Neblina

9 Aug Oh, how I despise you, neblina. And I especially loathe "zona de neblina". The day started out just fine. We left Nazca and were making good time until we got stuck in fog. It was treacherous. Trucks slow down to a crawl and cars still don't have the patience to wait behind slower moving vehicles. Some of the passing we saw was crazy. Fortunately, Roger actually demonstrated some patience and waited until the visibility was such that passing was possible. He really likes the get up and go of our engine, despite it's gas mileage. We routinely pull into gas stations knowing that we want gas and the attendants think we really should be using diesel. For this reason alone, Roger is very glad that he bought a locking gas cap. The road from Nazca begins inland and drops back down to the coast. I miss guardrails too. Just seeing partial guardrails with big gaps, makes me want complete rails. The drive was a gray, dreary day, but it's winter so I guess that's what I should expect. Think California coast, only sandy, brown and with a lot more hairpin turns and coastal drop offs. I just wish oncoming trucks would stay in their lanes on sharp turns. Roger had to stop our progress several times to avoid getting hit. I love my "conductor"! I also had to cover up the pet window, because I didn't like seeing the drop off, despite trying not to look. From Camana, the road heads inland and that's where we encountered fog again. We finally got above the fog and were on the Pampas de Sihuas. I do not know what pampas translates to, but to us it means "wide open dry desert that Peru Hwy 1 crosses. There is farming where there's irrigation, but other than those locations it is like a dust bowl. Virtually no plant life. The road takes a southward turn near Arequipa, and we passed over some more mountains, thru two very narrow tunnels, and ended up on Pampa de la Yoya. We've stopped at a Grifo (gas station brand), we asked permission and the owner said yes and that his station is very safe. He also told us that the police routinely patrol the streets, so it's muy tranquilo. The station owner said that we should leave later tomorrow and take a look around his town, Cocochacra. It looks brown to us, with a few random cacti. Hopefully we'll be in Arica, Chile tomorrow evening, if we don't see neblina again.