The Golden Van

Monday In Uruguay

2026-06-09T03:14:00.000-04:00

Rain was in the forecast so Adrián announced he would complete a couple of interior jobs in our van which kept us stationary till lunch time so we decided to postpone our visit to the mural city until Tuesday.

We use this basket to carry stuff most often fruit, but Layne wasn’t ready for me to credit down so she used a mess of sticky tape. Until Adrián came to the rescue. “I could have done that,” masculine me protested as he screwed it to the wall…”Not as nearly with such small screws,” my wife replied heartlessly as she scored her much improved galley. I had managed to glue together a main shelf in our fridge (that I accidentally cracked years ago) but the would was looking terminal so I asked Adrián for help. “I have just the thing,” he said.

There it is looking as ugly as sun but welded permanently (I hope) into the fridge door. RV fridges for sake down here which we have looked at find offer the sane useful spaces as our old Frigidaire does which is why we had it converted to 12 volts and wanted to keep the unique wide shelf in place. Plus the electricians are now finished and working so the bed platform got screwed down.

There is a very small bug persistent coolant leak in the engine which needs investigating and Adrián has some ideas about building a windshield drain to stop rain water overflowing into the engine in downpours. I figure we might as well use his problem solving skills while we are here. Meanwhile he spent Monday struggling with Robert’s external battery boxes.

The supermarket in Colonia Valdense is only five minutes away and Layne has become a local greeted by the butcher and the ladies at the bakery as she wanders around. Shopping in Uruguay is as expensive as the US except liquor which is cheaper by far. It’s weird how every country has its quirks. In Brazil we couldn’t find decent yoghurt; they have that Uruguay but they have no decent coffee- it’s all instant. We have the best selection of cheeses in South America and Uruguay produces some pretty decent wine. Meat is superb though nothing is really inexpensive. I have been missing biscuits for a while but lo and behold we found a very palatable version right here.

When we get back to the States, probably in 2028 we figure, I went to cross the border at Naco in Arizona which is a ten minute drive from the Bisbee Breakfadt Club where they serve dinner plate sized biscuits as I remember them with some excellent sausage gravy. I have been giving this some thought. Meanwhile in Uruguay at least I can get small biscuit sandwiches:

I spent the weekend being miserable in terrible but grateful Rusty was there to share it with me. I also noted the milestone of another D-Day which used to be less history and more a memory for the generation that preceded me.

I was astonished to read Secretary Hegseth took the occasion to make a political statement criticizing our allies who took exception.

I grew up in a different world and find these momments of ceremonial international solidarity that meant a lot to the Greatest Generation have a very different meaning to those that come after me. Like Rusty I think I am officially old. But I retain the right to remember the past my way.

We old farts nap together.

Marking Time

2026-06-08T05:59:06.722-04:00

We keep our fingers crossed in high hopes this might be our last week here. Rusty has a check up Thursday and we’re hoping he’ll be taken off his steroids so we can get him back on his glucosamine to strengthen his legs. He is almost back to his elderly normal self, getting up without help, eating like a horse, and showing all the signs of being once again a happy alert dog. The cloud of gloom has lifted. Yes I know he’s old and death awaits us all but for now I’m focused on testing our new electrical systems not on contemplating his mortality. We want to test both by taking a tour of Uruguay before we head west toward Peru, land of winter sun. Let’s see how Rusty and GANNET2 do on the road.

Winter is here with a cold front closing in bringing rain and damp de-motivating us by also lowering temperatures that already feel colder than 55 degrees. We want to go for a drive to see some new places and check Rusty’s tolerance for travel and to give us a chance to feel nomadic again even if we need windshield wipers and a car heater to do it.

Saturday afternoon we celebrated the end of the work week for those not retired with an asado, a grilled meat session. Me Layne Robert Adrián and Maria- José and Rusty the hungry prednisone powered eating machine with his head under the table.

Robert the retired American businessman has absorbed all Adriáns time last week chasing electrical demons in his Toyota Land Cruiser conversion, an overlanding beast assembled by apparently unmotivated builders. Adrián spends half his time trying to convince Robert who uses a translation app, to rebuild from the ground up the wiring mess in the camper. Robert supervises and resists all suggestions until he sees for himself how hopeless it is trying to do things his way. Progress on making improvements is glacial, especially after a short burned out his alternator and a mechanic came by and replaced a burned diode.

I am not a self made man so when I find a technician who knows his stuff I tell him what I want and let him figure how to achieve it. Then I give him money and I enjoy the outcome. I never assume I know more than they do. In Brasilia my approach was not entirely successful but our solar panels and Starlink installation work and our cabinetry is good and Adrián has created what appears to be a fine electrical installation so in the end we are there. Robert is getting there but his approach is generating frustration and I don’t like to see it. Another reason to get on the road and leave them to debate technical minutiae that bore me.

This next week looks to be taken up with an electrical rebuild Adrián suggested at the start that Robert resisted and has been forced to accept as necessary because the half modification of his system isn’t working as hoped. Or something.

I watch the fog rise over the fields, Rusty plunks down next to me, Layne fights the oven in the cottage and Robert and Adrián discuss wiring through Google Translate.

