We street camped around the corner from the mechanic’s shop and it took a while to find a spot that was flat in the hilly neighborhood. We also wanted to avoid parking in front of someone’s house and finally we found a block occupied by an aluminum factory, which looked perfect. After an hour a dude turned up on a bicycle and started a fire. Wasn’t expecting that.
On to the mechanic’s shop at 9 am Wednesday by appointment.
We have a saying anytime we get something repaired or somehow fixed… we say it’s fixed for now!
So much for Emiliano in Colonia Valdense pronouncing our leak fixed as Miguel at MG Mecanica in Montevideo found the actual leak supposedly fixed originally in Brasilia. He bought a replacement hose and installed it and pressure tested the system and charged us $80 and got us on our way by lunchtime. I have high hopes this may have solved the persistent but tiny leak that appeared in the Amazon where terrible roads tested us last year. 
For awhile Rusty supervised…
…but he got bored and decided there was only one thing for it. 
Oversized parking was available as stated and that helped. The laundry was in the Brazilian style where you access the machines by credit card and everything worked perfectly, even for gringos. 
The supermarket was called Geant which is French for Giant which sounds like another of those multinational shopping experiences and it was huge. However I am pleased to note they are not perfect: Layne couldn’t find horseradish. So there. She was not impressed when I found French’s yellow mustard. The laundry took two hours and cost ten bucks.
They were repairing a drain across the street and Rusty was fascinated. I wasn’t. 
After the hose replacement drama we went to a laundry as recommended on iOverlander, the traveler’s app, and just so you know the laundry ticked all the boxes. Parking without height limits, available help if needed for foreign credit card holders and a nearby grocery where you can food shop while you wait. Traveler’s paradise in all respects.
“Want to change your car? ¡Do it here!”
We stopped at the Himalayan Indian Restaurant and got some mildly spicy food to go. Actually they offer various levels of spice rated by your nationality:
We went with Americano spice level and it was just right. We took our food loot half an hour down the coast and parked back at the beach we stayed at Monday night. Thursday we’re going to see a vet for Rusty’s exit papers for Argentina (so we can travel on the weekend) and we want to take a look around the beach town of Piriapolis. Exciting stuff. Montevideo boulevards:
For the electrical nerds among us I should point out we’ve not had much sunshine fall on our 860 watts of solar, and we haven’t driven much except around town but our electrical consumption has never come close to running out. We obviously have the 12 volt fridge on all the time plus we use the 3000 watt inverter all the time to charge our devices, to cook or heat food, to run Starlink when we need it and for me to run my CPAP at night. Despite all that our 540 amps of lithium has never dropped below 75% and let’s not forget we have been using our gasoline heater quite a bit to stay warm in the evenings. The electrical upgrades have transformed home life as we could never have gone this long without needing to plug in or idle the engine to boost our batteries. GANNET2 feels properly self sufficient now. Onwards.
Solymar Beach South of Montevideo. Wild camp favorite. Thank you iOverlander.
