Broken Van, Broken Hearts

 We did not realize how far we were behind in posting this blog.  We have been busy the past few weeks as we explored Bolivia, left Bolivia, entered Chile, left Chile, re-entered Bolivia, collected some crazy stories, and re-entered Chile. We are posting this from Santiago (for the 30 of you regular readers) and are hoping to share all our crazy adventures with you over the next few days. But anyways, here's an update from our time in La Paz.

October 29^th – Social Media catch up

There is a very specific campground we want to stay in while we are in La Paz, it is a campground owned by a mechanic who is spoken of as an angel.  Unfortunately, we are at the point in our trip where we need an angel.  We noticed a week or so ago that we had a pretty substantial oil leak and there was something…off, with our suspension.  We wondered if it was our sway bar again, but the sound and when the sound occurred was different than previous times we have had issues.  Although we were “over” vehicle issues and debated just driving it until it died, calmer heads prevailed and we knew it was time to see a mechanic and brace for impact (or for the bill).

Unfortunately, when we tried to check into the campground we were told that someone who originally was supposed to be leaving had changed their mind and decided to stay another day meaning we decided to stay another day in our hotel.   We spent most of the day catching up on social media or relaxing in the hotel pool and sauna.  The day flew by, much to our annoyance as we didn’t do any real exploring.

Interestingly a friend of ours has a boyfriend who lives in La Paz so we spent the evening at a local bar drinking and laughing talking about our trip and life in Bolivia until today turned into the next day and it was time to return to the hotel for the night.

 

October 30^th – Getting the news we knew we would get

The first thing we did when we woke up was message the owner of the campground, who said although the person once again decided to stay longer, he would make room for us, but to not arrive for a few hours.

We had unpacked everything and made ourselves at home around the hotel meaning that Kendra spent most of the morning reorganizing things and placing them back in the van.  Paul had checked the oil and was disappointed to see the oil level.  Before starting to drive he decided he would go for an adventure in search of oil and ideally gasoline.  Much to his, and Kendra’s surprise, the adventure was 100% successful.  He was able to purchase gasoline in a jerry can and get the oil they needed for the van.

The drive from the hotel to the campground through La Paz was surreal, the city truly is a modern beautiful city with lots of character.  Each neighbourhood we drove through seemed to have its own flavour, shops and colours.

The campground host, a mechanic by trade sure was busy and trusted.  When we arrived at the campground it seemed everyone had a few problems they wanted his opinion or help on meaning we would have to wait a few hours for him to inspect our vehicle.  When it was our time it didn’t take him long to give us the news we always thought we would get.  Our van has some quasi major issues that are too large in scope for him to fix.  Thankfully he had a friend who owned a large mechanic shop with many employees, who luckily, had familiarity with our type of engine and was confident he could repair it in a day.  The campground host made us an appointment and made us promise that the vehicle would be at the shop for 8am so that they had the full day to work on the vehicle.

Pollo Ceviche...no thanks.

It was a bit of a demoralizing realization meaning we spent the rest of the night trying our best to socialize and ignore our fears about the price, length that the repair would take, and the fear that more problems could be found while fixing our quasi major issues.

 

October 31^st – A very scary Halloween

As we had promised we dropped the van off at the mechanic shop for 8am.  Kendra decided to stay back at the campground as we had a suspicion that both of us picked up a stomach parasite and decided that it be better “collectively” if only one of us pooped our pants enroute to and from the mechanic’s shop.  By some miracle the only clothing casualty was a pair of Paul’s underwear (luckily it already had holes in it and was ready to be thrown away anyway- sorry for the TMI).

The only photo we took today.

We spent the rest of the morning and mid afternoon within a 30 second proximity of a bathroom all while receiving message upon message from the mechanic who was uncovering other issues.  As we had said previously we knew there was something wrong with our suspension, what we learned is that most of our suspension (shocks, joints, knuckles, etc.) were all way too loose or broken.  The Pan American highway had taken it’s toll on the van.  We also quickly learned that with the increases in scope to the repair project the van wouldn’t be ready for a couple days.  This was a big issue for us as we had planned to camp in the van tonight; it looked like we needed a hotel.

Getting a hotel posed some issues, mostly that fact that we would be away from a toilet for around a 30 minute period and our passports as well as some other required necessities for overnighting in a hotel were in the van.  Once again we divided and conquered with Kendra getting all the necessary provisions around the campground together while Paul went to the mechanics shop to grab everything we needed from the van.  It was quite a site to see the van in pieces.

Between the news of the van, the site of the van and our own body issues, this Halloween has been rough.  The only real silver lining is at least the issues are being dealt with and the hotel was quite nice with the most comfortable bed we had had in South America, which was also very close to our own private bathroom.

 

November 1^st – Cautiously optimistic

For reasons we don’t really understand we felt better this morning and thus are cautiously optimistic that we would be to explore the area and get some fresh air.  We had heard from the mechanic that they were struggling sourcing some parts for our vehicle meaning that the van would not be ready until Friday because tomorrow; Thursday, is a holiday.

