Hello everyone.  We are still alive.  We are actually doing very well.  Argentina has great campgrounds in almost every town, so we are camping almost exclusively.  This has the benefit of allowing us to travel very cheaply, and we get to cook our own food, so we are much happier.  The only BIG downside is that we have not been able to find any wi-fi and even internet is sometimes hard to get to because sometimes the campgrounds are slightly out of town.  In any case, we are fine.  I am recording all, and eventually, you will be able to read all about it!!  Sorry about that guys….patience, patience!!

Right now, we are in a little town called San Antonio de Valle Fe´rtil.  Tomorrow we hope to be in San Juan and Mendosa in a few days.  Take care.  I will try to keep in touch!

Hey, just to let you know, all is well.  We are in Salta, Argentina.  Haven´t seen much of the town yet, but we are staying at a nice campground.  We have spent the better part of two days finding YET MORE autoparts!!  One day, I promise, I will have more to write about than groceries and car problems.  I would pick another fight, but my Mommy got mad at me for the last one and I had to promise not to be in anymore fist fights for the rest of the trip!!  It is the post that got the most comments though!!

Tomorrow we will hopefully have a look around town and then head out of town the day after that.  We are enjoying the Argentinean beef and wine.  Yummy!!

We followed the Olympics as best we could while we were down here.  It is great to know that Canada did so well.  We are very sorry to have missed them.  Bad timing again.

Today marks the 9 month mark of our trip.  It is hard to believe that we have been gone for so long.  If all goes according to plan, we should be loading our van on a boat in Chile, in pretty much exactly 3 months.  We are kind of in a rush to get far south now, so that we don´t miss all the summer season, although I am sure the mountains will be spectacular in fall as well.

Just to let you know, we did not feel the earthquake in Chile, although many people in town said that they did.  We hope that the damage is more or less dealt with before we need to head home in 3 months, because we think some of the damage was near where we will be shipping.

That is all for now, keep you posted.

If you recall, I left you at a very exciting point yesterday, waiting in line at the border.  I know, it was evil to leave you hanging like that…what suspense!  Yeah, here is what happened.  We got very close to entering Argentina…but not quite. 

As we FINALLY neared the beginning of the line (or the end, I guess), we were approached by a customs agent, who asked us if we had purchased any insurance for driving in Argentina.  We replied, that we had not yet, but realized we had to.  This apparently was a big problem.  Unlike all the other borders we have crossed, they do not sell insurance AT the border.  You actually have to go into the town to buy it.  Which normally would not be a problem,except that it was now 9pm and there would be nowhere open that would sell insurance.  Without insurance, the vehicle could not enter, without entering, there was no other option other than return to Bolivia…NOOOOOOO! 

So back to Bolivia we go, look for a hotel, end up in a dive, just to get up at 6am the next morning to do it all again.  Seems we don’t get to go to the front of the line, just because we waited all day yesterday.  Nope, back to the end of the line (which was longer today, by the way).

At least we knew what we were doing, kind of.  I also wondered if the dog was going to give us any problems, so I asked two different police guards on the Argentinean side, whether I needed to do anything about bringing in a dog.  I did not want it to be 9pm again, and have them turn me back a second time.  Both guards said there was nothing special I had to do about the dog.  Of course, this was not exactly true.  I was supposed to have gotten a dog “paper” from the Bolivian side, which would then be exchanged for a permit on the Argentinean side.  I think luckily, there was no one at the Bolivian office, so the Argentineans nicely let that pass and issued me a permit without needed to see a Bolivian permit.  Also, I was supposed to go pay a fee at the  bank to import Mungo, but now the bank was closed, so again LUCKILY, the officials let me pay them instead (much easier!). 

The reason for the super long wait at the border, was that EVERY vehicle was thoroughly searched.  All bags were removed and searched by hand as well.  Crazy!  No wonder it took so long.  We were really dreading a thorough search, not because we have anything to hide, but you really have no idea how much stuff you can fit in a Volkswagen Vanagon.  There are hidey holes EVERYWHERE!!!  But, we were spared.  We only got a VERY cursory glance in each door.  That was  it!

So we are finally in Argentina, at a relatively nice hotel, with wi-fi, that has let our dog in, even though there are large signs that say NO PETS.  Go figure.  So, if you have time, look back at some of the newly posted, older posts, that are finally online!  

Waiting, waiting, waiting.  It just seems to be the name of the game.  We are sitting at the Bolivian/Argentinean border at the moment.  Nothing new, we have been here for 6 1/2 hours, and we have finally made it through the Bolivian side.  Actually, the hold up seems to be the Argentinean side.  I believe they are searching cars. 

Sara and I stood in the immigration line on the Bolivian side for about 2 hours.  When we finally got near the front of the line, the part INSIDE the building, people started shoving and pushing, and there was some discussion about which line you were supposed to be in to get to where we were.  I just stood my ground, looking dumb, not a real difficult thing to do after standing in line for 2 hours, and hoped that they would not decide to send me back to the end of a line.  They did not, thank God.  Must have looked sufficiently dumb. 