I carry endless arms full of firewood and dream of the open road.

Cheesy Day

2026-06-06T09:52:39.589-04:00

Call it rehabilitation or call it a love of cheese but we took a drive yesterday, it was only a mile but Rusty the stroke victim was part of the crew.

Because I overthink everything I had been worrying about us dragging Rusty into his old age in a van but Layne made a point yesterday as we talked about our travel prospects.

She pointed out that if Rusty really was fed up with traveling he had the perfect excuse to check out last week. As he lay hovering between life and death he could easily have chosen to end it but he didn’t so perhaps he really does like this life. Yesterday he gave every indication that was the case. He couldn’t sit still.

We went to this cheese farm up the street and on a hazy winters day we were the sole customers which I dare say would never happen in summer. It was a delightful spot and Rusty couldn’t get enough of it.

Layne tasted and bought cheese and I herded my rather sprightly dog.

He wanted to check the place out.

So we did and he didn’t fall down once even though he remains a little wobbly.

You can rent rooms here.

And there is Art everywhere.

The Milky Vine, a cheesy play on words as in Spanish it closely resembles the phrase for The Milky Way.

We started talking about travel plans after Layne bought the cheese and we were sitting outside in the pale winter sun.

We can’t treat Rusty like he’s made of porcelain though we will have to take shorter legs and give him plenty of time to rest but when the vet says it’s okay we will get on the road to the west coast to spend winter in the warmer drier region of Arequipa in southern Peru.

I can hardly believe how well he has recovered and though a relapse is always at the back of my mind Rusty doesn’t seem ready to fade away just yet.

And this whole episode has reminded us of our own mortality. Layne brought up the question of where shall we land when it’s time to quit full time travel even though neither of us is ready to sit still.

It’s a question without an answer, I prefer Key West where we still have connections but Layne likes Santa Cruz in California near where she grew up and has other friends. It’s a debate for the future but Rusty having a strike has once again taught us a lesson; the dog as teacher has been his rôle in my life.

I haven’t even tasted the cheese yet but I rate yesterday as a very good day.

The happy explorer dog; long may he last.

All Rusty

2026-06-05T10:08:50.110-04:00

Rusty continues to improve little by little, though his appetite seems to have doubled since he had his stroke; he is always full of surprises, this dog of nine lives. He looks normal when he sits but his gait is wobbly as he wanders around the workshop’s garden.

This morning he stumped around a bit but never actually fell over so that is a first. We measure improvements in his condition in tiny increments. They are so far, all encouraging. As you might imagine I’m watching him like a hawk and monitoring his progress like a banker eyeing the repayments on a dubious loan.

To have this time with him feels like a gift such that I find myself more than usually obsessed with his well being. He returns the compliment by following me around like my guardian rather than the other way around.

He knows as well as I do our time together is limited and we neither of us is ready to waste a minute. For me it is tinged with sadness as I feel the weight of a lovely, slow, goodbye. It has been a glorious decade of great fun but it feels like the curtain is making a slow descent.

No regrets. My glorious boy.

Rusty Is Alive

2026-06-04T01:34:36.442-04:00

It was touch and go but he is eating and functioning if not back to his old self. He walks with a wobble and occasionally sits down abruptly when he loses his balance. His blood test results came back in the normal range and the vet says he is on the path to recovery.

He is alert and after he was checked out he led me on a walk up the street like he always has sniffing and checking stuff out. I really thought it was curtains for him for a few days but he has recovered sufficiently we hope to resume our travels with him in a few weeks.

There is no getting away from the fact that he is old and he could relapse at any time or have another stroke but he is alive and I love having him around and watching him devour a chicken breast like he hadn’t eaten for three days (because he hadn’t).

We plan to wait a couple of weeks and see how he’s doing. If he is able to travel we’ll take off, if not we’ll pause longer. We aren’t going to stop being nomads but we are going to take care of our most vulnerable family member. No one gets left behind.

Colonia Valdense, Uruguay.

Rusty Had A Stroke

2026-05-31T02:00:00.000-04:00

The vet said she couldn’t seen any external signs of a severe blow to the head so it seems likely he had some kind of stroke or interruption of blood flow. She noted he also send have some sort of tic in his left eye as well.

It turns out last night’s shenanigans with Rusty wandering outdoors may have been his response to not feeling well. I got him into the house around five in the morning and he could barely stand, stumbling like he was drunk. I stayed up with him as he laid out on his bed breathing heavily, and I was pretty wrecked as he looked like he was dying. Layne took over later and by morning he was slightly better and drank some milk. I was dreading taking him to the vet as I have no desire to kill him but Maria-Jose stuffed us in her car and got us there in five minutes. She would be an excellent ambulance driver.

The upshot was that he should slowly improve and to that end he gets two pills and a mouthful of vitamins every day and a follow up visit Monday afternoon. All that for less than $25 for the vet and $35 for the meds.

He staggered getting back to the car but he hates being carried and once aboard María-José’s car he seemed to perk up. I was just delighted the vet thought he could heal over time.

