – but we could see the fluids dripping out of the system under the car. The friend had a rope and towed La Perla to the nearby town of Calca. On the way, there the tow rope broke.

Two days later, the mechanic in Calca told us that they couldn’t fix our car, so we had to take the car to mechanics in Cusco. Meanwhile we contacted our car insurance company, but the only thing they were willing to pay for, (after another friend talked about 6 hours with them on the phone), was to tow the car to Cusco.

So on May 22, La Perla was brought to Cusco accompanied by Emanaku. The insurance company refused to pay for a rental car. The insurance inspector said that neither the cooler, nor any tubes had visibble holes, it couldn’t be considered as road damage.  Emanaku returned to the Heart of AN in a rental car since we need to have transportation here.

The diagnosis was that we needed to replace a part of the engine which had melted – which cost about US $2000 . But this part had to be ordered – and then there was a strike in Lima, so the part was delayed.

Finally the engine part got mounted, and Emanáku drove to Cusco in the rental car to pick up La Perla. After he returned the rental car, he went to pick up our car. But, after replacing the vital parts of our motor which had melted, the mechanics had just discovered that the pump of the cooling system was leaking. And we would now need to order a new pump. We had finally found the original cause of the problem!

The damaged part of the engine and the leaking cooling pump.

The pump was ordered and installed a few days later; then many tests were done. Finally on June 8, Emanáku could pick up La Perla and bring her home – exactly three weeks after it happened. Total cost for the repairs and the rental car is US $2900.

Now La Perla sounds like new and is happy to be back at the Heart of AN! We are very relieved to have her home.

We are asking for support with this unexpected expense and are deeply grateful for any kind of help with this.