Saturday, 16 November 2013 – IN Vallenar AGAIN!
Not much to say. We’re still here, ringing Alamo in Santiago who were trying to get hold of the mechanic who had our car, to learn what was wrong with it and when it could be fixed.
We were given an address in Vallenar, near the hotel where we stayed in 2001, but when we got there it turned out to be a private house, NOT a garage yard. We picked up courage and rang the bell – of course the lady who answered the door spoke as much English as we spoke Spanish, not a lot, and new nothing about the whole car business.
By 12:00 noon, Alamo in Santiago said that they were going home for the weekend. Cheers!
Looking back now (Monday) we were extremely stressed and kept going over possible plans of getting out of this situation. We kept going back to the same thing – we needed a car, any car. The internet offered one car retail company in Vallenar: Europcar. rental cars came up with a quote, but when I wanted to amend it to a smaller car and with a drop-off on the day that Jonathan flies back (Wednesday) the system reported that the quote had expired and there were no more cars in Vallenar. Aaarrrgghhh!
So back to the Pizzaria where we were now old regulars, welcomed with a 500 ml glass of Shop (draft beer) and worked our way through the main dishes and sweets.
Another disappointing days – no images taken, no Stops recorded. Tomorrow is another day, but miracles tend not to happen on Sundays, or do they?
The Cactus Trip Diaries 