Our Second Road Trip (East)

Saturday 25 July 2026

Apologies in advance for this long post. I had intended to split this up into a few stages but the reality was that each day was too full to post anything. We often started at 7:30 in the morning, working into the night under flood light and not getting back to our next hotel before midnight.

This second trip we visited these FM sites: Echarati (region pop. 24,500), Anta (province pop. 64,000), Cusco (city pop. 525,000 / regional pop. 1.3 million), Urcos (pop. 12,500), Puerto Maldonado (pop. 112,300) and Sicuani (pop. 54,600).

We had intended to also visit our 12^th FM site, Puno, but in Puerto Maldonado we unexpectedly found that modem faulty and used our last working modem to replace it. At this point I decided to drop Puno from our itinerary as it did not make sense to travel an additional 11 hours (plus 4 hours loopback to Sicuani) to simply align the Puno satellite antenna. And by that time, I was confident David had proved proficient after my training to adjust the antenna feeds by himself. Plus, we were quite tired and it did not seem like efficient use of resources. 

The road to Echarati is posted with many a memorial from cars that have gone over the unbarracaded edged on the seeminly endless hairpin bends and profound drops. From this point we decend 3 km in altitude to Echararti.

We stopped at Abra Malaga café at the top of a 4,330-metre-high mountain pass and found it set up for tourists.

Mountain pass traffic was heavy at times 😊 (here was about 4,200 m above sea level)

There was seemingly no end of hairpin bends as we ascended and descended the Andes (this photo shows one and the same road).

A delay on the track up the mountain to our Echarati FM site.

Working under floodlight from our Hilux in Echarati to align the satellite antenna.

Next stop Anta, where the access is via an extremely rough 4WD up a very steep hill. This remote site operates entirely on solar power and is some 3,870 metres above sea level. It transmits into the Sacred Valley including Urubamba 1 km below and which is the main gateway to access Machu Picchu. We again worked into the night and eventually had success again with another site having telemetry on air. This difficult to access hilltop is infrequently visited and has been a target for robbers. A recent campaign of theirs was to steal all the copper cables from all the transmission towers on this hilltop. With our telemetry now working, we now can implement an alarm system to alert Diospi Suyana staff so police can be alerted for any future break-ins.

After finishing Anta, we drove a couple of hours to Cusco to get a late takeaway dinner and to our hotel around midnight.

I am glad we are not travelling in the wet season when the boulders all too often fall down onto the road. This is the road from Echarati to Anta.

The Anta Plaza de Armes markets with Quechan ladies selling their produce.

Another success with all green lights on our ND Satcom modem after our satellite antenna was aligned (meaning telemetry is operational again here).

The next morning, we arrived at our Cusco FM site to encounter a showstopper with the satellite antenna as the feed was found clashing with the building roof. This happened after it was repointed to the new IS-34 satellite last November, although nobody had alerted me to this issue before now. I was not involved in the construction planning stages where I would have allowed for multiple future satellites with the dish placement. In the coming months, Diospi will have a construction crew revisit this site to install a new satellite antenna pole to relocate each dish to an optimal position. These are deep holes to dig by hand in hard rocky ground and requires a lot of concrete along with a 150 mm diameter steel pole. Then David can return to complete the adjustments required for the telemetry system.

Our Cusco site satellite antenna feed was found clashing with the building roof preventing commissioning with the satellite operator SES.

The view from our Cusco FM site overlooking typical houses to the west.

Next stop after Cusco was Urcos which is about 2 hours’ drive from the hustle and bustle of the city into a much more rural landscape with a beautiful lagoon. This was another late night but we again had success getting telemetry operational. David captured some great drone video whilst we were there.

Next stop after Urcos was Puerto Maldonado. This is my favourite Peru city as I enjoy the tropical weather and I find it is always a vibrant exciting place. It is a long drive and there were many delays due to many places requiring major road repairs from the wet season where there are landslides and washaways where the Panamericana highway is cut into the steep Andes Mountain slopes.

We encountered numerous road work delays fixing landslides and washaways from when they occurred during the rainy season (December to March). Stoppages were anything from minutes to an hour.

The 4,725-metre-high mountain pass of Abra-Pirhuayani on the way to Puerto Maldonado.

