Smooth sailing into 2024

In this blog update we hit the road with new purpose and see the Atlantic ocean for the first time on this trip.  That is not the only thing we saw, we saw capybaras, guanacos and penguins among many other animals in the wild and experience Argentinian campgrounds.  Most importantly we celebrated Kendra's birthday with Hot springs, BBQ and wine!

January 1- On the road again!

We checked out of our Airbnb and hit the road. Since we made getting to Ushuaia our new goal it was time to travel south.  Buenos Aries was still asleep, since most people did not start drinking until midnight and the parties continue until early in the morning the roads were quiet.

We made it to the Atlantic!

We drove away from the city and towards the Atlantic Ocean. A fun fact about the GoGoGauthiers is that none of us have seen the Atlantic Ocean from Canada.  We have experienced it in the United Kingdom and spent time on the Caribbean Ocean in Mexico/Belize/Panama/Colombia, but today was our first time experiencing the  “real” Atlantic on this trip. We arrived in the community of Mar Chiquita and went right for the ocean. It was as cold as we imagine the Atlantic being in Canada during the summer so doing a short walk in was enough for us.

We found a spot at the municipal campsite and wandered around the cute town. Not many places were open but it felt like we were in Grand Bend, Ontario. Houses close to the water and family homes with multiple cars parked outside. It was a little resort community.  The municipal campground was also set up uniquely. You pay per person to camp and you can pick any place to camp. There are no designated sites which initially felt odd to us, but it makes complete sense. Friends and family and large groups can camp with each other and they do not need a special reservation.  The campground also had hot showers, flush toilets and a pool, although we have grown weak when it relates to the cold and being around 24 Celsius was too cold for us to go for a dip in the pool.

It's a real campground, like back in Canada!

A brewery only 15 minutes walk away!?

We spent the night at one of the local craft breweries enjoying delicious food and drinks and made our way back to the campground for one of the best night’s sleep we have had in a long time. Our van did not flash any new warnings today, our dog is not dying, and everything is good, no new stress. It was a good start to 2024.

 

January 2- Hankies and Hela2

Adding our handkerchief for good luck

It was hard leaving the municipal campground, especially since check out time was 5 pm, but we had itchy feet and were excited to hit the road again. We left around 11 am in the search for a few things. We went to Sierra de los Padres to leave a handkerchief (one of Rupert’s old bandanas) at the Gruta de los Panuelos with prayers of health and safe travel.

 Next we went to Laguna de los Padres to see wild carpinchos. From our understanding they are wild capybaras that live along the lakeshores and in the lake.  It was amazing to see them in the wild, since we have seen them in a petting zoo in Kelowna. The wild ones definitely do not want to be pet or approached.

While visiting the lake the ice cream shop nearby opened and we all known that latin America has the best ice cream; how could we not purchase some?  Next it was time to try and find a colony of sea lions. Google and ioverlander said we should see them along the coast, but due to ship’s being loaded at the port and lack of parking at the beach we were unsuccessful in seeing sea lions today. 

We continued our drive south and we were amazed at how busy all the beaches were on the coast. Parking lots were full, ioverlander camping spots were not accessible due to the number of cars so we drove, and drove. Eventually we found Playa El Remanso which was not busy and camped beside the Atlantic Ocean. We cracked open a bottle of “fermented colon juice” as we call it, which wasn’t a bad wine, just an unfortunately named winery and slowly watch the sun set behind us.

What an interesting...
aroma 

Getting the shades ready for sunset

January 3^rd – Preparation for someone’s special day

Great place to wake up to!

After examining all the potential campgrounds between us and the next 600 kilometers and discussing where the best spot would be to spend a couple nights for Kendra’s birthday we decided to have a long driving day, hoping to drive almost 600 kms.  We left Playa El Remanso and just started driving south watching community after community pass us by.   We only stopped twice once in Necochea to finally see a sea loin colony battle each other for supremacy and just outside of Bahia Blanca for fresh olive oil.  We did think about stopping in the “big city” of Bahia Blanca but knew shortly after arriving that would not be a good idea.

