It's generally easy to navigate to a town or city. Once arriving, the challenge becomes finding a specific place in a place where the streets may have few names or street signs. It can be equally difficult to find the best route to leave an urban area of any appreciable size. Leaving Sapito took a few tries to find the road south. Without too much backtracking I "escaped" once again from the town de jure. 

A pleasant day unfolded, climbing higher into and over mountain peaks on PE-24S. A stream cascaded over rocks on the side of the road. It was good to be back in the Andes.

By late afternoon I reached Huancayo. On the south side of town, I checked into Hotel Sauna Q'hawaq. With secure parking for the motorcycle, hot water pools, and steam rooms for me, the day was complete. The treatment made the perfect ending for a long day of riding while my back got reaccustomed to hours in the saddle.

The next morning, two problems appeared. First, my departure from the parking garage was blocked by the cars of guests who hadn't checked out yet. Not a major issue. More alarming, as I loaded my luggage I noticed important parts of the pannier frame had cracked. Going back to Huanuco came to mind; the place where I know talented welders. It would mean losing almost three days. One day to get there, another to get the work done, then a third to get back to Huancayo Scratch that idea.  

A search on Google Maps returned a welder a few blocks away. The shop was closed, as in out of business closed. When in doubt, ask a taxi driver. And there he was, washing his car steps away. With a little help from Google Translate (yes, my spanish is caveman-level) my quest for welder services was shared and within moments a mechanic was on the line. By the time I walked a few blocks, the mechanic met me at my hotel. Wow, that was quick.

The pannier rack was soon removed and under repair with the welding shop next door. While waiting the bike got a power wash, and within an hour the frame was painted and reinstalled. As sometimes happens, the mechanic didn't want to take any payment. Given he had ridden to my hotel to get me, put anything he was doing on hold, and despite his protests, I insisted on paying.

This was the first time the pannier frame had cracked. The vibration of washboard roads was too much for simple pannier frames designed to keep soft luggage away from the hot muffler, not support hard boxes (over) loaded with the weight of tools, etc.  Before the five-month trip ended, welders would repair the panniers five times. Deep into Brazil, I spoke with Toby Shannon about the re[airs and he said they no longer provision bikes with the type of pannier frames I had. By the time I reached Manaus, Brazil, the pannier frames cracked again. To mitigate this, I moved the heavy stuff out of the boxes and into the rubberized duffle bag slung on my seat. The frame would be fixed in Altamira, Brazil, then one last time in Argentina.