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Time to head north and we left on a beautiful sunny day. We took the bypass around Bariloche and stopped 60km further north at Río Limay where we had stayed a year ago. The next day we headed towards Neuquén on a new route for us that was a lovely drive along the river which was so wide it looked like a lake.
We took a small detour to find some dinosaur tracks enclosed in a metal fence with a boardwalk. They weren't very interesting and looked man made! Back on the route I noticed that the battery warning light seemed to be flickering on and off in the dashboard. We measured our battery which showed 12.5 volts even when the engine was running. It should have been 14 if the battery was charging. Hmmm! Is it the battery, the alternator or a ground that needs cleaning??
We had this problem years ago with Winnie, our other motor home and we couldn't even drive 5km before our battery was completely run down! The next big town is Neuquén which is at least 80km further! We decide to keep driving - the warning light is only flickering on and off and not fully lit so maybe we can make it to Neuquén.
We didn't get there until just before 8pm and there were no garages open. We did some shopping and then parked on a car park near a loud disco for the night. Not exactly the best place but at least there were a lot of people around until the disco ended at 4-30am. Safe but very little sleep!
We checked the battery again the next morning - still showing 12.5. Very odd. With the engine running we're still not charging but we haven't lost any charge since yesterday. Maybe it's the battery after all and not the alternator. So we drove to a place that sells and fits batteries.
Our Fiat engine compartment causes us a real problem because everything is so close together. There is absolutely no room to get to anything or to see what the problem is. It took 3 mechanics at least 30 minutes just to get our battery out!! Putting another one in went a lot faster but the voltage checks had the same result. The battery wasn't charging. So it's not the battery.
The mechanics weren't exactly happy when they had to take the new battery out again but we had told them right at the start, that if it isn't the battery we're not going to buy a new one. Particularly when they were charging almost $220 US for it! In the end they weren't going to charge us anything for the test but they were really nice and phoned up a place where we could get our alternator fixed during the long lunch break (everything is normally closed from 1pm to 5pm) so we gave them a tip to buy some beers!
We drove north to the city limits where Fanello Electricidad is located in an industrial park and drove straight in. We explained what our problem was and I think they were quite impressed with our Spanish. Two women who seem to know what they're talking about when it comes to a car or engine problem ... unheard of!!!
It seemed that they do a fixed price no matter how long it takes. Unfortunately for them it took quite a lot longer with our Fiat!! First, there is no bay so they had to use a jack to lift us up. Then they had to take off our engine cover. That's when we found out where our alternator is - you can't see it from above!
Next problem - our alternator is obviously the original part because everything was so rusty various pieces broke off when they got it out, including one of the main screws and the ground. It took 45 minutes just to get it out and then it took a lot longer to take it apart. The poor mechanics!
They worked very professionally and took everything apart, cleaned it, replaced all the rusty and broken parts, soldered certain parts aswell and then put it all back together and fitted it back in. It took them 3.5 hours. They certainly worked hard for their fixed price!
If we understood them correctly then the plus connection to our alternator was so rusty that hardly any electricity was getting through. That explains why our warning light only flickered and didn't come on full and why our battery managed to maintain a charge of 12.5 volts.
With a brand new ground fitted we also managed to solve another problem that we'd been having - namely our indicators didn't work in the mornings. Since getting our alternator fixed we haven't had that problem. To be honest, we would never have got to the ground anyway and would have ended up buying a new relay and cleaning all other grounds that we could find without even solving the problem.
Once everything had been put back together we did a test and our battery was being charged again. Super job guys! And all for a fixed price of 1600 pesos plus 300 for parts (= approx $108). We were running out of pesos and had already tried to change dollars that morning. But the banks refused because we didn't have an account with them (we've never had that excuse before!) and the money changers didn't have enough pesos and we were told to return on Monday. Today is Friday!
We explained all this to the mechanics who immediately said they would accept dollars! We only had US$100 notes so they accepted $100 instead of $108 and also offered to change $100 for us aswell!! Wow! We were really happy!
It was 5pm by the time we left and not much daylight left. So we drove out on a new bypass that's not even on our GPS and headed east. Then we turned off to get to a riverside spot listed in iOverlander that is safe and quiet.
The next day we drove into a town for diesel and stayed to watch the Bundesliga. Our plan had been to drive to Parque Nacional Lihué Calel but after driving along a very straight road for over 100km we found a municipal campground which was free at Casa de Piedra. We stopped for coffee but then decided to stay for the night. Kirsten had a light headache and it was safe and quiet here. We weren't allowed to park on the very nice grass, which was roped off, so we couldn't plug in because our cable wouldn't reach from the road. At least we had some shade as it was another very hot day - 35°C. Later on, despite our mosquito nets, we had a battle removing flying beetles from inside! We even found one in the bed the next morning - still alive! So it got unceremoniously thrown out!