Bahia Blanca looked like a disaster zone.  We originally remarked that the community looked like the poorest community we had been to in Argentina until a quick google search told us that the community had recently been hit with extreme weather and wind storm causing millions of dollars of damage and over a dozen deaths.  They were still trying to clean up their community so we continued south.

Unfortunately, by not stopping at all in Bahia Blanca we were running very short on gas by the time we arrived in our final stop for the night Pedro Luro.  The gas light was on and the gas indicator was at zero when after three attempts we found a gas station that was both open and would take credit card. 

We finally got to the campground and set up the van.  It was a long day of driving and we were so happy to be done and somewhere we felt we could celebrate Kendra properly.

 

January 4^th – Happy Birthday Kendra!!!

Today was all about Kendra.  She was able to relax and Paul did all the typical tasks required during a typical day on the road.  We only left the campground to grab a few things that we needed for the night, meat, charcoal, wine and cake.

The day was spent down by the river where the water was perfect.   We played games and had a BBQ.  One of the reasons we had picked this community to camp was due to a nearby hot springs but after enjoying our time by the river so much and losing track of time we realized that it would be more trouble than it is worth to try to find a way to a hot spring, especially when the weather was so hot and the river was so perfect.

The day was exactly what Kendra wanted, a chill day celebrating her “33^rd” birthday (because according to Kendra “the two COVID years do not count”).

 

January 5^th – We need to update the blog

It’s hard to write about days that are hard and there has been no shortage of those lately.  We know we are privileged to be able to jump in the van and drive and explore the Pan-American highway but to reminisce about bad days is not something we want to do or enjoy doing.  However, the goal of this blog has always been to create a written record of this trip for us to look back upon in the future.  We have committed to this format and want to see it through until the trip is done.  Today we did exactly what we needed to do, we sat down and looked at pictures and notes and started writing.  We mourned bad days and celebrated small victories that brought us to where we are.  As we were almost 20 days behind it took almost all day to write, consult and proof read but we did it.  We updated the blog in its entirety and hopefully this is the last time we need to think about the last month or so.  We no longer need to think about the days behind us, we only need to think about the present and the days ahead.

This trip has shown us, bad days don’t last. One year ago, we were sheltering in Sinaloa, stressed about the future of this trip, but we persevered.  We are committed to push ourselves through the tough days. We set a goal and we will achieve it, no matter what it takes. We are determined, stubborn and strong willed and looking back on the last month has been tough, but we have become tougher; inspired by the struggles and triumphs of those back home going through their own tough days and situations.

 

January 6^th – From the Salt to the Sand

So relaxing

It is unbelievable that we have stayed in Pedro Luro for three nights and had not gone to the thing that made us decide to stay in this community in the first place, the hot springs.  We left the campground right at 9am so we could be at the hot springs (resort) right as it opened.  Although there was English written everywhere around the resort we don’t think too many non-Argentinians go to this place as the first question we were ask when we arrived to the front desk was how did we know about these hot springs.  When Paul answered the internet, that was not a good enough answer.  It seemed like they want more tourists but haven’t quite figured out what works to advertise to them yet.

Paul experiencing Fangoterapia

The hot springs were amazing with different pools at any temperature point you could want depending on the heat of the day.  We had talked about only staying an hour or two at the hot springs but as we moved from pool to pool as the day got warmer we realized we would be spending the better part of the day in water.  There was even an entire pool dedicated to fangoterapia which we learned was mud therapy, so obviously we had to get a little dirty.

The nice thing about being so far south in the south American summer (Canadian winter) is that it gets dark really late, so even though we spent almost 4 hours at the hot springs we had lots of time to scope out the area we had planned to camp for the night, since we still have a rule to not drive after dark.  We ended up stopping in the small community of El Condor for some water, available for free at their visitor’s information.  Unsurprisingly, Paul ended up being pulled away by the people working at the office to answer some questions about our travels in the area while Kendra filled our water jug. Paul returned with maps and tidal charts for things we can do in the area, so we set off to check out what the locals recommended. 