He was delighted to be home and took off with his funny staggering gait like he’s drunk but he only fell down when he tried to sit. Once down he got his first dose of medications.

And then he stretched out to sleep after a long emotional morning. He slept a lot which is the best thing apparently. He ate some steak for dinner and drank done milk and slept some more. We are trying to figure out our future plans but what Rusty needs will guide us. Currently he needs rest. Going to sleep with him snoring heavily is a pleasure I cannot take for granted any more.

My Beloved Dog

2026-05-30T05:20:21.280-04:00

There are days when Rusty really gets up my nose. I can’t say I hate him because I don’t but some days I hate the hold he has on my heart.

At 4:30 this morning he went outside as I sat up, insomnia brought on by an uncomfortable bed and prepared to summarize yesterday’s inverter installation. An hour later (mostly spent reading as I am old and lazy) I realized he was still outside on a cold damp morning. Panic ensued and I went looking for him through the garden and he was nowhere to be found. I went out in the road shivering in the damp cold morning worried the one car an hour may have got him or a wild animal might have dragged him off, in my panic forgetting he’s the meanest sonofabitch in the valley. My wandering woke Adrián himself subject to insomnia but he also has alarm cameras which probably alerted him to the prowler. The love of my life (the other one) was nowhere to be found…until Adrián’s headlights illuminated my dog sitting in the long grass of the neighbors field not twenty yards from the warmth and comfort of the cottage we are renting. He looked cute and alert. “What’s up guys? Have you lost something?” Bloody dog; I nearly had a heart attack.

I hugged Adrián and went back to the fire to warm up and compose myself and try to draw back the threads of yesterday’s progress. Inverter installed minus a couple of wire extensions that need to be delivered.

Maria Jose showed Robert our Florida neighbor in his Toyota camper truck, how she keeps her maté straw clear when she is drinking the foul stuff.

There’s no accounting for taste but Robert, an otherwise normal American loves the stuff but his straw (“bombilla”) gets clogged. She has a trick straw to clear blockages.

Plus she drinks rough cut maté where Robert prefers the finer cut which is more likely to clog she says. I like my black tea bags thanks with stevia and milk and I think bitter Yerba Maté is for the birds.

It’s an Argentine habit widely enjoyed in Uruguay and southern Brazil. You will find hot water dispensers at gas stations where you can refill your Thermos on a road trip.

Then you add the hot water to your maté (cup) and suck up the bitter grassy flavored water and share the straw. I observe native customs but I don’t necessarily enjoy them. They sell the stuff by the ton and in Uruguay decent coffee is hard to find but maté is everywhere.

You can get flavored maté too or sweetened but for hardcore drinkers that’s bogus. Ginger flavored (“ you will feel good” is the slogan on this six dollar bag):

Anyway the inverter should be done today. Next week we have a few more small jobs to wrap up and off we go, starting with a tour of Uruguay in winter warmed by our new heater. Can’t wait. Rusty will be annoyed but after this morning he deserves it. Well, not really but what a scare.

Adrián my hero, master mechanic and dog finder extraordinaire.

Energy Independence

2026-05-29T08:06:15.713-04:00

We filled the tank from close to empty before we drove to the caves earlier this week and we spent $175. At $8:25 a gallon car travel in Uruguay is a privilege and light traffic on the highways shows the effect of these prices.

Layne was looking into rental prices for places close to the water just in case we have to stop one day in the future at least for a while as Rusty is getting old, and she found places to rent between $600 and $1200 a month just as a guide, without further investigation. Certainly not US prices for prime waterfront rentals,

Our $3,000 inverter/charger has arrived and I expect it will be installed by the end of today, Friday. With this piece onboard GANNET2, our 16 mpg home will be electrically speaking, whole. There are a few more jobs we need to get done before we leave but the electronic transformation of our house is complete.

Give us a moderately sunny day and we can generate all the electricity we need and if we don’t use our Dometic air conditioner all night at 21 amps per hour we can generate more than we need to live in our tiny suburban house on wheels with electric cooking Starlink and charging our devices all day long.

I wonder how much this system will cost in a year after all the disruptions of war in the Middle East and riots in Bolivia which has immense poverty and huge lithium mines. The cost of fuel one can mitigate slightly as we don’t have to move, we aren’t commuting, the cost of rent we can ease by free camping, and so forth. The anxiety of a well fed world eager to tear itself apart to feel the pain of our ancestors a hundred years ago leaves me utterly baffled. We seem to be led by a class of human beings completely out of touch with the aspirations of the least among us, a home, a family and some predictability in our community.

Robert drove up in his Toyota Land Cruiser with a Montana tag on the front. Montana makes international travel easy with permanent registration and easy residence requirements such that when we met a camper ostensibly from Montana we assume (I know) they aren’t even Americans. Robert on the other hand lived just off Flagler Avenue years ago and built a company in Key West close by the Conch Train roundhouse. Imagine that.

He got the opportunity to buy a custom built four wheel drive camper and has been on the road for eight years based out of St Petersburg. He is ambling slowly south aiming for Buenos Aires next after he gets some work done on the camper.

