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It was very windy when we set off again heading north along Ruta 40 so we drove slower. We encountered more gauchos herding goats - it must be the time of year to move them to different grazing areas. We stopped at a town called Chos Malal and parked at the Central Plaza for WiFi. I went in search of a bakery and then we saw Regula and Joerg again as we were driving to the petrol station! We chatted to them for over an hour and then followed them out of town until they turned off to take a gravel road west whilst we continued along the Ruta 40.
We stopped for the night near a small laguna just before the gravel section started. According to our maps there are two sections of the Ruta 40 that have not yet been paved and should have been around 60km of dusty road. It turned out that almost all of it was gravel, around 110km because they were doing roadworks on the previously tarmac stretches. It was slow going and very dusty.
On the famous Ruta 40 through volcanic landscape - 360° Panorama
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We turned off west along a tarmac road towards Pahuenche pass because Regula and Joerg had told us it was a beautiful drive. Unfortunately there were roadworks again after only 7km so we turned around and got stuck in a real mix of animals being herded - goats, horses, cattle. Back onto the gravel of Ruta 40 we continued north and finally got back onto tarmac - what a relief!
Gauchos on the Ruta 40 and condors above Cañon del Atuel
We stopped in Malargüe for the night at a petrol station and spent only 40 minutes going through the cleaning ritual after gravel roads - we're obviously getting quicker! The next day we drove up to the Cañon del Atuel. The road through the canyon is quite steep going down into the canyon and back out the other side - and, of course, all on gravel. We decided to drive the whole length from El Nihuel in the south.
We picked up some bread rolls from the small bakery in the village and then parked at a viewpoint at the start of the canyon road. We walked down steeply to see the natural dam. The rest of the canyon has four hydro-electric power stations and dams.
The first part of the road followed steep switchbacks down into the canyon and then along the valley bottom. It took us 2.25 hours to drive 24km but it was certainly worth it. The canyon is quite dramatic and beautiful with all the rock formations, some of which looked like Inka faces and others like hoodoos in south west USA. There was even a tunnel to drive through.
We found an area in the valley bottom with concrete pads that is obviously a camping area. We parked next to the river to try and get a bit of the breeze. It was extremely hot in the sun and even at 9pm it was still 30°C in the shade! Just in case you're interested our clean up operation took only 30 minutes! Probably because we had taped cling film over the inside of the back doors to try and stop dust from coming in and there was hardly any traffic at all on the road - so we didn't get blasted by dust when they passed us.
Beautiful camping area in the Cañon del Atuel - 360° Panorama
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It was such a beautiful spot we decided to spend another day here. It gave us time to work on our Cuba website that we wanted to finish by Christmas. It was already the 15th December and we still had a lot of work to do. So we spent the day taking it in turns on the computer and moving W2 from spot to spot so we could be half in the shade with our solar panel in the sun to give us power for the fridge and computer.
We continued along the river valley and then up the steep switchbacks to get back up to the plateau. There was another series of switchbacks heading down into Valle Grande and we finally got back onto tarmac again. We stayed at a municipal campground just outside Valle Grande for the night.
Leaving Cañon del Atuel - 360° Panorama
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Valle Grande reservoir - 360° Panorama
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There were plenty of other campers and this part of the river is full of campgrounds and hotels with swimming pools. Obviously a popular area for the Argentinians. Kirsten even went for a swim in the river because the temperature had gone up and it was 38°C today. We even cooled down by soaking our feet in cold river water - ahh, wonderful! Phew, we're not really coping well with this heat. We had thunder and lightning with a short shower that cooled it down but it was still 29°C at 10pm!
It was football again the next day but our team, HSV, obviously didn't realise we were hoping, praying and crossing fingers etc, because they lost. We'd driven to a petrol station hoping for WiFi so we could watch but the connection was really bad and kept cutting out. Then Kirsten accidentally knocked the switch for our tap and we ended up with water everywhere. I spent the last 15 minutes of the match mopping it all up!
