The Traveling Beast

21/08/2020

Hey everyone! How many of you would be interested if I'm doing another sticker run? I'm in Canada, so I'm not exactly how much it would be to ship some to the US, maybe around 5USD, but the more I order in one batch, the cheaper it should be!

24/04/2020

I'm featured again on Dare2Go's blog! Check out how I and other travelers dealt with the Corona crisis in their respective part of the world!

https://dare2go.com/how-overland-travellers-deal-with-corona-crisis/

Overland travellers are different to other tourists. Here they tell their stories of how they deal with the challenges of being caught in corona lockdown.

15/04/2020

My agent in Uruguay (I feel like a spy master saying that) sent me a photo of Beauty this morning and it made me smile! :)

Unfortunately, that's where the fun part ended. I was asked to send a form to the EPA so that Beauty could pass through customs once she arrives in Florida. I do so and I received a rude answer telling me to just follow the directives and was given a link to said directives. Apparently, I have to write to Jeep to get a letter attesting that Beauty complies with US Federal DOT requirements and get the HS-7 form from the NHTSA and send it to my agent in Florida.

To make things even more interesting, those forms are filled with obscure references such as "in accordance with 40 CFR 85.1511(b)(1)" which makes the import forms I had to fill in Spanish to enter other countries feel like child play in comparison!

27/03/2020

I was featured! Check it out! :)

https://womenoverlandingtheworld.com/blog/2020/1/24/feature-the-traveling-beast

Hello! My name is Joanie, also known as Violette, most likely due to my visible love for the color (it is the best color) and up until about 2 years ago, I was working as a programmer in the game industry. After working in front of a computer for nearly 12 years, I decided to quit my job and sell mo

24/03/2020

Oh boy! You know how in video games you have to do the level one when then suddenly, everything is about to explode and you must make it back in reverse as fast as possible? This is what my last week felt like.

At the beginning of the year, my plan was to fly to the US at the end of March until May, then spend the summer in Europe, fly back just in time for Wasteland and then head back home to resume my normal and boring life. Then, the situation exploded in Europe. There was plenty of cases in the US already, but I was going to stay in Alabama, so I would be fine I thought... Well, yes, I probably would have been fine there, but with all the borders closing everywhere, I did start getting worried that if this s**t lasts more than six months, I might overstay and this meant probably never being allowed in the US again... So I did what I considered to be the best decision and booked the next flight back home, which was a bit more than 24 hours away.

There was only one problem though. My flight had a layover in New York, but my next flight was in freaking New Jersey! I was really worried that the US would not let me enter the country, since right now, most countries are closed off to non-residents. Yes, it was just a layover, but I had to get out of the airport to take my next flight. I decided to check where the Canadian embassy was and, by some miracle, they were about 200m away! Woah! I went to ask them some questions, but they were not very helpful. They would not even let me in! I don't know, maybe they were smoking w**d in there. (It's legal in Uruguay) I had to ask my questions to the security guard (who didn't speak english), who would then go in, ask my question, walk out, give me the answer and repeat for a few minutes. Playing telephone games in foreign languages. What could go wrong?

Well, in the end, they were right. I had no problems entering the US. I told custom that I was going home and he was like "Why?" Uummm, have you watched the news? That was it. He stamped my passport without asking anything else. As I was leaving the airport, a guard called at me : "Miss! Miss!" F**k, it was too good to be true. "You forgot your luggages!" No, I did not forget them, I just don't have any, I left the vast majority of my things in Beauty. My entry in Canada was a bit more strict. In your declaration, you must agree to quarantine yourself, which you are then reminded again by customs. I was also asked multiple times if I had any symptoms and given an information paper about the virus. And with that, I am finally back in Canada!

So as the bunny would say : That's all folks! Waaait! No! Don't unsubscribe just yet! I still have a bunch of untold stories and unshared photos to go! But first, we'll be looking at my detailed expense sheets. Stay tuned!

11/03/2020

Ah, it has been a while since I have been on a good overland adventures!

