A Chilean Adventure

We woke up in the morning and headed across the street to the gas station with the free WiFi. Why did the gas station have free wireless? I’m not really sure, but it had tables and you could order coffee and other little things. It’s kind of like Argentina’s version of an Internet café. We didn’t stay long though because our computers ran out of battery. One thing we didn’t plan for was a different style outlet in Argentina than in Chile. I even have a multi-adapter set that has adapters for nearly every country, but it doesn’t have the third ground prong on it. This could be a long week if we don’t find a universal adapter for Argentine outlets! Since it’s Valentine’s Day, we bought each other a nice big hunk of chocolate before resuming our trek south. It was the only time I thought of Valentine’s Day at all today and I think it was just to justify buying and eating the chocolate.

Most of the drive was kind of boring. We had gotten used to seeing the Argentine pampas and the road was incredibly flat and strait. So, we inadvertently created our own excitement as we watched our gas gauge move closer and closer to the red. I think one of the requirements for a town to be on a map should be having a gas station. Each town we passed through seemed smaller than the previous and none had gas available. They all appeared the same size on the map, so we had no idea what was coming up next. Finally, we got to the point where our route turned off the main road. The next town we’d pass through was Rio Mayo, which the map showed was the same size as all of the others. Our other option was to keep going on the main highway, hope that we made it to the bigger town that was pretty far away and then backtrack. We held our breaths and when we came up to the intersection there was a sign for Rio Mayo that showed there was a gas station there.

We weren’t out of the clear yet. Now we actually had to make it to Rio Mayo. We crossed our fingers and cursed every hill and curve that made us use more gas. The warning light turned red. Ten kilometers later we rounded a curve and saw a town that was half the size of Gresham and the main road was unpaved, but they had a gas station!

We pulled into the station with a sign of relief, but the attendant told us there was a shortage of gas and she could only give us $20 pesos of gas. We said we’d take as much as we could and just hoped it would get us to the next town. We learned out lesson. Always top off the tank even if it’s more than ¾ full. You never know what lies in the Argentine pampas.

Just as we were basking in our luck, two girls were looking at us with the biggest puppy eyes. We told them we were heading south and they could join us if they wished. They yelled, jumped up and down, and told us they spent three days in Rio Mayo waiting for a car. We found our second set of hitchhikers!

Sasha (California) and Clea (Spain) are both hitchhiking around Argentina and other parts of South America for two and 12 months (respectively). They are both rock climbers and know that there are some great cliffs in South America that they are determined to ‘conquer.’ Both of them are here by themselves, but they met while climbing in Bariloche a while back and have kind of stuck together since. Their next stop is Chaltén, which is home to the famous Fitz Roy peak. It also happens to be not too far off our route.

So they hopped in the car and the conversation helped pass the time until we arrived in Perito Moreno. We filled up the car with gas again and then went to find a campsite. We picked up some provisions and then went to find an ATM. When we got there, Danielle realized she didn’t have her debit card and the last time she remembered having it was in Bariloche. We quickly looked through some of the obvious places and then tried to figure out how to put a temporary hold on it. We went to a telephone place and made a few different calls that didn’t really go anywhere. Finally, she called home and had a one-minute conversation with her sister just to ask her to put a hold on her debit card. Losing the card was hard enough in a foreign country, but talking to her sister for a minute was the hardest part for Danielle. It was so rushed and impersonal. I felt bad, but there was nothing else we could do.

We headed back to the campsite and got everything set up. We’re sleeping in a tent tonight! Sasha and Clea have an extra, so we decided to sleep horizontal for the night. It should be exciting!

We ate like queens tonight! We had tuna sandwiches before, but this time we actually had mayo to mix it with and we had cheese to put on it. We also got a can of mixed vegetables that we heated on a gas stove. At this point, any kind of heated food is gourmet! It was really good and now we’re going to bed with full stomachs.