We swear we are not in the Canadian Prairies

As a bit of an aside, one thing we have noticed as part of this trip is just how disrespectful some other travellers were (or maybe it is general unawareness or lack of consideration for others).  After we had filled up our water some Germans in a giant converted motor home pulled up and started to rinse off their toilet (the portion that diverts urine) at the potable drinking water tap.  We were flabbergasted, but were driving away so we did not say anything. Eww, gross.

The entire region we are in is eastern Rio Negro and is what we would assume Saskatchewan/Manitoba would be like if they were located right beside the ocean.  There is lots of grain farming (the wheat is coming off now, the canola is starting to turn yellow, and the sunflowers are beginning to bloom) and there are no hills or skyscrapers to block your view.  The seaside communities are small and other than locals to the area relaxing at the beach they are pretty quiet.  El Condor was one of the bigger communities but mostly reminded us of Moose Jaw.  Its mirador looked out to the farmland which seemed really funny to us since you couldn’t see the ocean from it and one of the most popular non beach things to do in the community was to visit the war memorial highlighted with a fighter jet.

A hole representing each person
 who died 

Obviously there are no Snowbirds (the RCAF acrobatic jet team) in Argentina like there are in Canada; the jet and the entire memorial is to commemorate the war for the Isla Malvinas that occurred in 1982. This set of islands is known as the Falkland Islands by the rest of the world.  It is amazing how contested these islands are in Argentina and how serious they still are that they want them back.  Ever since entering Argentina we have seen signs everywhere proclaiming “Las Islas Malvinas son Argentinas” i.e The Malvinas (Falkland) islands are Argentina’s.   

The other popular thing to do in the area is to see all the parrots.  We are not too sure at what point of this trip seeing wild parrots was significantly less interesting to us, but retrospectively it is amazing that the most frequently seen bird of many areas of south America is the parrot.  These birds are everywhere, like robins in Canada.  El Condor is supposed to have cliffs full of the birds but due to the avian flu many areas are closed off to visitors so there were not too many to see.

After a pretty mediocre pint at the local brewery and some route finding for where we would camp we started driving far down the beach, what we had hoped would be a paved road turned into over 100 kilometres of gravel but eventually we found our perfect spot to camp.  There was an issue, the road to it was a bit sandy.  After walking it out we thought it may be alright, but we were wrong.  After lots of pushing and troubleshooting we were so stuck in the sand the only way out was to get towed out.  GREAT!

Oooooffffff

This was another bit of a blow to our egos but we were fortunate to be near other Argentinian campers many with 4x4 trucks.  We swallowed our pride and walked the 150 metres to the first camper we saw who, as we approached said “You’re stuck, I was wondering when you’d make your way over here”.  The couple dropped everything they were doing and after 10 minutes of talking and hooking the van up to their truck towed us out of the sand.  We tried to offer them some tokens of our appreciation, but they wouldn’t accept anything, just staying to pay it forward when we see someone who needs some help.

We did think about camping near our saviours but in the end decided to go a bit further down the road as we were exhausted.  When we finally found a spot it was almost sunset, this had become a very long day since sunset happens around 9:00pm.  We hoped to end the day having a glass of wine watching the sun set but alas one final issue had to present itself.  As we were about 2 minutes away from finishing cooking our propane ran out.  Looks like we have another task to complete: find someone to fill our north American propane bottle. 

Nothing like eating raw-ish or extremely al dente noodles while you are covered in sand from trying to dig out our vehicle. The sunset was beautiful and the wine was mediocre so it was an okay end to the day.

 

January 7^th – Kebab's on coals

Finding a place that can fill our propane bottle is always a little nerve wracking because it can be difficult.  We purchased an adapter while we were in Colombia but that adapter is for Northern South America, Chile and Argentina both have different threads from the north (and from each other) so we knew this may be a process.  This would also have to be a process we started tomorrow as some quick googling made us realize that any place that may sell propane would be closed as it is Sunday today. 

The pictures do not do it justice, the beach was packed

Obviously we wouldn’t be able to cook out of the van so we looked for a campground where we could walk to a restaurant for dinner.  The spot we choose was only an hour or so from where we camped last night so on a whim we decided to go to a community that had a giant billboard advertising it on the side of the highway called La Grutas.

