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?

I guess this is our life! (The Ups and the Downs...and the down downs).

As we are posting this from the future we know that this marks the start of everything going wrong.  The next few blogs will mark our hardest days on the road where as soon as we thought nothing else could go wrong, something else went wrong.

In this blog post are forced to be towed into Chile due to a failed fuel pump.  It is there we learn that our one issue, a is actually two issues, our engine thermostat isn't working properly causing us to overheat.

After thinking that everything is fixed we learn that the mechanic, which was highly recommended, improperly fixed our van causing our engine to be too cold causing throttle and engine issues.  As we raced to find a replacement engine thermostat a new issue presented itself, we needed new bushings.  Little did we know other problems were only days away.

Our new favourite hot springs
and camping spot

Unfortunately this is a long read but we wanted to make sure we documented it so in a few years when we need cheering up we can re-read it and smile about how overcame these issues.

November 24^th - We Can’t Believe This is Our Life

We woke up to amazing views of volcanoes, a beautiful lake, flamingoes and of course our own personal hot spring pool.  Paul woke up before Kendra and hopped right into the hot spring.  It was surreal looking out from our infinity pool hot spring to see Andina Flamingoes feasting. This is an image that is permanently burned into our memories because it had us constantly saying “I can not believe this is our life”.

The Sol de Manana Geisers,
(or maybe Yellowstone?)

While we were enjoying our morning swim another BC plated truck pulled in with travelers originally from Ukraine.  They originally had plans to just travel around Canada but after the war started they had no home to go back to so they just kept traveling.  It was so surprising to see BC plated vehicle way in middle of no where Bolivia.  We eventually parted ways with the Ukrainians and headed towards the geysers and a colourful lake on our little version of the Lagunas Route.

Our first stop was the geysers.  The short 20 km drive would take us almost an hour, since the roads are so bad. Washboard for kms at a time and loose gravel scraping the bottom of the van are just some of the many features of the Lagunas Route. We made it to the geysers and felt like we were in a combination of Yellowstone National Park and the Southwestern United States.  Bubbling water and mud pools surrounded by mars like landscapes.

The wildlife was curious about us

We made it!  Laguna Colorada

Next we continued on a worsening road for another 29 kms to reach the furthest away point we would travel to, Laguna Colorada.  This lake is known for its different flamingo species, llamas, vicunas, and the colours of the lake.  Again, we could not believe that “this is our life”, but every breath taking moment needs a dose of reality.  As we parked at Laguana Colorada we heard the sound of air squeezing it’s way out of a tire, we had a hole.  Now, we are always prepared, we have a full sized spare on the roof and a donut underneath.  However, we decided against fixing our fuel size spare when our rear tire got a hole at Toro Toro National Park. We were in what felt like the middle of nowhere with 2 flat tires and only a donut to use, which we didn’t think would last a minute on these bumpy washboard gravel roads.  Luckily it was a slow leak and there was a small town of under 50 people called Huayllajara 6 kms, or a 20 minute drive away and according to iOverlander had a person that could fix tires.

Just a normal day at Laguna Colorada

Rupert makes all the friends!

One of our favourite photos, we plan to print it and call
it the most expensive photo of our trip due to the costs we had to bare after this photo was taken

Trying to keep ourselves busy,
 not thinking about how we have two flat tires

We got to town and asked around for the tire person and we were directed to Don Luis’ shop.  We knocked on the Bar/Tienda/Shop/Multiservicio place and found Don Luis.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have just one hole to fix as we quickly learned we had a couple small holes and the tire patch we had got in Colombia had failed due to the washboard roads.  3.5 hours later Don Luis had cut apart the inner tube of a tractor tire, glued it into our tire so it would hold air, and patched the hole in our spare tire – we weren’t going to risk getting another flat. For $250 bolivianos- the equivalent of $50 cad, we had two tires fixed in the middle of no where and we were back on the road. Originally we had wanted to buy some beers, but we used our last Bolivianos to fix our tires so we will have celebratory water tonight.

We pulled back into the camp spot we had the previous night and watched the sunset from inside the van.  The altiplano has a habit of being windy from about 1 pm-11:00 pm, so it was too windy to sit outside.  We went to bed happy that we survived the lagunas route and we only have 50kms until the border with Chile.

Back to the hot springs!

November 25^th – Stuck in the desert

They say these are some of the worst roads
Overlanders attempt, we agree with that!