On the way to the National Park the next day two Brazilians on a motorbike waved to us as they overtook and we met them later at a motel just before the park entrance. Marcia and Eduardo live near Sao Paulo and are really nice. We spoke in Spanish and Marcia answered in Portuguese but I could understand her. Probably because of the time I spent doing the Camino Portuguese which wasn't that long ago. However, I think Marcia was throwing in some Spanish words to help out!
Despite only spending 20 minutes with them we were invited to stay once we get to Brazil. They weren't stopping at the National Park because they were on their way home after going down to Ushuaia and back through Chile and Argentina.
The motel owner told us to take the next left to get to the park but that was just a gravel road that took us back onto the main road where the actual entrance to the park was! Then we drove 2km along an extremely sandy road down to the park where we spoke to some rangers and then parked underneath a canvas car port. The cleaning took us 90 minutes as we'd managed to get a load of dust inside just from the relatively short sandy drive from the main road!
Parque Nacional Lihué Calel is a little oasis in the Pampa. The water supports a lot of birds and animals but not many people come here. The camping area and entrance are free and the rangers are really nice. There's a new unmanned visitor centre and, as we found out over the two days we were there, they have a lot of school visits and the rangers take them on guided walks.
There is a puma around here so we were told that we had to talk or sing very loudly on the way to and from the shower block at night. Maybe the rangers knew that Kirsten can't sing in tune so the puma would run off as soon as she started!! The showers were hot - another bonus for coming all the way out here!
We got up early the next morning to go for a hike around the park trying to beat the heat but it was really cold at 7-30am, only 8°C. Brrr!!! So we took our time over breakfast and didn't leave until just after 9am.
We did a 12km walk which took us 5 hours. It was slow going because there was such a lot to photograph - lots of butterflies and birds. Yellow breasted and red breasted birds, doves, various flowers and the cacti were also blooming with lovely white or yellow flowers. Kirsten was happy because there was so much to photograph. Even a tarantula walked across our path!!
We went to see some rock art, met a school group, then took a short interpretive walk on a burial mound, and also saw former ranch that is now in ruins. After the loop walk we took the path up to the top of Cerro Alto. It was nowhere near as hot as yesterday and there was also a light breeze - made the hike a lot easier.
We would have stayed longer but we had around 2000km to drive to get to Paraguay and two weeks to see everything we wanted to along the way. So we needed to leave and head north towards Córdoba . We went through several road works and diversions as there has been a lot of flooding. In several places the road was barely above the water level and we could tell it wasn't normal because a lot of fences and posts were under water! They were obviously trying to raise the road level but it seemed like they were fighting a losing battle.
Thanks to iOverlander we found a number of free camping spots along the way where we could get free electricity and/or water. The holidays haven't started yet so most of the time we were alone. We managed to do some fitness training and even worked on our website!
Just south of Córdoba we made a quick stop to check out a campground where we might be able to store our motor home next year and then carried on along a serpentine road that went up to over 2,000m high. We got the the entrance of Parque Nacional Quebrada Del Condorito at 8pm, just as the ranger was closing the gate! Fortunately he let us in so we could drive the 2km down to the visitor centre where we could park on the car park for the night.
We stayed for 3 nights and on the two following days we walked out along the trail which is 12km (7 miles) return. But it was really cold, particularly seeing as it had been so hot over the last week and we even had to get out fleece blankets and hot water bottles again! We'd already put them away thinking we wouldn't need them for at least 4 months!
We came here to see the condors and despite low clouds and later fog, we weren't disappointed. Well before we got to the Balcón Norte, a viewing platform across the river from where the condors nest, we had a condor flying in a circle directly above us. The male was later joined by his mate and it's the closest we've ever got to condors! Maybe it was Kirsten's red base ball cap that attracted them! We stood still and watched them for over 10 minutes until their circles took them too far away for us to see or take photos. Super!
A condor circles right on top of us.
We got to the viewing area above a river to see condors across the gorge. It's used as a training ground to teach the young condors to fly. We had only been there about 10 minutes when the fog started rolling in. Within minutes we were engulfed and couldn't see a thing. At least we managed to find our way back along the path in the fog. Very eerie!
When we got back to Winnietwo there was a Land Rover parked next to us and we chatted to Frank and Sharon for a while until our fingers were turning blue from the cold and we had to get inside and switch on our heater!
We had only planned to stay for one night but then the sun came out briefly the next morning and we decided to walk back to the viewing area again. We set off at a quick pace because it was supposed to start raining at 3pm. Yesterday it had taken us 2 hours to get to the Balcón Norte but we shaved 35 minutes off that!
Unfortunately there weren't any condors there! Lots of vultures though and we also saw some eagles in the distance on the walk back. The next morning we did a short walk along a trail opposite the car park and then left together with Frank and Sharon. They headed west and we turned east towards Córdoba.