Other than the delays occasioned by my null knowledge of Portuguese, entering in Brazil was pretty straightforward and my first task was to find an ATM. First town was a no go. It said my bank was not on their networtk. Alright fine, next town then. Same thing here... Mmm, that is kind of annoying...

Thankfully, my credit card worked, so gas and food were not a problem (as long as I stuck to big chains), the problem was the tolls, which are cash only. To avoid them, I had to take some massive detours through a labyrinth of dirt roads across farmlands. As usual, Maps.ME kept trying to make me go on paths barely good enough for horses, which lead to a few U-turns in front of confused farmers, angry barking dogs and scared chickens running all around. The views were nice for sure, but I would have gladly skipped this ordeal if I could.

Once I reached a bigger city, I decided to try all the banks around. None of the 6 previous ones I tried had worked, but those were small villages with only one bank each. Surely one of those here would work! Upon recommendations from a friend, my first attempt was at Santander, but upon reaching the location given to me by Maps.ME, I found that this was now a strip club... Nice. But I'm not giving up just yet! The 2 other banks nearby were real banks, but neither of them worked either.

At the third bank, I tried to get in, but the door blocked itself and a small alarm went off. The guard tried to tell me something, but with his voice muted by the door, I couldn't hear a thing! The fact that I don't know Portuguese at all probably didn't help either, but whatever! At that point, I decided to act as if I'm deaf by pointing at my hear and shaking my head. All of a sudden, the guard became a lot more respectful and pointed at my bag and pointed at the locker. Ah! Now I get it! I try again... Still not working. This time, he points at my wallet and points at a little door, like a mail box. Damn, I can't even bring my wallet in? That's some crazy security for an ATM that in the end, didn't even work!

On my way out, I was about to give up and go straight to Uruguay, but I see a building across the street. It didn't have a name that sounded like a bank and looked like any other building, but I saw some ATMs inside. What do I have to lose at this point? Well, believe it or not, this one actually worked and didn't even charge me any fees! Wooo! Now I can enjoy Brazil for real!

09/03/2020

I approached the police checkpoint drinking mate and listening to kumbia as loud as possible, but I forgot to eat dulce de leche this morning and the officer could smell that something was wrong! He waved at me to pull over. S**t! He saw right through my disguise!

Police checkpoints are everywhere in Argentina, usually before and after each town. When you are driving a lot in a country as long as Argentina, this means you get pulled over often, multiple times a day! Most of the time they just ask where you are coming from and where you are going, but even that gets annoying quick. Did anyone told these guys that Argentina is no longer under dictatorship and you don't need to monitor the movements of every citizens at all times? I now just answer those questions by "Canada" and "Ushuaia" and usually, after some strange looks, they let me go.

Not those guys. Those guys were impressed and started asking about my trip! All was going well until another office was just done being an as***le to someone else and came to be an as***le to me. Strictly, he asked "Licencia de conducir, pasaporte, seguros!" Damn, someone is having a bad day! The younger officers became silent. I pushed my luck giving the wrong things and saying that I didn't understand, but he was having none of it. After looking at all my papers, he started telling me that my driver license was expired. Seriously? If you are going to make some bulls**t, at least come up with something original! I pointed out that the expiration date was in 2026, which is in 6 years, but he didn't get it. Can't expect a cop to know basic maths, I guess! The younger officers figured it out, though, and after they explained it to him multiple times (seriously, why it took so long is beyond me), the older officer accepted that it actually did expire in 2026 and gave me back my papers.

With this, it's good bye, Argentina! I'm going to miss the great 5 months I spent there, but I am not going to miss your as***le cops!

Pictures from the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls National Park.

27/02/2020

For the second part of this set from Zarate, I will tell you how I find all those amazing places.

First of all, I'm not gonna lie, a lot of them were pure dumb luck! In places like in Alaska or northern Chile, they were so all over the place that all I had to do was to stop when I saw something cool.

For the best ones, however, Google is your friend! Think of all the possible ways you can search "Abandoned places Argentina" or "pueblo fantasma Mexico". Using the local language helps a lot! You'd be surprised at how many blogs with little to no visit cover the internet with interesting places! Most of them do not reveal the location, so that's where the fun part begins.

