April 11/26 – Chile/Argentina
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006Day 253/268 – At the end of the world our journey had come to a point: a stopping point, and a point that seemed to aim back towards the States. Our van broke down, it was 15 days and counting – we were stopped. Our partner in New York City needed some assistance on a project of ours, and the only way we could help was by going back. Jason’s grandfather passed away and family ties drew him to the funeral in Washington State. Our travels had not stopped, even though the van did, for we continued to meet people and learn about their culture and the country around us, in a way that we never would have been able to before. We met new friends and amazing people, who have outlooks on life that we can only hope to emulate.
All of these different situations fell upon us in a three week period. We decided follow the signs, and head back home for some period of time, while the van is being fixed. The following is a brief summary of this:
In Punta Arenas we were picked up by Javier’s wife, Cecelia. That day we went to Aduana with them and the officials told us it would cost $140,000 pesos ($280 usd) to import our non-functioning car, plus we had to tow it to Punta Arenas so they could see it. That would cost around $75,000 pesos ($150usd) for towing the van 219 kilometers (136 miles). The import cost for us would be over $400 usd. That was very opposite of what they told us over the phone. It wasn’t going to be an option… back to the drawing board.
The events unfolded like this: Jason got the flu for five days. We stayed with Javier and his really nice friends in Punta Arenas until after Easter, then caught a bus back to Cerro Sombrero. Javier and Jason took out the motor in the van and were able to conclude that the number one piston was shot. Javier also thought, after closer inspection, that the block might be cracked. Javier had to go back to Punta Arenas for work and while there he looked for a replacement piston for us. He couldn’t find one the right size, but he came back with two options: either buy a bigger piston and bore out the cylinder just a little, or buy a new engine. During the week we found out our business partners in New York City needed us to come back for a short period of time to help with some projects. So we started to figure out how to leave the country without the van. Good news came later and amazingly enough, Javier found a used VW engine from the 70’s, so that means it is 1600cc – ours was a 2000cc. It would fit perfectly and we have a new engine, sounds great – and it was even in our price range, $100usd! We started to make plans to get the new engine and return to New York City. That weekend we found out Jason’s grandfather passed away. After a few phone calls it turned out that we could make the funeral if we left that morning, which was a Monday morning. We packed quickly and made arrangements for Javier to install the new motor. We said our sad good byes (though we will be back), and walked towards the highway to start our journey to the airport in Buenos Aires. Of course this is all a very watered down version of that week and only about half of what went on.
In order to get to Rio Gallegos, which will take us to Buenos Aires, it was faster for us to hitch a ride than to take any other form of transportation. If we took a bus it would be a three hour ride to Punta Arenas (which is in the opposite direction) and then a wait for a bus to Rio Gallegos, which only comes once a day. So we got a ride from Cerro Sombero to the highway by a very nice gentleman – who knew of our van; everyone knows of us in town, it’s kind of funny. After getting to the ferry terminal and crossing the Straights of Magellan, we got a ride (our fourth by now) to within 12 kilometers of the Chile and Argentinean border. We decided to start walking towards the border. Up and down the sloping deserted hills that are covered in tall yellow grass; we walked while we munched on a package of gummy bears that we finally opened (thanks Peter! they were delicious). No one was interested in picking us up – though there were only about 10 semis/cars that passed us during the whole walk. After walking about ten kilometers a trucker took pity on us and picked us up. He took us through the border crossings and to Rio Gallegos. He dropped us off right across the highway from the bus terminal. It was a relief to get through the border crossings, since we were with the trucker the officials didn’t even know we had a van in Chile (we were not supposed to leave the country without the car). We were just in time to catch the first bus leaving that night to Buenos Aires, a 36 hour bus ride, with very few breaks. By Wednesday early in the morning we were taking a taxi to the international airport in search of compassion airfares to Seattle.
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