We woke up this morning to the same view we did yesterday.  We hopped into our private hot spring pool and watched the flamingoes slowly warm up and have their breakfast in the lake. We also met a man named Alfonsino who lived in the nearby house. He asked if we had any medicine for his son who has a bad cough.  We offered him our half bottle of Nyquil which he gratefully accepted.  The instructions were all in Spanish for the dose to take, but he could not read.  It is truly eye opening how lucky we are to have been born in a country where illiteracy is extremely low.  Next it was time for breakfast and to finish off all our meat and eggs we had brought in to do the Lagunas Route with, since Chile is strict about what products you can bring in (it’s mostly the same things as going from Canada to the USA- no fresh fruits or vegetables, no meat or dairy products and other things must be in their original packaging). 

The Dali desert is known for the unusual rock
formations you can see in the background

We hit the road and made our way towards the last few places we wanted to see.  The Dali Desert and Laguna Verde and Blanca.  After the Dali Desert, when we were 8 kms from Laguna Verde and 10 kms from the ticket booth, our van did something we have only experienced once before.  We lost power, but not electrical power, power steering.  Paul thought this sudden loss of steering was due to a flat tire so we safely pulled over only to find that all our tires are inflated and holding strong.  When we happily got back in the van, it wouldn’t start.  It sounded like it would start, but it just wouldn’t. Nothing was smelling, leaking, or overheating so we began to troubleshoot in what felt like the middle of nowhere. 

After 10 km of hiking Paul made it to Laguna Blanca
 (White lake) he wanted to enjoy the sites but it was hot and windy
and he was sunburnt and exhausted.

We’re thinking it was bad gasoline because that is what happened when the van had a similar failure in Mexico. We added some fuel cleaner we had purchased in Peru and rocked the van back and forth to make the 30 litres of gas that we have slosh around, no success.  We banged out the air filters, being at 4470 metres above sea level- maybe the engine isn’t getting enough air, no success.  Kendra read the owners manual which is not useful at all unless you have a fancy van with electronic systems (ours doesn’t). We checked all the fuses and made sure nothing in the engine bay is loose.  It seemed that no matter what we did the van would still not start.

This was a big problem; we were in the middle of no where with 2 litres of water and barely any food.  Very few people travel this road and fewer still will be able to help us.  We needed to act and quickly before the heat of the day starts or wicked wind starts to below.

Alas, since chivalry is not dead and because chivalrous people would need to speak and understand Spanish Paul made the valiant 10 km trek in the middle of the Sud Lipez Desert to get to a place where he would have cell service a customs office/Bolivian Military base. He had his backpack with water and granola bars while Kendra and Rupert stayed at the van trying to start it.

We wish we got a better picture of the
ratchet strap tied to the van 

After 2.5 hours he returned with two Bolivian Parks people and a tour operator driver to look at the van. They tried everything we did and figured it is our fuel pump being gummed up from bad gas.  They also thought we could have diesel in our engine too but since we added fuel cleaner they figured that’s what the smell may have been.  After looking at the engine, trying to start the van, checking the fuses, and crawling under the van they came to the same conclusion we had…the van is dead but this time in Spanish. Since no tow trucks will come into Bolivia from Chile and the next nearest mechanic in Bolivia (other than Don Luis from yesterday) is 250kms away, about a 8 hour drive on the rough washboard roads our only option was to get towed with a rachet strap.

After a 10 km bumpy ride we arrived the customs office/army base. We had hopes to continue our tow right to the Chilean Immigration/Customs building; however, our rescuers said they would only drive us to Bolivian immigration office 8 km from the Chilian building.  When we pleaded they said it was illegal for them to enter any part of Chile even if it was before the Chilean immigration building.  At first I thought they were joking when they said the Chileans would shoot at and arrest them but when every person in the area said the same thing we knew it must be true.    

The van is at the Customs building!

We decided to take their offer to bring us to the Bolivian immigration office so canceled our TIP for Bolivia and waited until they were done their dinner.  Surprisingly right before hooking our vehicle back up to the Bolivian Land Cruiser we decided to try to start the van one last time.  IT STARTED!!! 

Camping in the cold in the middle of the desert between two borders

Paul did a few laps around the parking lot and we thanked our rescuers with a bit of American dollars (because we spent all our Bolivian money yesterday on tire repairs). We did not stop the van and we drove away from the Bolivian customs office.  It was only 12 kilometres to the Chilean immigration/customs office where we could get a tow truck from (and only 5 kms to get to the Bolivian immigration office) our hopes were high.  300 metres after the Custom office (4.7 km from the Bolivian immigration office) we hit some washboard and the van died again. We are sure it must be a connection with the fuel pump that is being jostled around by the rough roads.  So here we are, technically in Bolivia with a van that has been exported, waiting for the tour operators to tow us to Bolivian Migration in the morning.  We don’t have much to eat and the cold and dark is descending upon the desert.  Although we are in a better situation from earlier today we are still feeling pretty grim.

