1.4.2022 NA APRILA, WE CROSSED THE BORDERS TO Argentina from Brazil.

We crossed in
city called Uruguaiana. The city is called this because Brasil and Argentina are divided in the part by
river caller River Uruguay. Quite funny I think.
We crossed after 5pm, we were worried that the aduana for car would closed at 6pm. Crossing at the
Brasilian side was very easy. I didn’t have to get out of the car because my leg hurt (I had stepped on a
nail a few days ago). Then we crossed the bridge over the Uruguay river and entered to Paso de los
Libres, Argentina. To our surprise there were long queues and practically no places to park. 99% of the
cars were Brasilian or Argentinian. Brasilians were crossing mainly to refill their petrol as it’s half as
cheap as in Brasil. They put our van on the side, asked for our passport and papers for the car. Then
they sent us to the immigration. There I had to go but the queue was long. They called us in the office
so I don’t have to stand in the queue and got a seat. That way we skipped the whole queue. Hurting my
leg served for something in the end. They stamped our passports quickly. Even though we had not done
declaracion jurada. They only asked if we are vaccinated, without checking our certificates and put us
in the system even without the declaration but said that we would have to fill in it before leaving the
country.
Then we went to register the car. We thought that they might see in their system that the car had
already entered the country a few years ago with Wendelin. They asked how we brought the car from
Europe. We agreed to their assumption that we brought it by boat. It was taking while to register the car
but we kept the guy busy by talking about our travel and the dogs they had at the station, saying we
might adopt a dog along the way (no admitting Connie was with us because we had not done her vet’s
certificate to save money).

All went through and we officially entered Argentina. The car can legally stay 240 days, we only 90.

We went from Paso de los Libres to Santa Fe. On the way we were stopped twice by general police
check, once they just checked our documents and wished us happy travel, the second stopped us
because we didn’t have our lights on (in the first case we didn’t have them either but they seemed not
to care). They wanted to give us a fine of 31500 pesos argentinos, but Sami argued with them and they
let us go free. Since then we always make sure our lights and seatbelt are on.

From Santa Fe, where we spent 1 night we went to Rosario. Sami has a friend there who he was sure he
met a few years back in Santa Fe, he remembered the street they met even the path he and his other
friend used to run on. To his surprise his clear memory was wrong as his friend Freddy he had visited
Rosario with and Pamela they met their, both cleared his memory making him realise that they met in
Rosario.
We were told that Rosario has been becoming a dangerous city because of drugs. We were in the centre
of the city where this is not as perceived, but Pamela’s mother lives in a neighborhood where the noise
of shotguns is a daily norm. We went to dring a beer, we sat otside of the pub to drink and eat and
every five minutes someone came asking for money, including children. We spent the nights in front of
the monument close to the prefectura as we were told that’s the safest area, we felt very safe and even
had public bathrooms very closeby.
In Rosario we also got our logo and stickers sorted out. Our van was officially converted into Masar
Alternativo van.
I would have loved to discover Rosario more but there was no time and I couldn’t walk as much
because my leg was taking lots of time to heal from me stepping on the nail. But the first evening we
spent there, we stayed at the promenade and I went to look for bathrooms and for some churros. It’s a
very beautiful, large promenade with many stands with sweet, deep fryed bakery food and many people
arround. I walked up the high stairs were there was a restaurant which let me use their bathroom. The
view was beautiful. There are many large buildings, spacious stairs, national monuments...if I ever go
again to Rosario, I’d like to see all of these monuments.

From Rosario we continued to Bahia Blanca. The first city of Patagonia from where we hit the road 3
to Ushuaia. In Bahia Blanca we spent only one night at a petrol station which was 24h open with
bathrooms. It was important to keep my foot clean and wash it when I could to prevent more infections.
I wasn’t as successful tho.

