This blog post marks our final days of 2023 which will be one of our favourite years of our lives, even though the last month was pretty rough. At least it ends on a positive note, celebrating good news on New Years Eve in Buenos Aires.
December 23th – Making a massive change to our route
A month ago we had made plans to be 1200 kms south to
celebrate Christmas with friends in the community of Bariloche but it looks
like we will have to spend Christmas in Mendoza a region known for wine. Although we would have liked to go straight
to a winery, we did not have an Argentina SIM card meaning we were effectively
driving blind.
We went to a few places where we have typically found SIM
cards before, mall, big box stores but none of them had SIM cards. It was around this time that Paul noticed the
engine was running a little hot.
Although this happens from time to time it usually will cool down within
a few seconds, but this time it wasn’t.
We didn’t have a lot of time to think much about it as suddenly we saw a
phone store that sold SIM cards at the side of the road. Paul
got 25 GBs for $10 CAD which should last us until we are at least back in
Chile. One task done Next stop was
Walmart for groceries!
On the way to Walmart
the van continued to overheat, first we were ¾ up the dial, then we lurched up
another notch. It was overheating into
the red warning area on the temperature gauge. This was not good. Kendra
encouraged him to drive to Walmart and we can let the van cool off there. Paul
didn’t think that was the right idea, but we were only two blocks away. As we
pulled into the Walmart parking lot and parked the van started to spew coolant.
This broke us. After
everything that had happened. All the
repairs, all the time and all the misfortune we couldn’t do it anymore.
In true Kendra fashion she cried and Paul consoled her. We both were thinking worst case scenario and
have no idea what is wrong so we are not willing to try and drive it
somewhere. The van has not even made it
24 hours without a new light turning on, a sensor going off, or a new problem,
and now it is pouring out fluid… we decided this was the end. This is where we walk away from a van that
can’t even go 24 hours without a new problem arising. We decided it isn’t worth
sinking more money into it; we will ditch the van in Argentina a few days
before Christmas. Merry f@(k!^g Christmas to us!
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| Our heroes!!! |
We started making arrangement for where the van could go
until Christmas was over. The Walmart
parking lot was gated so we could safely leave it there until Tuesday when
shops would reopen. In the mean time we
would get a hotel and work out how exactly we were leaving the van legally in
Argentina, if we would be renting a camping in Chile or trying to purchase
something new or if we would just go home.
The last option was the option we were leaning towards the most;
however, we knew due to Rupert that was unlikely to be an option.
We tried to cool our heads by heading into Walmart but
tensions were still incredibly high.
Paul spent a bit of time just looking at the van trying to figure out
what had happened and why. He knew it
was a fools errand, but who knows? It
was at this point is actually saw something.
A relay for the radiator van had melted. Did the engine overheating cause the relay
to melt or did the relay melt cause the engine to overheat?
We had already planned to leave the van in the corner of the
parking lot which happened to be near a tire and lube centre within the
Walmart. We thought there is no harm
getting them to look at it, who knows maybe they can do something.
We both have never taken our vehicles to Walmart Mechanics
before because we have heard horror stories, but sometimes desperate times call
for desperate measures. The mechanic was
willing to look at our van and agreed with Paul that it was the relay. We were too afraid to start the van up so
Kendra and three other lovely Argentinians pushed the van to the other side of
the Walmart into the Mechanic’s bay. The
mechanic looked at the relay, and diagnosed our issue. The relay was poor quality and not the correct
voltage we needed; this is why it melted. So, the mechanic in San Pedro de
Atacama had screwed us over again!!! We were furious.
The Walmart mechanic was confident that because the relay
melted our radiator fan did not turn on, which then caused us to overheat,
boiling our coolant causing it to pour out. He assured us we could drive the
van for short distances and even fashioned a little wire that we could insert
to bypass where the relay should be.