If you look closely you can see
parrots in those holes

The caves carved by the ocean

We've never seen pools like this 

The community was a very busy seaside town with beaches full of people.  Somehow we found an amazing parking spot near the beach and went down to marvel at how busy the beach was.  The beaches of this area are famous for the sea side caves which give the community its name.  The caves were neat to look at but we couldn’t get over the “natural” pools the community had carved out of the rocks that filled up at hightide and became swimming pools next to the sea at low tide.  We felt we could not leave this community with out swimming in these pools.

We couldn't not go for a swim

Now this is a seafood feast!!

By the time we finished swimming we were hungry and since we couldn’t cook anything and we were on the ocean we searched the nearest best reviewed seafood restaurant.  Even if we had propane we are glad we had this lunch, it was a good paella and was better than some we had while in Spain! 

It was at this point we had an idea. We had green peppers, and onions. We also have skewers that we have had since we started this trip.  We also had charcoal.  If we picked up some meat and tomatoes we could have kababs (and yes we will spell meat and vegetables stacked on a stick a different way every time in this post) for dinner for a fraction of the cost of going out for dinner.  We had a plan.

We decided to camp in the sleepy beachside community of Playas Doradas at the “famous” according to them campground of Camping Patagonia.  For the place being famous we were surprised how few people were at the campground but we soon learned why, it was very expensive (the $17,400 Argentinian pesos- which today is the equivalent of about $17usd).  Without too much of a plan we decided against the campground and drove down the beach hoping to find somewhere to camp for free.  Within 10 minutes we found the perfect spot, someone had even made a fire pit. 

The plan was executed perfectly, we ignited the charcoal made the kebobs and slowly cooked them to perfection.  We should almost run out of propane more often if these are the types of meals we make for ourselves.

Probably the best kebab's we
have ever had

Kendra prepping these
 beautiful kebab's

 

January 8^th – We got moved along

We had read that a lot of people had luck getting propane in the community of Puerto Madryn, and we are happy to say we get to count ourselves in that group.  After seeing the propane bottle and the adapter they said they’d be able to fill our bottle.  They even remarked how surprised they were to see a Mexican propane bottle, we don’t think they had ever seen one before even though we told them it was from North America. 

Next we decided to get more cash, as we have mentioned before getting cash is a bit of a process in Argentina as there are multiple different currency exchange rates depending on where you go and the peso was recently devalued.  The best rate is with crisp $100 US bills (980 peso to 1 USD), 2^nd best is through Western Union (950 peso to 1 USD) and the worst is through the banks (799 peso to 1 USD).  These rates (other than the bank rate) are known as the blue rate and they change daily based on people’s demand for a stable currency.  Argentinians can’t buy much, if any stable currency, and the Argentina peso is facing historically high inflation causing a government exchange rate (black rate) and the on the street exchange rate (blue rate), we won’t even mention the MEP/credit card rate.

Fat Stacks!!

Getting cash always feels like we are doing something illegal (just like how getting gas in Bolivia also felt illegal, even though it is not). Paul asked at tourist information where we could exchange currency and was given a name, location and phone number.  When we got to the location there was a guard at the door to check our passport (and the goods [US currency]) and then he radioed someone inside.  It felt like a dentist’s office but with one room for currency changes.  We were surprised to learn that their exchange rate was 995 peso to 1 usd so we ended up walking out with a lot of cash, especially since the largest bill is 1000 pesos.

Having completed the main tasks of the day we found a campsite near a natural reserve we wanted to  go to tomorrow.  We parked made some lunch but before we could finish our meal we were greeted by two park rangers.  Turns out where we had planed to camp was another protected area where camping has recently been outlawed and this rule is now being enforced.  However, pets were not allowed to be in the protected area so we had to leave, but at least we didn’t get a fine, instead they gave us a map showing the boundaries for the protected area which was nice of them. 

Our next option was also a bust, it was in a campground in the resort community of Puerto Piramides, but we learned it was full.  It seemed our only option was camping around the south east part of Puerto Madryn which turned out to be where all the Argentinian long term van lifers stay. It felt like we were pulling into a trailer park as we scouted our spot for the night.