From Bahia Blanca we wanted to go to Puerto Madryn but had to stop in San Antonio Oeste as it was
getting late. It had been raining quite heavily on the way and a red warning light on our front board
turned on indicating that there is a problem with our breaks. In San Antonio Oeste we stopped at a
mechanic, it was Saturday afternoon. We were lucky to find one. We thought at first that this light
indicates that there is either a problem with some indicators or that the battery is not charging. But the
mechanic told us that this light refers to breaks. We took out the van manuals to look for exact
description, all manuals in German. So with the help of Google translater we confirmed that it has sth
to do with breaks. We refilled the breaks oil but the light continued. Wendelin, the former owner of the
van, had told Sami that this light sometimes appears when it rains a lot as it gets dump and starts giving
false contact. We assumed that that must be the issue and that actually there is no problem, especially
when Sami changed the breaks for new in Brasil. We also asked for our oil leakage. But as the leakage
is not strong and we only refilled about one liter in the last 3k kilometer we decided not to do anything
about it as getting into the car, getting parts out just to change one wire to prevent the false contact for
one indicator and to fix one light leakage was not worthy as this model of the car is not seen in South
America and the mechanics have no experience with this model. This mechanic himself told us that he
wouldn’t be sure on how do desmantle the parts and put them together. So we hit the road again and
reached our first long waiting destination – Peninsula Valdes.

To our surprise they charged us 1600 pesos per person to enter the Peninsula. I was the only one who
payed the fee though as Sami was sleeping in the back so they didn’t see him and I claimed that I’m
travelling alone. The peninsula was also much bigger that what we thought. We though it would be one
day to see it but it took us three. The first day we spent parked by the beach to work on our projects and
to wait for a “gomero” to change our right back tyre as it was flat. The “gomero” said we had beed
putting too much air into the tyre which had created a “globo” and that could potentialy became
dangerous. He was able to get us a second hand tyre and repleced it charging us 11k pesos. In the
evening I took Connie for a walk along the beach and beautiful “mountains” on the other side. When
the sun was setting down the golden hour provided such beatuful colours which made the mountains
with the moon absolutely mesmerising experience. Pity I didn’t have a phone with me to capture it.
Walking back Connie had a seizure which took her longer that usual to recover from. But finally she
did and when it was already very dark we returned to the van. Meanwhile a kombi had parked next to
us. The Colombian couple told us that we should go early in the morning to the other side of the
peninsula to see the killer whales because they come with the morning high tide. But I had a class in
the morning, so we decided to go the day after. And this day we went to see sea lions instead. In there
natural habitant, making lots of noise and swimming and resting on the stones. The next day we went to
see the killer whales and penguins. From the point (the only point where it’s allowed to spent the night
as it’s the only area with habitans) it’s another 70km to get to penguins and killer whales. We were
very lucky ‘cause as we arrived the orcas just appeared! As we were getting out of the car people
started shouting that the orcas can be seen, so we ran to the cost and saw several orcas swimming and
one trying to hunt a sea lion. I had never dreamt of seeing orcas. It was amazing. Then we went to a
point where penguins stay before they immigrate to warmed climed. We were at the end of the season
of penguins but there were still some to be seen. We were able to get very close to them. Another
amazing, unforgotable experience. Then we went to another point of the peninsula to see if we will be
lucky again to see the killer whales again with the evening high tide, but we didn’t have the same luck
as in the morning. But it didn’t matter. We went for a short walk along the cost, enjoying the amazing
view and put our first sticker out on local restaurant. It was very expensive to buy food in the peninsula
and there was very limited source of water even for the locals. On the way from the peninsula we
stopped by a place where we were meant to see lots of different types of birds, I was especially exited
to see flamingos. Unfortunally it was very windly and flamingos were very far, we could only see them
via a dalekohled. As in island of penguins which was full of penguins, but also we could see that only
through the dalekohled.
Very happy and satisfied with the peninsula experience we went to close by Puerto Madryn where we
thought to see more penguins. But instead of wild animals we had to change two more tyres because
the two were flat too...in Puerto most of the road were stone and dust roads, not really the best for tyres.
But once again it was long weekend (as we tend to look for fixes on weekends on public holidays). It
was easter Friday and practically imposible to find something open. But we managed to find one place
with the tyre we need but it was an old tyre so we decided to check other places on Saturday to see if
we have more luck. But again, this van is not common here and the size of our tyre neither. We went to
more than 10 places on Saturday but noone had the tyre we needed. So on Monday we returned to
Ernesto who changed our tyre and fixed one of the front tyres which had “pinchada”. Chargin us for the
both tyres only 6k pesos! We also needed to exchange some dollars as spening money on tyres and
logo and lots of diesel affected our plans on spending much less...Ernesto was able to offer us not so
bad deal and exchanged with us 300 dollars. We also managed to get our clothes washed by a very kind
lady who washed them and dry them in only one hour and half!
We were also surprised that the city has public showers! Free and with warm water. It was so great
beaing able to get washed after who knows how many days!
Sunday we spent working by a beautiful sea parking in the nature. We found the spot on iOverlander.
Beautiful and peaceful place. Doing yoga in the morning by the sunrise, with only the sound of birds
and waves was, once again, amazing moment. I have done some good progress on my meditation in
these places. One evening we went for a walk along the promenada with Connie (we realised that we
do much less of walking when living in a van then when living in an apartment!).
On Monday afternoon we left for our next destination. We got to see a beautiful view over Puerto
Madryn when leaving. Once again these beautiful sort of mountains and the city beside it. The city with
short buildings, looks a lot like a desert city (but bigger one).