This would cause the radiator fan to blow at all time, but it would
ensure the van did not overheat. This
man was a saviour and even told us where we could buy a new relay, the only parts
store that was still open in the entire community. He didn’t even charge us for his time or
materials!
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| The culprit that ruined the day |
So off we went to get the new relay, and of course things
are never as easy as they should be. The
we need is not quite available at the, but the store did have one that would
work as long as we installed it with an adapter. The issue is that we would need an electrical
mechanic to do the work. We will have to wait until December 26 to see if we
can get this installed
With all the stress and not being able to drive the van for
long distances we decided to get a hotel.
We stopped and got some groceries and headed to the hotel to give our
selves, our hearts, and our minds a break from the van. So, fortunately for you, there will be more
to read. Our trip is not over and we
have a solution to the one problem we had today.
This whole ordeal has made us rethink trip. The plan was always to drive south through
Patagonia to Ushuaia then return via the Atlantic Coast of Argentina, but after
many discussions we came to the conclusion we need to prioritize our goals and
needs first. We need to get to Buenos
Aires to get Rupert looked at by a Cardiologist so he can hopefully come home
with us. Our goal is to go to
Ushuaia. We decided that we will drive
straight from Mendoza to Buenos Aires then go south via the most direct route
to Ushuaia. After we make it to the end
that is when we will reassess and go north through Patagonia back to
Mendoza. That way if the van dies after
Ushuaia we can at least breath easy known we accomplished our goal, driving the
Pan-American Highway from Tuktoyaktuk Canada to Ushuaia Argentina.
December 24- A Thirsty Thirty Kms
If you go into a liquor store and look at wines from
Argentina you will notice that they are all from the Mendoza region, a region
known for excellent wines, specifically Malbec and Shiraz. We had always wanted
to do a little bike tour but our timing first appeared to be off with Christmas
approaching. With most businesses
already closed or closing early for Christmas eve our expectations were pretty
low. Surprisingly Paul was able to find
a bicycle rental company that was open today so we were off to taste some
wines!
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| The start of our 30 km bike ride |
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| Biking beside vineyards |
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| New wine making technology |
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| These wines were AMAZING |
Unfortunately, the second winery had closed about 30 minutes before we arrived, they were running special hours due to Christmas. We weren’t sure if our last wine stop would have food so we stopped for some quick roadside empanadas and continued our bike ride. We were sweating and exhausted when we finally arrived by this time we had done almost 30 kms in 34 degree heat. The gate was closed. In an act of slight defiance and refusal to leave Paul rang the buzzer. After 30 seconds he rang it again. After a minute went by he decided to once again ring the buzzer; the gate opened.
We learned we would be the last people admitted to the winery that day, we were greeted in English, given a tour, and decided to go for the meal which had a wine paired for each course. Argentina is know for it’s wine and meat so we both ordered the Tomahawk steaks and they were divine! We aren’t sure if it was the 30+ degree heat and biking, the wines we had or the meat, but we were sweating! We had had a good day had amazing wines and felt a slight glimmer of hope that the trip wasn’t ruined return.
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| The perfect way to end a bike ride |
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| Now that is what we call a steak |
We returned our bikes and went to buy groceries for our Christmas
dinner, but unfortunately everything was closed and would remain closed until
after Christmas leaving us with minimal food.
We returned to our hotel and relaxed for the evening. It’s not the
Christmas Eve we had envisioned but stocking up on wine was worth it.
December 25- The Worst Christmas Meal…ever?
We awoke this morning and Santa had brought us…wine! Each sip was better than the last as we felt
we had earned them.
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| Here is the real Santa's little helper |
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| Our Christmas presents, a day of games, movies and wine |
We had a quiet day around the hotel playing games and
watching the Christmas episodes of The Office and Community. Next we explored
Parque General San Martin and watched many people enjoying some family time
around the man made lake. We don’t know what it is, but even this park was
significantly better than the parks we experienced in Santiago.
After exploring we returned to the hotel and talked with our families before looking at what little food we had and crating our “Christmas Dinner”.
