Tuesday 12 March 2013

Mendoza to Santiago with the 'Los Liberador' Border crossing

We leave Mendoza and its immaculate vineyards and shabby chic streets and head off to Santiago after Chauffeur Roj has completed his safety checks...

Maggie and Roger in their BMW ended up being towed into Mendoza by Team Terrano Jose and Maria on sunday so have decided to skip Santiago and hobble straight to Bariloche.. Hope that is a wise move for them as they will be without rally support but ..... Lol

Chris and Mark in the Model A could have done with that trailer this morning..
Think they had alternator problems and ended up back at the hotel..

News came in just before we left that the lovely little Plymouth had set itself alight..
Approx 10 km into Route 7 there she was at the side of the road.

No support in sight but good ol Max from legs 11 (he loves getting dirty) was already at the scene and had his hands in with the Plymouth's navigator Victor.
Driver Mark giving instructions on how to fit a new regulator.
Mark said he had fitted a new filter yesterday so this may have caused it.
Moral of the story - don't fiddle till its broke lol

Problem sorted and they were on their way just as rally support arrived.

Fabulous, clear blue skies today and fantastci landscape to match
We slipped through the Christo Redentor' Tunnel without a problem and passed a boarded up ski chalet or two on route.
Will have to check out 'Puenta del Inka areas of Argentina once we get home - may be missing out on some good runs lol

Chauffeur Roj had purchased a CD at some grotty little cafe some days ago so 2 clicks and we were soon listening to 'Mendozian Moans' 'by the San Juan. choir (on a bad day)

Maybe if we play it loud enough at the border they may let us slip through quicker..
We will discreetly offer it to Hernaaaaan methinks as he may by now like a bit of a change from Miss Dion lol

Only a few pages a Amendments today and 'Safety reasons have cancelled the Tests today' so transit day for the guys and gals still left in..

Glad someone has woken up.....
I / we did have a long chat to Org Wenman in the 'early hours' of monday morn at the hotel bar.

He was a little worse for wear to say the least so not sure what he has taken on board... The Orgs are all looking a little rough around the edges so prob realise they have bitten off more than they can chew. Lets hope the next 11 days will go smoothly for us all..

Rally 'Rovers' have also seen better days.
One disappeared off the radar a few days ago with gasket problems but now has returned to the flock only to find one of the others is 'poorly' with Diff problems.

Lets hope the Orgs now have TOW ROPES on board - handy little things to pack on trips like this!!

Argentinian / Chilean Border control went smoothly until the sniffer dog snuffled out a few cheese and ham crumbs left in the footwell of Chauffeurs Roj.
The very kind border official assured us that it was 'no problemo'' as they were only after the fruit bats lol
Another slight problemo with official stamping but Roj soon sorted it..
Hernaaaan (Mr Fixit) was no where to be seen must have gone off to relieve himself..

Road works just after the border held us up for quite a while and of course once we got moving we had dozens of lorries to pass .... Very boring :;

Arrived approx 4pm at yet another Intercontinental for our Santiago stop over .
Not sure where this pesky 'Yellow Brick' has us located tho.
One Top Follower reports that we were still on the Race course?? But we never actually ever went there. I think most crew are disgruntled with these things.

They were apparently supposed to stay charged and last the whole rally but they barely last a few days. But i will get 'Poo Bear' to check it out again.
We are now on our 5th one..






























































1 comment:

  1. Just think you are missing one of the coldest March days for 25 years -5 & a very keen wind, just don't even think about it, enjoy that sunshine.
    Thanks for the pics a plenty, the yellow brick well I know what I'd do with it when all this is over ....

    atb t ..

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