From Puerto Madryn we went to Punta Tombo. To see more penguins. It’s about 20km of the main
road just to find out that the place is closed because it’s out of season...so we had two options, go back
the 20km to the main road and continue to another city or go through the sandy and stony road to
Camarones. We didn’t want to go back 20km….the road wasn’t as bad, I mean, driving 130km on this
type of road is definitely no ideal for but…
The landscape was amazing. There was absolutely noone else and I just couldn’t stop staring and the
beautiful landscape. We had to drive max 40km per hour on this type of road so we didn’t manage to
arrive all the way to Camarones. We passed by one natural reserve where they told us that we can
spend the night in closeby camping. We didn’t want to pay anything so we drove a bit more and park
on the side of the road. There were no cars passing by anyway. The sky was full of starts as it was in
the middle of a wildrness and the morning was so peacefull. Sami went with Connie for a run and I did
yoga and meditation surronded only by the refreshing breeze and sound of birds and distance sound of
the ocean. So easy to be taken away and just forget about the rest of the world. Sami went for a
beautiful run with this beautiful surrounding, I went to look for them then to see how many km they
run. They did 6, just because Connie is an old lady by now.
We reached Camerones. I was hoping to send a postcard from there to my aunt but it’s such a small
village that it wasn’t possible to send something internationally. We took a photo by the letter sign of
the town and spend the night at local petrol station (the only station in the town with very overpriced
diesel) but good internet connection (as our didn’t work as well there) so I could deliver my morning
class.

Unfortunatelly along the way we get not only to see the mesmerizing bueatiful sceneries of sierras and
bushes and pastivy and guanacos but also some parts of the roads very contaminated by garbage,
plastic etc. Very sad to see.
20/4/2022 we are on our way to Comodoro Rivadavia by route 3.
We reached Comodoro Rivadavia but only passed by as we had been told by several people that it’s the
most “dangerous” city in Patagonia. It’s a rather big city. We just stopped there to see if I can find
some shoes for hiking and to see if we find a kit to fix tires if needed. We didn’t find any. We went to a
supermarket and a bit D.I.Y store, we left with scissors and a pan apart from other things...we didn’t
pay for any of it….

