Yet another extraordinary coincidence yesterday.You should first be aware that the Old Dear has a charging system problem. Why it couldn't happen in Quito only the architect of Sod's Law knows. Anyway, when I got to Riobamba the voltmeter had bottomed out and the engine died as I rolled into the hotel car park; the ignition system needs at least 8V to function. Miraculously they were able to lend me a charger, and meanwhile I swapped and tested charging system components, came to no real conclusion and hoped for the best.

I arrived in Cuenca yesterday having minimized on the use of lights, the voltmeter showing I'd only dropped about a volt in 170 (hard, lots of unpaved) miles and four hours. So far so good. Checked into hotel for two nights to give me furtling space - bike parked under a tree in a locked garden.

Having consulted the Yellow Pages I found the block wherein reside all the auto accessory shops, almost none of which had a charger I could buy and had no idea why anyone would want one. The last (of course) place I tried was the biggest; Genaro the owner speaks excellent English and was incredibly helpful, making phone calls and sending people running all over the place. He has a BMW F650GS, naturally.

Giving up, he rang his son Paul who came round and also speaks excellent English, rides a bike, and is an electronics engineer. He offered to build a charger for me, but took me to investigate other options at a couple of electronis shops (sort of Maplins and Radiospares rolled into one). At the second try we found a small low-powered (0.5A) charger and the chap (Leopoldo) also had a couple of
cheap inverters for converting the local 110V to 220V. So overnight he rewired the inverters to convert 220V to 110V so I can use the charger anywhere and soldered big crocs on to the charger output. Sorted. What chaps. And the hotel came up with an extension lead to plug the bike in because it's more or less impossible to remove the battery without dropping the rear suspension unit.

Anyway, the coincidence is that Genaro and Paul knew the late Simon Milward (he of MAG, FEMA etc.). When Simon was here his KTM frame was welded by Paul, and he stayed at Gennaro's house while he tried to sort a local team to use bikes to take medicine and stuff to locals who live in the mountains where there are only goat tracks.

Not knowing who has what kind of pet out there, I've so far held off mentioning roast cuy, a S American delicacy. In the evenings they're roasted on spits over BBQs in the street, and most restaurants have them on the menu. Tastes a bit chickeny, like a lot of unusual protein-source mammals. Just thought you'd like to know that.

I was heading for Peru tomorrow on the assumption that the bustling market at the border won't be; discretion has set in, though, so I'll try to make Guayaquil where there's the other Ecuadorian BMW dealer. With luck they can recheck the charging and decided whether the fault really is in the alternator stator, which of course is the only part for which I don't have a spare. Double duh.