He has so much in common with us as far as traveling goes it is surprising and also reaffirming. He likes to fly fish and watch birds which we don’t but he likes to eat out and study cultures as he travels which we do. I told the story of our Andean breakdown last year:

And he added his own tale of woe breaking a universal joint on a dirt track high in Peru and spending three days stuck waiting for the tow truck to arrive which itself sank in the mud and had to be dug out for hours before they could drag the Land Cruiser on the bed. Our drive downhill to Arequipa was eight hours of main road where Robert had to negotiate single lane tracks and narrow tunnels which just barely accommodated the tow truck and load.

As you might imagine the encounter has raised the morale of Team Lost. We have had dinner together and gone shopping and sat around drinking the national cocktail of Argentina. It sounds gross but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it:

Layne has been looking at the map and has discovered an Indian Summer in Paraguay, land of 70 degree days which sounds a lot warmer than coastal Uruguay and a lot cooler than 100 degree summer days all with cheaper gasoline. We may make a stop there on our way to the Pacific Coast. It is nice to think of warmer days than 50 frigid degrees and north winds here, gray skies and a dawn that shows up barely at 8 am. I took this picture at 7:22 this morning:

People who hate daylight saving need to spend some time in Uruguay in winter where it doesn’t get light till 8am. I find it weird. I need to ask Robert what he thinks and that should provoke a discussion which will be bound to be interesting.

Mid 40s by night and mid 50s by day but it feels a lot colder.

Feeding the insatiable beast to survive:

Gratuitous Rusty pictures:

Happy as a clam, delighting in the cold, he prefers the cold outdoors to his bed near, but not too near, the fire.

Tomorrow

2026-05-27T02:00:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow we are assured the inverter/charger will be delivered here. I have seen a photograph of the part ostensibly in Uruguay.

Yesterday I woke up before dawn and went outside to pick up some logs to feed the slumbering fire, an endless repetitive task, and going myself in a gray half light reflected by dripping fog and a spectral frigid stillness that put me mid winter somewhere not very nice. Under sunny skies even when cold this place is quite pleasant.

But yesterday was the day to stay abed. Adrián has been building two Mercedes Sprinters for two different customers but he needs parts too from TerraVentura the Victron importers as he is waiting for batteries and solar panels.

And yesterday a new Fiat Ducato, the van on which the Promaster is based also arrived ready to be turned into a camper. Adrián has a business we are just a couple of retirees living well until our build can be finished.

It’s just a bit weird not really knowing what’s going on or why the delays or where our $3,000 box is actually located. We have more than two months left on our permission to stay in Uruguay, its winter so it’s not like we’re missing prime touring season or anything but I’d rather be sitting by the fire knowing GANNET2 is finished, tested and ready to go. Being stuck on TerraVentura’s mysterious schedule has been just a little odd, that’s all. But the waiting seems likely to be over, and I’m delighted they have got what we need for us.

I think Rusty would be delighted to end his days here, as he has made this

his domain. When it’s cold and the front door is closed he bangs on it with his head, the metal reverberating like a drum and one of us has to get up to let him in.

Adrián’s cats have got the measure of the old dog stalking past just far enough away that the struggle to get up isn’t worth the effort especially as he knows they will outpace him easily so he glares at them from the comfort of his stretched out resting place in front of the cottage.

They ignore him studiously as they go about their business in and out of the workshop.

I’m up to volume twenty four of the Longmire novels, I’m struggling to read the ghastly details of the Terror of the French Revolution while I’m eyeing a novel by Brazilian Jorge Amado, vaguely relevant, as my next read. I’m expecting to see out this week at least, still here. But we are starting to think about how we are going to get back into our home on wheels.

It could be worse I suppose but like Mr Micawber I’m just waiting for something to show up. It’s looking good about now.

Palatial Caves Road Trip

2026-05-25T04:47:09.303-04:00

Sunday was going to be a road trip day no matter what and we hesitated only briefly as light drizzle descended on central Uruguay. Yesterday started out raw and wintery with cold damp air and flat gray light and all that made a trip anywhere unappealing.

On the other hand GANNET2 cane from the factory with a powerful cabin heater, a byproduct of our V6 engine, the one that burns $8:25 of regular gas every 15 miles or so. It was not going to be a cheap day trip, nothing is in Uruguay, but we had the tools to cope with the weather. We got on the road, two hours north to a set of caves.

We invited Rusty fully expecting him to decline and he paused and thought about it, we’ve left him behind twice already on shopping trips always at his request and I could see him debating whether or not this time…but yo my amazement and joy he jumped in the van preferring to suffer with us than luxuriate alone. He loves living in a house. The day did not look promising.

We left at eleven and drove trough some drizzle on largely empty roads. As a rule traffic is very light on Uruguayan highways and on a cold damp Sunday morning the small unremarkable towns we drove through looked deserted.

Backwoods Uruguay is marked by poverty. This country of three and a half million is said to be the wealthiest per capita in South America but away from the beaches and the playgrounds of the elite in Punta del Este there’s lots of tin roofed, trash lined, rusty car poverty.