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| This may be one of the worst meals we have had on this entire trip |
December 26th – Experiencing the friendliness of
Argentinians
The first thing Paul did after opening his eyes was start
messaging various electrical mechanics seeing if they could see us today and if
so, when. One of the best rated ones in
the city was the first to respond saying that he could look at the vehicle at
9am. The rush was on, we had to pack up
and get out of the hotel and arrive at the mechanics in 45 minutes.
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| After all the kindness we experienced here, we can say we love Mendoza |
Next he says we need to do something about your coolant as
it must be low. That was going to be our
next task, but he was more than happy to help.
He grabbed a sample of the coolant still in the system, determined its
colour then walked Paul over to the automotive store beside his shop. We filled up the coolant and after ensuring
the relay worked and the van was cooling properly he said you should be fine
now. He wrote up his bill which we were
ecstatic to see was only $12 CAD. We
paid and thanked him immensely. Maybe,
just maybe, we would be fine now.
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| Stacks of $$$ |
We drove a quarter of the way across the country of
Argentina which brought us into the small province of San Luis where our
stomachs started to really grumble. Paul
saw a small dirt road beside the highway and pulled onto it. Just as we started preparing food an Argentinian
couple pulled up asking us what we were doing.
We were concerned they were going to be mad at us or tell us to go away,
but quite the opposite. They were
confused why we would eat here when there was a beautiful riverside picnic spot
1km up the road. They insisted on us
following them there.
December 27th – Rural “must-sees”
While we were cooking breakfast the Argentinian couple from
yesterday showed up to see how we slept and if we were on Instagram as they
wanted to see what we had done and follow along with our journey. They were out
for a bike ride as they enjoy doing triathlons and are preparing for an Ironman
in Hawaii. They also wanted to provide us with a list of things they felt we
had to see while in the area. Although
we hadn’t planned to spend too much time in the area we thought “why not?”.
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| All the roads and buildings are made out of rock |
Our first main stop was La Carolina a mining community the United National World Tourism Organization said was one of the worlds most underrated communities. It is seen as an “Authentic” Argentinian community with everything built from rocks from the mountain. Famous Argentinian poets have called the community home and it truly felt like a very small Argentinian “hallmark” town. After walking through its streets and exploring a labyrinth on the outskirts of town we drove to the next must see.
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| The opening to the Carolina mine |
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| Has a Wells, BC feel, mining town with an artsy feel |
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| Getting lost in the local labyrinth |
The Gruta de Intihuasi is only 20 kilometres from La Carolina. It is a cave where people have lived for 1000s of years. Although all the archeological finds have been removed and placed in various museums across the country it is still a culturally and historically important part of Argentina’s history with items found belonging to people from 8000 years ago. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to see other than the cave itself, which is partly blocked off due to ethnologists excavating the site still and finding new cultural artifacts every 20 cms or so that they dig down, with the top layer being plastic and glass garbage left by our the current society.
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| La Gruta |
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| A quadrant where they have excavated artifacts |
Our final stop was some view points overlooking the lake of
Las Chacras before we made our way to the Cordoba province. Where we were
greeted by a large group of men dressed like American DEA agents, all in vests
and jeans with police badges hung around their necks. They stopped us and questioned us for a few
minutes then let us go. Obviously we
have gone through many police checkpoints before but this one just seemed
different and put us a bit on edge. Just
before we arrived at this checkpoint we had tried to go to a small brewery that
ended up being closed, we were quite happy that it was as we didn’t want to go
through that stop with any beer on our breath.
As we drove up towards a mountain pass that would allow us
entry into Cordoba the airbag sensor light came on…our reoccurring issue we
keep on thinking we have fixed came on then off then on then off meaning every
4 minutes we get to hear the horrible and fear inducing DING from the van that
something was amiss.