If you're lucky, you have the name of the place and Google map can often tell you the exact location. If you're not so lucky, you sometimes have only a city. That was my case with Zarate. Browsing the city's photos on Google Earth, I was able to find similar photos and their location. This tip would most likely be useless in any big city, but in small towns, it works great!

In the worst cases, you really need to play detective. Enter the untold story of a cool ghost town in Guatemala! I had found this great photo on a blog and even had a name, but the city was abandoned in the 80s and didn't show in any map I could find. I tried emailing the blog owner, but the site looked like a Geocities website and the post was nearly 20 years old, and I unsurprisingly got no answers. Finding articles about why it was abandoned, I learned it was related to a certain volcano, which I found easily. I knew the town was around there. While wandering around looking for a ghost town I knew was nearby worked for me in Chile, that was the desert where you can see for miles! In the jungle, there is no such luck. At that point, it was very late, but I was excited from all the cool things I was finding and I just couldn't go to bed without solving this mystery! I ended up finding an old travel guide in Spanish on Google Books that described things found along the main road, kilometer by kilometer, and it mentioned the turn off to this forgotten town as being 8 km away from a waterpark, which I found easily. Bingo!

Once there, it did take some trial and error, since there was a few road along this kilometer, but only one lead me deep in the jungle, where I found some dilapidated houses. Except, I didn't find there what I thought I would find. At first, there was a beat up pickup truck with an old doll in the back. I get closer and notice a little girl sleeping in the back. As I walk into the town, I see that the houses, despite having there windows and doors removed, have colorful woven fabrics covering them. The next house has no roof, but it's filled with beans left in the sun to dry. I then see two young children looking at me... I didn't feel in danger at all in this town, I just simply felt bad! This town was no longer abandoned, it had became the refuge of families too poor to have real houses, where kids were left to themselves as the adults worked the field. I left without taking a single photo. I am glad I found the place despite all obstacles, but I did not belong there.

25/02/2020

No, these are not scenes from the latest zombie flick. It's an abandoned factory in Zarate, Argentina. I almost gave up on visiting it. The area was very sketchy and I didn't feel confident leaving Beauty there. Industrial areas are rarely the nicest and when one of big factory of the neighborhood closes, it only gets worst. Houses falling apart, abandoned cars, packs of stray dogs, burned oil drums... These contrasted so heavily with the colorful hopscotch game drawn on the street! I was there early in the morning, so it was pretty quiet, but I quickly got the attention of the few people who were up and decided to leave. As I was leaving, the GPS lead me through a busy commercial street and without thinking, I parked there, grabbed my bag and started walking the 1-2 km to the factory. I figured that parked in front of a small store, I should be okay. Woah. Am I glad I did! This place was amazing! Not only was it huge, there was also no graffitis or trash anywhere, which is very surprising considering this place is visible from the street and there is no fence or nothing. The only graffitis I saw seemed to have been left by the decommission crew : Some kind of address system for each areas of the various buildings. My only regret was not doing a photoshoot here, but I didn't feel like dragging all my costumes across the sketchy neighborhood. Plus, self-shoots take forever and it was starting to get very hot and sticky when I left around 10am, so I'm glad I left when I did!

I took a lot of great shots, so I'll be breaking this into two posts. Stay tuned for more!

27/01/2020

Traveling as a woman comes with its own set of worries, especially if you are solo, but that's not going to stop us : Statistics show that solo women travelers outnumber solo men 2 to 1! Here is a few tips to stay safe while driving the Pan-American Highway.⁣ They are mostly geared towards women who are traveling alone, but most of these can be applied by anyone.

- Stealth camping is the safest option. No one can hurt you if no one knows you are there. Finding a good camp spot is beyond the scope of this post, but I might cover the subject in a later post if there is interest for it.

- Always park facing the exit and keep the keys close at hand. If worse comes to worse, you want your escape to be as fast as possible.

- If someone does find you, evaluate the situation. Most of the time it's just a family coming to check out the river or a fellow camper who might become your new friend. In those cases, it's most likely safe to remain there. If, however, you no longer feel good about being there, move! Even if it's dark already. It happened once to me that I felt like I should get out of there and I ended up spending the night at a gas station. I had a terrible night there, but at least I was safe. Trust your instincts!