 

November 26^th - “We are going to Chile today, no matter what!”

Paul awoke optimistic and promised Kendra and Rupert that we would make it to Chile today.  We woke early after a terribly cold night sleep.  It got below freezing outside and the condensation on the windows in the van even froze.  It was the coldest night that we have had since last November in the USA.

The van is "kind of" in Chile!

The reason we needed to be up early is because at 7:30 am is when the tour operators make the trip from the park entrance and Aduana office to the immigration office to drop tourists off and pick up new tourists. Paul decided to walk towards the Aduana office and was able to flag down the first vehicle that came by. The man wanted to check that the van would not start and looked around the engine a bit before agreeing to take us to “the frontera” aka the border. We did not clarify which border but since he had Bolivian plates we figured he would take us to the migration office. With our ratchet strap attached he warned us that he would not take us along the main road because it is bad, but we would take some off road side tracks; at this point we figured things couldn’t get worse than the van not starting.  After a bit of a stressful tow, we arrived right at the border signs at the Bolivian Migration office.

He told us to wait to get stamped out of Bolivia because the line was too long and he would try and contact a friend who is an electrical mechanic to help us because he thought we had an electrical issue.  During this time, we became quite the topic of conversation for the Bolivians and Chileans transferring tourists between the border.  Everyone seemed to want to help and offer their opinion.  In the end everyone reached the same opinion.  Leave the van here, go to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile and return with a tow truck.

Everyone was so willing to help, but eventually they
all agreed, there was nothing that could be done here

An interesting thing about the border between Chile and Bolivia is that there is almost 8 kms between the two immigration offices, and Chilean’s  do not cross to the Bolivian side and Bolivians do not cross to the Chilean side.  We weren’t sure what our next steps would be, but Paul decided we would see if all three of us could get a ride into San Pedro de Atacama and see if a mechanic or tow truck could come and help. We loaded into a sprinter van with mostly French tourists and made our way to the border.  Paul sat shotgun with Rupert and assured the driver that we had everything we needed to get Rupert across the border; which we did with additional copies and the assurance from the SAG person at the border that Rupert would be allowed back in.

We made made it legally back to Chile!

Rupert was greeted warmly by the SAG officer who remembered him from a few days ago and she ushered him and his documents to the front of the line and got him in with a few extra pats on the head.

Next we had to wait for our bus loads turn. The driver turned in the list of passengers and then we were officially stamped into Chile. It was almost an hour drive to the city of San Pedro de Atacama and while Paul was talking with the driver he learned the driver had friends with a tow truck who could help us (even though it was a Sunday).  So as we arrived in the city, the tow truck arrived to take Paul back out to our van.

At this point Kendra and Rupert went from hotel to hotel asking about accommodations for the night, but all were not pet friendly.  And to top off the sting of the rejection, Rupert scratched off a scab and now has an open gaping wound on his back that we will need to take care of. With a dying phone she found a place a little out of town but close to where she thought the mechanic was located and sent Paul a quick message hoping somehow he would get her final location.  We did have a back up plan, sort of.  We made plans to meet at the town plaza at 5 if Paul couldn’t find Kendra and Rupert.

The van is getting loaded up 

Obviously, Paul was emotionally and mentally exhausted and retrospectively this could have been a terrible idea jumping into a truck with strangers with our cash and his passport in his hand but he didn’t care.  He wanted everything in Chile, today!  The drive was relatively uneventful, Paul chatted with the drivers and tried to stay awake.  After an hour and a half, he was back at the Chilean Immigration office where we had to wait for 30 minutes to start the immigration process to leave the country and export the tow truck (even though we weren’t actually going to officially leave Chile).  In the tow truck driver’s boredom, he started trying to “crack” the password for the Immigration offices Wi-Fi.  After 10 minutes he learned the Wi-Fi password was 1122334455.  This was such a stroke of good luck as Paul connected to the Wi-Fi and learned where Kendra was able to get accommodations.

A celebratory drink, we are all,
including the van in San Pedro

After exiting Chile, we reached the official border marker where the van was located.  After a few pictures of the tow truck drivers at the border the van was loaded up and we made our way back to San Pedro.  Re-entering Chile was quick but resulted in Paul getting his 4^th immigration stamp of the day, one for leaving Bolivia and three for entering, leaving and re-entering Chile.  Even with the van on a flatbed trailer we were able to get our TIP for the van to legally drive in Chile.  It seemed like a long drive back to San Pedro as the goal of the day was complete we all made it with all our stuff to the nearest community to start the process of fixing our vehicle.  The van was dropped and Paul paid a reasonable amount for the distance and time traveled via a tow truck and surprisingly the van started up and we drove it into the secure parking lot of the hotel.

