Feb. 27/28 – Uruguay/Argentina
Day 210/211 – In the morning Alejandro took us to a mechanic that his friend suggested. A mysterious noise was still coming from the back of the car, which we figured out was probably the CV joint; and an oil leak was developing. The time the mechanic needed to fix the van was too long, and they said they probably wouldn’t have the part we needed. So we decided to try Argentina instead. Thank you Alejandro for everything!!!!!
So it was off to Carmelo this morning, to pick up our bike that we had left at Orlando’s mother’s house, and to visit with Orlando’s other brother Velarde. Unfortunately, he wasn’t around and we weren’t sure when he would be back. So we got the oil changed and checked one more time to see if Velarde was around. We left a note for him at the house, then took off north to Salto and the border crossing for Argentina. On the road again.
My cold got worse and put me out of commission for two days, but that was okay because we were basically just driving most of the time, up to the border and then up to the Iguazu Falls at the border of Brazil and Argentina. Our first night we stopped at a hot springs campground, Termas de Guaviyu, which was on the way to the Argentinean border. It was full to the seams with Uruguayans and Argentineans on holiday for Carnival. Everywhere we looked there were tents and smiling faces.
We crossed the border in the morning, same as before, and drove up to the town of Eldorado, where we looked for a mechanic. We saw a VW dealership and they pointed us to a very nice mechanic. He went through, in broken Spanish, all the items we wanted to fix and told us that they didn’t have the parts we needed, and to try this other shop. They were so helpful that they even wrote down all the items we were looking to fix in Spanish. The CV joint has stopped making sounds, but our small oil leak (wouldn´t be a VW van without one) had become bigger. The next mechanic looked at it and told us the same thing, and directed us to one last guy that works on trucks but has a Kombi (camper van) as well. Jason spoke with him and it turned out that he spoke English and said to bring the van in the morning and he’d look at it – and he thought it would be no problem.
We spent the beginning of that night at a municipal campground. Most towns in Argentina have one, and it was free. It seemed nice and safe enough. Later in the night, right before we were going to bed, a small group of young men and kids came by and hung out at a picnic shelter that was near our car. They brought their boom box and played their tunes loudly into the night, sometimes helping the singer along with the lyrics. They weren’t giving us any problems, so we just laid there listening to their Spanish conversations and waited for them to get tired and go home. They finally started to leave, then, as Jason poked his head down to see if they really left, he saw two of the guys quietly sneaking back. They started to check out our bike on the back of the van, and we could see them in the mirrors. Jason made a bit of noise and shook the van a bit, which made them take off running. We didn’t waste our time and closed down the pop top and left the park; not wanting to have to worry about them coming back to try at the lock again. Free camping always comes with a price, I guess.
Tags: 16 - Argentina, 17 - Uruguay, camping, mechanic
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