An Accidental Pilgrimage

We left the Zapp campground Friday morning and drive half an hour to find a laundry Layne had discovered online. She had sent the owner a WhatsApp message and he, Gabriel replied that we could have our clothes back the same day. Deal!

We are fans of Brazilian style do-it-yourself laundries, an opportunity to pause and watch the machines spin round but in most of Latin America someone does the work for you which is fine by me but leaves my persnickety wife annoyed at the outcome from time to time. Luján looked like it might be the answer to the traveler’s prayer. We had no idea…

Our first hint that something was up with Luján was the twin spires peeking above the rest of the town’s skyline. Meanwhile Gabriel was waiting for us outside his laundry in a rather rundown part of town. 

He offered to have the laundry done by six but Layne asked if it could be earlier and he offered four pm. We set off downtown to find a park to let Rusty lie in the sun while we did some paperwork.

I found a free park with lots of grass, some horses grazing at random and a picnic table. All free courtesy of the city, with some helpful information boards explaining climate change. In Florida if state officials mention c…. c….the governor of the free state has said they will get fired. Golly. An Argentine VFW hall: 

On our way over we passed a dude grilling something in the median. There was no parking so we stopped, facing traffic and turned on our four way flashers, as you in Latin America (except in Chile). He was selling choripan, the national sandwich.  Three dollars each for a crispy long bun with two Italian sausages in side with a vegetable salsa. If you come to Argentina you need to try the various regional variations. It’s worth it.

We stopped at the Vea supermarket which had a spacious parking lot with no height restrictions, another small victory. Rusty was keen to go for a walk. Really keen. 

We walked to the church where I let him off the leash and got busy with the camera. The Cathedral spires are 350 feet tall which is why we saw them across town. 

Luján is a city of 100,000 inhabitants founded in 1755. And thanks to the cathedral is a center of pilgrimage for Argentines who occasionally show their devotion by walking here from Buenos Aires 45 miles away. Just to be clear we drove though we do count ourselves among the six million visitors who visit each year.

The cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Luján, the patron saint of Argentina. It was designed they say, by a French architect Ulderico Courtois, and construction began in 1889. 

The cathedral was completed in 1937 and it created a whole new industry in the streets surrounding the church. Literature about Luján notes, a bit snippily I thought, that the old downtown merchants had to remove themselves to make way for restaurant and souvenir stores that sprang up around the cathedral.

We wandered around the square a bit did Rusty and I. In his old age Rusty likes being on a leash, I think he finds it reassuring and it encourages him to walk which is good for both of us. 

The city also boasts a few murals including one I recognized depicting the Mothers of the Disappeared. About 30,000 Argentines were murdered by the generals that governed the country in the 70s and 80s, many of them young people who were arrested tortured drugged and thrown alive from helicopters into the Atlantic  Ocean. Their mothers, those few still alive, walk in silent protest in front of the presidential palace every month. An uninterrupted protest maintained for decades. 

Theres more to see in town but we had to get to Buenos Aires as Layne is flying to Brazil today. 

If I start thinking about all the places and sights we’ve had to pass by we’d be here forever. It’s better to be glad we’ve seen what we’ve seen. I’d come back to Luján. Oh, our laundry was ready before three o’clock. And Layne was pleased with the way Gabriel washed and folded our clothes. $23 well spent. 

Zapp Family

In the year 2000 Candelaria  and Herman Zapp took a vintage car and set off around the world. 

Twenty two years later they came home with four children after visiting 102 countries. Two years ago they bought this plot of land outside Luján one hour from Buenos Aires and opened a campground for travelers, for people like us.

It rained like hell Wednesday night and Thursday dawned cold and gray and bleak and windy so I started a short walk with Rusty headed toward the communal room in the middle of the campground  where I found the owners doing things. They paused in their work and posed easily for my camera because they did that frequently I’m sure as they traveled. BBC Northern Ireland:

I was fascinated by the choice of vehicle, a 1928 Graham Paige…

…but my rather thoughtless question “Why” simply elicited the rote reply because it’s easy to fix. I had hoped for a family history, a sentimental attachment, something like that. I suppose an old car is a talking point on the road, a way to attract attention, to engage locals.  Unlike the anonymity of the Promaster which, though it is not sold here is identical from the outside to the widely sold Fiat Ducato upon which the Promaster is based. 

I suppose if your travel plans include meeting people, staying with them and that sort of thing an eccentric vehicle helps. 

A man of my mechanical ineptitude would not get very far I fear on wooden wheels. 

Later Herman took a break from digging a ditch and expanded on the story. He and Candelaria are childhood sweethearts and from when they got married they decided they wanted to make a trip. They settled on driving to Alaska as a goal. A friend told Herman, who knew nothing about cars, that he had an antique for sake and Herman, an incurable romantic, decided that was just the right car for the journey. 

They bought the car, packed and left. Thirty miles from home a wooden wheel started to fall apart and a mechanic pointed out he wasn’t a carpenter and couldn’t repair so he told them to go see a nearby blacksmith. 

The blacksmith showed him how to keep the wooden wheels running and Herman found the simple mechanical systems of the car appealed to him.

And now they are creating a campground and gathering place to attract travelers. 

Hernan is now planning a sailboat journey. Candekaria has no interest and will stay here while he goes north, buys a cheap boat with no knowledge of sailing and takes off. It is, he says, his dream. We never regret having sailed in our youth as we frequently see overland travelers driving while dreaming of sailing. We scratched that itch.

We’re leaving today and moving closer to Buenos Aires where I will stay while Layne flies to Brazil to go jaguar hunting with friends from Florida. 

Luckily they also published their book in English in an electronic edition as well.

Candelaria doing things in the common room.