Once we were reunited it was time to debrief with some locally brewed beer and burgers.  We spent the night calming down from our recent excitement hoping that the mechanic can look at our van tomorrow and fix it for a fair price.  This town is known to have its own sort of “tourist tax” where everything costs more than any other places in Chile similar to Banff or Whistler, so we hope it won’t cost too much.

 

November 27- Anxiously Awaiting

I (Kendra) don’t know about you but I feel ill anytime the van is broken or needs repairs, pretty sure this trait comes from her mom’s side seeing as some of the Duquette’s can get emotional over almost anything so I let Paul deal with fixing the van because he speaks Spanish but he also doesn’t seem to be on the verge of tears when discussing the problem.  So this morning we woke up and Paul drove the van to the mechanic…at least he was going to attempt to drive it.  I offered to go with him in case he needed it pushed (I’m getting pretty good and pushing the van) but he said I could wait with Rupert.

A message from Kendra's Uncle John and Aunt Edna (not even directed towards us)that resignatrd with us. No matter what you are going through, it is always an adventure. 

Now this alone time (which is relatively rare) is usually when I update Instagram, but Paul needed my phone so I was able to get caught up on Youtube. About 30 minutes after Paul had left the hotel in the van that started but could die at any point in time, I got the dreaded message. The van died.  Luckily for Paul it made it 5.4 kms and died 50 metres from the mechanic’s shop. So the mechanic hooked up the van and towed it into his shop.

We don’t know about you, but we hate when you go to the mechanic or even a doctor with a problem and they want you to recreate the issue and you can’t, so we feel that the van died at the perfect time.

Exploring San Pedro

Since we would need to wait to hear back from the mechanic we decided to spend the day in the city plaza. We went for coffee, ate empanadas and tres lecehs cake from a street vendor and watched the day go by.  We had some craft beers from a different Chilean brewery with lunch and did some more waiting to hear back from the mechanic.  

At 5:30pm Paul got a message from the mechanic asking him to come to the shop.  This did not seem like an optimistic message, so Paul made the 5.5 km journey from the hotel to the mechanic shop while Kendra continued to write in the blog. By 6:30pm she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and messaged Paul.  The fuel pump was faulty/broken, basically exact thing Paul thought was wrong (well almost the exact thing; the first thing he thought was wrong was bad gas).  But the van was also overheating a problem that we didn’t really think was a problem.  In Mexico Paul noticed when we were idling the engine temperature would rise, but that was the start of the really hot part of our trip so we just assumed it was related to the heat, or the humidity, then in cooler temperatures we brushed it off as being related to the altitude besides it was only a problem if we idled and we are good environmentalists and minimize that when we can.

Enroute back from the mechanics

It turns out that this issue could have been the cause of our oil leak that we spent a pretty penny on getting fixed in La Paz, Bolivia. Now it could be a radiator fan issue or and engine issue, but we figured we might as well get it looked at now before it could cause a catastrophic failure in our engine.  At this point all we knew was that the fuel pump would arrive and hopefully be installed tomorrow.

 

November 28^th – A switch for the better

The famous church of San Pedro

The hotel that Kendra selected when we first arrived in San Pedro de Atacama was a decision made when she was emotionally exhausted.  The hotel met all our needs but it was expensive for what we got.  We knew there was a chance, be it a small one, that the van would be ready today as supposedly the new fuel pump would arrive but didn’t know when exactly the vehicle would be ready or when exactly even the new pump would arrive.  We didn’t want to commit ourselves to staying in the same hotel for another night, but we didn’t know what other options we had, we also hoped that we would receive the phone call were dreaming of; notic e that the van was operational again.  So, instead of committing to another night at the same hotel, or booking anything new we decided to pack up our bags, have the hotel store them and explain that we may be back to book another night. 

Kendra loved these rules because not
only could Paul not make annoying noises
 in the pool he couldn't make corporal downloads

We spent the morning and early afternoon in the area of the town square.  San Pedro de Atacama is a massive tourist town with most of the downtown location only accessible on foot.  It reminded us a lot of Jasper/Banff/Whistler, but obviously in the desert.  Everything was expensive but there was also always something, or someone, to watch or listen to.  We walked from café to café until it become obvious we needed to book another hotel for the night as the fuel pump had still not arrived to the mechanic’s shop.

This time we had the luxury of time and a positive mental state to properly research and find the right hotel for us which after an hour of research we found.  A far nicer hotel with free breakfast and a pool for less that what we were paying previously.  As soon as we checked in we knew this was a switch for the better.

