When our new inverter arrives, any day now of course, GANNET2 will be ready for the road complete with 540 amps of Victron Lithium, 220 volt and 110 volt shore power charging, engine charging via a 50amp DC to DC charger from our starting battery, cabin heat from our new gasoline cabin heater and repaired carpentry projects that were annoying but not fatal.
Adrián polished off his superb work with a clean up of our home. He vacuumed the interior and washed the exterior and parked our home next to our rented cottage which at $20 a day is cheaper than driving with gas at $8:24 a gallon. A pretty sweet situation.
We’re likely to be here another week we figure, not because of Adrián as he can install the inverter in an hour when it arrives, but the question is: when will it arrive? It’s a $3,000 item and we said we’d pay for it when they have it in hand. I figure the importers at TerraVentura want their money so I figure we will get word as soon as they have it.
It’s expensive as it had to be special ordered as most inverters here are 220 volts but GANNET2 operates household appliances on board at 110 volts: the induction cooker, the microwave, the charging outlets, our heavy duty fans, the air fryer and Starlink are all designed for the US market.
We could convert Starlink to 24 volts but Layne is reluctant to add $600 to our already enormous bill and it works very well on 110 volts through our inverter. We really like having our big old second generation dish firmly planted on the roof of GANNET2. However we had to deal with an issue which was not technical but billing.
Since we landed in Colombia in February 2024 we have been using residential roam service based on our Airbnb address in Cartagena. The cost was $60 a month which soon went up to $80 then last year went to $115 paid in Colombian pesos through our credit card: easy. (Maria-Jose, Adrián’s girlfriend and her inevitable maté:)
Starlink has a rule for residential roam and that is you only get two months outside your home country. And they require you remain at a new address for at least three months before you can do another address change which would only last for two months... Anyway they caught up to us, I suspect because we used Starlink while in motion. So we decided to go to global roam which allows you to move and use Starlink on land or water anywhere in the world. The catch is it’s more expensive, $500 if based in South American countries but only (“only”) $250 if based in the US. So we bit the bullet and made the change rather than lose service altogether.
I always knew prices would go up as Starlink is a monopoly but it is an amazing service. Sometimes people tell us they enjoy being out of touch on vacation but we aren’t on vacation and we aren’t terribly interested in hermitage in our van. Nor are you if you are reading this, let’s face it. If Google ever offers satellite service I will be sure to look into it.
Stay in school, work long and hard and pay your Social Security contributions to get a decent pension as prices will only go up as you age. Thats a pro tip in case you need it. You might not like living cheap and saving money in a van in old age and a pension comes in handy when you are an unemployable curmudgeon… Which leads me to Claudia and Norbert from Zurich in Switzerland, retired and driving the world for the past 13 years.
They have driven across Russia to China and back through Mongolia on the Silk Road to Turkey then through Africa to South Africa and started on South America last year. They are on their way to Venezuela through the Guyanas so we told them what we encountered there driving our modest two wheel drive delivery van. They’ll probably do fine in their six wheel drive high clearance Mercedes powerhouse.
They stopped by to have Adrián refurbish their portable generator. They use it to run their roof top air conditioning in their giant 6 wheel drive Mercedes van and they know they’ll need it in the equatorial Amazon.
Then we all had a barbecue.
We didn’t eat the cat but Rusty was sleeping and happily didn’t notice me fondling it.
Adrián the Argentine took to the grill in best local style and cooked beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Just a mere snack to get us through a cold Saturday afternoon.
We had a weird but delicious boiled egg cheese and rice salad (above) with a more conventional carrot salad and Layne produced a couscous feta and tomato salad which tasted exotic to the locals. And there was a cheese fondue.
I asked Adrián how it was to be an outsider coming to this country and he said if you want to work you can get ahead but Uruguayans whom he views as lazy, get annoyed if incomers are too successful. He plans to be very successful, our ambitious and capable Adrián. Coffee revived us momentarily but a long nap was indicated.
Claudia and Norbert looking unusually serious.
Maria-Jose and Adrián’s gardener a Peruvian called Hoger. We reminisced with him about Peru and its food.
Your maté kit, bitter chopped grasses mashed in the cup with hot water from the thermos to top it up from time to time. Wussies add sugar, locals don’t. It’s disgusting stuff.
Argentines and Uruguayans will haul maté around with them everywhere. You know you’re entering Argentina when the customs counter has a maté cup and straw sitting on it. Everyone in Argentine offices across the country suck from the same straw from their shared maté cup. I told you it’s disgusting. But cultural.
Pitmaster.
Stray cat found a home when pregnant. The litter found new homes and mom got fixed.
Rusty does not frighten her. Much. String coffee with Swiss Toblerone for dessert.
Then the Swiss had to go so they did.
Monster Mercedes Truck. If we meet them again we will recognize them.
The master of his domain:
I can’t wait to test out our new systems. Living aboard should be a well electrified experience.
Winter weather here blows north from the southern latitudes, the world turned upside down.