It was an eye opener driving to Puerto Maldonado when we passed through the illegal gold mining town of Sarayacu. It is built above the waterways either side of the Panamericana Highway on wooden poles and on backfilling. They use artisanal mining techniques (a small-scale, informal extraction method relying on manual or semi-mechanized techniques). It destroys the ecology and results in elevated mercury levels. The illegal mining accounts for at least half of the economy in the region and sustains around 50,000 miners, according to a 2022 study. But the destructive activity has deforested at least 140,000 hectares of the Amazon rainforest in Madre de Dios since 1990, and it’s estimated that about 78% of adults in Puerto Maldonado have mercury levels above safe international standards, due to the poor mining practices. Lawlessness abounds as there is no police force. I am informed there are armed cartels, murders, abductions, human trafficking, drugs, prostitution etc. The pictures speak for themselves. As a result, we are told not to drive to Puerto Maldonado at night time. 

Passing through the illegal gold mining town of Sarayacu.

We saw kids driving large loads around Sarayacu on 3 wheeler moto-trucks.

The environmental results of illegal / poor gold mining practices about 100 km outside of Puerto Maldonado.

Following are some photos of our Puerto Maldonado site. Being situated at the Amazon, the plants and insects take their toll on the site. We found a termite infestation in the wooden roof beams of the building which will need urgent replacement before it collapses. It will need replacing with a steel truss roof.

David making the uplink adjustments to the Puerto Maldonado satellite antenna feed (the same classic photo aspect as with me 9 years earlier which became a Diospi calendar photo retaken as it seemed appropriate for my replacement).

The ceiling of our Amazon region Puerto Maldonado building is collapsing due to termites (see their dark tunnels on either side of the wall and along the top) and need urgent replacement.

We broke into a point along those termite channels and this is what’s inside them.

Solomon and me overlooking the grand Puerto Maldonado 722 metre suspension bridge.

The river Madre de Dios (Mother of God), on which Puerto Maldonado is built, flows from here to merge with the Beni River, then the Madeira River and finally the Amazon River. In all it is some 4,035 km before it reaches the ocean.

Next stop – Sicuani. Another long day / late night. We felt like giants here as the buildings were definitely constructed for smaller people than Solomon and me – see photos!

A height challenged door to our Sicuani hotel room (feeling a bit like Gandalf in Bilbo Baggins house😊).

We have had experience previously with the Peruvian electric shower head. There is 220 volts AC mains connecting essentially to a jug element directly above your head. And if you have any cuts on your head, which is likely given the low door headframes where you are often bumping your head, you will get a decent electrical belt! And if there is air in the pipes, the element blows leaving live mains current in the water (now cold), flowing right onto your head! And as there are no wiring standards in Peru, all AC wires can be red including the earth – crazy to us Australians!

But there are surprisingly few electrocution fatalities to my knowledge. This is such an opposite position to the strict electrical safety laws in Australia where every outlet must have a residual current protection device (RCD).

Common in Peru was our Sicuani hotel electric shower head. And yes, that's mains AC direct to an element immediately above your head with all red wire the earth!

Here we are repairing a satellite antenna feed window in Sicuani which had gone brittle from UV (a manufacture batch problem) and cracked allowing water to ingress.

Solomon was amazing during our trip. He had a beautiful attitude the entire time. I was not the only one who noticed as others said the same. He was a great companion for me and we enjoyed our time together. I am very proud of him. I had him help me rearrange the rack layouts to our standard and he did this proficiently toward the end. In fact, he saved me hours at each site with this task.

Solomon became very proficient at rearranging rack equipment to my specification - saving me many hours.

Similar to Cusco, we found our Sicuani FM site had a clash of the satellite antenna feed arms but this time hitting with the solar panel frame after it was repointed to the new IS-34 satellite in November. Again, I was unaware of this. Like previous, I was not involved in the planning stages before it was constructed so I could plan to prevent this. And like the Cusco situation, in the coming months, Diospi will have a construction crew revisit there to install a new satellite antenna pole at the right location so David can then commission the antenna with SES/Intelsat and make the telemetry functional. 

Sicuani satellite antenna feed arms hitting the solar panel installation (thus preventing commissioning this site with SES).