Paul ended up walking back to the mechanics shop in the afternoon to pick up some clothes and some food for Rupert and get a bit of an update on the situation (the mechanic was a horrible communicator).  After that we tried to allow ourselves to relax finding a couple bottles of wine and going out for dinner. 

 

November 29^th - …still not ready…

Its hard not to have some fun when
your room is beside a pool

The free breakfast at the hotel was top notch and the pool was exactly what we needed to complement the heat of the desert town.  For a small time we forgot the problems we were having with our vehicle and the concerns associated with getting to southern Patagonia while the weather is hospitable.  It felt like we were in a resort in Mexico and we treated ourselves as such (i.e. drinks and food by the pool).

Obviously we had hoped that the vehicle would be ready but after another walk back to the mechanics shop Paul, in the mid morning, was told that tomorrow it would be done, at least we didn’t have to wait all day hoping for different news.

With the cost of things in Chile being at least 3x more expensive than Bolivia and almost 2x any other country since Belize we didn’t really leave the hotel as we didn’t want to spend any money.  Only after the sun set and our stomachs were grumbling did we venture out to a small restaurant with some live music.

 

November 30^th – Heart break

So happy to be doing things again!

Once again we spent the morning dragging our feet.  There was a very good chance that the vehicle would be ready today and we knew the second it was ready would we leave San Pedro to drive south.  After another delicious breakfast and relaxing around the room and pool we still hadn’t heard anything, but we decided to act as if the vehicle was ready.  We would pack up and Paul would walk the 5km to the mechanic for the last time.  After almost an hour of walking and when he was maybe 200 metres away from the mechanic shop he got the message we were hoping for.  The van was ready!

After a test drive with the mechanic and paying a couple days budget for the work Paul triumphantly drove into the parking lot of our hotel.  Our smiles had returned and we couldn’t wait to hit the road and continue the road trip.  We hoped that the problems with the vehicle were behind us.

Our van will not be stuck forever in the desert like this bus!!

Our goal was to drive the 300 km to the coastal city of Antofagasta.  We only stopped three times on this journey.   The first was to see a famous bus that, like us, stopped working in the middle of the desert and has remained there to this day.  The second was to Walmart, a first since leaving Costa Rica, in the community of Calama for groceries.  As Calama is known for vehicle break ins especially for vehicles with foreign plates Paul stayed near the vehicle changing a tire and organizing the van while Kendra did some grocery shopping.  Our friends Katharina and Michael had a window smashed on their truck only a week earlier. The third stop almost broke us.

As we started our final descent from the mountains into ocean the van did something odd.  It didn’t make a sound and the handling did change but the motor and the vehicle seemed to communicate something wasn’t correct.  A split second later the check engine light and the throttle control warning light illuminated while the engine temperature gauge went to zero.  We pulled over turned off the vehicle and felt our despair grow.  We were happy that we were able to start the van again, and although the throttle control warning light did not come back on the check engine light did and seemed to be permanently illuminated.

The first time seeing the ocean since central Peru

We did drive the remaining 30 kilometres to our camp spot on the coast where we once again started to research mechanics and possible reasons for the vehicle’s behaviour.  We just couldn’t believe that we had another issue with the van that we had to fix after only 5 hours of having the van “fixed”.

What a place to camp!

We spent the night feeling defeated and moping around on a beautiful oceanside cliff. It’s hard to feel down in beautiful places, but we were not able to have the celebratory evening of having the van back that we had envisioned.

 

December 1^st – Forced to play the waiting game

Our plans before the check engine light came on were to go to Antofagasta to get an export certificate for Rupert so he could legally leave and re-enter Chile.  Most overlanders can get this certificate for 30 days but we had read that if you ask very nicely the officials may give you this certificate for 60 days.  We had also read that if you already have Bolivian documentation that is less that 2 weeks old that they will accept this documentation as proof that the dog is in good health negating the requirement to visit (and pay for) a new Health Certificate prepared by a Chilean vet. 

We arrived to the SAG office (an agency of the Chilian Ministry of Agriculture in charge of livestock) who is responsible for preparing the export document.  Paul walked in with all our documents but returned quickly.  He was not given the news we had hoped for.  He was told that they would not recognize the documents from Bolivia, that we needed documents from a Chilean vet, that they were unsure if we could get a sixty day certificate and that even if we had the vet paperwork today the certificate would not be ready until Wednesday (today is Friday). 

There was a vet near the SAG office, but for the first time since the United States we couldn’t just walk into a veterinary office, we needed an appointment.  Thankfully they could fit us in just before they closed for the day (around 5pm). Meaning that by the time we would have our health certificate the SAG office would be closed.

Our next stop was a mechanic, one that we had read spoke English. Unfortunately our disappointment continued when we once again were told that the mechanic didn’t have time to look at our vehicle so we made another appointment for 8:30am Monday to get the vehicle looked at.

