Ordering Parts

Our mechanic has been in touch with his parts supplier and it appears we can have a new radiator delivered in ten days. That includes customs and delivery to the mechanics shop in Caldera. $300 plus delivery and three gallons of Mopar radiator fluid. $450 plus labor. We can handle that.

I am far from certain the radiator will arrive in ten days but we have permission to be in Chile until July 15th, deep into winter. I hope it doesn’t take that long as we’ll be deep into rainy season before we get to Brazil from here but I hope we’ll be fixed in a month. 

Julia and Konstantin were the best of friends and took care of us and got us settled with a ride to drop off our laundry in town and complete a massive shop at the Unimarc supermarket. 

It was a sad moment but they had done right by us and had a container to catch in Port San Antonio. Partings suck.

We hope Jerry and his girlfriend Teeara who is Desert Garage’s office manager, keep it all on track. Fingers crossed and thanks for the good wishes. We too were very glad to see the leak right where we were, close to town and near a full service campground. 

Bahia Club has hot showers, clean toilets, electrical outlets and a beach just outside the gates. For $18 a night. And Konstantin and Julia got us towed right into our spot. We are snug. 

Breakdown

We were about to part company with Julia and Konstantin when a large cloud of white steam issued from under the hood. 

We struggled to figure out where the fluid was coming from but in the end we called a tow truck with Gabriel’s help, the custodian of the beach. 

GANNET2 it turned out was too big for the bed of the truck, so after that scary interlude trying to load onto the truck we settled on…

…on a tow. 

With front wheel drive you can’t tie far or fast so at a sedate 15 mph we trundled the ten miles down the PanAmerican to Caldera.

What a great Sunday afternoon. The mechanic took out the radiator and on Monday Konstantin and I will go to the radiator shop in Copiapò and see what we can do. 

If it can’t be repaired we will have to order a replacement from the States or Mexico. The radiator is a Promaster specific part and when I broke it in Belize we had to order a new one so we may be here for a couple of weeks.

It could be worse. It could be better too. We’d have a new radiator for $139 in two days if we were in the United States. On the other hand no one would have torn down our radiator on a Sunday in the US. 

I’m not feeling lucky but you never know. We shall see. And we have our friends with us so that feels good. 

Beached

Sunday is splitsville. Konstantin and Julia go south to prepare to ship home to Seattle. We like traveling South America so we are only going as far north as will take us to Brazil. Then we want to circle round and go south to eventually head north this time next year to Colombia. 

So for our last day Layne did a bunch of cooking. I kept her company for a while but I needed to get out into a cool gray day. Rusty was reluctant but he dragged himself after me and we walked. 

He climbed the cliff and ducked out of sight while I walked the beach. He’s the extra lump on top. 

Somehow we ended up on opposite sides of the cliff and he walked one way and I followed on the opposite level. We chased each other like a bedroom farce constantly at the wrong level. Then he turned around and I stumped along behind on the cliffs me trying to catch up. I got the feeling he was showing me who was boss as he slid down the cliff and left me peering over the edge. 

Then I descended to his level and he walked alongside but well away from me. I think he figured I was mad because when I caught up to him he shied away but I  grabbed him anyway and we had a make out session in the sand. My dog is a pain in the ass but I love him. 

Konstantin came by and I thanked him again for using his multimeter to check in my bizarre front winch problem. The last time I rolled it out I short circuited the whole van. Konstantin discovered the source of that problem this time and though we couldn’t fix it I now know how to bypass the short circuit and use the winch to pull the van though I have to pull the rope out and unspool it by hand. Konstantin said he was worried about us going into and Amazonia without  our Hail Mary device. He’s a good man.

The pain in the ass enjoyed the sand rug. Konstantin isn’t fond of dogs but Rusty has won him over. He really is an unusual animal with a mind of his own. 

Pacific overcast skies, cold and dank and still. The day before was sunny and windy which I preferred. 

The PanAmerican Highway in the distance. 

Gabriel the watchman lives there (below) with his two Bassett hounds and his lifesaving white truck. 

He took us aside and gave us a quick tour of the odd rock formation that makes this place a municipal park.

These black circles in the dock were formed 180 million years ago when magma came boiling to the surface and encountered salt water the crystallized into the spots seen in the rock.   

The rocks sit on the beach with their leopard spots and five years ago Gabriel convinced the mayor of Caldera this abandoned spot was worth cleaning up.  They gave him the job and he cleaned up the house on the beach and made this remarkable spot his own. 

The black lump is an intact spot while the bottom black circle is an empty spot where the white crystallized ring has fallen out. 

I hoped for sunshine but it did not break through. 

Up next, Santiago got roadside picnic and the laundry and hot showers of Taltal to the north for us. In a month I might be going to see Machu Picchu. Something normal and touristy for a change.

Sunk In Sand

There was a time when getting stuck led to a general melt down, loss of confidence and mounds of regret. When I tried an untried way to get around a rock that looked bigger than it was I messed up. Oh well, we’ve been here before so no panic this time. 

We left our wild camp near Caldera and passing through town loaded up with fuel and water and emptied our trash in preparation for a few days at  a beach located by Julia and Konstantin. It was an hour north of Caldera in the perfectly smooth Highway 5, the legendary PanAmerican, and we bowled along at 65 easy miles per hour.

It was dirt when we turned off the highway, no surprise and we followed the well worn tracks down to the cliffs overlooking the beach.  

The idea was to fiend a few days at this spot which surprised us by being organized with picnic tables and a resident monitor. 

And his two Bassett hounds, cute dogs that predictably my grumpy old man was not excited to see. 

I’m not sure why but I thought taking the rock in the track the other way round would be better.  It wasn’t.

Konstantin came to the rescue and we gagged around during down and digging sand and inserting tracks and so forth. Gabriel in his big straw hat said he was going to get his pick up truck. 

Four wheel drive, wide tires and it was all we needed. I hooked up my tow strap and we were on our way. 

It was not a scene of stress or undue worry. By now we know there is a solution to every problem and our we came. Gabriel is a laid back happy guy living on this beach with his dogs and the perfect host. 

The spot merited the effort to get there Even though  the struggle to get there was all my stupid fault. One gets excessively confident when  help is close to hand. 

Retirement as it should be, not groveling in sand with a shovel. 

Of course my humiliation was complete when a giant Chilean RV cruised down the save track with zero drama. 

Dinner restored some balance. 

And the sunset did the rest.