Test Drive

 

We went for a test drive yesterday and the coolant level did not change. Chris checked underneath and saw no drops. At long last our leak may be fixed so about that I shall say nothing more in order not to jinx it.

The problem with test drives is they remind you how much you enjoy driving about. But we have one more thing to fix before we can leave to drive south to Buenos Aires. Peru now is too far away so we are meeting our friends in Argentina and not Arequipa.

Might as well take advantage of going for a drive to get a haircut.

Ten bucks and an hour of relaxing in a chair with reggae on the sound system and regional soccer on the tube. Gregorio was quite interested in our retirement journey.

Rusty was ready for a walk. 

He was quite tired when we got home as a 13 year old dog should be after a day on the town. He also got steak for lunch.

As did we. 

At a Swiss restaurant ten minutes from the campground, a bit in the boonies.  

Our place in the workshop has been taken by a Swiss converted fire truck freshly arrived from Europe. The occupants have a reputation here for being withdrawn. Chris told us their brand new fiberglass cabin has broken its anchor bolts and shifted two inches, a situation he can repair apparently. That might explain the owners’ reticence. Meanwhile we wait for a tool to change the settings in our reluctant inverter. It should be here by Friday. 

By then we expect the rain and mist and cold will have moved on and sunshine will return to Pequeña Baviera campground.

Water Pump Effort #3

 

Our test drive Sunday revealed the new coolant pump was still leaking, so it was back to the shop. Chris took out the new pump and there it was, leaking, dripping fluid even though it is a brand new Mopar original part:

Luckily the coolant is pink so it shows up easily: 

So after some thought Chris decided to reinstall the original pump which shows no sign of wear with one of the new seals we bought for just this kind of nightmare scenario. 

We have one more if we should need it…made in somewhere foreign it turns out. Lots of Stellantis parts and vehicles are made in Turkey. 

Anyway the old pump is back in with a new seal. The aluminum bolts are getting tired according to Chris’ torque wrench but all we can do is hope for the best  because this coolant leak is well past being amusing.

As for the inverter showing low voltage there is some news that may be good. Chris has ordered a box to be delivered Friday that should give us access to the settings in the inverter and he has found a German in Germany, a retired Victron technician who can check and adjust the settings online from his workshop in Germany. It this space age idea works we may avoid having to return to Uruguay where we bought the thing. Maybe by Saturday our Victron Multiplus piece of shit 3,000 watt inverter may be working properly. Or not.

Meanwhile we have abandoned any idea of driving to Peru to meet our Florida friends. Luckily they are travelers and adaptable and we are rerouting to meet in Buenos Aires about three or four days south of here. Peru will have to wait until next year unfortunately, I was looking forward to returning Arequipa. This change of plan relieves us of having deadlines stress on top of everything else. 

Starlink has made some drastic changes to terms of service that affect international travelers which is dire for people who earn money online. As of August 17th international service across borders costs $650 for 500 GB of service or you are shut off.  For us the shutdown of service is merely inconvenient as we use internet connections for pleasure. The young couple above from Belgium helped us organize a work around for this latest problem.

Mattia is a 27 year old French speaking Belgian who shut down his electrician’s business and took to the road with Lola a 26 year old teacher from the Dutch speaking half of Belgium. They drove across Europe and Central Asia in their Mitsubishi Pajero SUV passing through Russia, the various ‘Stan’s of Central Asia, Mongolia and China to end up in Malaysia and Indonesia before shipping to Chile to explore the Americas. Their route roughly looked like this over 30 months:

They very kindly helped us set up a new Starlink account which may or may not work past the next thirty days but if we do get shut down, they told us of another possible way we may be able to maintain traveling service for less than $200 a month.

We sat and chatted about traveling well into the night lubricate by a couple of bottles of wine. They are pretty enterprising as Mattia is taking correspondence courses in industrial design to get remote work while Lola tutors Dutch for students online.  Apparently there is a large market of immigrants yovthe Netherlands who want to integrate by learning the language. She said you can easily live and work in Holland even if you only speak English but without Dutch you don’t get a social life outside work or promotions at work. So she has a reliable income.

They spent six weeks in an Airbnb in Asunción while they had a pop top built onto the roof of their SUV. it only cost $2500 ($15,000 in the US) and if the work is a little rough the price was right as they see it.

Rusty is not fond of the time spent in the workshop as he can’t join us freely. The shop is behind the fence that separates Chris’ three dogs from the rest of the campground so he takes refuge under a big truck parked near us and watches as we hang around in the workshop. We go out from time to time to keep him company but he doesn’t enjoy being separated from us. 

It’s raining this Wednesday morning so maybe he’ll come into the shop with us and stay in the van while Chris attaches the first of two Bluetooth dongles to our irritating Victron Multiplus inverter. Patience and adaptability is the watchword.

And imperviousness to rain. Whatever next?

The Path To Madness

We left the campground Sunday afternoon to test the state of the coolant and water pump.  We took a 55 mile drive round trip to San Bernardino, a lakeside resort town about half an hour away and I should say we were fully aware this weekend was a national holiday celebrating the day of the assumption, after which the national capital, Asunción, is named.