At least one issue is fixed, we got new tires!

We did have one more task for the day and although we considered not attempting it in fear of more disappointment we persevered and purchased new tires for the van.  Our tires were well worn and seemingly prone to becoming flat.  It was during this process we received our first bit of good news.  It was the opinion of the tire/suspension shop that we did not need a new steering knuckle that although a bit loose it was fine.  The good news continued when we got the bill for 4 new tires, a balancing and an alignment.  The cost was a couple hundred dollars less that we expected.

To celebrate this win we decided to treat ourselves to some craft beer.  It wasn’t the best we’ve had but it wasn’t the worst, and it gave us time to talk and reflect on the challenges we’ve been working through lately. While we were sipping our beers Paul noticed a car back up into our van while parallel parking on the street. We just can’t seem to catch a break these days!  Luckily Paul went down to investigate the damage and all that happened was it bent our front license plate a bit back on one corner and it sort of fixed the bend in our license plate when it got hung up on some barbed wire and got bent forward, so there were not any new scratches on our van.

We need to force ourselves to celebrate any "win" we get right now

The memory of the pleasant surprise with tire costs and a decent beer didn’t last very long as on the drive back to the vet the throttle control warning light once again turned on and the engine temperature gauge went to zero (obviously the check engine light has been on since it initially illuminated).

The vet appointment was fine, Rupert got new medication for the dermatitis on his back (she laughed at the old fashioned stuff we got in Bolivia) and we were told to return on Monday for our certificate.  It appeared we were forced to hang around Antofagasta for the weekend, at least we wouldn’t be forced into a hotel.  We returned to the camping spot we had stayed at previously and were treated to a nice sunset.  Hopefully a good omen for things to come.

How could we not return back to this campsite?

 

December 2^nd – Trying for a good day

The goal of the day was to try to have a good day; to do something positive that we could write/talk about so we conceived a plan.  We could do check out a natural arch that Antofagasta is known for and then purchase some meat and charcoal and have a BBQ beside the ocean.

The natural arch, known as La Portada, was only a 5 kilometre drive from our free campsite and enroute to a Walmart where we planned to purchase everything we needed for the BBQ.  The arch was nice and was complimented by the Antofagasta skyline.  However, after 10 minutes and a few pictures there wasn’t really anything else to do in the area. 

We were surprised to see fossils by the arch

BBQ and beer always seems
to make us feel better

After a relatively quick shopping trip Paul returned to the van with everything we thought we’d need.  Ground meat and burger buns, sausages, some beer and some new condiments.  Instead of our regular camping spot of the last couple days we decided to drive further north to the other side of the Bay where we had a view of an island.  For some reason we envisioned an island with trees that would command the skyline, but what we found was a barren area (similar to much of the coastal area of northern Chile) and a flat landmass just off the coast.

We set up the van in a way to block the wind, collected a bunch of rocks and made a little fire pit/oven and lit some charcoal with the help of our propane stove.  We didn’t know how well we would be able to follow through with this idea but after an hour we had a great coal base and started cooking our food. 

By the time the sun set we were stuffed and feeling okay about our situation.

 

December 3^rd – The tropic of Capricorn

We had enough food and water to last us a couple days and had no interest in spending any money so we spent the morning watching an entire season of Better call Saul before packing up the van and heading to the monument of the Tropic of Capricorn located a couple kilometres away.   This is the furthest south the sun can be seen directly overhead on December 21, past this point it’s arch never reaches completely 90 degrees overhead.

After a quick drive we grabbed some ice cream and returned to the campsite we had when we first arrived to the Antofagasta area and settled in for the rest of the day.

 

December 4^th – Water Issues

We arrived to the mechanic right at 8:30am as the doors to the shop opened up.  We were only a 15 minute walk from the ocean so we decided to head to the water in hopes of finding a little seaside café, unfortunately the ocean front area of Antofagasta is dilapidated with a lot of unhoused people. It was not an area we wanted to spend a lot of time in.

We continued our walk to the central area where we wandered artisanal markets and the large pedestrian walkways where we were finally able to find a café which was only serving instant coffee due to a water issue facing the community.  Unfortunately, for us we quickly learned that this water issue would impact us more than just forcing us to have instant coffee.

There were COVID themed stop lights, Red were germs

Green was wearing a mask

or Green was washing your hands

The mechanic contacted us and informed us that we had an issue with the engine thermostat that it was stuck open.  He also said that the part may be in Antofagasta but it was also something we may only be able to purchase from a Dodge dealership.  There was one autopart store he thought may have the part but due to these water issues the shop was closed.  He said he could order the part in from Santiago but that it may not arrive until next Monday.  Since we had to wait until the afternoon anyway for the new health certificate to be complete for Rupert we decided to spend one more night in the community and hoped that the autopart store would be open tomorrow.