I’m sure a donkey powered peasant in Mexico would consider himself lucky to be poor in Uruguay but it is a little startling to a gringo in a mobile home. Had we an inverter our empanadas for lunch would have been warm but even cold they weren’t bad as imma sucker for a meat pie. Lacking rest areas or pull puts we improvised and found a flat area for Rusty to enjoy the grass as we ate.

Not Iowa corn fields though they could be.

I hoped he wasn’t regretting his decision to spend the day with us instead of sprawling in the grass in front of the cottage.

It was a funny old day in the road with no bed in the car, no 110 volt electricity or any of our usual supplies. We were traveling in a car and not in our home.

This is not a country endowed with much in the way of natural wonders as you can see. Personally I love a cornfield as much as the next diner but I concede that if the United States consisted solely of amber waves of grain I might get tired of road tripping. Uruguay had to make the most of what it’s got.

These natural oddities were discovered in the late 1860s on private land. In the 1930s the government bought about 42 acres of the land and set it aside as a municipal park. In 2014 it was turned into a national monument amid much fanfare apparently.

I get the feeling being president of Uruguay is akin to being the mayor of a small town. This isn’t a country of much political drama, they have elections between more or less left and right wing parties but everything bumbles along without drama in between votes. It’s quite refreshing. So when they have a set of modest little canes not only are they worthy of being protected but everyone gets in for free. Education is totally free in Uruguay. (Yes I know it all gets paid with taxes but everyone benefits from as much schooling as they want).

Six of us showed up for the two ovlovknyour and got a video presentation to start explaining how the caves were formed. Fabian the guide looked relieved when we said we understood Spanish. There is a display of local rocks.

I was fascinated by two and a half million year old piece of petrified wood:

And an ancient bee honeycomb:

We walked a half mile to the caves down an avenue lined with non native trees. Apparently this was the choice a hundred years ago to emulate the “European style” of formal gardens. Nowadays they are trying to add native plants.

No one in the group spoke to us or each other for the 90 minutes we were together. They avoided eye contact and acted as though alone. I’ve got used to Uruguayan stand offishness possibly a product of shyness and I noticed they didn’t exclude us so much as they ignored each other, in Argentina we’d have all exchanged life histories but this is close to Argentina, and similar in many cultural ways but not at all as friendly, so there it is.

There was a myth attached to these caves that a prince and princess escaping the Spanish holes here had made it their palace, hence the name The Caves of the Palace, but really it’s a matter of rising seas flooding the area millions of years ago.

The waters receded leaving behind silt that got compressed unevenly and rain water washed out the loose silt leaving columns of compressed blocks. I know it’s not as much fun as princesses on the lam but there it is.

A Brazilian geologist penetrated more than three hundred and fifty feet into the cave system and provedcyonevrryinesxsatidfaction that it is the action of rainwater and not subterranean streams that erodes the soil leaving the compressed pillars.

Apparently the cars are five hundred yards wide and at least 150 deep and not all of it is exposed yet; but the action of time has also eroded some of the exposed aves down to nubs of rock.

Fabian our guide, a nice guy got a tip from us at the end, gringo style.

Faced with a two hour ride home we got on with it and as dogs aren’t allowed inside Rusty had to sit out the tour aboard GANNET2 so he got a walk afterwards.

It was a pleasant diversion and got us out of the house.

We stopped on the way home to pick up some critical supplies.

It was not an exciting drive home but we arrived at dusk. Driving at night in Uruguay isn’t a problem as roads are well marked and there aren’t animals or drunks loose in the dark. At least not that I’ve seen.

Rusty was ready to get home, eat a large dinner and pass out. I hope he judged it a good day; we did.

Where Next?

2026-05-24T02:00:00.000-04:00

When Rusty is happy he comes up to me and licks my face and I have been getting a lot of face time with my dog lately. He is profoundly happy living in a house as we wait for our 110 volt 3,000 watt Victron inverter/ charger to arrive.

He follows me like my shadow and always wants to know where I am. Apparently old dogs need the reassurance of knowing where you are and I’ve seen this behavior before but I was surprised to see Rusty start acting dependent after a lifetime of ignoring me as often as he felt like.

I remember one notable October 31st at sunset standing on Blimp Road on Cudjoe Key cursing Rusty who declined to appear when I called and made me late for my own birthday dinner, a rare event that happened to coincide with a night off so I could be home. I could have strangled him as eventually he stood on the back seat of the car panting fit to burst covered in swamp water happy as a clam long after Layne’s special efforts in the kitchen were congealing. These days he hardly lets me out of his sight. Bloody dog.

Some day soon I hope I am going to have to put his collar round his neck and leash him and encourage him to climb aboard the Devil machine and leave this tranquil cottage with its thick lush grasses and interesting smells and sounds of life in the woods around and he will hate me for it. He is done with traveling thanks but we have to keep moving as we are nomads and get limited time in each country we visit. We have a deadline to be in Arequipa Peru by September as friends are flying down to go on a Brazilian nature safari with Layne (I will stay home to guard the dog) to look for cheetahs in the Pantanal in southern Brazil.

