Good Bye Swiss Wassi

Wednesday we are leaving the campground and going south. 

A few last pictures as we say goodbye to a most excellent stop. 

Rusty has enjoyed his time here and I know he will miss it until we reach the next stop. 

We are looking forward to seeing more of this country, coastal deserts, mountains and ruins to come. 

This lovely Chilean family went north with a promise to meet us in their home town in the fjords of Chile. We are very much looking forward to that. 

A French couple showed up in a Mercedes Sprinter van with their Starlink dish bolted to the roof which seemed like an innovation. 

We like keeping our dish mobile so we can park in the shade and let Starlink get a clear sky at the same time.

They brought lobster and grilled them for a shared lunch. Nelly and Roger from Brittany:

Sunshine

Layne found a place she wants to try Peru's famed cuisine an hour down the road but they open Wednesday so we are going to suffer a couple more days swimming and beach lounging in the sun.

Martin and Marie from Germany left Monday, their last day they can be in Peru before their papers run out. They bought a Mitsubishi pick up in Chile from some other German travelers and set off to explore the continent. They didn’t get far before the frame on their pickup split in the middle of the street. 

They got a flatbed to a shop and wouldn’t you know it the welder said he had done the same job to the pick up for the previous owners who failed to disclose the problem to Martin and Marie when they bought it. The solution was to fix the pickup and find a used lighter weight folding camper shell to fit their repaired Mitsubishi. They’ve now reached Ecuador with the rig and I love that story because it’s a reminder when your vehicle breaks it’s not just happening to you. Everyone has repairs on the roads in these wild mountains. 

On a less dramatic note they gave us a ton of useful hints about places to see and places to camp down south. One thing we are looking forward to is lots of varied camping opportunities in Chile and Argentina, countries with open spaces and wild camping. For now we have Swiss Wassi to ourselves. 

We had beer and chips to celebrate the disappearance of the Inca god but as sunsets go it could have been better. The beer was okay. 

Our Facilities

I had been looking forward to stopping at Swiss Wassi campground since we had been shivering in Ecuador. The idea of a beach, salt water swimming and life at sea level sounded familiar and reassuring. The Andes had been tough for us with lots of cold nights, fog, rain, headaches and steep roads. So when we were looking for a place to stay on arrival we looked to the iOverlander app for ideas. 

Swiss Wassi is known in the overlanding community because they offer all facilities and understand what a traveling family looks for in a place to rest. For two adults a van and a dog we $13:50 a night.  They cook food to order, sell cold drinks and ice creams on the honor system and also have a few groceries for sale. Got milk? 

You get a check sheet on arrival which of course is for Layne the ships purser to manage. Divide prices by four to get dollars. Oh and don’t waste water which is in short supply here. 

We are no longer in 110 volt country and the campground power system requires a converter for our van. It’s an 800 watt box which puts 25 amps into our lithium batteries. We run our van system from our batteries to avoid overloading the campground electrical circuits.

There’s an outside kitchen where you can cook for a surcharge of $2 but we just use the sink to wash our dishes, a feature we value in a campground. 

On these gray days Layne likes to get some cooking done and my job is the washing up, easy to do with a full on water faucet. 

The pain in the butt likes it. He does not like the poor campground dogs to intrude on his space as he seems to be getting grumpy the older he gets. 

Lots of places have washers but no dryers, an unnecessary expense when you have a line and you put it under a roof to keep the rain off. 

Our plan is to leave with a mostly clean van. 

Trash removal is a critical offering in a campground and they make that easy here with recycling bins as well.

And here you have your beers and colas and ice creams. Frank the manager actually does a good job of keeping it filled with my favorite beer which is a local wheat beer by Cusqueña, to which we were introduced by Sami and Mati when we first arrived. 

One bathroom with all facilities. Hot showers are a plus as is a toilet seat and a loaded paper roll. This place has a mirror over the sink making it easy to shave so a big thumbs up all round. 

We have school for a couple of dollars extra but if it’s sunny swimming weather we like to be in the ocean. There’s another shower and toilet there too. 

And a rinse off shower on your way back from the beach. A bit close to the camper parked next door but it’s a nice strong jet. 

The retired fire truck has left going north.

We first met Anna and Bernhard in Colombia, ethnic Germans who emigrated to California years ago. They bought the truck in Germany and it’s registered in Florida just like us. 

They were parked in the overflow lot and left yesterday bound for the mountains. Frank the manager helped out:

It’s quite a production getting an expedition truck onto the road. 

Anja had a two way radio to help guide Bernhard to not hit anything. 

The box at the back is a garage for an all terrain vehicle.  Most expedition trucks have a motorcycle or a small vehicle so they can park outside a town or attraction and ride in more easily. 

I was a Teamster in the 1990s in California where I  drove semis for a living, and I have a pension from them to prove it. But driving an RV as big as this in South American streets is more than I want to deal with. 

Bernhard said he’s ordering tires to meet him in Paraguay as most trucks on this continent aren’t looking for all terrain tread. He spares his brakes in the mountains using an engine brake system which sounds great. However it uses the engine and transmission cooling and he needs to keep an eye on that to prevent overheating. Nothing is simple in the Andes. 

I haven’t been inside their truck but other similar ones have spacious seating to accommodate visitors which is what Layne misses most aboard GANNET2. They usually carry lots of water with built in showers so they are pretty self contained. At 8 miles per gallon they have enough fuel to drive 1200 miles. 

The weird thing is they break and wear out too. No vehicle is immune to wear and breakdowns on the PanAmerican Highway. 

We will see them again and hopefully soon. We like their company. 

Back to our modest home and hot tea for a gray afternoon. I have enough Yorkshire Gold teabags for about a year if I’m lucky. 

Our laundry is taking a while to dry. We will probably be going south on Monday. We will miss Swiss Wassi.