25 July 2012

chile, finally!

so now that we finally have five seconds to lie down in a hotel room with internets, here's what's happened over the last two weeks, in short:

- we got a 1968 vw bug that reliably breaks down and eventually starts again.  we've taken it to a million different mechanics.  we give up.  we are just driving it slowly and accepting its faults.  of which there are many.

- we made it to cuzco and machu picchu from there.  after that we headed to puno, peru, on the bolivia border, for mechanic hell and bitter, bitter cold.  we slept in the car a few nights and woke to ice on the inside of the windows. 

- oh, and the car really only likes being driven at night.  which is unfortunate because it has no heat, and lots of cold leaky holes, and we've been driving in temperatures well below freezing.  we bought a blanket and thermos, and we suck it up and have accepted that we are probably going to lose our toes to frostbite before the end of this trip.

- after puno, peru we made a run for the bolivian border, where we were turned away twice.  spent a day backtracking to puno, and another day obtaining a document from lima allowing us to leave the country.  somewhere in these bitter mountains, we decided we were just too cold and didn't want to go to bolivia anyway.  so after all that time, we turned back towards the coast and crossed over into chile instead.  we might make it to bolivia later, we might skip it.  i would really like to see the salt desert, but i would also really like to not be cold and sick from altitude. 

- crossing over into chile was like landing in heaven with 72 virgins.  we stopped in the very first town, arica, and went to a very fancy place for dinner, treating ourselves after having survived the mountains and just barely gotten across the border semi-legally with our car's questionable documents.  the restaurant was comfy and the waiter put USA waiters to shame.  we got a raw marlin dish and octopus ravioli in a saffron cream sauce.  and to splurge, we got a bottle of wine.  the waiter had us pick it from the cellar, and i thought i misheard the price he quoted me on the bottle i'd selected.  all throughout dinner i was sure i'd ordered an $80 (USD) bottle of wine.  when we got the bill, it turned out the wine bottle was $8.  i love this country.

- we spent a night in the car after arica, and the next day landed in another coastal city, iquique.  we got a hostel, dumped our stuff, and went on a search for dinner... for about four hours.  NOTHING was open.  it was a saturday night.  we were perplexed.  there were people milling about, plenty of churches and bodegas open... but all the restaurants were closed.  we finally found a pizza and beer place literally hours after walking around in search of fancy dinner.  the next day we left and headed south.

- we spent the next three nights sleeping in the car in increasingly southern therefore colder locations.  we spent a day in antofagasta trying again to get our car fixed.  we were semi-successful, but the mechanic didn't know how to fix the problem with the odometer that another mechanic in puno had created.  he sent us to another mechanic, who sent us somewhere else, and by the time the sun was setting we were at the fourth or fifth place, and they weren't being very helpful at all.  so one of us -guess which one- decided to take the speedometer apart themselves.  and when putting it back together, there was just a little short circuit and just a little bit of smoke.  and then, when we thought we had it all figured out and fixed and drove off to a wine store to get a bottle to drink on the beach, i turned the key to turn the car off, and not only did the car not turn off, but the horn started blaring.  i guess we rewired it wrong.  so now the car can only be used in this order:
  a. turn car on
  b. turn lights on
  c. drive etc
  d. turn lights off
  e. turn ignition off
if you do step e. before d., the car won't turn off and the horn will blare.  back in cuzco many weeks ago we came across a bug whose horn was blaring and the owner of the car was nowhere to be found.  perhaps they performed the same questionable rewiring.  oh, and we blew the aux cable's fuze, so til we fix that no ipod :(
- anyway, we are in santiago, chile right now, about to take our first shower in four days, and then go hit the town to find some live music and vino.  ciao!   



here's a hint at who started messing with the odometer...



we make perro friends so easily here!

friendly perro

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2 comments:

  1. your car sounds exciting/terrible. Hope you have a lovely time on the beach!

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  2. It's great hearing about your trip. Good writing Brynn!

    On the way back from Yosemite, Brenda read the blog to us. It was fun to hear about your adventures and Will was impressed and wanted to head South and meet up with you immediately.

    Your stories about the car continues to bring back memories of my experiences with VW's. The heating system on the old bugs is primitive. Air blows across the engine and then you open a vent in the car and you get heat. It sounds like either the tubes that carry air from the engine or the vent itself won't open. Or maybe the fan isn't turning because the fan belt isn't there. Why don't you take a picture of the engine and put it on your blog. I think lots of readers would like to see the car and/or engine that can only run at night. I use to replace my VW engine by placing a skateboard under the car, take off the rear wheels, then lower the car onto the skateboard and then pull hard on the engine until it was free. Then raise the car up and roll the engine out from the car. I did that in my Dad's backyard once, he was laughing as I grunted away, but he was impressed when I got the car running again. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting you do that.

    Good Luck

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