There were some cool sea loins to watch

We were slightly annoyed when we arrived at the vet’s office.  We learned that they were missing some information from us and that they wouldn’t be able to give us the certificate until tomorrow.  We gave the vet the information they needed and left for lunch where we decided to have some comfort food.  We decided to go to McDonalds.

Although we considered doing something touristy after getting a pretty good BigMac we decided to just head to a camping spot for the day.  We chose a new one, south of the community where it was a little less windy and closer to the mechanic/vet. 

 

December 5^th- A long day of driving and a new problem

As soon as the mechanic shop was open Paul phoned the mechanic.  The water issue is set to continue, possibly until the end of the week so there was no way for the mechanic to know if the part would be available.  As the issue was related to our engine being too cold he felt we could drive to Santiago and get the part there.  As we had grown tired of Antofagasta that is exactly what we planned to do until we realized that Santiago was over 1300 kms away.

Probably unbeknownst to the mechanic, but what we learned after a bit of research is the northern most Dodge dealership in Chile was only 850 km away in the community of La Serena which also seemed achievable to drive to in one day.  Better yet there was a SAG office in La Serena meaning that we could get Rupert's export paper done there instead of in Antofagasta.

After a quick stop at the vet to pick up Ruperts new health certificate we started our drive south.  After 9 hours of driving, we arrived 40 kms north of La Serena just to watch the sun set over the ocean.

This monument in the desert seems to be a
right of passage that everyone overlanding
South America seems to stop at

On the drive Kendra had wanted to stop at a few places. We took photos at the Hand of the Desert, since it’s so stereotypical and iconic and Kendra had also wanted to stop at a mine.  Unfortunately the mine visitor centre would not be open when we got there and Paul did not want to stand at a look out after a 2 hour detour to see where the Chilean miners were trapped in 2010, so he vetoed that decision.  The day was a long drive through the Atacama Desert and then through Chile’s olive growing region.

During the drive we came to two realizations, the first was that we had a part of the world with potable tap water.  From this point until the end of our trip any time we open a water tap it will be potable. We haven’t had consistent access to drinkable tap water since we left the USA almost a year ago.  The second realization was a little more soul crushing.  It became very evident that we had an issue with our rear suspension.  Anytime we hit something we heard an unusual knock sound.  It just feels like we can’t catch a break!

 

December 6^th – THE PART IS (UN)AVAILABLE

On the drive to La Serena the van seemed to want to remind us that we had an issue with our engine thermostat as ever 20 kilometres warning lights would flash on the dash but we had hope that this would be one of the last times this issue would present itself.

Our first stop was the SAG office where Paul entered with all our documents and once again pleaded to have a certificate that would allow us to leave and enter Chile freely with the dog for 60 days rather than the typical 30 days.  This interaction was far more positive than the previous one in Antofagasta as the SAG inspector implied that we did have good reason to have a certificate that would be valid for that many days.  However, he was clear that the document would probably not be available until Friday (today was Wednesday).

To solve Rupert's dermatitis he needed a bath every two day with special shampoo. Here he is getting a bath at a gas station. 

We arrived at the Dodge dealership hopeful that they would be able to get the part but somewhat pessimistic at our chances due to our luck from the last week or so.  Thankfully the part was available in La Serena they just needed to retrieve it from another building.  After paying for the part they let us know it will be at the dealership the following morning.  Obviously this was great news!

Our next stop was a gas station where we can purchase a shower for the equivalent of $1.25 CAD.  The showers are clean and warm and well worth the cost, especially since we hadn’t had a shower since leaving San Pedro.  Rupert even had a shower where he we used a new Medical Shampoo the vet in Antofagasta gave us to help clear up his dermatitis.

Our final stop was to a mechanic to see if they were available to replace our engine thermostat and to determine the cause of the knock we hear in the rear of the van.  We pulled up to the drive shed of a potato farm and met the mechanic. The mechanic seemed competent and confirmed that we had an issue with our engine thermostat.  He also found the issue with our rear suspension.  We needed new bushings on our rear driver’s side; the rubber had a hole in it causing metal on metal impact whenever we hit a bump.

Maybe God can help us find this part!

We spent the rest of the day searching for the bushing we need by going from the dealership to almost every auto part store in the entire city (~10 places).  Our excitement about being able to find the engine thermostat disappeared when we realized that the bushings are not available anywhere in La Serena.