- In some areas, especially in high season, it's almost impossible to be alone. In that case, look for a place where families or old people are camping. Those places are generally pretty safe, just don't leave anything outside at night.

- People are generally happy to help. If you can find a good spot, ask a local if you can pitch your tent or park on their property. You'd be surprised at how simple it is. They sometimes even share food and water with you!

- Security guards do not mean safety, especially as a solo woman. Both times I tried sleeping somewhere where there was security all night long, at the recommendation of the local police, I ended up being sexually harassed by the guard... One of them asked to go on a walk with me, in the forest, in the dark. When I refused, he asked if he could come inside to chat. This is common sense, but do not leave the safety of your vehicle unless you trust the person you are with.

- Again, common sense, but avoid walking around alone at night. Foreign women already attract a lot of attention during the day. During the night, you become an easy target. If you want to go somewhere when it's late, take a taxi. I have been stalked in a big city in broad daylight. If it was dark, I might not have noticed it.

- Guns are illegal in most country and would land you in jail, but there are many things that you can keep at hand that can keep you safe, like a knife, a tire iron, bear spray, etc. I have a knife next to my bed and police sometimes found it while searching my vehicle, but none of them ever asked any questions about it. If they do, tell them that neighboring country wasn't safe and they will most likely agree with you and let it go. No matter where you are, locals always seem to talk about how dangerous the neighboring country is, even when it isn't.

- If someone does give you trouble, make some noise! This can attract attention and make them give up. At the guy stalking me in the streets, I yelled at him until he left. With the security guard asking if he could get in my car, I had my hand on the panic button of my car's remote, but I did not need to use it. If your car does not have a panic alarm, consider installing one.

- Dogs can also keep you safe, but keep in mind that traveling with a dog comes with its own set of requirements, which is beyond the scope of this post. If you are like me and you love dogs but don't have one of your own, bribe the local stray dogs. Often, they will stay with you until you leave. I once had my own pack of 5 dogs sleeping around my car in Peru! They barked at anything trying to get close, but unfortunately, this included other dogs as well, so this was quite a noisy night.

- This took me some getting used to, but always sleep dressed up. After getting woken up by cops twice, trust me, it is the best option.

- Despite what your parents taught you, it's okay to lie. When you are alone, people will ask about it all the time. Tell them that your husband is off fishing or that you are just doing some errands. An ill intended person is less likely to come back at night if they think you are no longer alone. Some women go a step further and wear a ring, but this is unnecessary in my experience, no one questioned me further. That said, I would recommend not using this tip against officials. They are trained to spot when people are lying and that could lead to trouble.

- Finally and more importantly : Always trust your guts! If you have a bad feeling, listen to it and act! It's telling you something for a reason!

This post was originally featured on The Road Chose Me's Instagram, but Facebook posts are more easily shareable and I figured the more women this can reach, the better!

Photo from Paracas in Peru, where I really felt like driving in a post apocalyptic Wasteland!

16/01/2020

Sometimes being paranoid pays off! I have very delicate sleep and anything wakes me up. On the upside, no one can sneak on me while I sleep, but on the downside, this also means that I never manage to sleep much. This morning, I heard something that sounded like a car. I half open one eye and see some light. Thinking a car is facing me, I fully awaken instantly, only to realize that the light is coming from this thing called the sun. I was about to go back to sleep, but the sunrise looked great, so I figured I would get a picture with my tablet. The resulting picture looked like s**t with the low light, so I decided to get my camera, but to reach it, I must get up and go outside, so I put on my boots, get out grab the camera and finally take the picture. This one was much better, but at this point, I figured I might as well go for a walk. It was low tide and all the rocks covered in algaes were exposed. It looked amazing! I'm glad my crazy brain woke me up for that!

The other picture was from the previous sunset, at Playa Dorada. I feel the name is very appropriate!