We drove north past San Rafael and then stopped at a Carrefour supermarket - we had run out of everything and had nothing to eat! It was already 7pm but we continued north for another hour because it was still so hot and at least when we drive we get the breeze through the windows. We stopped at a petrol station just south of Mendoza. We had been looking forward to a shower but were told they were for truck drivers only!
We drove into Mendoza and ended up staying for 5 nights there. Firstly I needed a dentist because a large filling had fallen out and taken part of the tooth with it. Our vehicle permit ran out on the 7th January so if I needed a crown we wouldn't have time because of Christmas and New Year and I'd need to get it fixed in Chile.
I found some dentists listed in Lonely Planet but we arrived on a Sunday when they wouldn't be open. We parked in Parque General San Martín which is a very large park in Mendoza and well visited by locals and tourists alike. The next day I walked to a dentist listed about 1km away but it had closed down. I asked around and got a recommendation for a dentist a few blocks away and managed to get an appointment for 3 days later.
In the meantime we checked out a camp ground but they were full until after Christmas and another one was really expensive. We had also been told it was not safe to stay overnight in the Parque General San Martín even though we had already spent one night there without any problems but we didn't want to invite any problems so we moved to a side street where we could also pick up WiFi.
It was extremely hot and we were struggling to keep our solar panel in the sun to keep the fridge running whilst also trying to cool ourselves down by parking in the shade! We also had to get to a garage because we had a screeching noise coming from the front right tyre. We had first noticed it in Cañon del Atuel and already knew it wasn't the brakes. It sounded so bad we thought we had something stuck.
We also needed to get one of our propane bottles filled and asked if they knew a mechanic in the area. After getting our bottle filled we drove to the garage and they checked our front right tyre. They had only jacked us up and our tyre actually wobbled! The bearings needed replacing.
The mechanics were really nice and let us plug in so we could spend the time writing on the computer whilst they went in search of parts for us. It took just over two hours of work but we were there for over 6 hours. It cost us $178 US for the parts and $69 for labour, total $250 US including a tip which made us gulp! But they also told us it would have been dangerous to continue driving with the tyre like that. The other front tyre was fine.
The next day was my dentist appointment which I was certainly not looking forward to but it only took 25 minutes!! I explained what the problem was and he asked me if I had any pain. I said no and he just started drilling without an injection. Another gulp but at least the dentists chair survived my white knuckle grip! Actually it wasn't that bad - the white knuckle stuff just comes automatically!
The dentist was very good and he gave me an excellent tooth-coloured filling in what seemed like record time. I was out really fast with a big smile on my face. It only cost $40 US. Wow! Brilliant Christmas present.
The rest of the day we spent finishing off the Cuba reports, sending out an update and also sending a Christmas card out. We drove out the next day but didn't get very far because we needed to get shopping and eventually parked up at a petrol station about 20km north of Mendoza for the night.
It was Christmas Eve the following day and Kirsten went over to the petrol station shop to use their Wifi to phone Germany - they celebrate Christmas a day early. She didn't have much power left on the computer and there wasn't a plug so her three phone calls of Christmas wishes were done in record time! (Even quicker than being at the dentist!)
It was another hot day as we drove north and we stopped for a late lunch at 2pm just north of San Juan. Our original plan was to stay in Argentina until our vehicle permit ran out on 7th January and we had planned to drive up to Paso del Agua Negra and back without going across the border. During our lunch break we threw that plan out of the window. If we were going to drive all the way to the pass we might aswell cross the border into Chile. Just like that our whole plan had changed so we set off in search of water to fill up all our tanks and Diesel.
We drove north and got to the customs office in Las Flores at 7 pm. The customs office is 90km before the actual border but it closed at 5 pm!! At least there was a security guard there who told us the border would be open the next day on Christmas day. So we spent Christmas Eve at a small petrol station in the town. At least I could us their Wifi the next day to phone my family to wish them Merry Christmas.
