Buenos Aires

Back at the lovely peaceful reservoir again, the morning peace was ruined by the Wallas not turning on. It seemed that whatever I had done was nothing more than a temporary fix. We had tried at least. I took the thing apart on the floor outside and when nothing was visibly amiss other than a dirty combustion chamber, we made the decision to drive to Buenos Aires and send it to the technician there. We were at least fortunate that it had kept us warm up in the higher altitude of La Cumbrecita and also that the only repair shop for this brand on the entire continent was located only about seven hours away.

We decided we’d set off the next day and spent a day trying to stop a massive ladybird infestation moving into Ruby. They arrived in the afternoon sunshine and I have never seen so many in my life. Thousands swarmed around us, crawling into every possible little crevice. They nestled in the door locks, cupboards and even amongst the duvet when we opened it out. Behind our little wall clock there must have been at least fifty. We frantically hoovered them up and deposited them outside again at what seemed like a slower rate than they managed to re-enter. As I write this, I can confirm that we were still finding them in the van about five months later.

The following morning we were all ready to ditch our previous plans and head for the capital. We hadn’t planned on going there so soon, but it was time to deal with the cooker problem. We were all packed and ready to go, but Lexi had other plans. She nestled up in the branches of a huge, unclimbable tree where she watched us below, desperately shaking a packet of treats. She was up there so long we resorted to desperate measures. We drove Ruby under the tree to try and climb on the roof and reach her. When that didn’t work I tried spraying her with the roof shower to make her move. After a particularly ridiculous amount of time, and totally on her terms, we got her inside and hit the road much later than planned.#

We decided we’d spend the day driving with there being little to do between here and the city. Now it was a bit later than we would have planned due to Lexi’s antics and we drove into the dark, pulling over in the gateway of a field in the middle of nowhere. We hoped the farmer didn’t want to access his field early the following morning, but with few options to park this was at least a quiet one.

Luckily for us, we had a nice quiet night and the next morning we were packed and ready to go early. We stopped to refuel and continued on, cutting east towards Rosario. In order to break up a long day of driving, we decided we’d stop for lunch on the way. This meant mid-afternoon saw us on the banks of the enormous River Paraná, just south of the city. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the cleanest water, you’d have seen me with a slightly murky bucket of it washing out the sofa cushions. Aimee had a rather horrific accident on the sofa earlier that morning and had somehow managed to cover most of the cushions as well as the blanket in diarrhoea. Comparatively, the slightly muddy river was an improved smell and so I ate my lunch and washed out the pillows as best I could before we pressed on.

We arrived at our destination, Carlos Keen, just before dusk. As it was a Sunday, there had been a large craft market but they were starting to pack up as we got there. The good news was that we didn’t have to pay for parking and soon the cars began to filter out, leaving us alone in a huge field. This area of Argentina has several disused train stations, this being one of them. Now just a visitors’ centre and a craft market at the weekend, the tracks were overgrown and the town silent. We had a very quiet night parked up next to the disused railway, despite the fact we were right in the centre of the village. Now, after two days driving, we were within striking distance of the city.

I had already arranged to drop off the Wallas with the technician and so the next morning we headed into the city and left him with the cooker. Before we made it to the centre though, we made a stop on the outskirts. We had arranged for our new battery charger to be sent to a depot there. Even though the tracking information wasn’t working, we hoped it would be here by now. The days were grey and now we knew we’d be waiting in the city, it seemed we were going to need it.

Lee pulled up on the street outside and I went in. I had hoped that even though I wasn’t getting any results for the tracking number, their own system would be better. The girl behind the desk entered the number and shook her head. I showed her a photo of the delivery note and she double-checked. She said there was some kind of problem and that I needed to contact the people who had sent it. I explained that they were travellers too and that they were no longer in Mendoza where it had been sent from. When I nearly burst into tears she wrote down her WhatsApp number and said she’d message the branch for me. After blindly spending over £250 on the charger and also really needing to charge the batteries, I couldn’t face the idea of it simply going missing. The other problem was that the full value was not covered by the courier so in the event it disappeared, we’d definitely be out of pocket.

