We spent the night on the municipal campground. Little did we know that behind us a football game was going on (with official referee and everything) until 1:00am. Anyhow we slept quite well knowing that Rodrigo was back in business.
The sun woke us up around 8:00am and after breakfast we drove back to the Toyota dealer to hear about how we could get the part replaced (now it’s being held together with duct tape). He phoned the warehouse in Buenos Aires and confirmed that the part was available. We decided to drive to Buenos Aires and make an appointment there to have it installed. If you’re really interested, we need to replace an ignition coil
In order to make up for the last days, we took Rodrigo to his first car wash in about 3 months. Driving across the salt flats meant that we had a nice mix of dust, salt, dirt, poop, bugs and random things stuck to the car. The car wash crew brought out the ultra powerful pressure washer and extra strong soap. We were somewhat surprised that they used the pressure washer also on the inside of the car doors. Well, it was 38° Celsius today and it did not take long to dry!
With Rodrigo sparkling as never before we hit the road down south. We still have some ground to cover – and we went for a 550km marathon today. Argentina’s roads are in excellent condition – although we did drive through a rough neighbourhood in San Miguel de Tucuman where a junkie came up to the car and asked for god knows what. We kept the windows closed and ignored everything and everyone and took off as soon as the light turned green.
We drove out of the mountains onto the majestic plains of Argentina! Endless views of fields with cows and horses! We looked for a campground but as the road was too littered with dirt in the final kilometers, we turned around and opted for the motel near the petrol station. We had a big burger for dinner (not too many choices on the menu) and slept the sleep of the dead after a long day.
There ain’t no tellin’ who you might meet
A movie star or maybe even a Indian Chief
Working at the car wash
Keep Calm and Drive South 
Hey Marijke & Patrick,
Ik lees nog altijd met zoveel plezier jullie blog en al jullie verhalen. Het is een leuk begin van de dag.
Hier is het intussen 15 november, jouw verjaardag Marijke. Al zit je zoveel kilometer hiervandaan, toch wens ik je een hele, hele gelukkige verjaardag. Geniet ervan, maar dat zal wel geen probleem zijn.
Groetjes,
Marie-An & Mattias
PROFICIAT MARIJKE !!
Maak er een superverjaardag van.