Things are not going well in Paraguay, but we are all three safe and sound in a good campground. Our attempts at modernizing GANNET2’s house electrical system are coming adrift and our solution for the persistent coolant leak have revealed a rather dangerous problem and we now have to await the arrival of a care package of spare parts from the States.
What you are looking at in these two rather obscure photos are the right front motor mount (upside down above) which Chris noticed was rather wobbly as he installed our new water pump. Because he likes mechanical things to make sense he undid the five bolts holding it in place (the engine was already supported for the intricate water pump removal dance) and found the rubber block was about ready to separate and by doing so drop the engine toward the ground.
It’s a Promaster specific part so we decided to create a shipping order from Rock Auto for delivery in a couple of weeks which means obviously no driving for now.
The idler pulley on the water pump has some noisy bearings so we will also get a new one of those plus it’s companion idler and a spare of each along with a new spare serpentine belt for good measure. Plus we want to order a new metal thermostat a worthwhile upgrade while we are there and a new air filter which is oddly specific to the Promaster. All good things to have.
And then last night the red low voltage light on the inverter control panel started blinking again. That was a blow. And now the light has stopped blinking as it does rather irrationally but our twelve volt lights have stopped working so we need to check that fuse and see what’s what. 
Once we have GANNET2 rebuilt mechanically we probably will have to go back to Uruguay two days south of here and revisit the Victron problem at the importers shop. He has invited us to so do to solve our unending electrical issues. Below is Chris blowing out our air filter before we knew we would be ordering a new one: 
Luckily this is our fifth year on the road and we have learned to take setbacks in stride though it looks like I will be forced to postpone visiting Machu Picchu for another year.
For now we are comfortably parked in a pleasant campground where the owners also rescue animals in distress. I’ve never seen an ostrich drink and Layne videotaped this nandú doing just that. It looks like it’s fishing but it’s not. You can see GANNET2 in the background in the workshop which is obviously far more interesting …Also Webb Chiles suggested we rename GANNET2 ( which we named after his boat) as BOOMERANG in honor of our repetitive need to go backwards, which isn’t a bad idea. It reflects reality I suppose. As usual Team Lost isn’t doing what we thought we wanted to be doing but instead we will do some sunbathing as we read next to our snoozing dog. It’s not all bad.
