MUNGO EATS Latin America

When last I reported, we were on our way to Los Antiguos, the oasis town on Lake Buenos Aires where supposedly the Patagonian wind does not blow.  Well we never quite made it there.  We made it to within 25 km of the town.  As we were driving, the van engine stopped, just stopped.  It had been making some slightly strange noises at an idle for the past couple of days, and Kevin thought that maybe the oil filter was plugged.  He was hoping to check it and change it in Los Antiguos.  In any case, the van wouldn’t start, so we decided to go back to Perito Moreno and try to find a tow truck.  Perito Moreno is a slightly larger town, so we thought we would have better luck there.  We managed to catch a ride with a travelling salesman.  He dropped us off at the tourist info booth and for a while, we thought all was great.  Pinned to the wall was a picture of exactly the tow truck we were after.  Unfortunately, the info folks could not get a hold of this guy.  They pointed us in the direction of the other tow truck in town.  This one was an old, pretty beat up old thing. 

In any case, we managed to hit town at siesta time.  I HATE siesta time.  You know it makes a lot of sense to have siestas when you are in a hot climate, so that you can rest during the hottest  part of the day, but why do you need a siesta here in the wintery cold climate of Patagonia?  In any case, at 3pm the nice looking garage opened it’s doors, and we went to ask if they could arrange to tow us back to town.  They said it was “impossible” and we ended up back at the door of the fellow that owned the less than impressive looking tow truck.  He said he could help us, but not until 4 :30 or so.  So we waited some more.  And where were the kids and the dog during this time.  Why waiting patiently in the van for us, of course.  You see, we were kind of stuck.  Kevin knows about the van, but I speak Spanish, so we both had to go get the tow truck.  Don’t worry though, the kids were safe with the “guard dog” and 2 machetes, and to tell you the truth, they didn’t even miss us. 

Okay, so 4:30 comes and we pile into the old beat up looking Ford.  As we start driving down the road, the mechanic/tow truck driver’s 2 dogs start chasing us down the street.  He yells at them to go home, but eventually has to put one of them in the bed of the truck and one of them, he leaves to run after us down the road, claiming that eventually, he will get tired and go back home.  We really did not know how far away from Perito Moreno we were when we broke down.  We told the driver that we were about 25 km from Perito Moreno, so as we hit the 25 km mark, he started getting a little antsy.  He kept shaking his head and raising his hands.  When we eventually spotted the van, he told us that it was almost 40 km from the town, although how he knew I can’t say, for not one gauge in that whole vehicle worked.  Typically, he will not go further than 20 km out of town.  We had to roll down the window, to open the door to let ourselves out of this stylish vehicle, because there was no door handle inside the truck. 

The towing actually went quite smoothly, and we left the tow guy about 7pm with the understanding that we would meet him in the morning at 10am to start checking out the van.  We had managed to find a place to stay in town, a small cabaña in the municipal campground, so we all headed off for “home” to await the morning. 

This morning, Kevin and his interpreter, aka me, were at the mechanics at 10am.  He was nowhere to be seen.  We think he was sleeping in.  Kevin started to check out the van and his worst fears were confirmed.  The turbo charger had broken and in the process, damaged the engine.  This van is going nowhere.  The mechanic finally graced us with his presence at about 11am and confirmed Kevin’s theory.

So this is where we stand folks.  The van needs a new engine, or a rebuild of the current engine and we need a new turbo charger.  All this is likely going to take more than 6 weeks to organize, so we will not be trying to fix the van here in South America.  What we are  now going to try to do is get the van and ourselves to Valparaiso, by June 1, which is when we had actually arranged to have the van shipped.  Up until now, all had been coming together quite smoothly.  We had organized somewhere to stay in Valparaiso and a time and company to ship the van with.  But now, we just have to get there.  We need to find a transport company, that will take the van, the trailer and hopefully us to Chile.  If we cannot go with the vehicle, we need to find a way to get Mungo to the coast.  There is an airport in this town, but I am not sure where they fly and if they will transport a dog.

All you readers out there, here is your time to shine.  If anyone knows a transport company in Argentina or Chile, please let us know.  It could earn you an extra souvenir!! 

Oh well.  I am not too upset about where the trip has to end.  I would have been much more sad if the trip had been over back in Bolivia.  I am not looking forward to the next few stressful weeks of trying to organize the trip back home, but I sure we can manage it in the end.  I will keep you all posted.  Wish us luck, I have a feeling we are going to need it!!!    

For the second night in a row, we are parked in the middle of nowhere.  We decided to stay on the Argentinean side of the Andes for a while, and there is  very little between El Chalte’n and Los Antiguos.  In fact, aside from some guanacos, sheep and way too many rheas (I will never get used to these silly birds), there is almost nothing.  Things that are marked on the map as a town, may or may not be a town when you get there.  It may only be a group of 2 or 3 buildings.  Some of the large ranches or estancias are actually labelled on the maps, because…well, because there is nothing else to label. 

Last night we decided to camp on the shore of a large lake.  It sounded like a good idea.  The water was a beautiful blue-green.  Unfortunately, it was so windy, that we barely stepped outside long enough to enjoy it.  I got Mungo out for a crazy run around, which he does whenever he is a wide open space.  Other than that, we pretty much holed up inside the van and listened to the wind howl around us. 

