PowerCycle

Made it back safe and sound. Lucked out this time and managed to get a spacious exit row seat for the 5 1/2 flight from Miami to Lima. What a difference compared to the squished up normal seats in coach. The flight took off just after midnight and although I was pretty tired it was impossible to sleep because even though I could stretch my legs out the seats in the exit rows don’t recline. The kid sitting next to me kept trying to worm over into my foot rest area so I had to bump him back over all night.

In Lima I had to disembark, collect my luggage, go through customs and check-in for the hour flight to Cusco on LAN Peru. Customs was easy. The lady didn’t look at me or ask me a single question. I got stamped in for 183 more days. Not a huge deal but the flight I was booked on at 6:30am was cancelled (mechanical issue I was told) so they had to book me on a flight 2 hours later. This set the tone for the rest of the day. I ended up getting a thing for a complimentary breakfast for the cancelled flight but the restaurant people can’t read and screwed up the order leaving me with a crappy little sandwich about as thick as a human hair.

The flight to Cusco was amazingly fast which was good because I was dead tired. The taxi driver at the airport overcharged me of course because taxi drivers in Latin America are generally just scumbag criminals with licenses.

First stop was the hotel. The “reservation” part of making a reservation must have not have been covered in hotel management class because the room I asked to be reserved was taken. They put me in a smaller room which isn’t horrible but come on. How hard is it to keep track of something like this?

Next stop was the bike shop. They were supposed to install a new chain, a new rear cassette and a new small and middle chain ring. The spokes were also supposed to be replaced with thicker ones and I’d asked for 6 to be set aside for spares. I also asked for the front/rear hubs to be cleaned and regreased and for the bottom bracket to be checked (there’s a tiny bit of side-to-side play in it). I told him I’d be back in 3 weeks to pick it up. I even left him my email address in case there was a problem.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in and my bike was sitting (unlocked) by the front door and not a single thing had been done to it. The lady working there seemed surprised too and although I appreciated the show of sympathy I still wanted to strangle her. She said for sure it would be ready the next day.

Today I went back over to see how they did with the 24 hours worth of work that they’d originally had 3 weeks to do. The chain was OK but it binds when you turn the pedals. The rear tire rubbed against the rack because they didn’t set it into the drops properly. Not sure how any breathing bike mechanic could miss this. Normally when you install a new chain you freaking check it. The rear cassette wasn’t a Shimano LX which is what I paid for–it’s something even lower quality than a Deore.

The small chain ring wasn’t changed at all (which is the one I need more than anything). The middle one was changed but it too is a low quality Shimano model. The large one was changed even though nothing was wrong with it and I didn’t want it replaced. The spokes are normal gauge ones; not the thicker ones I asked for and there were no spares. I doubt the hubs were cleaned and the bottom bracket is still loose. Truth be told I’m glad they didn’t touch them because they probably would have screwed them up.

In short, the people working at Team Bike on Calle Tullumayo in Cusco are freaking idiots (and arguably thieves since they installed lower quality parts than I paid for). Karin and Marten are in town and came over to help me explain to the lady that yes, they are idiots and the mechanic who worked on my bike sucks. Not surprisingly they don’t have and apparently can’t get the LX parts I wanted so we asked them to take off the cassette and the chain rings and put the old ones back on. At one point the lady actually said I should take my bike in a taxi for the 15 minute ride to see the mechanic because he didn’t want to come into the store. WTF.

Tomorrow I’ll head back over and get my bike and take it to another bike shop that’s supposed to be better. Even if they can’t get LX parts I’d rather give them my money for something else. I’m so glad I only paid these morons a small deposit before I left.

I’m about pretty sure at this point that I’m going to skip Machu Picchu. I can’t take too much more of the half ass way everything gets done in this country and trying to arrange the train/bus/hiking trip to the ruins is very unappealing considering the aggravation that’ll likely be involved. They just changed the park entry process to some online thing that no one understands and apparently doesn’t even work right. I’ve really enjoyed 99% of my time in Peru but I’m ready to move on.