14/01/2020

What the hell was that? I was driving quietly about 80km/h when I suddenly hear this loud noise and find that in my windshield... As you can see, the car in front was not really close, so I feel like it if they would have thrown a rock my way, I would have had time to see it coming 10 times! This just came out of nowhere! BB gun? Meterorite? Antman?

01/01/2020

I guess today is a good day to announce what's next. I do not have the budget nor the strength to do this whole thing twice, so I'll be taking a shortcut and ship from Montevideo to Florida. However, since my ship is only in late March, I figured I might as well take the extra time to visit Iguazu Falls and southern Brazil. Let's just hope I won't melt : mid summer is intense up there! I should be back in Montreal around late April!

21/12/2019

After 597 days and 71703 km (44554 miles), I have finally reached the end of the world!

When I originally announced my project, I had a lot of people telling me that it couldn't be done, that it was too dangerous for a woman to do this, that I was too young, etc. Even after reaching South America, I met a lot of local men who doubted that I actually drove down there. The fact that my car was right in front of them did not convince them, saying that I must have flown the Jeep down there. What? I can't imagine imagine how complicated and expensive it must be to FLY a car to another country, it's probably way simpler just to drive down, lol!

Well, despite all the naysayers, I pushed on and here I am today! F**k everyone who tell you that you can't do something! Sure, it may not be easy, but if you keep working on your goals, you can one day make it happen. This journey took me 3 years of planning (by that I don't mean what activities to do or where to go. That's not really important and you can do that along the way. I mean things like do I need a carnet de passage? Which countries require insurances and where can I get them? What vaccine do I need in which country? What do I bring? How do I setup my car? And a lot more!) and even the journey itself was not always easy. I shared many of my misadventures already, but what I did not share was that I thought of giving up twice, but I ignored what I wanted to do at the moment and sticked to what I NEEDED to do instead, telling that I had put too much effort into this to turn back and I am happy I did!

That's it for now. Thanks to all of you! Your interest in my project is what kept me going through the hardest days. I do not know if I would have made it without all your support! Thank you.

14/12/2019

And here are the pictures from the ship and the nearby hotel. I am much better at taking pictures than filming! 😂

08/12/2019

In an attempt to take my time before the end of the world, I spent a couple day in this hidden forest at the very bottom of Chile. I found a nice log where I wanted to do a pagan photoshoot, but that meant not a lot of clothes and unfortunately, the temperature never went above 10C. In the end, I didn't need a photoshoot to feel like a druid, as 3 foxes came to sniff around while I was reading! I also managed to get a picture of one of the fox with a guanaco in the background, but it was sadly a bit out of focus.

04/12/2019

I finally reached Tierra Del Fuego, which means I am almost at the end of the world! I could probably rush to be there tomorrow, but that would mean missing some amazing places, like this amazing ghost town, and that would be quite a shame! I haven't seen such a big abandoned town since northern Chile, so I was quite happy with my find. It had a bunch of houses, a school, some warehouses and a few smaller unidentified structures. I have a few videos that I will post in my Instagram stories, so stay tuned!

29/11/2019

With Maps.ME again leading me astray, I stopped on the side of the road in Torres Del Paine to look at my map. While I was looking down, I see in my peripheral vision that a van stopped next to me and realize that they want to talk to me, so I lower my window. Before it was even half-way down, they say in perfect sync "BON ROAD TRIP!" with a strong Quebec accent. Nice! Talking with them for a minute, I learned that they were traveling Southern Patagonia with a rental van. Surprisingly, I learned that they had heard about my journey before from a friend! This is insane! My page doesn't even have 500 followers, so it's far from anything famous, yet it's the second time I meet someone who has heard of my trip (not counting other Overlanders since we all follow each others on Instagram). After a short chat, we each went our own way.

On the next day, I ran into them again at the Base de las Torres and as we came back to the parking lot, they invited me for a beer. It was nice to talk in french for once. I don't get to do that often down here!

I don't really think this national park was really worth the insane price they ask for it, considering how little there is to see and do compared to other parks, but all the great people I met made it worth it!

30/10/2019

After Bolivia, I thought I was done with scavenging for gas, but I underestimated how much of a barren wasteland southern Patagonia actually is...