We made our way to the affluent neighbourhood of La
Paz known as San Miguel, a neighbourhood full of massive houses and many embassies.  It was also full of some cool bars (that we drank pop at) and some great cafes.  It was nice to stretch our legs and stop our minds drifting to thinking about the vehicle, the van in pieces with many issues and parts that were located somewhere in this massive city; we are happy that the mechanic was the one finding parts for our van and not us. 

 

November 2^nd- The Day of the Dead

Our clean and comfortable hotel was great except for one key issue, it was in the middle of no where. While it was located in a great affluent neighbourhood, it was a downhill walk but an uphill grind on the way back; a climb that even some taxi’s struggled to do. We decided to gather all our stuff and head to a different hotel in the centre of La Paz with the hopes to experience Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. 

The day of the dead is a national holiday, and as we were reminded by some locals as we traveled the city by its extensive Teleferico system, it is not like Mexico (so if you’ve seen the movie The Book of Life- Bolivia is nothing like that).  In Bolivia the Day of the Dead is a joyous day where families head to or near cemeteries to have picnics with their deceased relatives. 

After checking into our hostel and dropping off our bags we jumped back into a Gondola and travelled one of the highest altitude cemeteries in the city rich with history.  The first thing we noticed was the amount of bread much of it baked into general human shapes adorned with homemade masked made to look like the deceased relatives.  As we walked to the cemetery the sides of the road were lined with families in tents laughing, drinking and eating.  When we arrived to the cemetery it was full of families, some tears, some songs, some full blown bands, some quiet reflection and prayers.  It was nothing like we expected, interesting to see but we felt like we were intruding on the personal moments of many families.

A few locals on the Teleferico recommended us to also visit the general cemetery where most La Paz residents were buried, and we saw why as we rode the teleferico towards it.  The streets were full of people congregating, preforming, playing, eating, etc.  It was a far more festive environment with streets turned into pedestrian thoroughfares.  While we enjoyed the overhead view from the teleferico, the line to enter the cemetery extended for a few city blocks, so we decided to skip going into the cemetery. There were still families with tents on the sides of roads but it definitely had a different feel than the first cemetery we had gone too.  In the end were so happy we had listened to locals who had recommended going to both the cemeteries we had visited to truly get an appreciation for what Day of the day was all about in Bolivia.

They key selling feature of the hostel we had choose for the night was its rooftop bar.  They are so proud of it they even named the hostel after it (Rooftop Hostel).  We spent the evening watching the sunset over La Paz looking out to the city, the valley, and the mountains in the distance.

 

November 3^rd – The Return

Paul’s stomach issues returned with a vengeance and he was done with it.  He had been told of a great doctor close to the mechanic shop and had decided that he was going to go and get medicine.  Unfortunately for him, there were no available appointments and there wouldn’t be until Wednesday (almost a week away).  In a quasi desperation he went to the nearest pharmacy explaining his issue and asking for anything that they could give him.  Surprisingly he walked out the pharmacy with antibiotics.

After a kilometer of walking uphill we arrived at the mechanics where the vehicle was returned to us.  The bill was a little eyewatering but we knew it would be worth it, especially if we had no other issues going forward.  It felt like we had been taken advantage of, but when we saw the breakdown of the bill 70% of the cost was for parts for our “foreign” (maybe that equates to luxury) vehicle and only 30% for labour which was 2.5 days of labour, so that’s the price we had to pay for driving a North American made vehicle in South America.

One issue the mechanic was not able to fully fix was an issue he discovered relating to our steering knuckle.  Unfortunately, he was not able to source the part, and since ours is loose we are still okay to drive with it loose. The mechanic assured us that Chile has Dodge Grand Caravans and we should be able to find the part there with no issues.  However, we were planning to cross into Chile through the Lagunas Route, which is known to destroy suspensions and crack rims due to the rough washboard roads.  Paul asked the mechanic if he thought we could drive that route with the loose knuckle and he said “yes, just drive smoothly”, but after consulting with others we may have to enter Chile and get the part replaced instead of risking it on one of the notoriously rough roads in Bolivia. Next we returned to the campground and we were happy to see many of the friendly and familiar faces we had befriended last time we were at the campground.  After relaxing a bit and waiting for Paul’s medication to take effect, we decided to explore the last thing in La Paz we had wanted to see, the Valley of the Moon.

The Valley of the Moon was formed due to erosion consuming the upper part of a mountain, made up of clay soil. Over the centuries it has exercised it’s modeling and winds and rains have built this spectacular and unusual landscape of white chimneys. It’s said that Neil Armstrong himself named this enigmatic place as the “Valley of the Moon” because of its great resemblance to the craters that he saw on his trip to the moon.  We are not sure if that is true, in fact it is unclear if Neil Armstrong has been to Bolivia,  but it was quite a nice way to return to our normal adventuring.