They we went to Rada Tilly that is right next to the Comodoro, just a few kilometers away from there.
It’s on the contrary known as very safe town. It’s a small town known for being expensive, where rich
people live. We were told that the most rich (or one of them?) Argentinian, the owner of Casinos and
many businesses in Argentina lives there. We passed by his house that is on the ramble. Quite modest
one for considering he is so rich. It’s a town with many modern and big family houses, it seems clean
and has long rambla surrounded by these “hills” that have been along practically the whole road 3.
We very often refer to the app iOvelander to find places to spend the night, we did so this evening too.
There were several references to a place outside the city, by the beach. I assumed it would be very
similar to the area we slept in Puerto Madryn. But this was more in those sierras/hills. In google maps
different roads appeared that in the reality. At first it was simple road on the “tierra” but it was quite
windy at the top and we decided to go down to one beach we could see from the top. The way down
however, got rather complicated. We entered into way road that had very big holes on the side, it was
just about that the van passed through, until when there appeared a huge gap in the road. We didn’t
make it and the back right wheel got into the gap and we got stuck. The van was quite inclinated and
we tried to move it out it seemed like it would fall to the side. Sami ran to get help while I was waiting
by the van not getting inside so it wouldn’t fall. It was getting late and it was getting colder and windier
every minute. We tried to call 911 but there was no signal. I’d waiting for some time. Connie stayed in
the van. A man passed by saying help is on its way. But it wasn’t. Later we learnt that he was a local
offering us to stay in his and his wife’s place. But we didn’t in the end. Several runners and cyclists
passed by too. We blocked the road with the van and they had to jump over the gap. Sami finally
returned saying that bomberos would arrive in 20 mins but that he had told them that he would wait for
them down the hill. So he went back. Time was passing, it got dark and noone was coming, nor Sami. I
just kept my fait high. Finally Sami came from top of the hill with a torch. He said he is followed by
men from Guardia Civil. Two cars, 3 men. But they weren’t willing to push the car or to help us out at
that moment. They claimed a bagr would be needed to get the car out and said we wouldn’t be able to
continue down the hill as the road is not possible to be crossed with a car. So we didn’t have other than
go to a house they have for emergency cases. We took our computer, phones, hygienes and went with
them being very worried about the van, but they promised us that the van is safe, noone would get it
and the wind is not as strong to move the van in any way. We were taken to a campside where there are
very nice houses, well equiped. We didn’t sleep well tho, the wind at night was making us very
worried. The house had a heating tho which was very nice and very amazing hot shower. That was
awesome. We also cooked pasta we found there and watched half of the moviel El Camino. Next day in
the morning (9.30am) we were taken to the office of the guards and then to our van. The bagr was
already there, filling the whole with tierra, then it pulled the van out (it had to destroy some bushes on
the left side of the road as they were in the way...mission was succesful and we were able to get the van
out. Nothing happened to the van, just the back bummer was a bit twisted. We drove with the guards to
their office. We bought a cake to share with them, they made coffee. We spent some time with them,
chatting. They called some guys to fix the bummer for us. Then, the weather was getting quite bad, and
we hit the road again, this time to Puerto Deseado as it was recommended by some Argentinians in
Camarones as a place where we could see other types of penguins.

It was about 300km from Rada Tilly( what a strong memory we have from Rada...it was just another
unknown place one day and the next day such even happened, they even mentioned Sami (the syrian)
on local radio!)
When we took of from the main road to go 100km on a road (asfalt road) to Puerto Deseado, the wind
was quite strong and there were some strong rain showers. At some parts the van was moved my the
wind or it was a bit difficult for Sami to move the van to one line. But we made it without any major
problem. We spent the first night (well, first, we were very tired as last night we had not slept anything
and were still quite overwhelmed by the event from Rada Tilly) we were hungry so we went to local
restaurant to eat burgers and work with the internet as we knew we would spent the night in a place,
again recommended on iOverlander, outside of the city, this time luckily not in the hills. The penguins
are meant to be seen there. We didn’t see them tho. It’s out of the season. The next day in the morning,
instead of exploring this part of nature we went to the city too look for the Internet and to work. We
spent the whole day by a park working when a lady, whose food truck was parked in front of our van,
asked us to move the van a bit as we were blocking her entrance to the truck. The van (as several times
before) started on the 3rd try. As we moved a bit back, there was an oil leakage. A man, called
Alejandro, as we later found out, the father of the lady who asked us to move the van, offered us
electricity plug outside and mecanical help. The next day we went to see a mecanic of his
reccommendation, we have to buy a “bujia precalendatora” but they didn’t have it and we would have
to wait until Monday if not Tuesday to get it. However, the mecanic himself recommended us to get the
bujia from Rio Gallegos or from Chile as it would be cheaper and easier to get. Then we went to
Alejandro’s house to have lunch with him, his wife and his daughter (the other daughter had a baby and
was in another part of the house with the baby). They invited us for homeone milanesa napolitana,
Sami then went to buy some meat and sweetcorn to finally get some argentinian asado. They were very
kind to us, even baked us bread! Unfortunately we learnt that Alejandro has skin cancer (he had just
found out last week) and it’s very costly for them to pay for all the treatment. I would have loved to
help them financially. If we had our social media developed enough we could have started
fundraiser...They are very religious and pray for him to get healthy again. I hope and believe that he
will get out of it healthy and happy.

They are very kind people and I just know we didn’t do enough to repay their generosity. The only
thing we can do is to pass on the good gestures.

So far we have come across very kind people. As in Argentina as in Brasil. The world is full of
beautiful people.