The team at our last site, Sicuani, before heading back "home" to Curahuasi. Left to right: me, David, Solomon, Doris and our driver, Vladdy.

On our return trip to Curahuasi, my Diospi Suyana workmate David Hanco, made a funny AI video from a photo I took of us all travelling in the Diospi Hilux. I love it because here I speak Spanish with confidence like I dream of doing. 

The funny AI video that David compiled.

Translation:
David (middle seat) said: "Of course we are!" Hahaha
Solly said: "It will be amazing!"
Vlad (driver) said: "Let's go now! Hahahaha" 
I said: "Let's go on a trip friends, Hahaha. Are you ready friends?

Another size challenge at a roadside service station toilet - take care getting into that loo Solomon! 😊

We arrived back in Curahuasi at 11:00 pm after I got to drive the Hilux “home” from the toll gates outside of Cusco back to Curahuasi. It was like the old days from when we lived in Curahuasi and we drove this road often.

The next couple of days were spent at Diospi Suyana in Curahuasi where I was able to make some important progress with David to measure and report on some uplink anomalies to the satellite operator, SES/Intelsat. And Doris also was keen to video me giving my testimony (in English) after hearing it when we were in Puerto Maldonado. 

Before leaving Curahuasi, Doris was keen to video my testimony (in English) in the Diospi studios.

Time ran out quickly in these last few days. Klaus kindly presented me with an English copy of his latest book “An Experiment with God”. That morning Doris kindly presented me with the Spanish version of the book. Now I have no excuses but to practice my Spanish reading and improve for the next trip 😊. A dream of mine would be for all my family to attend the Diospi Andes music festival next April 2027. But we will see as these things are in God’s hands. 

Dr Klaus' latest book given as a farewell gift to us - one in Spanish (from Doris) and one in English (from Klaus).

All the Diospi Suyana team were so incredibly thankful and honouring of our efforts. They even arranged a special lunch order of Lomo Saltado in the Diospi Suyana kitchen just for Solomon and me before we left Curahuasi. As the normal menu that day was a dish even the Peruvian’s did not get excited about.

Before we got into our taxi for Cusco (2 ½ hours’ drive) we prayed together and said our farewell.

During this visit I was surprised to hear the news that Klaus and Martina John have announced their intention to retire in September 2027. This will be a huge change for them and Diospi Suyana. The reigns will be handed over to Doctor’s Benjamin and Lena Zeier.

Thank you to all those who supported us in prayer and financially to make all this happen again. What a huge blessing this has been to get them back on their feet with a functioning telemetry system again, saving many thousands of kilometres and days of travel for the very small team who keep the Diospi Suyana radio network on the air with the best message in the world. 

Rainbow Mountain at 5,036 metres above sea level.

The next day Solomon and I took some time in Cusco to be tourists and visit Rainbow Mountain. We took a bus then a quad bike and then walked the last bit to 5,036 metres to see the incredible 5 primary coloured mountain top. We visited along with the other 3,000 visitors they get there every day (and the local llamas of course). A geological wonder which defies evolutionary theories but perfectly fits the creation explanation.

As noted earlier, our flight back to Australia was 38.5 hours including stopovers. I don’t sleep well sitting up in an airplane chair. This was made more of a challenge by the two LATAM flights before arriving in Santiago de Chile. Here we again felt like giants as the seats were squeezed much closer together than we find on Australian flights – see photo. 

Solomon demonstrating how we managed the lack of legroom for us Anglo Saxons on our LATAM airlines return flight from Lima to Santiago. And this is before they put their seat back which crushed my glasses!

We arrived home at midnight on Saturday 18 July after 38 hours of flights (including stopovers). We were quite exhausted of course but also very satisfied with what we had accomplished in our 3 ½ weeks. Now to recover (and it has taken me a week to start to get on top of my jet-lag).

Once again, thank you to all who have helped make this happen. A special thank you to Doris and Emilio who hosted Solomon and me in their house for our Curahuasi stays and to Diospi Suyana who picked up all the expenses including accommodation for our road trips.

Chris & family

The First of Two Road Trips (West)

Sunday 05 July 2026

It has been over a week now but since touching down I have been flat out and this is my first moment actually sit down and post something.