After we got back to the campground Paul noticed an odd sound coming from the engine.  It was a whistling sound and with some bubbling noises.  He quickly grabbed his phone and messaged the mechanic saying that he thought something was wrong.  The mechanic, even late at night returned his message saying it is probably a little air leak that he would be happy to repair, but it would have to wait until Monday.  Frustratingly issues with the vehicle had also returned meaning we would be staying in La Paz for a few more days.

Another fun thing that had happened was we had to leave Rupert in the van since the Valley of the Moon was not dog friendly and when we returned the fan was not spinning. After Kendra had tried a few times turning it on and off and in the reverse direction and Paul doing the exact same thing, we concluded something was wrong with the fan. While this was before we realized there was still something wrong with our van it was frustrating and we debated about dealing with it, but when we returned to the campsite 4/5 of the vehicles there had their hoods popped and toolboxes out fixing things, so we figured we would take out our kitchen and hope the fan wasn’t working due to a loose connection with our battery.  Of course things are never that easy and we ended up taking off some plastic panels (Kendra made sure that any brittle pieces of plastic snapped to make the job more difficult) and then popping out the headliner (the cloth roof covering that vehicles have on the interior roof) and rejoining the wires that had come loose. Again, we can’t say enough about Colombians; they are prepared for everything and willing to share their supplies.  A couple at our campsite from Colombia was working on their van and they had the heatwrap/shrink wrap wire cover thing that we needed and offered us a few.  We only needed one and we hope that this is the last time we need to fix the fan wiring, but we have a few spares because they wouldn’t let us say no to this offering.

 

November 4^th – “Don’t drive your car, it could start a fire”

We decided to have a “nice” morning with coffee and pancakes while we said goodbye to a few travelers who were moving onward.  As a more desirable camping spot in the campground had become available, we jumped at the opportunity to be even more comfortable on more level ground.  Oddly our van barely started when we turned the key and the smell of gasoline instantly surrounded our vehicle and filled the campsite.  We moved the van, but the campground host, briskly walked over, and asked about the smell.  Very quickly we all realized we had a fuel injector leak where he very firmly asked us not to drive as we could start a fire in our engine.   Thankfully he contacted the mechanic that did the work on our vehicle on our behalf to tell him what the actual issue was with our vehicle.  He let us know that the mechanic would come to the campground to fix our vehicle on Monday, we did not have to drive anywhere.

We had talked about exploring, but once again we felt slightly demoralized and defeated and, more than anything, tired.  We spent the day hanging around the campground.

 

November 5^th – An attempt was made

Paul had finished his antibiotics yesterday and had spent the day trying to “get a load off his mind”… this is a euphemism in case you cannot tell.  Unfortunately, for both of us it appeared that things were once again flowing unhealthily fast through our bowels.  People at the campground had recommended another medication so we planned to retrieve it in the afternoon.

One of the “could-do” activities in La Paz is the Cholitas Wrestling an odd mix of Nacho Libra and WWE done by women in traditional Bolivian outfits.  General consensus was it is a 2.5/5 activity, but we were looking for something to do.  Unbelievably after an hour of trying to get an Uber or a taxi as we walked to the main area of town we still were not able to get a taxi to the stadium where the wrestling match would be held.  We were able to get to taxis to at least stop for us, but the first wanted an unrealistic amount of money to drive us to the location and the other just said he didn’t feel like driving that far away (it was an hour away by car).  We did try, but I guess it just was not meant to be.

We did make the most of our misfortune, we got the medicine that we were told would get us back to our normal selves and got some burgers, toppings and ice cream.  It wasn’t the night we had hoped for but, we did make some damn good burgers and ate some pretty tasty ice cream (there was too much ice cream so we felt like we were able to repay the Colombians who shared their electrical shrink wrap with half a container of ice cream).

 

November 6^th – IT LIVES!

As promised the mechanic arrived to the campground and within an hour and a half had replaced all the O-rings of our fuel injectors.  After a thorough inspection we were asked to give it a good drive to make sure that it is road ready.  After finishing some laundry that is exactly what we did.

Our first stop was up some steep hills to a mirador of the Valle Animas another unique geological formation within the greater area of La Paz.  Next we drove it down to the affluent area of town to pick up some gasoline.  This was the first time that we were actually turned away from a gas station, but we were told about another gas station a kilometer up the road which was correct and they filled not only our gas tank but also our jerry can.  This turned out to be a mistake as some of the gas from the jerry can spilled in the van giving the vehicle a less than ideal odour and gave us flash backs to the day we realized our fuel injectors needed new o rings, thank goodness we knew what was causing the smell.

We made it back to the campground and, along with the ca
mpground host we gave the vehicle a good look over.  It appeared that the van was finally road ready.  We could finally leave La Paz and the saga of our broken van had hopefully come to and end.  We only hope the saga of stomach issues reaches its conclusion shortly as well.