We had originally hoped to camp near an old fort on the outskirts of the next town over, Coquimbo, but after seeing the neighbourhood it didn’t pass our vibe check and for the first time in months we left searching for somewhere that felt safer.  There aren’t many spots in La Serena and Coquimbo to stay so we ended camping in a beachside parking lot between to very new condos overlooking the ocean with little to no privacy, but at least it was safe.

At least its safe and beautiful!

 

December 7^th – More delays

We have the new thermostat!

Although we had hoped that the mechanic would be able to replace our thermostat today he let us know that he was too busy to fit us in but could do the work tomorrow (Friday).  He also recommended that we purchase the bushing online as he thought it was very unlikely we would be able to purchase the bushing anywhere in South America.  The only issue is that it would take at least 5 days for the part to be delivered in La Serena.  When Paul asked if the bushing could be found in Santiago, he said, maybe, but it’s unlikely.

After a quick grocery shop we sat for a couple hours talking and planning.  We decided that we would take the risk and drive with a bad bushing to Santiago and try to purchase/order one there.  Our goal was to be in Santiago at dealerships for when they open Monday morning.  This issue we couldn’t agree upon is how we would get to Santiago.  The SAG office had phoned Paul this morning letting him know that our export certificate was ready (a day early) meaning we could drive to Argentina after getting a new engine thermostat, enjoy the wine region of Mendoza before returning to Santiago.   This drive was through a rural border and consisted of 100 kilometres of gravel road.  After the Lagunas route of Bolivia and with a bad bushing Paul did not want to take the risk of further damage to the van.

Waiting in line at a bank, we needed cash!!

After picking up the export document for Rupert and verifying that it was valid for 60 days we ended up driving back north 30 kilometres of La Serena to the nicest camping spot we had found in the area where after Kendra had a long nap to process things we agreed we would fix the bushing before we think about driving any roads that are not a smooth highway.

 

December 8^th – Donde es mi termostato? Where is my thermostat?

Rupert supervising

We reached the mechanic’s shop just in time for our morning appointment.  The repair was quick, around an hour, and we learned why we were having so many issues, the tubbing where the engine thermostat should be was empty.  We didn’t have an engine thermostat!    Our best guess is that ours had gone faulty causing us to overheat and the mechanic in San Pedro just removed it without telling us, even though he said he replaced the relay and gave us the old relay part, he did not give us our old thermostat.  We didn’t know whether to laugh about the situation or yell angrily. Luckily as a few more workers showed up to the mechanic they had a good chuckle about our thermostat having no thermostat and told us how lucky we were that the poor silicone job to hold the housing on didn’t enter our cooling system which would have seriously damaged our engine, so we can count ourselves lucky for our poor situation.

We explained our plan to the mechanic to drive to Santiago and purchase a bushing and anything he was hesitant but he confirmed that as long as we drive only on good highways we should be okay; however, he made it very clear he did not feel we could find the bushing in Santiago and it was best to order the part now.  After contacting another mechanic in Santiago who also recommended we purchase the bushing online we sat down and ordered the part, sending it to the mechanic in Santiago. 

Guess we know why the van was too cold

Since we were sending it to Santiago it would arrive a little faster than if we had ordered it to La Serena, but it still was not set to arrive until next Wednesday (today is Friday).  Since Rupert’s health certificate is only valid for 10 days we ideally have to leave the country by (next) Friday.  If we don’t leave by Friday we need to go back to a vet and purchase a new health certificate for the Argentina authorities.  This could be cutting things close.

Since we no longer had to be in Santiago until Wednesday we decided to go to the wine/pisco region of Chile, which started 60 kilometers east of La Serena down a proper highway.  The area is known as the Elqui Valley and it is famous throughout Chile for Pisco.  Due to its climate and altitude, it is the most hospitable place for pisco production, and if there’s pisco it means there are also wineries (since Pisco is more or less distilled wine).

Our first stop in the Elqui valley was Vicuna the hub community of the area where we purchased some fresh olives and cheese and learned where the nearest Pisco manufacturer was.  Before we knew it we were doing a Pisco tasting and walking out the door with three bottles for later.

One less issue!! time to celebrate

Our next stop was at a brewery in a small town just east of Vicuna which was slowly building a reputation across the country as being one of the best breweries in the country.  We can attest that if you are in the area, Cervaceria Guayacan in Diaguitas is well worth the stop.

Our camping spot for the night was 200 metres away from the brewery down by the river.  It was a local hangout and very busy, but we didn’t care.  The breeze was perfect and the water of the river was perfect for swimming.  It was easily the best place we had camped since leaving Bolivia.  We started to enjoy ourselves so much we didn’t’ notice how quickly the contents of our bottle of only pisco was disappearing and before we knew it we needed to go to bed.

The perfect place to relax