In a straight line it’s about 2200 miles from the blue dot to the red dot which are separated by a 15,000 foot pass in the Andes, Paso de Jama which is paved and is kept open by snow plows all winter long. After much cogitation we have decided that as soon as we can leave Uruguay we will go west and wait for a weather window to cross the mountains to get to Chile.

If you are like us the advent of winter encourages you the nomad to look for warm weather so in an ideal world we would drive up the coast of Brazil towards the equator to explore magnificent beaches of which I have been told by Webb Chiles the pelagic who says Salvador is worth a visit. However we have used up our time in Brazil and can’t go back for several months so that’s out.

Our next plan was to go to Paraguay a country that was too hot to enjoy when last we were there but which would be at least a bit further north and thus warmer than where we are and there’s stuff we want to explore there. We also know of a nice little cottage for rent that our dog would love to hang out in for a while. But…

…we’ve been monitoring the situation in Bolivia and our plan to go north to Paraguay then go west through Bolivia has hit a snag. With the ejection six months ago of a Trump friendly right wing president Bolivia dropped its requirement for US passport holders to get a visa, a permit we tried to obtain last year and were denied in consulates in Chile and Argentina. Now we don’t need a visa but Bolivia is not ready for overlanders at the moment.

Bolivia is in riot mode these days as miners and farmers and teachers protest cost of living increases brought on by the new government cutting fuel subsidies. At last report in the newspaper El Deber (the duty) the capital of La Paz is cut off by blockades so food and fuel supplies are running out and the streets erupting in battles between police and miners armed with TNT (!) from their jobs and firearms from who knows where. Three are reported dead and more than 79 injured in the fighting.

I could go on but you get the picture so in short we aren’t going to drive through Paraguay and Bolivia to reach Arequipa, our goal in southern Peru. So now what?

This is where things get tricky and we need to think things through. We can’t go to Brazil or Bolivia so we have to cross the Andes from Argentina to Chile and then turn north to Arequipa but crossing the Andes in winter is arduous and can be unpleasant especially if like us snow ice wind and altitude are not your favorite combination of driving conditions.

We could go south for a couple of thousand miles and cross into Chile at around 5,000 feet near Pucón which, aside from the massive drive with gas at nearly seven bucks a gallon in Argentina, would put us in a pretty part of southern Chile ready for a long hike north…

Or we could cross at the main route to Santiago from Mendoza which is an all weather route through a tunnel. However it is also a training ground for Chilean customs inspectors and the entry procedures take hours and your vehicle usually goes through a microscopic inspection entering Chile.

We have medications for us and Rusty which we would likely lose if they notice them, not to mention fruits nuts honey meat and so forth all of which can be replaced but our first aid kit would be hard to rebuild. So if we want to cross the Paso de Jama we need to get on with it as winter, proper winter is approaching. We crossed the pass (pronounced “haa-ma”) in the Fall, April last year and it was bleak and crisp with the customs post at 14,300 feet. God knows what it will look like in winter with snow and less than 32 degrees and us shivering.

Plus the approaches to this border crossing are pretty gnarly, high passes, hairpins and narrow canyons which whistle with wind. We stopped here last April to cool our brakes on the way down from the pass: imagine this in a snowstorm on the way up.

I’m thinking we may just have to take the road to Santiago and suffer a proctological exam at the border. But these are the considerations when you are planning a route, retired with time to spare limited only by weather and politics.

As to when we might leave that is still in the hands of the TerraVentura people who say our inverter should be released by customs on Monday. We shall see but we have now paid for it through Western Union and we are hoping it really is in the customs shed at Montevideo airport soon to be released. Once Adrián gets it he will be able to install it in a matter of a morning. Our plan then is to your Uruguay for a week or ten days testing our new systems and making sure we can use them before crossing the border back to Argentina. Rusty will be mad but those are the breaks.

Meanwhile life at Luzetti Motorhomes outside Colonia Valdense continues serene and chilly, lots of logs burning in the fireplace even in sunny days with highs near 60 and lows at night around 40. Winter is closing in.

Out To Lunch

2026-05-22T08:58:39.220-04:00

We drove GANNET2 to Colonia, the tourist hub on the banks of the River Plate 45 minutes away and had fish for lunch with some young Floridians we met on the way.

Will wonders never cease, tourists wandering Uruguay in winter and I thought only we did such senseless things. Come to think of it Colonia in 60 degrees might make a nice break from Orlando in 90.

Rusty wanted no part of the day as he was entirely happy at home. I encouraged him to join us in the van and he got a worried look on his face and started to sidle away so I propped the kitchen door open and left him to guard our rental cottage, of which he hid a brilliant job.

The joy of the open road…I know it’s boring, not the Andes or the Amazon but I love driving and we haven’t been doing much so crossing what passes for Iowa at a smooth 55 mph seemed like a huge break from dealing with electrical parts and payment methods and all the rest of the shop related issues.

The approach road to Colonia is lined with massive date palms because I assume some urban planner before World War Two had an idea above his station though I must say the effect all these years later (if my wild speculation is correct) is magnificent.

