The little south

A week has passed and we haven't done anything except looking for gas and a workshop. Unfortunately, this is quite time-consuming in South America. Work is done from 9-12 and from 15-18 o'clock, but if you stand up at 9, you'll be hated, so it's better to stand up at half past 10. Additionally, South Americans don't know the word no, it's always no, I don't have that, but ask here and there, so you have to ask your way through all the cities until people suggest the previous places to inquire, then we usually give up.

We started in Puerto Montt, our gas had been empty since Chaitén, but there was nothing to refill it. In Puerto Montt, they told us to go to Osorno, but we still wanted to go to Isla Chiloè, so we bought a small gas stove with a cartridge. Arriving in Osorno on Saturday at 13:30, we were once again unsuccessful, the shops are only open until 13:00. The next gas refueling station is in Valdivia, so off to Valdivia. We had to spend the Sunday at a beautiful beach, with a pretty adventurous unpaved access road where we were sure that if this road is wet, we won't be able to drive up anymore. Of course, it rained a lot during the night. In the morning, after an early terrible awakening (we hadn't set an alarm for probably 2 months), we still tried it, especially since a resident assured us that the road only gets better when it's wet (yeah, right). In first gear and 10 km/h, our wheels didn't spin even once, and our Egon fought its way up the steep unpaved hills, hurray.

For some time now, our Egon has been pulling to the right while driving, which is why we have been wanting to go to a workshop for a while.

In Valdivia, we went to refill the gas, after half an hour of small talk, the employee told us that it's not possible here, we should drive through the city to another company. After an hour of searching and countless questions, we finally arrived at the gas refueling station just before lunchtime, where they told us that it can only be done in Temuco, after 2.5 hours of searching, great!

So now it was time to hurry to the workshop before siesta. When we arrived, we could leave our car there and the employee told us to come back in 2 hours. 2 hours later, he said they couldn't align the wheels because the tie rod joint was worn out, which is why it pulls to the right. However, finding a VW dealer here will be difficult. He then sent us to the only VW dealer in town, who of course had lunch break until 15 o'clock. At 15 o'clock (very German), we stood in front of his door, but nothing happened until 16 o'clock (very South American). After that, we called him and he kept saying he's coming soon, he's coming soon, but at half past 4, we had enough and the people at the workshop told us to go to Temuco.

In Temuco, we found a mechanic who speaks German, he couldn't help us on that day but offered us to sleep at his workshop, with showers, toilets, and WLAN, whoop whoop. The next day, he took another look at the issue and also said that it's the tie rod joint. And let's go shopping for parts. The nice thing about the South American cities is that all workshops and auto parts stores are always on the same street, which makes searching for parts a lot easier. We didn't find the right part, but one that our mechanic was able to adapt with a little turning and welding, well, it won't pass the MOT, but at least. While the mechanics were working on our car, the owner showed us around the city.

One problem solved, but there is still the gas problem.

After another night in Temuco, we went to the gas refueling station in the morning. Here, the employee explained to us that in the whole of Chile, the minimum dispense amount is 5 kg, but we only needed 2 kg. We told him that we're willing to pay for 5 kg, as long as we finally have gas again, but he said that it somehow doesn't work.

Well, we're definitely on our way to Argentina, where it works almost everywhere without problems!

Or maybe not, on the drive to Argentina, we noticed that the car still pulls to the right, great! Off to the next workshop where the wheel alignment was measured again, and it turned out that the right rear wheel is tilted (the expert calls it camber), which can't be easily adjusted on our VW, the mechanics recommended us the workshop in Temuco where we came from. After looking at us and seeing that we had no more fun, he discussed it with his mechanic for a while, and together they came up with a very South American solution: we can adjust the front wheels in a way that the car doesn't pull to the right anymore, I like how they think here. However, we are really too German for such a solution, and we're not so sure if it really is because of the camber, so back to Temuco. In the workshop, we were taken care of right away, and the mechanics said that we have to remove the entire rear axle knuckle, bend the part back into shape, reinstall it, and then test it, that costs time and money. They assured us that this error is not dangerous and we can drive well with it, the only thing that happens is that the tires wear out a bit faster, we are quite satisfied with this solution!

We have finally given up on the gas problem. The camping stove will do, but as soon as we get to Argentina, we will refill it.

Now we can finally continue our journey to the coast above Conceptión.