See, gas along the Carretera Austral was crazy expensive. About 2CA$/L. That's even more expensive than BC! Me being on a very strict budget, I calculated how much I needed to reach the first gas station in Argentina, where gas is less than half the price, and bought just a little more than I needed. Oh stupid me...

Thing is, the road Maps.ME gave me towards Argentina was probably not optimal. Man, I got so many untold stories about this stupid app. For those of you who have used it in South America, you know exactly what I mean. For the rest of you, well, let's just say that it loves to try to make you take shortcuts across stairs, goat trails or cornfields... In this case, it lead me through some remote farm lands, where the gravel road was often very steep, which totally killed my gas mileage. On the positive side, I got to save a stuck sheep, so there's that.

The next morning, I set off for the gas station, only 40km away, driving as smoothly as I could. I somehow managed to make it! Well, at least, make it to where the gps said there was gas. I couldn't see any station... I saw an old pump, but the display was off. Generally a bad sign. Half the town looked abandoned with the other half looking pretty sketchy, with spray painted signs on a piece of plywood. I went in the one that said "Hotel" to ask for information. Inside, a few old men were drinking liquor at a table (it's not even 9am) and the lady working there was too busy talking with then to give me any attention. After a bit of waiting, I finally got to ask her where I could find some gas and she told me she could sell me some! She met me outside, then asked "Gasolina?" and took a big sniff from Beauty's gas tank... "Si, gasolina!" Daaamn. No wonder she was so slow!

Okay, I got gas. Problem solved, right? Well no. Her price was so high and she only took cash, I was unable to afford much. Now you'll tell me : Well duh, you're at the bottom ass of the world, of course it is going to be expensive! See, gas in Argentinian Patagonia is subsidized and is pretty cheap, but unfortunately for me, this seems to apply only to actual gas stations, not hotels with signs graffitied on a piece of wood!

From the computer, I was missing 20km to make it to the next town, but there was nothing I could do but try. I was now back on the 40, which is paved, so I was sure that the estimation would improve in my favor. Slowly by surely, it did.

15
9
4
3
1
-1!

Yes! I reached the next town on fumes, but I reached it nonetheless and this one had an actual gas station! Better than that : It had a grocery store! After eating pastas or rice and canned veggies for a week, I was glad to finally get some real fruits and veggies!

23/10/2019

*BING*

A red light lit up on Beauty's dashboard. An exclamation mark in a circle. Not very explicite, but it's red and sounds important. Not having a phone to simply check on the internet, I went the old school way and picked out the user manual. Checking the page about dashboard notifications, I realize that the one I am seeing is not in the manual, but then notice that the one in the same spot is about brakes, which made sense to me, as I noticed that the brakes were a bit slow to respond when I stopped. I pop open the hood and check the brake fluid to realize that it is nearly empty! I honestly never checked my brake fluid levels and have been on the road for over 65 000 km, so I hoped that it was just that.

I remember having to go through many places to find synthetic oil in Peru, so I was half expecting the same issue here, but fortunately, even the small supermarket in the village of Lago Puelo, where I was at the time, had exactly what I was looking for! I fill up, start the engine, pump the brakes a few times. The light is now gone and the resistance on the pedal is back to normal! Problem solved! Except that it wasn't.

10 km further, the light turns on again. I stop and check the fluid levels. Almost empty. I take a look under the car to check if I can spot some drops. Now, I do not know much about cars, but there was such a big oily mess around the right wheel, it was quite easy to see that something was wrong.

I found the local mechanic quite easily. In such a small town, pretty much everything is on the main street. Unfortunately, it was saturday afternoon and it was closed. Probably was on sunday as well, so I went down to camp by the river to wait until monday. It wasn't a bad spot and that gave me time to do some much needed laundry. It probably would have been nicer if it wasn't 7 degrees and I didn't almost lost my fingers trying to wash my clothes in such cold water, though.