NOTE: In the last 6 hours (when we got currency to now) the blue rate has changed from 980 pesos to 1 USD to 1000 pesos to 1 USD, just to show you how quickly the rate can change.

 

January 9^th – Penguins up close and personal

SOOO CUTE!!

Although we are usually awake and are out of the van by around 8:30am we had been told by the ticket office that it would be in our best interest to be at the ticket booth by that time so we had enough time to properly explore the Valdez Peninsula.  For the first time in many weeks, we awoke to an alarm.  Although we felt groggy we were glad we had set an alarm as we awoke to see a cruise ship.  We knew that we would not be alone in the national reserve.

We drove the 45 minutes to the reserve entered the tourist information office to learn the best time to see all the aquatic life known to reside along the peninsula’s coast.  Turns out it is high tide when the animals are closest to shore, guess we could have figured that one out ourselves.  However, as we were leaving we saw bus upon bus enter the parking lot of tourist information.  We had one goal, make as much distance between us and them as possible, so we started driving to the various points of interest on the island. 

Just a couple curious Guanacos

They were so close to us!

The first stop was to see penguins, one of Paul’s favourite animals.  Never would we have guessed just how close we would be to these animals.  The Magellanic penguin colony on the peninsula does not fear humans at all and seemed to act as if we weren’t even there.  We watched them for an hour, waddling about, digging holes will their flippers and communicating with each other.  It was an immediate highlight of 2024 and Argentina. 

Next was Caleta Valdes known for seeing Orcas and Elephant seals.  Sadly, we only saw seals and sealions something we had seen many times before.  From this point we headed north to the aptly named North Point where en route we saw some guanacos, cousins of llamas and camels.  Once again we had hoped to see Orcas and closer up Elephant Seals but it was more of the same, we did however finally snap a picture of an armadillo, something we have been trying to do since Mexico but failing because they are so fast.

Finally got this photo!

Our day on the peninsula was almost done, but we thought to check out a few more miradors close to the community of Puerto Piramides.  Usually these are the miradors where you can see giant Southern Right Whales but they had migrated away from the areas so the only thing to see there was more sea loins.

Our filthy van

Before returning to our camp spot for the night we had hoped to get a car wash as our van was filthy and an oil change, but the spot we wanted to go to didn’t have time to do a carwash nor the correct oil for our van so we picked up some food from the grocery store and spent the evening watching the ocean and the cruise ship (Serenade of the Sea) sail away.

 

January 10^th – A clean van

The sand and salty air had really taken a toll on the van.  Its side windows were almost impossible to see through making it a little dangerous to drive in the city.  Our priority of the day was to resolve this issue.  Before returning to the carwash/oil change place we stopped in at an oil shop and were able to find oil for the van meaning we could get two tasks done at the same time.

Enjoying the boardwalk with the
cruise ship in the background

And yet there are people
swimming

After dropping off the van we had 4 hours to explore Puerto Madryn which we did by going to the ocean promenade and looking at the various artisanal shops that had opened for cruise ship passengers. When we explored this area a few days earlier there were no shops or stalls open, it is purely for cruise ship tourists. We walked down various streets, stopped at cafes and window shopped until before we knew it, it was time to return to the van.  Time actually flew by.

Our van, and our engine oil, was clean so we made our way to our next stop on our trip south towards Ushuaia, the Welsh community of Gaiman.  We had heard it is a great place to check out with a real interesting local history, but by the time we arrived it was closer to dinner time than we had hoped so we grabbed some charcoal and started a fire in a grill at the local community campground.  This place seemed like the perfect place to just hang out for a few days.

 

January 11^th – What have I, Paul, done

As some may know Paul was diagnosed with gout a couple years ago so he changed a bunch of his eating and drinking habits.  Foolishly during this trip he has fallen into some bad habit and today woke up with a bit of a gout attack.  We would have to put off exploring for a day or so.  This was fine as the campground had internet giving us time and ability to upload photos and doing other various tasks we had been putting off. 

Oh Paul...how your decisions have consequences...

In general, it was a good day to take a breath, take it easy and upload all blog entries right up to and including today!