Our Lady of the Assumption is an important Catholic holiday, the focal point of summer vacation time in Italy, so I was not unaware of the implications for traffic, and I was not disappointed. 

The side streets leading to the lake were clogged with double parked cars and access for a 21 foot van was not advisable even for someone who doesn’t mind squeezing the tank through narrow spaces. They were having a successful holiday on the shores of the lake obviously. 

It turns out this lake is a national embarrassment as it is so polluted humans aren’t allowed to swim in it. Decades ago the Spanish heartthrob Julio Iglesias wrote a song about, of all things, meeting a woman on the shores of the lake and its romantic blue waters, but today it is reported to be a brown muddy mess filled with algae fed by agricultural run off and industrial and household pollution. They cut the forests and fertilized the farms that replaced the trees and the lake is a mess.

So we drove out and back to see if the cooling system still leaks. I have had to add some fluid to the radiator expansion tank but I don’t know if that is part of refilling the system after it got completely drained. That was me hoping for the best (the leak is still there. Hah!).

Team Lost was on form yesterday as we missed three turns on our 55 mile drive, chatting, glad to be in the road, enjoying the views, distractions abound and we lost the little blue line on the map a few times. But we did find some chipas, the local tapioca baked delicacy. 

The vendors sit roadside and charge 75 cents for the bagel sized baked rings. Ours were seasoned with dill seeds and were rather good, spongy inside crisp shells.

The funny little treat was the reward for the drive I suppose and for the fact that we still have a coolant leak.  Grrr.

We took Astrid and Chris out for pizza to the place we were at last time and that was new to them. 

I had a crazy pizza to keep pace with my wife who ordered a pear and blue cheese pie. I got hot dog and fries I kid you not. It wasn’t bad if you like a side of starch with your  pizza.

I grant you our mechanical delays are inducing a touch of madness in our heads but we had the cure. Well not really but it helped wash the extraordinary pizza down.

Mark the Englishman who lives at the campground had a sensible calzone…

And Max, Astrid and Chris’s 11 year old boy made the sound choice and got the margarita, a normal pie with basil and tomato sauce. But madness is creeping into our static lives.

And so we ended Paraguay’s national holiday on a slightly down note but sooner or later this goddamned leak has to be resolved. Then the damned expensive inverter. Then we shall be free. Or mad. Fries on your pizza?

Sort Of Repaired

Friday afternoon our parts arrived. Saturday morning the engine mount was installed.

We have a new water pump, new serpentine belt and rollers and no obvious coolant leaks. We take a test drive today and make sure. That’s the good news.

The bad news is there seems to be no way to make the inverter low voltage light turn off. I’m half inclined to put a piece of tape over it and move on.

But my wife who is the brains of the outfit thinks we should get it taken care of in case it gets worse and starts shutting down our inverter, source of 110 volt power in our home. She’s right of course so this week we drive back to Uruguay, across flatland Argentina to the cold. Fabulous.

Chris has done everything humanly possible but I fear our brand new $3,000 inverter may be toast. Warranty time is fun time. 

Rudy speaks only German and as he is Austrian he gets made fun of for his accent but really he is an electronic genius and though he cannot speak English or Spanish he built his own batteries in his Mitsubishi box truck home. 

His polyglot girlfriend is spending summer back home in Austria so he hangs out with the German speaking contingent in Caacupé. Even he shook his head in despair with Chris as they tried to make the inverter happy. 

I’ve contacted Adrián in Uruguay and he will prepare the importer for our return. I hate warranty claims as one feels so helpless but let’s hope Victron really is backing their products.

How many men does it take to seat the bead of a tractor tire? Three it turns out, which was a welcome comedy break from the irritation of the inverter. 

The photo above is of a Brazilian 1000cc Suzuki motorcycle packaged for a flight to Spain. A Brazilian RVer we met on the beach earlier this year sent me the picture of his daughter’s motorcycle as she prepares for a five month tour of Europe with her husband which I think is really cool.

There’s more of this kind of travel going on than you might realize and Jean-Chretien’s note was a healthy reminder.

Robert the American (above) is enjoying life in Asunción and the two German women in the big bad expedition truck left last week.

Birgitte is 63 and as she said goodbye for now she also added we were an inspiration as she and Gertraut are wondering how long they can keep traveling as they age. Their adult children are settled and for now they are enjoying South America. We’ve got used to that comment from the younger crowd who compare us to their sedentary grandparents but this one came as a surprise. 

A Brazilian mother and daughter stopped by to see Chris and his campground. 

Caroline and her daughter Maria own a campground in southern Brazil and it gets rave reviews in iOverlander so Layne put it on the list for when we go back to Brazil next year.

They are on a two week vacation traveling in their pick up and they only stopped by for an hour. Claudia and Armin also left. 

They were nice neighbors and we can’t forget easily who they are.

Armin used to be a truck driver and he says that’s what they do in Germany, put their names in the windshield. 

I wonder if the menagerie will miss us when eventually we leave for the cold southern regions.

Rusty is coming with us of course and I think he too is ready for travel. I wondered after he had his stroke but he is very alert and interested in life which is good for my morale.