Now we are staying at Axion because of the Internet. I’m sad we can’t go and see penguins because
exursions have finished as they claim that all the penguins have emigrated. During the excursion we
could also see mini dolphins, but unfortunatelly I will have to pass that too :(
I hope to see some flamingos tomorrow!
Then we go to Puerto San Julian.
We are getting closer and closer to Ushuaia. They are telling us that it’s snowing there and some roads
are closed. We will have to buy chains for the wheels that are nothing cheap. Roads are getting icy. We
were also warned about the Chilenian borders, apparently they are very strict. Lots of controls. We will
have to get Connie’s paperwork si o si. And just have to home that PCR tests won’t be required. Let’s
just hope it all ends up well, as it’s just a small part of Chile we will be entering….

3/5/2022 Rio Gallegos

We arrived to San Julian a few days ago. At the petrol station we stayed at we met two kombis. In one
travels a Brasilian couple with their dog and in the other a young man alone with his two dogs. We
exchanges some tips on how to run social media. The next day they left early in the morning to
Ushuaia. We went to see an electirician to see if we can solve why our electricity in the car is not
working (our lights, heating...all is gone). It was raining heavily. We did a short look around the city in
the car and I finally sent a postcard I had prepared for my aunt for a while. We also wanted to see a
Syrian restaurant that’s in the city but we arrived on Monday or Tuesday and they were open only from
Thursdays….in the afternoon we found an electrician but as it was late and it was raining a lot he said
he would look at the van the next day in the morning because he arranged that gomeria next to him
lends us the underroof space in case it rains again. For the rest of the day he let us use his office to heat
tea and use internet for us to work meanwhile we were charging the battery of the solar panel so we
have some electricity as it seemed like the battery was very low and that’s why we didn’t have any
electricity. We just had to find out why it wasn’t charging while driving as it had been cloudy for a few
days so the panel solar didn’t charge enough.
We went back to sleep at the petrol station. We let Connie out as we always do. She just freely runs
around, does her business and then we call her back. The night before we couldn’t find her and she
wasn’t responding to our callings but eventually came back. This night however, she was noowhere to
be found. It was getting late and very cold. I had done many walks around, calling her, looking for her
with a torch but she was nowhere. We went to look for her in the car. One to heat the engine a bit and
second hoping she would come seeing or hearing the van. After a few minutes we found her walking
on the street. It seemed she was looking for us. I was angry with her for not staying closeby and not
listening when we were calling her but at the same time I was relieved that we found her with no harm.
The next day in the morning it was very cold. In the morning the van didn’t want to start. We tried so
many times until we “killed” the battery. Luckily there was someone who was willing to connect their
battery to our and we were able to start the engine.
We continue our journey towards Rio Gallegos. Sami started to drive and on the way we decided to
swap so he can work on his thesis. We decided to stop the car on the side of the road where there was
“tierra”. It seemed hard enough and it was a nice day. Unfortunately the van got stuck in the mad, the
back wheels got deeper and deeper into the mad and the van was sliding down the hill. It was
impossible to pull the van as it was very slippery. We were in the middle of the main road. A camion
was passing by and offered help. We blocked one side of the road. I was handeling the traffic when the
camion tried to pull the van out. At first try the rope wasn’t tided well and got disconnected. The
second try was succesfull and we got pulled out of the mud. Que verguenza! Haha