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| Vini and Nadja coming down to greet us |
As if the universe knew we needed a break we ended up
randomly seeing friends of ours that we had not seen since Colombia. Their van
was parked on the side of the road and they were doing some rock climbing. They were Nadja and Vini a Swiss/Brazilian
couple who shipped their vehicle when we did and who Paul had traveled with on
the Sailboat from Panama to Colombia. We
acted as old friends and we were generally so happy and excited to see them and
swap stories if only for an hour or so. We had been feeling down with all our
vehicle troubles, but talking with them truly boosted our spirits as we all
laughed about how many lights are constantly on our dashboards…turns out they
have more than us, but they have their own scanner so they know that things are
alright. Sometimes this road trip can feel a little lonely, but seeing a
friendly face makes everything better.
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| It was such a highlight to see these two again! |
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| Right before Rupert decided he was sick of Paul and jumped right into the river in an attempt to get to Kendra |
After visiting for longer than we thought we pulled into another free riverside campground with a few other overlanders around. We had a quick dinner of some sausages (which were not good), cheese and olives we had bought from a road side stand and watched the water rush by. We weren’t feeling overly social with the other overlanders, but they were all from Brazil and Argentina, so we said our holas and kept to ourselves for the rest of the night.
December 28th - “A mix between Vegas and Disney”
Our camping spot for the night left a little to be
desired. It was right by the road and
made us feel quite exposed. It just was
not the sort of place that made us want to cook breakfast and pull out our
table and chairs so we decided to head to the nearby community of Villa Carlos
Paz, a resort community that travel blogs had described as “a mix between Vegas
and Disney”.
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| You would think we would have taken more photos of the Niagara falls of Argentina but all we really have is a picture of its iconic clock |
We are not sure if we would call the community a mix of Vegas and Disney but it did remind us of Niagara Falls. There were lots of restaurants, theatres, haunted houses, etc. Unfortunately, we had arrived at 9:30am so most things were closed and wouldn’t be open until 7 or 8pm. We did find a really good café and ate and purchased some of the communities Alfajores, a famous Argentina sweet, which is supposed to be really good here. We can attest that the Alfajores La Quinta are amazing!
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| Does our van even go that fast? |
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| This reminds us of camping in Saskatchewan |
We decided we didn’t want to hang around until the evening
to see what the community was like when everything was open so we continued
further east. We ended up driving most
of the day until we got to the small prairie town of Carcarana where there was
a free campground beside the river. The
spot reminded us so much of camping in Saskatchewan so we channelled our inner
Saskawanderer and poured ourselves a drink as we watched a storm roll in and
played some board games.
December 29th – Lack of available camping
Some may think that we seem to be rushing to Buenos Aires,
uncharacteristically deciding against properly exploring a community and you
would be correct. After deciding we
would go straight from Mendoza to Buenos Aires we contacted some pet cardiologists
to see when they would be able to see Rupert and we were able to get an appoint
for Rupert December 30th meaning we had to be in Buenos Aires today.
The typical camping spot in Buenos Aires is a “stealth
camping” spot i.e. a spot on the side of the road near Puerto Madero. The problem we had is that is also the
location they set off all the fireworks for New Years. We knew if we decided to camp in the city we
would not sleep well so we decided to get another Airbnb. After a lot of investigation Kendra finally
found one in a trendy neighbourhood walking distance from many parks,
restaurants and subway stations. It was
perfect for us.
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| Made it to Buenos Aires |
Driving in Buenos Aires was surprisingly okay, especially when so many travel blogs recommend people not drive in the city due to its traffic and crazy drivers. I guess those travel bloggers haven’t driven in Los Angeles, Tegucigalpa, Cartagena or Lima because it was fine. The Airbnb was fine it wasn’t our best nor worst but the location and amenities were good. It was dog friendly, we could park the van, it had a charcoal grill and a laundry machine, something we were in desperate need for as all our clothes and bedding were filthy.