Monday finally arrived, so at around 10am, I went to the mechanic. There is no one. No business hours on the door either. I waited a bit, but no one showed up. I didn't want to have to go to the nearby city because f**k driving in a city when you cannot brake, but I figured I might not have a choice. As I was looking at my map, the neighbor came back home, so I decided to ask him if he knew at what time the mechanic opened and he told me that today was an holiday, to come back tomorrow. Damn it. Talk about s**t timing! Back to the river for one more night, I guess.

Tuesday, 10 am. As I drive towards the mechanic, I can see that the door is open. Finally! He took a quick look under the car and noticed the problem easily. He told me it was an easy job and that it would take about 20 minutes, but that he did not have the part, so I would have to go in town to buy it. Get this. He is sending the girl who barely speaks spanish and knows even less about cars to buy a part in town, driving a car that cannot stop! Oh and it's raining, in case it makes any differences at this point. I asked him if he knew where the car part store was and he told me that he didn't, that it had been over a year since he went. Wow. If anyone would know where the nearest car parts store is, I would have expected the mechanic to be the one. I guess you don't need to know that when you send clients buy their own parts driving their own broken vehicle...

The city of El Bolson was about 20 minutes away, but it took me 30 because I was driving extra slow. That was... fun. Good thing no cops bothered me about not doing my stops properly. I. Cannot. Stop! Roundabouts are also quite interesting. Go slow and pray. I even learned that hand brakes are totally useless in stopping a moving car. Quite a fascinating discovery to make while driving an unstoppable car, really.

Obviously, the car part store didn't have the part either. Jeeps were a bit more common in Buenos Aires, but down here, not so much. They could, however, order it and it would be there around 6pm. Wow! That was 7 hours away, but still way better than I expected. Queue a long wait in the car, because f**k walking around town when it's rainy and cold.

So after all this waiting, I went back, only to be told that it wasn't there yet, to come back tomorrow. Great. Well that was a lot of waiting in the rain for nothing. On the next day, I come back around noon, knowing better than to show up early, and get told again that it isn't here yet, to come back tomorrow. Ah, the good old south american time estimations. From my very first days in Colombia, those have always been quite worth laughing about! I do not know if they either have no f**king clue and are just hopelessly optimistic or if they just love to give you hope, only to crush them day after day. Upon seeing my visible discontentment, the guy gave me a few other, but to be honest, I did not understand a thing and it most likely involved more driving around town blindly for little results, so I just said gracias and left.

The drive into town that worried me three days ago was now part of this whole joke and I started sarcastically yelling "HELP!" when going down a hill. Might as well have fun through all of this. The guy at the store finally told me that their provider did not have the part... Here I thought I was waiting for the part to be delievered. Nope. I waited 3 days just to know if they had it...

Alright, so some of you might not know my sense of humor very well, but I am laughing. How could I not? This whole thing is one massive joke! I briefly considered going to Chile to see if I would have better luck there, but the only problem was the Andes in between. Going down small hills without brakes might be funny, but going down the Andes would be su***de. Okay, so instead, my new plan was to hit all the mechanics in town and see if one could figure something out. The first one sent me to fetch the original part, but there has to be another way.

After a bit of driving and a lot of waiting for them to have time to take a look, I finally found a mechanic who told me he could do something with the flexible for another car. He added that it wouldn't be perfect and I should probably get it changed when I get home, but that it should hold until the end of my trip. After he was done, he gave a look at the other side and noticed that it was starting to leak a tiny bit from the same area, so instead of getting the same issue again 1000km further down, I decided to get it changed as well. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to do that right away, so I had to come back the next day. Seventh night at that river spot! At least now I can brake!

Despite all my ranting, I must applaud how good willed the average person are down here. When I asked him how much I owe him, he answered that we'd do that tomorrow when all is finished. The guy fixed my problem and changed my brakes, but since there was a bit more work to be done and he didn't have time, he let me go home without paying a cent or taking my name or anything! For sure no one would do that in North America, even less with a foreigner!

Pictured is my adventure from the previous day. Good thing this did not happen on my way down this hill, otherwise Beauty would have ended in that lake over there! On that night, by a lake, I met a German couple, a Swiss and a Austrichian with who I shared a few beers. After months of not running into any overlanders, looks like I am indeed back on the gr**go trail!