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Published: April 17th 2013
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Mauricio
With his 'New 2CV' We have all arrived in Vina del Mar after 10,000 plus kilometres on the road, but not without problems to re enter Chile.
We had a great run down to La Rioja, from Andalgala, apart from Terry and Howard heading off in the opposite direction towards Belen. They finally arrived in La Rioja about three hours and 200 km later, so they had their own adventure.
While I was in the plaza, I heard my name called out, so turned to see Mauricio, the fellow we met last year whith the 2CV's, running towards me, we had a good man hug and chatted about last year and now he also Has a 2CV and it was parked in our garage, so of course we had to go and check it out, lucky I had one more Classic Car Magazine, that featured our Shadow of the Andes Expedition, so I gave that to him. It was a great catch up and I look forward to meeting him again next year.
The Kiwi Boys occupied 'Kiwi Corner' to drink a few beers and people watch!! That evening there was a podium built in the Plaza and they started a car
La Rioja
Start of the car Rally Rally from there, so that was our evenings entertainment. Again another great sleep over in La Rioja.
Leaving La Rioja, we headed South and this time we made a visit to Talampaya National Park. We had a great lunch there and checked out the man made dinosaurs. The park is worth spending more time at, maybe next time?
We had a great last night in Uspillata, Argentina with great food and good cheep wine, and last minute shopping for some!!
We were away from the hotel by 8.35 am, as this day to Chile can become a big one, and this day was going to no exception. As the Paso Redentor is only open one way to Chile during the day and from Chile during the night, there were long lines of trucks waiting to cross into Chile.
Lucky we were able to bypass most of them, by using the oncoming lane, as there were no vehicles comming towards us. We finally got to the border, but they absolutely refused to let me in with the spare tyres on the back of the truck!!! "You have to take them back to Argentina!!" WTF! We have taken
them in and out of Chile at two other border crossings with no problem!! But there was no way I was getting in, so I headed back towards Argentina, but just before the tunnel, I found an abandoned structure, parked out of sight and started to remove the tyres, the big problem was that we had used one of the tyres to support Rodigo's Suzuki and I had to lift it up enough to get the tyre out, where I got the trength from, as we were still over 3,700m, I just don't know, but the bruisers on my arm and chest are just comming out! I arrived back to find most of the guys were processed and no one of aouthority asked me what had happened to the tyres, so just processed me as normal?? The stupid thing is, is that the tyres are actually still in Chile!!
Chile is the same as New Zealand, where they don't allow the private import of used tyres, in case there has been water in them and they may contain mosquito eggs or larvae, so I understand the problem, but they are not consistant with their policy and only implement it
to exercise some authority and maybe see how we resolve it!! Such is the challenge!!
After entering Chile we had to wait nearly an hour for the Stop and Go Man, as there is some major reconstruction going on, and I am sure it will not be done by next year. All this delay made us too late into Vina to get all the motos washed, so we had to get some done on the same day as we packed the container. It was an early start the morning after our Farwell Dinner, that we had in the Ankara, but it was great that everyone made it back with most of the bits and pieces they had left with six weeks ago.
The motos are all packed up and the boys should have landed in Auckland by now, so ends another successful Rocky Road Adventure. Gerardo and I would Like to thank the adventurers for having the confidence in us to make their adventure something to remember always....Hasta Pronto, Rosco.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
What a great mascot
Great photo.