I hope to be in Ushuaia in 2 days. By this time Monday the 6th, I hope to be in the southernmost city in the world, the end of the world, as they like to call it. I’m so close. I have less than a 1000 miles to go now, possibly even as close as 900 miles. I hope to surprise my mother before she leaves for Korea on the 8th by calling her from Ushuaia.
I am obviously ahead of my estimated arrival time of 11-13th of August by a few days. Number 1 reason would be that my reverse gear is no longer working and my transmission is acting funny even when going forward. A couple times today, it would try and change from 2nd to 3rd gear and instead would somehow go on neutral before settling into gear. Also, the car is getting harder and harder to start as the nights are menacingly cold here. There was frost on the roof and I could hear the hissing of the engine before it started after some 5 second delay.
Number 2 reason is that it’s getting cold. Certainly not unbearably cold. I thought it would be much colder than this, and considering how Wisconsin is about the same distance from the equator as it is here in Comodoro Rivadavia, it’s not that bad. 6 months difference would mean that it should be like Wisconsin in February, but it’s at least 30 degrees warmer here, and perhaps as much as 50 degrees. So I’m glad it’s not too cold. But it’s cold enough that Perito Moreno and Tierra del Paine will have to wait their turns some other time.
The days are getting shorter but it’s helped by the fact that Argentina is ahead one hour. So by the time I get to Ushuaia, the sun should set at 6PM after rising at 9:30 AM.
Today was the second day that I had to push my car out. I managed to do it myself, but I really miss having the reverse gear. I immediately filled up at the nearest gas station before I left. I parked behind this car to wait in line but the attendant waves me to go to the other one. So I get out and push my car back again. There was this one gentleman who saw this and thought it was funny and started laughing. Then, as soon as I pulled up behind him, he saw my license plate and a frown quickly overcame his laughter. He looked at the license plate then up at me, and back down at the plate. I said in English, “Oh it’s not so funny now, is it?” He didn’t respond.
The drive today was casual enough. If only the rest of the days were like this. I drove about 500 miles today in about 8 hours. The roads were in decent shape, but it was quite scary. I think once I hit Route 40, I saw about 100 cars total going in any direction of any kind for about 400 miles. I thought about all the things that could go wrong with the car and I hoped to God that it won’t break down there of all places.
I got lucky and got through. But when I got out to take a picture of a crystal tranquil lake, I noticed that my exhaust was making some noise as though it was moving too much. I took a quick glance and noticed that both the 2 rear exhaust hangers were totally missing. It was hanging by the 2 front hangers. I stopped at the nearest gas station at the nearest ‘city’ named Sarmiento. The station had ‘Accesorios’ as well, so I went in, hoping the guy had some of those rubber hangers. He took a look and understood my problem immediately.
This gentleman who I never got the name of was something else. He didn’t even hesitate and closed down the shop and told me to follow him. We went into the city about a kilometer in to a mechanic he knew. After some debate, the mechanic told him that I don’t need to go to a Mercedes shop, they got the hangers. The gentleman had thought I needed some other part on top of that. He said good bye, told me to travel well and went back to his shop.
This was obviously the first time anything like that’s happened to me. I sure hope he didn’t lose any precious business while tending to my needs for about 15-20 minutes. Others would have simply told me some odd directions of how many squares to pass before making a right at some corner and then making a left at some signal light and what not. I greatly appreciated his help and think very highly of Argentinians because of that single man.