Last episode of
"Things Learned..."
(for now)
15 march 2001
Dear Caravana friends
This may be the last of these posts since I have run out of 'Things Learned.' That of course doesn't mean that I am not still learning since I hope to learn something every day. Hopefully these posts will have benefited someone.
My diary: For those people reading my diary of this trip, all hope is not lost. Next week, I will send a CD rom with all 8 months of the diary and hundreds of pictures to my brother in law who has tried to help me get this posted on the net. He is redoing the entire diary and all the pictures and soon he hopes it will all be working. I plan to take a class in how to build a web site when I return and be able to do this myself but right now, I must rely on him. My apologies to those who have had difficulty accessing the information especially the December pictures which were absent.
Wheel locks: If you put them on your wheels, be sure to take the four lug nuts you took off as back ups since sometimes the wheel locks are cheaply made and when the nuts are tight, the key can ruin the lock or strip and then you have no recourse except a pipe wrench or Vise-grip pliers. If, however, you have your original lug nuts, no problem.
Milk in boxes, paper towels that don't tear, matches that break, $3 bags of ice, coffee creamer that isn't: Milk comes in plastic bags or boxes and by the liter only and both bags and boxes can be trying to learn to use. Yogurt on the other hand comes in neat liter containers that look like milk bottles! Wooden matches break in half after being lit but the broken part always stay lit just long enough to burn holes in the carpet. Ice everywhere south of Brasil is incredibly expensive. You would think that here in Argentina, they sent the 20% of population that is unemployed in tiny rowboats to Antarctica where they used tiny hammers and tiny chisels where they chipped ice one cube at a time by hand from the Ross Ice Shelf and then shipped the cubes on a boat rowed by galley slaves all the way to Buenos Aires where they then exacted a huge import duty before it got to the tiny bags they sell it in for $2.50 or even $3 a bag. Finding coffee creamer is like looking for diamonds is a sandpile. Same when it comes to black pepper which in Brasil is called 'pimenta do reino' which roughly translates to 'the king's pepper' since the king is the only one who has any. And last, paper towels don't fit the US dispenser so you have to modify the dispenser for a shorter roll of towels. Also, just like the towels in the US, they don't tear right at the perfs but rather everywhere and anywhere else. Ironically, although milk comes in bags or boxes, yogurt comes in liter bottles!
Water & gasoline & milk: all cost the same in Buenos Aires -- $1 per liter. Choose your poison!
Hitch hiking: None in Venezuela or Brasil or Paraguay. Everywhere in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
Synthetic oil vs. dino oil: Those who changed to synthetic oil had main seal problems -- Jeanne and Tyler. We didn't and we haven't had any problem. We always use Castrol 20W-50 everywhere.
[Editor's note: Jeanne & Tyler changed their oil while on the journey. The seals take some time to 'adjust' to the different oil. I changed long before the trip and had no problems.]
Headlights on all day: New laws to this effect in Uruguay and Argentina.
Burrs & thorns: Be careful in Chile especially because there are many, many plants with burrs and thorns so you have to be very careful of what you brush up against or grab. Sometimes you won't know you have even passed by a plant with burrs till you get back to your van and have hundreds of them everywhere all over the van. They migrate into your bed and can awaken you from a dead sleep.
Tavanos: Super large horse flies that live in Chile and somewhat in Argentina who descend upon you within 20 seconds of when you leave your van and give you 10 seconds to bat them off you before they savor your blood. They have neighbors in other countries but they are not quite as ravenous as those in Chile.
Water hose: You will see every type and size of water hose imaginable here so if you bring a hose to fill your Westy tank, get every possible adapter to fit every size spigot you can because you will need them. Otherwise, one person gets drenched holding the hose to the spigot (which doesn't mate up) while the other one guides the stream of water into the Westy tank. You may want to bring short sections of hose of different diameters. They are fond here of slipping a hose over a bayonet fitting and trusting its elasticity to hold it in place which works because no hose has any kind of hose end to restrict the water flow.
Extension cords: We haven't one but Kai brought one and it has come in handy two or three times when we have been near enough to a power source to use it -- usually when we have been stationery for two or three days.
Bathrooms & door knobs: I won't even get into the commodes that aren't bolted down, missing toilet seats, soap in bathrooms that isn't, toilet paper that isn't, showers than don't work, shower stalls with electrical outlets handily placed on the wall by the empty soap dish, bathrooms where you have to put your feet in the shower stall to sit on the commode, door knob sets that are set so close to the facing that you scrape your knuckles when you open them which in Argentina has spawned a new industry which is to make door knobs which are set on an eccentric base which moves the knob away from the facing just enough so as to not scrape your knuckles, bathroom stalls that contain two footpads and a hole in the floor that, when you flush, many times spray your feet with water and last, since you are not able to flush the toilet paper you brought with you to the bathroom down the commode (a NO, NO in almost all of South America) you have to place the soiled paper into a delicate, tiny, tiny container with a swinging top that you have to maneuver dirty paper into which is invariably always full -- we think they empty it no more than twice a year.
Dirty propane fittings: There is an easy fix to this problem which we adopted after a fellow in Argentina suggested it. Replace the fancy 80% or other type valve in the Manchester tank with one identical to the one used on your gas grill. It accepts the normal left hand thread fitting which is used in most countries here in South America. Have a hose made with this left handed thread fitting on each end and when you need a fill, buy the contents of a 5kg tank of gas which is sold everywhere, connect your two ended hose to the tank and your tank and upend the donor tank and the liquid will flow into your tank. Problem: some countries don't use the left hand threaded fitting on the 5 kg tank so in some places, they will have a larger 20 kg tank that they use to fill smaller tanks and then they will weigh the large tank to see how much you used and charge you a per kilo rate. Seems like I have already posted this. If I have forgive me. Sometimes I don't know what I have written in my diary, written to friends or sent to Caravana.
Other items to take if you have the space: Some kind of electric winch with a snatch block that could be mounted on the front or the back, a handy man jack, a large breaker bar, leather gloves to use when transferring propane in case of a leaky valve, an electric drill and a set of bits, a small vice that can be mounted onto your bumper, a chock block or two for when you have to jack the van up..
Chau, Larry and Will in Vicuña, Chile..the location of El Tololo Astronomical Observatory