Traffic in Uruguay is light and in midweek in midwinter it is lighter than fairy dust: there’s no one around and unlike it that way. Even as we approached the capital of the department, the administrative hub of this part of the country there was hardly anyone to disturb my zen meditations on how much I enjoy this funny little country.

Parking was available too even for a 21 foot behemoth in the Lilliputian local capital and the Fiat plane trees of fond memory are getting ever yellower leaves and thus a more wintery aspect. Locals dress as though they expect banishment to Siberia without warning.

Granted I did put on a pair of jeans for the journey but temperatures were in the mid to upper 50s and snow never falls in this part of the world even in July which is mid winter.

We strolled to the highly rated seafood restaurant Layne had found and discovered to our horror it was closed permanently it looked like and behind those locked doors were the toilets we had had on our minds. We retreated back down the street to GANNET2 in the manner of Napoleon abandoning Moscow and the devil take the hindmost.

When we had had time to relax and regroup we found another fishy possibility not surprisingly this time in the waterfront a ten minute drive away through picturesque Colonia.

The portable toilet awaiting our hurried return:

The back up restaurant was on the waterfront, a very good place to be not only because of proximity to the source of lunch technically speaking but because also there was a park looking out across the waters of the River Plate:

This is the high speed Buquebus ferry to Buenos Aires 90 minutes across the river. The bureaucracy to board your van is crushingly complicated not least because we couldn’t get the website to work.

The Portuguese claimed the birth shore of the river and built fortifications here to protect their property from Spanish claims. After independence the feud continued and in 1828 the British envoy Lord Ponsonby showed up and created Uruguay to prevent Argentina from owning both shores of this strategic waterway. Gunboat diplomacy, nation building, that all seemed to be so 19th century and now here we are again in 2026 arguing over waterways.

We were waylaid by three pedestrians with luggage as we walked to the eatery. Weren’t we surprised to discover they are three enterprising youngsters pondering the possibilities of South America on a visit from Orlando. They joined us for lunch.

Meet Seth Tara and Chris entrepreneurs, runners and people who earn a living by organizing events. It boggles my mind you can make a living doing that but at least it’s a job whose parameters I vaguely understand. Most modern jobs involving computing sound like gobbledegook to me: Systems Analyst. IT Coordinator. Reliability Engineer. Support Coordinator. Organizing a marathon I understand more or less but I’d never have the wit to think of making a living at it.

Aside from career advice which I found out too late but still fascinating we had fish for lunch not an easy task in a country devoted to grilled meat. Above my hake (a cod like fish I really like) with mashed potatoes and below Layne’s shrimp and octopus.

Chris sitting patiently next to me had to suffer my photographic efforts peering at his fried hake salad. I’d like to try that next time we return and we plan to visit this place again.

Layne found a locally brewed cider she liked while I had a Spanish draught beer from Galicia.

And some excellent mussels to start.

Lunch was $80 so with Uruguayan prices to deal with you want yo eat something worthwhile when you eat out.

A worthwhile spot delightful I’m sure in a warm summer evening.

After lunch and conversation the Floridians went their way and very glad we had been to see them, they were good company. Layne went for a wander in an arts and craft hall created from a former railroad station while I took my camera for a walk.

Signs such as these prohibiting campers reassure me as I feel much better about street camping in parks where these signs are not posted. My reading is if they didn’t want us there they know how to post prohibitions and one way we try to control costs in Uruguay is by free camping whenever possible.

Layne is a fan of murals and she had heard about a spot in Colonia devoted to the art. With the sun declining and Rusty on my mind we stopped on our way out of town.

It was a wind free still afternoon and we sat together for a while overlooking the park.

“This is your park; Enjoy yourself.”

It was a good day in the city and I was sorry Rusty didn’t want to come.

We stopped for gas on the way home and spent $175.00 filling a nearly empty tank. $8:25 a gallon could explain the empty highways. In Uruguay as in Argentina gas stations offer free hot water to fill your thermos for your maté drinking.

Plus if you have a diesel engine they dispense diesel exhaust fluid -urea in Spanish- from a pump.

Rusty was as glad to see me as I was to see him. He made a good day better.

Paying The Bill

2026-05-20T02:30:00.000-04:00

I have been missing Key West lately and I don’t know why. I’ve been looking at Doug Bennett’s pictures from around the city and they have struck a chord. I suppose from time to time such feelings might be expected to come up and perhaps the cold crisp days of winter in Uruguay are reminding me of tropical pasts.

Life in Uruguay is pretty peaceful though not typically inexpensive as you might expect of a Latin American country. Indeed Uruguay is rated the most expensive country in South America, excluding France’s colony in the Guyanas, the most expensive of all. However a tourist in this rather small country of three and a half million people gets a quiet place to hang out far from threats of war and madding crowds. Europeans land here with their campers and immediately run for Peru and Bolivia to seek wild landscapes and indigenous folklore of which there is none here. Uruguay is placid, orderly, European and predictable. Except when it’s not.

