The Dashboard

You are looking at the dashboard of a Peruvian bus. I could not resist taking a candid shot with the camera Kris always has with her.  The longer I looked the more things I noticed.

 Note the block of wood under the gas pedal, the exposed steering wheel nut, the little Peruvian idols on the top of the dash (for good luck?), the exposed ignition, the two gallon jug of extra oil, the driver's mismatched shoes, the exposed heating and dangling electerial systems. The black knob just under the light switch is the cruise control/choke. (Not sure how the choke was used, but the driver was constantly adjusting the engine's RPMs with the little sucker. Think it was an option to the broken gas pedal.)  The synchomesh for first gear was gone and every time we stopped the driver had to down shift through all the higher gear back to first.  The roadway was visible through  the floorboard.  Several times the engine just quit and we coasted to a stop. The driver would play with the ignition key and get things started again. The driver was seated exposed to the sun and the red rag was used to wipe the sweat off his hands, arms and steering wheel.  However, as you can see, the driver has his seat belt on.  The odds were 60/40 that we would complete our trip.

The buses just keep rolling until the something quits, goes completely flat, or falls off.  Yesterday, we were in a bus with what I think was having a U-joint problem on the drive shaft. The knock got louder and louder. The Driver looked at the Cobradoro who looked out the window in an attempt to identify the problem; he shrugged his shoulders at the driver to express, I don't know.  We kept going.  I was waiting for the drive shaft to come through the floor of the bus.  The next stop was ours and we got off to change buses.  Not sure how the problem ended, but we were happily to get off at a regular stop.