So here we sit in “no-man’s land”, checked out of Bolivia, not checked into Argentina.    The Argentinean border is supposedly open 24 hours,  I hope we are not there all night. 

Our last night in Bolivia was okay.  Almost all the restaurants are pizzeria/pasta places, but not real good pizza/pasta places.  We did however manage to find one restaurant that served pasta, but also other dishes.  And, the food was GREAT!  The chef would come out and tell you what he had that night on the menu.  They served a wonderful steak, that was so good that even Sara ate it!! (Sara hates steak).  In any case, we ended up eating there 3 of the 4 nights that we  were in Tupiza.  Our chef spent some time talking to us each night, and last night, knowing that we were leaving in the morning, he said goodbye to us all, with a hug, and kiss and a handshake.  So cute! 

I will have to let you know exactly how long we ended up waiting tonight in tomorrow’s post.  It could be a very, very long night!

Okay…we are not in Argentina.  Remember when we couldn´t leave Guatemala?  Apparently, this place has the same hold on us…except that we are not happy about it! 

On the way into Tupiza, the brakes started making ¨not good brake noises¨.  When Kevin looked into the problem, he discovered that 3 of the 4 brake pads were due to be replaced.  One of the brake pads was ¨beyond due¨and we were grinding metal to metal.  Need new brake pads.  In Canada, you would just walk into a Canadian Tire, get some new brake pads, for $20, and away you go.  Ahh, but this is not Canada!!  First you have to track down someone who has anything to do with brakes.  So, after walking pretty much the whole town, we find the one place in town that does brakes.  They don´t actually sell new brakes…why would they do that?  They will fix your old brakes, but not right now, you have to wait for the son to come to the shop, come back at 2pm.  Poor Kevin, this really goes against the grain for him.  He wants to walk in with a part number and get a NEW part.  But the 60 year old grandma behind the counter in the autoparts store doesn´t DO part numbers!!!  Come back at 2pm. 

We return at 2:30 pm, knowing that no one will actually be there at 2pm, and are told that the ¨son¨ has not come back from lunch yet, but I am sure he will be back soon.  Finally…he comes back about 3:15, after a call from his mom( how embarassing).  He starts to repair the pads right away, but every customer that enters the store, distracts him, so that it is about 4:30 when we finally leave the store with 4 ¨repaired¨ pads, and 60 Bolivianos lighter (about 10 bucks)! 

So now the brakes are good.  We (isn´t it cute how I say ¨we¨?) discovered that a little welding was required on the frame as well, while we were checking out the brakes, so this morning, Kevin got a welder to do a  little spot repair.  So….. finally, we think the van is in shape to make the final push to Argentina!!!  Please, please , please!!! 

We really think that all this bad luck is the fault of the condor amulet that we picked up on La Paz at the witches market.  We think there is a power struggle going on between St. Christopher and the amulet, and all this is resulting in bad carma.  But, how do you get rid of a charm?  We are afraid to smash it, because that might bring WORSE luck.  We think it needs to find a new home, but we can´t bring ourselves to give this bad luck charm to anyone we like.  We think it might just find it´s way onto some other vehicles rearview mirror some day.  Hopefully soon!   

By the way, Sara and I got haircuts today.  This set us back a whopping 20 Bolivianos, for the pair, a total of about $3.33.  Harsh!

We have been on the altiplano for quite a long time.  Finally, we are starting to descend.  The altiplano is a flat plain that sits between 3500m and4500m in Bolivia.  Yesterday we completed our drive to Tupiza, a supposedly ¨pleasant town¨, at about 3000m.  We went from very dry desert to an almost lush valley.  There are actually trees and a little bit of water in the river bed! The town is surrounded by red rocky cliffs, which are carved by wind and rain into hoodoo-like formations.  Most people visit the town to horseback ride or take a jeep through these formations.  We are not doing either of these things.  Kevin is spending the day working on the brakes of the van, which started making nasty noises yesterday.  I am in hunt of laundry and groceries, the never ending quests.