Our flight over was without incident – our stopover in Sydney was used for a quick excursion to Bunnings and buy me some replacement work boots which I noticed failed just the night before. Then a white-knuckle grand prix ride in a taxi from Cusco to Curahuasi - the driver continuously overtaking in the most unsafe places e.g. leading into blind corners, with no margin for error with oncoming cars at ridiculous speeds into the night. But that is Peru.

The next day we were welcomed with open arms by Doris (Centro de Medios manager), David (broadcast technician) and the production team at the Diospi broadcast centre. David gave me a thorough overview of the transmission status showing me what equipment has and has not worked over recent time. Nothing beats actually seeing the equipment and asking questions. Despite my limited Spanish, David and I get along very well. He is very intelligent with a background in IT, curiosity and a keenness to learn. Klaus dropped in to catch up – see photo. 

Chris, Klaus and Solomon in the Centro de Medios

Later we got into the satellite work whilst Solomon explored Curahuasi and did some studies. I found there were some things not done quite right with the main satellite antenna in the November changeover and once this was corrected, we got the telemetry system master uplink operational again – ready for the 11 remote sites. 

Adjusting the Centro de Medios main satellite antenna with Intelsat.

On the Sunday we caught up with our American missionary friends in Curahuasi and host groups from the US for 4 months of the year back to back, where they go into the Quechua villages to help in numerous capacities. We accompanied them with a group hike to the top of the Curahuasi hill – Capitan Rumi (altitude 3,000 metres). It has an amazing knife edge with a 1.6 km drop to the Apurimac River below. Rumi is said to have been a brave Inca warrior who fought against the Spanish invaders. During a fierce battle, he chose to throw himself into the canyon's abyss rather than be captured.

Solomon and me with our good friends the Heaths.

Solomon and me at the peak of Capitan Rumi.

This week Solomon attended his old school and there were a number of his Peruvian classmates who remembered him. Solomon was 8 when we left for Australia.

My first trip was to our FM sites that cover: Abancay (pop. 89,000), Andahuaylas (pop. 69,000), Chincheros/Uripa (pop. 50,000) and Ayacucho (pop. 230,000 and a regional pop. of over 670,000). The return distance by road was approximately 1,150 km taking some 30 hours with all the countless speed bumps, hairpin bends and the daily events on the Los Andes Panamericana highway. 

Typical delays encountered on the Panamericana Highway.

With an all-Peruvian team bar me, I got to dine some of the local cuisine. One lunch on the way to Andahuaylas at a small rural town (Huancarama) was chicken soup – sounded good right? Until I noticed on my spoon some ingredients whereby I lost my appetite – see photo. 

Chicken soup finding first a foot then a leg!

 The good news is that the telemetry system worked. This was despite the manufacturer believing it would not work without needing an increase to satellite resources (either would be expensive for Diospi). But I was sure from my calculations and previous experience with these that it would and this seems to be proven correct.

 

Me with a restored telemetry system in Andahuaylas.

David took along his drone to capture some great bird’s eye perspectives of each site – see video example of our Casabamba tower showing how it is prominently located on a hill overlooking the cities of Uripa and Chincheros in the valley below.

Whilst in Chincheros which is a very well-kept city in Peruvian terms, we stayed at the exceptionally nice Hotel Chaska. It is run by the Peruvian daughter of missionaries. Although a quiet sleep in was not an option for me on this occasion where the dump truck came by at 5:20 am with the Peruvian customary music blaring so people could bring out their rubbish 😊.

We were missing some parts for the Abancay site which were subsequently located back in Curahuasi but they could not get these to us in time before our return to Curahuasi. But this site is less than an hour’s drive from Curahuasi and so I hope to squeeze this one in before our return to Australia.

Finally, the 10^th Anniversary of Diospi Suyana Radio went well today. It was a perfect day in Curahuasi and was held in the back yard of the casa la hacienda which was our home here for 2 ½ years, and now the home of Doris - manager of the Media Center. It was well attended and of course, lots of photos! 😊 

The Diospi Suyana Radio 10th anniversary party on Sunday 5 July.

Tomorrow, we head off on the 2,200 km 2-week trip east to the remaining 7 FM sites. Onward we go – this time with Solomon. And I still hope to get all 12 sites operational.

Thank you for those praying for this work to go well, Chris.