Festival de Cerezas ( or An Unexpected Trip to Rio Mayo)

The Mission: Enjoyment of Cherry Festival in Los Antiguos, Argentina
The crew:
Dan
Sergio
Jaime (sergio’s uncle)
Claudia (Jaime’s wife)
Cata (Claudia’s sister)
The Mama (Cata and Claudia’s mom)
Fefi, Martin, Rayen (kids)
Ford Explorer

We got going on Saturday afternoon. The plan was to go as a whole family to the Festival de Cereza for two days, finding a place to camp in Los Antiguos. From there, Sergio and I had planned to cross back into Chile alone for a 5 or 6 day hiking, hitching camping tour around a big lake. But this wasn’t to be so.

Sure we got a late start, but the sun doesn’t go down here until after ten. We crossed into Argentina without any problems and went to buy gas. Of course we didn’t buy gas before leaving because gas is much cheaper in Argentina. This first town, a town of two businesses, didn’t have any gas, even at the gas station. The radiator was leaking so some instant cement was purchased and we ate a picnic while waiting for it to solidify. Back on the road, we headed to the next town, Doctor Roja. They didn’t have any gas either, but we asked around and found a lady who sold us ten litres, enough so we could get to the next town, Rio Mayo, buy some gas, and floor it to Los Antiguos. But that wasn’t to be.

I don’t know exactly how many miles of dusty gravel was between the two towns, but in Patagonia you can go hours without a town, especially when you have to stop every 20 minutes to put more water in the radiator. This is what we did. And the plan of finding gas turned into the plan of finding gas then a mechanic. I have to admire the dedication of the Chilean people. If I had a car full of people and the radiator was clunking out, gas was hard to find and the kids were screaming, I might have aborted right away. Eventually we got to Rio Mayo, national capital of sheep skinning (their festival is next weekend). The mechanic was very sorry to say that the radiator was beyond fixing and that he didn’t have a new radiator for us. We ended up staying in a hotel in Rio Mayo.

The next day we got up and the plans of keeping on toward the festival had changed to heading back to Chile. We filled up as many water bottles as we had, and hit that same stretch of road, back towards Doctor Rojas. This time it took a lot longer. We stopped every 20 minutes, then 15, then 10 then 5, to put more water in the engine. Soon there was oil spewing along with the steam. While we waited for the radiator to cool down each time, we flagged down the few cars that passed, asking for extra water. This was serious desert territory, and we had kids with us, some of them getting cranky. One group of people agreed to take the Mama back to Coyhaique. One trucker told us there was a farm nearby so we headed there. The owner cranked up the windmill and got some water pumping put of the earth for us. We filled all our bottles and he also gave us a big bucket of backup water. We had a picnic among some chickens then hit the road.

It was windy and dusty. We stopped a lot. Cata remembered seeing a small river on the way in, so we stopped there and got everything filled up again. At some point, Sergio got a ride into Doctor Rojas to find a town truck or some kind of help. For the next couple of hours we drove, stopped, cooled down, filled water, started again. Somehow it always barely started. But all good things come to an end, even Ford trucks. Finally it quit, but soon Sergio arrived with the policeman from the town (he and his wife are the only cops there), who pulled us back to town, but he told us he didn’t have enough gas to take us any further. Luckily, we had bought an extra 20-liter jug of gas. So he agreed to pull us to the border.

It was a race against time, because Chile closes its doors at 8 pm. The Explorer was taking a beating from rocks being tossed up by the cop truck. There were at least four windshield dings by the time we got to Coyhaique Alto border crossing. Once we got to Chile, someone Jaime knows was waiting for us with his truck.. We threw all our stuff, plus Sergio and me, in the back, the other 6 sat in the pickup for the hour ride back to town, where the Mama was worried sick about us.

I’m getting used to having plans changed at the last minute. I feel terrible for Jaime and Claudia who not only have a dead car sitting at the border, wasted their entire weekend, plus money, and have to go to work tomorrow. I get to use tomorrow to recover and head out camping, with a more limited agenda, on Tuesday. If it truly is to be.