We are staying at a hotel, which seems okay.  They do not have a garage, so we have to park the van in a private parking lot a block or so away.  When we first tried to park the vehicle there, the garage was closed, but a hour or so later, when we were taking Mungo out for a pee, we saw the gates open.  Kevin went back to get the van and I walked up to the garage owner, with Mungo, to ask him if we could park there.  He said it was fine, and so we just waited for Kevin to return.  As we were waiting, we were approached by a VERY drunk guy.  He stood in front of me for quite a while, watching me, and then out of the blue, he hauled off and kicked Mungo in the gut!  Mungo, the big brave hound, did nothing but give a little yelp, but I shoved the guy back and told him to get lost (I am pretty sure I didn´t even swear!).  The garage guy intervened and tried to get the drunk to go home, but he just stood there and stared at us some more.  Finally, he decided to push his luck just a little further and kicked Mungo again.  This time I didn´t shove the guy, I punched him in the face 4 times!!!  I gave him a bloody nose.  I know my Mom is reading this and thinking, ¨ What kind of a young lady have I raised?¨  Sorry Mom, no one messes with my dog!!!  In any case, that was the end of the altercation.  Oh sure, the drunk had a few choice names for me, but a guy on the street, thought it best to get the drunk away from me and my precious dog.  I knew that kick-boxing aerobic class would come in handy one day!

We aren´t terribly impressed with the ¨pleasant town¨.  The choice of restaurant is as bleak as the last town.  EVERY restaurant is a pizza place and EVERY place has the exact same, extensive menu.  I mean exactly the same menu, same cover, same printing, EXACTLY!!  The thing is though, that the menu is only a suggestion of what MIGHT be available.  For lunch yesterday, we all thought we would order a simple sandwich, but the waitress told us that they didn´t have sandwiches, because they had no bread.  After trying unsuccessfully to order something else, we went to another restaurant.  They seemed to have everything we ordered, but then we saw them dash out at least 3 or 4 times and buy  an ingredient that they were missing to fill our order, including bread!!!  One more day…one more day…  we hope to be out of Bolivia tomorrow.  I hold high hopes that Argentina will be different, more civilized.  Hopefully my boxing career ends here!

Finally, finally, finally, we have left Uyuni!!!  Good riddance, I say!  Really, if we hadn’t had to sit there for a week, watching people get stinking drunk, not sleeping, while we listened to crazy loud music flow from the local athletic club, we may not have thought it was so bad.  We definitely overstayed our visit though. 

This morning, we were on our way again.  We have very few provisions, but I would have left with no provisions!  We are still in the desert.  Today, we passed some sand dunes, which are the first we have seen in Bolivia.  Shortly after the sand dunes, we entered an area with sculpted rocks.  I would call it a canyon, but really it was far to wide to call a canyon.  There were some pretty interesting rocks, and  some cool colours.

Also, the clouds were incredible today!!

Tonight we are in another amazing campsite.  We pulled off the road, over a rise and are snuggled up against some very cool rocks.  There are large outcrops of rocks, that are all wind  carved. 

Tomorrow, we continue on to Tupiza, which is labelled on our map as a “pleasant town”.  Let us hope it is just that!

Today was trailer retrieval day.  We hired the owner of the company who took us for our tour of the salt flats, to drive us out to pick up our trailer.  He turned out to be a pretty nice guy.  He had to modify our trailer hitch a bit so it would fit his vehicle, but he took care of that on his own.  This morning, he picked Kevin up at 4am, and they were off. 

It all went off without a hitch (no pun intended) and this time Kevin was back in town by 1pm (not 8pm like when he picked up the van!).  So the van is clean, kind of packed, the trailer is hitched up and we leave this town tomorrow am!  Really, I am ecstatic about leaving.  It is a really small town, with a terribly small and unoriginal assortment of restaurants.  If I see anymore fries, I think I will scream.  I think Sean ended up eating pizza everyday this week (except tonight).  The town is terribly dusty and we are constantly coated with a layer of it! 

We have changed our plans a bit.  Initially, we were going to enter Chile from Bolivia, but we have decided to head into Argentina instead, because we think there will be less rough roads.  So we are headed towards Tupiza tomorrow.  I am not sure that we will get there in one day, depends on the state of the roads.  Since we are travelling with at least two blown shocks, we will be taking it easy.  Anyway, adios Uyuni… it has been interesting!

Still not a real post folks, but a little note to let you know our present situation.  We are still in Uyuni.  Yesterday, Kevin went to pick up the van in the desert.  We had left it out there, because we had some type of oil leak and we were not happy driving it back into town, on terribly rough roads, without knowing what was wrong.  Kevin actually thought it was a HUGE problem, rebuilt or get a new engine type of problem!  We got someone to tow the van in for us, but they could not tow the trailer as well, so the trailer is still 4 hours away from us. 

It turns out the engine is ok, the source of the oil leak was identified and easily repaired.  However, in towing the van over the rough roads, the shocks were wrecked, so now we don´t feel really good about driving over 4 hours of washboard, to pick up the trailer.  NOW we have to get the trailer towed in!!!  We are in the middle of carnaval, and the whole town is wandering round in a drunken state, so we have to wait until Thursday to get the trailer.  I cannot WAIT to get out of this town!!!  Hopefully Friday we will be on the road again!!!  I hope!

Anyway, most likely you will have to wait to read about the past week in detail until I can get some wifi, absolutely NOT available in this hick town!

BESOS

GIULLIANA, LUCHO Y OLIVIA