Tonight, we are even worse off.  We have been driving on gravel roads for the past couple of days, but today the roads were reminiscent of the the horrific roads in Bolivia, which we can only go about 25-30 km/hr on.  We actually thought we would be stopping at a campground tonight, and tried to stop at three before actually ending up where we are this evening.  The first two were in a “town”, which literally consisted of about a dozen houses, 2 “campgrounds” and a gas station.  One of these “campgrounds” was closed, and the other one was literally someone’s backyard, with a couple of not so clean looking toilets.   I am sorry, but I am getting a little tired of paying someone to use a yucky toilet.  I actually prefer to pee in the “wilderness” than go amongst someone else’s filth!!  So we left the town and headed to the next campground.  This was an enclosed area on the edge of someone’s farm and although I did not check out the bathrooms, looked like a pretty good spot.  It also was CLOSED.  So here we sit in our current camp spot, a patch of gravel on the side of the road.  There is a creek nearby, BUT if we thought the wind was cold yesterday, we were crazy, because tonight it is darn well f-f-f-frigid!!!

Tomorrow we should be in Los Antiguos, on the shore of Lago Buenos Aires, the second largest lake in South America, after Lake Titicaca.  This town is supposedly sheltered from the crazy wind.  I cannot wait to get there!!

The day dawned windy and cool, and there was even a bit of snow flying.  Not enough to stick to the ground, but there was snow in the air.  We briefly thought about leaving, but decided we could use the day to get a few chores done (like our taxes) and hopefully wait for the day to clear. 

I am not sure that the day got much better, but we decided to go for a day hike anyway.  The only day hikes left in the area were two hikes to different viewpoints, one to see Fitz Roy and one to see Cerro Torre.  We knew it was unlikely we would see much of a view under the overcast conditions, but we needed to do a little exercise, so off we went, into the wind. 

It was only terribly windy for a short time, and then we got more or less into the trees and the wind was less fierce.  The trail worked it’s way up a hillside and soon we were high enough so that the snow actually stuck to the ground a bit.  Sara was very excited, and hurriedly scooped up a handful to eat.

The forest was beautiful.  I LOVE the fall, more than any other season.  Even if it is cold and even if it is windy, even if there is a skiff of snow on the ground…I love fall!!  Nothing is more beautiful than a forest in the fall. 

Predictably, when we got to the viewpoint, we did not see Fitz Roy,  just a big grey blank spot where it should have been.

It should be sitting right between the two peaks.  In any case, we still had the chance to enjoy another walk in the forest.  We even heard birds sing.  Not too  many birds sing in the desert that we drive across.  

So even though the weather did not cooperate fully, I am glad we came to this place to just be in the mountains for a little while.   I do miss my mountains! 

Yesterday we arrives in the town of El Chalte’n.  This apparently is Argentina’s newest town, exclusively created so that Chile would stop trying to claim the area as their own.  It’s a pretty small town, filled with hostels and hotels, all catering to the climbers, and hikers that come to hike the park and climb Mt. Fitz Roy.  Here is a picture of the mountain as we drove into town.  It is not the best shot, but I thought I would take it anyway, even though the clouds were not “right”.

We fully intended to camp in this town.  Everything we had read and the information we had obtained from the park info centre in El Calafate, told us that there were 2 free campgrounds and at least 3 pay campgrounds in town.  One of the free campgrounds was totally gone, and the second one had been turned into a day use area.  Two of the three pay campgrounds were closed for the season and the remaining one, would be closing the following day.  So camping was not an option.  We did end up finding a cabana to rent and this actually ended up being a blessing in disguise.  When we arrived in town, it was windy but sunny.  This area is well known for it’s wind.  In fact the wind is called “la escoba de Dios” or “the broom of God!!”.  Not long after we settled in, God got out the broom!!  The wind started to howl through the valley and at times the wind almost seemed to shake the little cabin.  If we had been in our camper, it would have been a most unpleasant night. 

We woke up this morning and found the valley socked in with cloud, rain and  more wind.  We were planning to do a little hiking, but with the weather as it was, decided to stay in for the morning.  Shortly after lunch, the rain broke and we decided to check out a waterfall.  The valley was quite nice.  Anyone familiar with the Ghost river valley will see the resemblance, as we did.

We were not really sure what to expect of the waterfall, hadn’t heard anything about it.  It was pleasantly spectacular!!!  We couldn’t hear it much before we got there, because the wind was still quite loud, so it almost snuck up  on us.  Peek around the corner and …WOW!

You could walk right up to the fall, with some careful rock hopping.  Sara, Sean and Kevin are somewhere in this picture, on the right side of the fall.

More fall colors too.

So tonight we are hunkered down in the cabin, listening to the wind as it starts to pick up again.  If it is a clear day tomorrow, we will try one of the hikes we had planned.  If not, we will pack up and get out of here.  My not so great pictures of Fitz Roy, might be the only ones I get. 

The first leg of our journey back north:

View

First Leg North in a larger map

Mostly pavement so far, but next comes 1,000 km of gravel. We’ll see how that goes!