The final bumps of 2023

 Although still fearful about what we would learn from Rupert's cardiologist, we were so excited to be in Argentina until  the incompetency of our mechanic in San Pedro caused another issue which almost made us walk away from the entire trip.   Thankfully we experienced the kindness and friendliness of Argentinians people have so often spoken about and were able to preserver.

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!

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!

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!

The start of our 30 km bike ride

Biking beside vineyards

We got on our bikes and had a map directing us to three wineries that could be open today.  The furthest was about 10 kms away and we had a reservation for a tour in about an hour. We arrived to the winery with time to spare and were greeted with a glass of sparkling wine.  We enjoyed the tour of the grapes and the production facility and saw a new fermenting method.  Giant egg shaped concrete containers, which helps the wine circulate and ferment evenly. After having a delicious wine tasting it was time to go to the next winery.

New wine making technology

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.

The perfect way to end
 a bike ride

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.

Here is the real Santa's little helper

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”.

This may be one of the worst meals
we have had on this entire trip

For Christmas dinner we baked some potatoes into fries in the oven, had some Ramen as a side, and some extremely cheap cuts of beef that were probably 2 hours away from going bad.  It was probably the worst Christmas dinner either of us has ever had, but we saw and talked with our families and had a plan for continuing this trip.

 

December 26^th – 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.

After all the kindness we experienced
 here, we can say we love Mendoza

The electrical mechanic agreed with what we were previously told by the Walmart mechanic but after looking at what we wanted him to do was unsure if he could do it this morning or even today. He must have slightly sensed our facial expressions change as he piped up, just wait here I may have the relay you need.  With that he disappeared for 10 minutes.  He came back with a couple relays, but they didn’t fit.  Once again he said just stay here and back to the back of the shop he went.  More waiting.   Once again he returned and by some miracle he had a relay that would work without needing any rewiring for our van. 

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.

Stacks of  $$$

We were running short on cash meaning we would have to change one of our $100 USD bills.  Not knowing how this process would work we headed downtown.  Suddenly we were being bombarded by people yelling "cambio"; I guess we just go to one of these people.  We ended up going from person to person asking what there exchange rate was, surprisingly each one had a different rate.  Once we found a person offering a rate we were happy with we ended up following them into a small building where they took our money and returned with almost 100 - 1000 Peso bills.  The whole process made us feel like we were doing something illegal.

  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.

The spot was tranquil and definitely a better spot to have lunch.  The couple then excitedly told us that this would be a great camping spot for us and that if we wanted to we should stay here as it was free, safe and perfect for us.  Now maybe these people were axe murders and wanted to steal all our stuff but there was something about their genuine excitement and interest that Canadians had driven all the way down to their small province/community that made them seem really trustworthy.  We spent the rest of the day down by the river, soaking our feet and enjoy the first day in a long time when the van did not literally break, or break our hearts.

 

December 27^th – 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?”.

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.

The opening to the Carolina mine

Has a Wells, BC feel, mining town
 with an artsy feel

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.

La Gruta

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. 

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.

It was such a highlight to see these two again!

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 28^th - “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”.

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

As we pulled into the community we were frantically stopped by an Argentinian couple so excited for Colombians to be visiting their community.  Once again our British Columbian license plate has confused some people.  But wow were they shock to learn that we were not from Colombia but Canada and had driven here.  For a short time, we even laughed thinking how could they mistake our license plate for a Colombian license plate until we thought about it and how privileged we are to have seen many while in Colombia.  The average Canadian has never seen a El Salvadorian or Belizean license plate even though those countries are in North America, so why should we assume that an Argentinian has seen a Colombian license plate. 

 

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!

Does our van even go that fast?

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 29^th – 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 30^th 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.

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 30^th – 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. 

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.

This may have been one of the best meals
we have had on this entire trip

To end 2023 we had decided to celebrate Argentinian style. We did a quick grocery shop before all the stores closed which included going to a proper Argentinian butcher for his finest cuts of meat.  We picked up a bag of charcoal (carbon in Spanish) and went back to the AirBnB. We got out our favourite game, Patchwork and fired up the grill.  With a nice bottle of wine from Mendoza and delicious steaks we said farewell to 2023, which was probably the best meal we have had all year.

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?