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Perchem/South America | On October 25, 2022, Berchem cattle couple Emil Brewers and Leslie Neckers flew to Uruguay and traveled through South America for a year on a puga. How are they now after almost 7 months?
“We ask the bus driver if we can get off at Estancia Viamonte. Of course it is possible! We walk into the yard and are greeted enthusiastically by 17 dogs. They are for herding sheep. Lady Girl finished second at last year’s Patagonian Championships!
Puga, our Landcruiser that we’ve been traveling with for half a year in South America, is legendary. Around her are some old tractors, a steam generator from 1890, plows and irreverent old iron of museum value. All garages are closed this week due to carnival. Here in the south of Argentina they don’t celebrate it yet, but they want to be independent. The nearest garage is in the city of Rio Grande, 40 miles away, with a population of 60,000. So it is comparable to the city of Oz. Still having trouble finding a garage. We have a Toyota Landcruiser, but don’t expect to be able to go to a Toyota dealer here. They are very helpful, but no, they don’t really have any meaning for our model car. We use the app with many contacts we have already made and our farmer also gives good advice. In the end, iOverlander utility is the deciding factor, and we go to Garage Saenz, father and son. Let’s go from Wednesday.
So we were forced to stay at the estancia for a few days. But it never felt that way! It’s great to stay there, we help harvest black currants and with garlic they ferment “black garlic” (a delicacy). We see a plane in a hangar surrounded by cows, horses, and donkeys. Grandpa (age 87) likes to talk about how his family got here and started this farm. “With that bulldozer, the road to Ushuaia was built over the mountain pass.” Before that, Ushuaia was a prison at the end of the world, accessible by boat through the Strait of Magellan.
While driving to the garage, we understand that there is no bridge. No, they eagerly crawl under the car, and after three hours of tinkering with it, our gearbox is loose under it. We push the car back onto the street and park on the side of the road. You can only sleep there in the roof tent. It looks like a piece is broken inside. The “bearing” is loose and damaged as are the “rods”. The search to find the right parts (all the way to Buenos Aires) took days and was fruitless. Then some glue and welding to that container, Sans says. So we drive 1000km to Chile where it is easier to import parts.