We finally arrived to Rio Gallegos. On Thursday 28 of April. We arrived it was already dark. We
stayed the night at a petrol station just in case we won’t be able to start the engine in the morning.
Luckily their bathrooms were open 24/7. The next day in the morning the van didn’t start. We killed
the battery again. It was a small petrol station so there was not so much space for another car to open
their trunk and charge our battery. We however tried. But it wasn’t successful. The car just wouldn’t
start and with two vans open we were blocking the passages so they told us we have to push the car on
the other side of the road. The van which helped us first however left. Luckily on the other side of the
road there was a taxi man who kindly helped us and after many tries we were able to start the engine.
The night before a lady called Andrea contacted us on Instagram. She lives in Rio Gallegos and offered
us help. We asked her if she knew a mecanic and an electician in the city. Unfortunally the city wakes
up at 9am (with the sun) and everybody closes for lunch break from 12 or 1pm to 2 or 3pm. So we
would have to wait until late to find somebody. The day before however we went to a shop with spare
parts to buy a part for the electicity (reley) in the car which didn’t work afterwards but they told us
about a “good” mecanic. We had arranged with him to be in his place at 11am but as the part the shop
sold us didn’t work and their prices were very high we didn’t want to go to the mecanic thinking that if
we have to buy some parts he will want to buy them from this expensive shop. But as we had only two
options – going to his place or wait until 3pm, we decided to go to his place. We had to take bujias
precalendatodas out which were all five not working but one of them was very stuck and imposible to
take out. The mecanic spent many our trying with all sort of ways getting the bujia out but with no
success. There was another part broken which also caused why the van wasn’t starting in the morning
(temporizador). But the mecanic didn’t know where to find the part in the engine as he had never
worked with this type of engine. He then came out with an invention of a button connected with two
cables to two different parts of the engine which we would have to press in the morning for 15 second
before starting the engine to heat up the van. It was provisory as it could potentially be dangerous but
was meant to work for the moment until we find a better solution (we thouth that once we would get
out of Patagonia – out of winter we won’t need this anymore and won’t need to solve precalentacion
anymore). He also changed amortiguadores for the back wheels.
The mecanic wanted to charge us 20 000 pesos argentinos for his work. We saw that very high and
payed him 10 000. He wasn’t happy. Meanwhile being at the mecanic Andrea came to visit us gifting
us a bottle of wine. She helped us to find a place to exchange dollars and took us to her electician who
lives just cross the street from them. They live a few km out of the city tho, and so we spend the night
at theirs. It is a very kind couple – Andrea and Alberto. They are retired and have a lovely house with
many adopted dogs and a cat. We slept in their bedroom. The next day Sami and Alberto went to see
the electician. It was difficult to start the van even with this inveted button. Very grey smoke was
coming out from the vyfuk. After some time we were able to start the car using the button. I can’t
remember how exactly the day went as I’m writing this one week later but long story short – We were
meant to go on Monday to a mecanic to solve the starting problem (the electician was meant to help us
with the battery inside the van – so it is being charged from when driving). We spent the weekend with
Andrea and Alberto listening to their stories about Andrea’s father and their travel in their van on the
route 40 sharing food cooked by us. On Sunday it was 1st May and they celebrate worker’s day.
Alberto’s brother came and we had real argentinian asado. Alberto’s and Andrea’s daughter Carla was
also around. On Monday we hoped to go to the mecanics in the morning but when Sami tried to start
the van it wouldn’t start even using the invented button. We connected to the battery of Alberto’s van
but with no success. We had no other that to call our insurance and call for auxiliar – a guinche. We
called in the morning, they said they would arrive at 4pm but in the end they arrived after 6pm. We had
to run to the mecanic as they close at 7pm. We just got in just to talk to the mecanic before he left, we
spent the night outside the garage. The next day the mecanics got the van in the garage (being pulled by
another car almost crashing, hehe). They started working on the van in the afternoon by taking the
engine out. They finished taking the engine out the next day in the morning (it took them 7 hours to
take the engine out!) The correa of the engine was broken and that led to other damages. On
Wednesday it was my 33th birthday! We went to the house of Andrea and Alberto with Carla. We
cooked vegan lunch (Sami made his soup and I put veggies in the oven and cooked rice). Sami
arranged for a delicious vegan sugar free chocolate cake. We had a nice time. In the afternoon when we
came back to the garage they had opened completely to the last bit the engine. There were several parts
to be changed (valvulas y una cosa con las valvulas, ingrenaje de la distibucion, la correa, los tensores
de la correa, una bujia, the tube of the heart of the motor – sibonial, una tapa de aceite, cambiar todo el
aceite….). Luckily we were able to get all the part necessary in local shops and had some parts from
Wendelin. However the price they told us would cost only the mano de obra was incredible 180.000
pesos argentinos! We spent only in respuestos 50.000 pesos and new oil would cost 20.000 so all
together was meant to cost us increadible 250.000 pesos argenitos!!! At this moment the blue dollar
here is bettween 190 and 200 pesos….so is would have been more than 1000 dollars! We are trying to
negotiate the price of the mano de obra with them and sami was able to negotiate the price of the new
parts (there were originaly trying to charge us for the parts 15.000 pesos more!).
It’s the weekend now, we will be here alone in the garage. We are just hoping all will go well so we
can continue our journey on Wednesday or Thursday...The time is running out as we should be in
Cordobe on 20th June...it’s getting colder and colder and we are being told then as from 15th May they
will make chains on wheels mandatory (another 40 mil pesos)….

Meanwhile we are working on our social medias, editing videos and reels.