There wasn’t much we could really do except message them later in the day as we had been advised. We continued on into the city to drop off our stove with the Wallas technician. We found that the workshop was just in a standard residential house and we now met Juan in person. He was a very friendly guy and we soon left him with the unit. Now we officially had nothing to cook on except our backup stove, we headed off to find somewhere to camp.

We weren’t the only overlanders here either, our fellow cat friends Gato Goes Global were already staying at one of the many parks. They told us it was ok, if a bit noisy and based on the previous reviews it seemed to be the best option so we decided to join them. After fighting our way across twelve lanes of traffic and making several wrong turns, we finally pulled into the car park. While it was a nice park, it wasn’t the best campsite and we certainly wouldn’t be letting the cats out here with the main road just metres away. Neither of us were in a particularly good mood and the park did not lend itself to being social so we retreated inside and cooked something fast on our gas stove.

The next day, after a horrible noisy night’s sleep, we got our bikes down and headed off into the morning drizzle of the city to run a few errands. Lee’s phone had broken and we went to drop it off at a repair shop. Then we headed to a pet shop for a few bits for the girls. We also tried to see if we could find a shop that could repair our car stereo. It’s one of those types where the screen folds up out of the unit when you turn it on. At the moment it was stuck, jutting straight out, meaning that not only did it not work but it was also very likely to get even more broken. It seemed to be jammed somehow as it moved, but only by a few centimetres. We didn’t have much luck finding anywhere that wanted to look at it though.

Back at the van with not much else to do, I decided to have a crack at repairing the stereo myself. If it was broken already and no one would fix it, then what was the worst I could do, right? After having a look inside and removing a rather suspicious random piece of plastic, I stuck it back inside. To my delight, it worked! It seemed a small piece of something had got stuck in the mechanism, causing it to jam and it was really a very simple fix. I hoped that this was a sign of things about to improve. Later on, it turned out that I was not correct.

Marcia and Killian weren’t the only people we knew in the city. Kartik and Sim were staying just ten minutes away from us in an Airbnb, having just returned to the country and with the brown van still in storage as they planned their next move. When we realised that they were literally just around the corner, we asked if they wanted to make dinner together as our cooking options were not great. They happily invited us around and we brought a bag of washing and our towels to make the most of the evening. Finally we washed the blanket that Aimee had pooped on, had a nice hot shower and enjoyed a lovely meal.

Our nice evening did little to counterbalance another bad night’s sleep. Lee’s phone was still with the repair shop, but after much chasing they told us they couldn’t find the parts. We then heard that the Wallas’ main combustion fan had broken when the technician tried to clean it. He’d need to order a new one, but it would be coming from Finland. Receiving this news in the evening, we decided that we’d get out of the city the next day. Our batteries couldn’t afford to hang around anymore and we were adamant we wouldn’t stay in this free parking spot for the weekend which would undoubtedly be even noisier.

The following morning was as grey as our mood. We swung past the phone shop to pick up Lee’s still broken phone. They told me to come back in twenty minutes. I came back in twenty minutes and it wasn’t ready. I snapped at the guy to give me the time it would actually be ready this time. Over an hour later, we finally had it and at least they hadn’t tried to charge us.

Our batteries were empty at this point and we headed out of the city. There was little choice of paid campgrounds here and as we now needed to wait for parts to be imported we imagined it would be a while. We decided to get out of there and find somewhere more pleasant to wait.

Despite messaging the courier company about our parcel, we had heard nothing. As we were leaving the city anyway, we decided to pass by. The lady behind the till remembered me from last time and explained that the other girl I’d been talking to had been off sick. She checked the number, which still wasn’t working, before heading into the back. She explained that some deliveries had two numbers and when she came back she had a totally different number to check. She clicked away, checking the system with the new number. Then she nodded to me and confirmed, “It’s here.”

I couldn’t quite believe her. She went out the back and a moment later returned with the parcel. Lee ran back to the van to get my passport so I could sign for the delivery. I told her I couldn’t believe it. I told her how important and expensive it was. She came out from behind the desk to give me a big hug and told me it was ok and she was happy it was here. We showed her my passport and signed the delivery paperwork before leaving with it.

Suddenly all of the frustration of the previous few days faded away. With this major obstacle overcome, I felt like we could deal with anything again and we drove off to what we hoped would be a quiet free spot to fit our new charger.