Although we did take a small walk around the neighbourhood
we spent the afternoon doing laundry and going grocery shopping and talking a lot
about Rupert. We wanted to have a plan
depending on the news we got and to have a “real” conversation about how we
would act depending on the news we were given about Rupert. We set a budget in
case he required long term care and planned a few hypothetical routes for the
rest of our time in South America, just so we could be prepared for any
news…good or bad.
December 30th – Rupert’s Fate
It was a somber morning as we didn’t know what the
cardiologist would say about Rupert. We
were hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. Our appointment was in the midmorning so after
a modest breakfast we jumped in the van to drive through downtown Buenos
Aires.
One thing we really liked about this cardiologist is that he
spoke English. So many of our
conversations are done in Spanish and we miss information from time to
time. This discussion we assumed would
be stressful, maybe hard and we wanted to understand everything. We showed up early and waited patiently in
the waiting room for what felt like an eternity. Finally, we were called in.
The cardiologist checked Rupert’s blood pressure at
different areas of his body then checked each individual heart chamber and
valve taking readings, pictures and measurements. He consulted graphs for Ruperts weight
against those measurements and finally spoke.
He’s fine.
As if we assumed he didn’t speak Spanish and confused the
words fine with he is dying, we probed.
His heart murmur has gotten worse, but it is not outside the limits of
something a cardiologist would be concerned about. His heart, or any his chambers have not
become enlarged and his heart is typical for a dog his age. The only concern
was Rupert’s blood pressure and the et prescribed medication for that. Everything
else is fine and normal. It was the
first good news we felt we had gotten in a month. We could almost feel our eyes swelling.
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| A toast to Rupert's health |
He let us know that before we get on any plane we need to
see another cardiologist but the vet cardiologist doesn’t see any reason why
Rupert can not return home to Canada by plane.
He even let us know that when we are ready to come home he and his
associate can help prepare all the documents to get him home as well as all
documents needed for Canadian vets to continue his treatment plan.
For the first time, in some time, we could that the 2
people, 1 dog and 1 van would, together, make it to the end of the road! Now we only had to celebrate this “win”
tonight and plot our 3000 kilometre journey south. We
felt like we could finally breathe again.
After returning to the Airbnb we purchased our transit cards
and took the subway to a brewery and had a celebratory pint on an outdoor patio.
We then had a leisurely walk in the Palermo parks before picking up a few more
things to celebrate. After returning to
the Airbnb and giving Rupert all the love, we relaxed, ordered some food and
toasted to Rupert’s health.
December 31- Celebrating Argentinian Style
With the end of 2023 quickly approaching it was time to
celebrate all that we had accomplished and look at the positives. While our van may be slowly dying our dog is
not! This past year we have travelled from Baja Mexico all the way south to
Buenos Aries Argentina. We have had many
ups and downs but are so grateful for the adventure we have been on and
everyone we have met along the way. We
appreciate all of you for following along by reading our blog and messaging or
emailing us. While the last month of 2023 was hard, we are looking forward to
see where 2024 will take us and what new adventures we will encounter.
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| This may have been one of the best meals we have had on this entire trip |
After dinner we got ready for a night on the town. We took the subway to Puerto Madero and waited for midnight. We found one convenience store open and bought some drinks to ring in the new year. After the countdown (in Spanish) we watch the fireworks in front of us as well as to the left and to the right. After about 10 minutes we decided we should leave the bridge we are standing on and get a bus back to the AirBnB to hopefully beat the crowds.
After walking past the
government house we knew exactly where the bus stop was thanks to the extremely
long line. Luckily the bus was set to arrive in 6 minutes according to Google…however,
the bus never came. We waited over an
hour for the bus to come and re-evaluated if we should walk the 1 hour back to
the AirBnB or keep hoping that the bus would come. Shortly after decided we would wait, a bus arrived,
not the bus we wanted, but it would take us close to our AirBnB so we hopped on
and only had to walk 10 minutes back to our bed. We do not know why the bus
never showed up, but this experience had us questioning how such a large city
could screw up New Years transport so badly?
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