It’s 16th of May….we are still at the mechanic’s in Rio Gallegos...They had told us that we would leave
by last weekend. But there were some things they had to redo...they had to (after almost having the
engine put back together) reopen it to redo one part which didn’t fit exactly as it should...they reclose it
quite fast, in the same day but it meant we weren’t able to leave on Saturday...and as there are taking
their time with our engine they told us we would stay until at least Thursday (Wednesday is bank
holiday here and they don’t work)….We will be 3 weeks at the mecanic..we are thinking about finding
a job in Ushuaia to compensate the money…

Meanwhile the last week we got to give english workshops at one institute here. Every day we would
spend one class (1,5 hour) or two classes with the students talking about our lifestyle. It gained us a bit
of cash – we did 8 classes and earned 6000 pesos. We spent it the at the weekend...we went to Andrea’s
and Alberto’s as they left on Sunday to Buenos Aires for Alberto’s operation and as we assume that we
won’t be back by the time they return (2nd June) we did a small “farewell” on Saturday. They also
celebrated the birthday of their grandson so there were quite a few ppl in the house. We decided to
make pizza. My first time making pizza (with the help of Andrea and her son in law). Turned out pretty
well. Made at least 5 pizzas! But buying ingredients and wine costed us 4000 pesos...on Sunday I
bought some goodies for us to eat when watching a movie (as we got up at almost 1.30pm after going
to sleep at 4am!) which costed 2500 pesos...money have wings seems like….(We also brought some
“presents” from the shop indeed...)
At least it’s not so cold outside. During the day at least. And it’s rather pleasant chilly weather with sun
and of max 10 degrees during the day.

27/5/2022 We have crossed to Chile. Tomorrow we hope to board the “boat” to cross to Tierra de
Fuego. We are spending the night at the port. We picked up Alfredo who was hichhiking to Rio Negro,
a little crazy Porteno. Nice guy, very talkative who drinks lots of mate but doesn’t eat, haha.
The electricity of the car still seems dodgy. And the battery too. But we hit the road as it’s getting late.
Connie’s paper would expire on 28th and we would have to pay another 4000 pesos for doing the papers
again. Sami’s time is running low before he has to go to Europe and has to finish many things for his
Uni. So we couldn’t wait more. Even though we still don’t have any chains for the tyres!

Some spots from Argentina -

The way they talk: “viste”, “no sabeeeesssss….” when they exagerate
very nationalists – blue and white everywhere, very strong feeling about Malvinas son Argentinas!
Especially in Rio Gallegos
Food -
Last days in Rio Gallegos we spent at the YPF petrol station, they have very nice hot showers and good
bathrooms. We also did 5 more English workshops, this time at the Colegio Britanico. They payed us
2000 pesos per workshop of only 1 hour! 10000 pesos for 5 hours work! Very good college, students
have very good level of English and it’s runned by Ines, Malena, Dereck...Malena and Dereck are
married and their parents are of British/Scottish origen.
We spent in Rio Gallegos more than a month! What a crazy thing. The best thing the veg/fruit store!
They’d give us big discounts and have very good prices! We packed the car with food eventhoug you
shouldn’t have any fresh fruits and vegetables with you when crossing to Chile. But we hid it all and
crossed easily. We couldn’t miss on taking the advantage of such good price!

29/5/2022
We are in Rio Negro, Tierra de Fuego, Argentina
Crossing was fun and easy.

Even though they almost didn’t let Sami in. In their system it tells them that he needs visas because in
the passport it’s stated that his nationality in Syrian and not Uruguayan. We spent there a good while as
the one in charge called all the way to the Embassy in Buenos Aires. We believe he was seeking a
promotion or wanted to show off in front of his boss and that’s why he made it complicated for us.
Sami entered to Argentina several times before and to Chile in order to arrive to Tierra de Fuego and at
the last border crossing they didn’t want to let him in?!
In the end what helped was my cedula where they can see the difference of me being the resident of
Uruguay and Sami the citizen. They did some search online and found that Uruguay treats
“ciudadanos” like citizens, so they let him in by changing in the system that his nationality is
Uruguayan. He is going soon to Europe for a few week where he is going to take several planes, we can
just hope he won’t face any similar issue on the way…

Boat crossing was fun, easy and fast. Our first stop was Rio Negro where we met a man who had told
us he can borrow us his chains for us to use. He was a tip given to us by the hitchhiker guy we picked
up on the way to the Chilenian borders. The man who borrowed us the chains was a little bit crazy,
living in his little world, but a nice person. Unfortunately his chains were too big for our wheels.

We looked for some institutes to give workshops, first was CEP institute. We just walked in one
evening before they closed. The owner was a gay man who travels a lot and had visited Syria. He
offered us 3 day of work, giving several workshops a day. And then he added two days more. He
appeared to be a little bit anxious and “all over the place” but we had a good time at the institute. Even
though the sessions were a bit messy because the institute is a bit of a chaos. Claudio (the owner)
invited us once to his beautiful house. We had alguirle and cuba libre there. His partner cut my hair.
Finally! I was longing for having my hair shorter for long time since it’s annoying to wash it and dry it
in the cold weather.
Claudio’s employee recommended to us one gomeria where they could give us nails into our wheels to
drive safely when in Ushuaia and on Ruta 40.
The gomeria “El Cyclon” is runned by an amazing family. Roberto, Nelly and in the taller works their
son Niko with other young men and in the house lives with them their daughter Anabela with her
boyfriend Pablo. They immediately invited for lunch and became our host family for the next 2 weeks
while we were trying to fix our heather which meanwhile stopped working.
Roberto and Nelly and fanatics of Asado and eat meat every night at about 10 pm and go sleep at
minimum 2 am. Nelly cooks lunch for all the workers at the workshop which is part of their house.
They made several asados so Sami had the chance to try several different types of meat. They didn’t
like if we wanted to spend the night at YPF. But we felt as we were bothering them way too much
taking too much of their personal space (especially after receiving brand new front tyres from them!)
but they find it a bit insulting that we didn’t fully accept their hospitality.

Unfortunately we were very busy trying to find the solution to our broken heater. We went from one
place/person to another in the city until we ended up at Gonzalo’s. A kind man from Jujuy. We took the
heater out, he opened it appart. Cleaned it up. It took a few day but at the end seemed working but with
stopping the flow which seemed to be coming from the electrical board. So we had to look for an
electrician. We put the heater back in (which is not an easy thing to do!!). And it seemed like gas was
not going through. So we cut our gas cable and changed the regulator. But that only led to gas leaking
and didn’t change anything about the heater. So we put our regulator back in. Meanwhile also one of
our stoves stopped working, started to leak gas! And our motor de arranque broke down! We were
lucky with fixing that though as we had met Walter who was able to fix it within the same day.
Roberto’s friend who is an electrican found that there is one broken wire in the electical board of the
heater. We were happy believing that must be the problem. But it was already almost 2 weeks since we
arrived to Rio Grande and we had already agread that the next day we would go to Tolhuin. And that
the next day we would take Nelly and Roberto to the airport (at 5am) as they had to fly to Buenos
Aires. So we were thinking to look for an electrician who can fix the broken cable in Ushuaia.

In the morning (14/6) we took Roberto and Nelly to the airport but as it’s common in their house, we
went to sleep at 1.30am. So we had slept very little. We wanted to pass by one shop on the way to
Ushuaia but that opens at 9am and we didn’t want to drive at night. So we decided to take a short nap
after leaving the airport (when we left the airport we saw a beautiful grey fox outside). Obviously our
nap turned into hours of sleeping. So we ended up at Carlos’s and his wife Anahi’s. Carlos is a
electrician we found on Google who was willing and available to help us with the electrical board.
Unfortunately after many tries and changing many parts of the board the heater still didn’t work. Even
though it improved a lot there was still something that was cutting the heather. Sami made the radical
decicion to take each cable out of the connection and connect it to the board soldando. Unfortunately
that made the things worse and the heater is no even turning on. On Thursday 16/6 we took shower at
Carlos’s and Anahi’s and had breakfast and left to Tolhuin. It’s only one week until Sami has to fly to
Europe and he still has to study, write his presentation and write his conclusion for his thesis!

Ir Rio Grande, meanwhile staying at Roberto’s and Nelly’s we aslo got to give three workshops at IFEI
institute and Cierg college where students are making a note about us in their school magazine!

We met many great people in Rio Grande and are looking forward on visiting them again on our way
back north.

Now we are in Tolhuin. We went to the most famous bakery here and parked in from of the lake with
the view on the mountains. So mesmerizing. It’s very cold outside tho. 0 degrees o -2. We heat up the
van with the kitchen which is not the best as it causes moisture in the van so we have to keep at least
one window a bit open for ventilation.

It’s 16/6 and tomorrow the plan is to continue to Ushuaia.