A case in point has been our bureaucratic struggle to pay for the new Victron parts installed aboard GANNET2. The importers of the parts are the German family we first saw when we started looking to improve our system. TerraVentura sent us to Adrián to get the work done and I’m very glad they did as he is the most detail oriented mechanic I’ve seen in years. The question has been how to pay for the parts. In the US we’d proffer our credit card and that would be that but not in Uruguay.

Our choices were back transfer or cash and the transactions are a in US dollars by the way. The Uruguayan peso has been fixed at 40 to the dollar for as long as anyone can remember but international trade even at this modest level is paid in dollars. Easy right?

So Layne the banker decided to deploy Wise a money transfer app she had previously toyed with but never needed to use. So she entered the sum of $6981 and pressed send. Wise said no way this transfer looks suspicious, contact your bank. Very helpful.

So we contacted our Key West Bank here the phone answerer asked if we had signed a transfer permission? No we haven’t. Oh well in that case drop by the bank and we can get that done in a minute. Except we’re in Uruguay.

It did occur to me I may have to fly back to Key West to get this payment made. Perhaps that notion set me to thinking how nice it might be to go home even briefly.

At this point we were slightly stymied and the German importers of Victron were starting to treat me as though I was about to go a runner. It seemed an odd way to run a business especially as we had decanted our modest little life into Adrián’s cottage which we rent for $20 a day. We had no easy way to run anywhere and the bill had to be paid.

We had already paid an initial $2024 to Adrián by using Western Union money transfer but that method is horrible. It takes five days which allows the bank to hold your money and make interest off it. Then it’s up to the local office to collect the cash and pass it on to the customer. On his first approach the office at western Union had sufficient funds on hand to give Adrián $24. The other two thousand is inaccessible but in his account. He shrugs, he’s used to this nonsense.

We still had the problem of paying $6981 for the assorted Victron parts not included in the Western Union transfer to Adrián. Dale cane to the rescue, a friend of Layne’s of long standing who introduced her to Wise.

He found the solution instantly by offering to make the payment for us. And he did. However there was still a glitch believe it or not.

The transfer form left Dale no room to include the customer and invoice numbers and Victron is a massive multinational conglomerate and they lost Dale’s direct payment on our behalf to TerraVentura’s account.

Predictably the Germans went ballistic in a very controlled monosyllabic frustrated way. I wondered if somehow I wasn’t in fact trying to cheat them as I started to get Stockholm syndrome. This prolonged agony was absurd. It’s much more fun to watch green parrots fly overhead.

Messages flew ba k and forth as Victron tried yo find the missing deposit and I wished I could teleport myself to Fort Zachary beach and just go for a swim but I had no such luck; I just kept heaping logs on the fire and watching parrots.

Eventually they located the money and I got actors message to that effect. I think the Terraventure Germans would have been delighted to teleport me to Siberia. However we still owed $2990 for the 110 volt inverter/charger that is supposedly in the pipeline.

Fabulous do we still had to make one more payment. How to do that?

We talked to Adrián and decided to pile up more cash in his already constipated Western Union account. We transferred the money and he can see it in the pipeline though it won’t arrive before Friday, and he assured TerraVentura the inverter is paid for.

And so we wait for the inverter to arrive when Adrián will install it pretty rapidly. The wiring is ready to go and the space is set aside for it.

We had the electrician in Brasilia attach an up down converter to our system to allow us to plug in to 220 volts as we wished. The first time I plugged it in it destroyed our charger.

Adrián found the cause of the failure. The main plug was wired backwards in one final act of brilliance pursuing us from our ill fated repairs in Brasilia. In the photo below our original plug, the messed up one is on the left and the plug on the right is the new 220 volt charger installed and tested by Adrián.

And one last thank you is owed to Uruguay for taking down our internet service. Apparently there is a problem affecting the neighborhood and no one seems to know why. We can’t use our Starlink as we run it through the inverter, the one that is on the way from California. Luckily we have a string phone signal around here.

So there you have it. Uruguay is very pleasant not without its flaws. Key West is merely a twinkle in my eye. I’d better go out another log on the fire.

Waiting For Our Part

2026-05-18T02:00:00.000-04:00

It happened when in Paraguay we tried to repair our broken shore power connection and we discovered the 110 volt battery charger which was part of the inverter was burned out. Chris the mechanic said he could order each part separately and then we found the charger half was no where to be found. So we had an inverter of no use to us. That’s because the Victron inverter includes the charger half. Keep on keeping on.

Now we wait for the inverter to arrive so the job can be finished.

We’re expecting to get on the road by next weekend and we want to take a tour around Uruguay, a small country, to test everything and make sure we’re all present and correct before we cross the border to Argentina.

With Gannet2 upgraded we’re thinking about doing one more circuit of South America before we cross back to Central America in 2028. It seems a long way away but I guess the time will fly.

This is the start of the second half of our tour of South America and we’re ready to roll. I hope the inverter gets here soon.

I went for a walk and saw some crappy roads because back roads get less attention even in wealthy Uruguay.

And after my stroll in the winter sun I still maintain this countryside you could see in the Midwest.

Oats for sale.

The entrance to the workshop:

The prediction is for Arctic cold this coming week. Fantastic, my favorite.

Winter weather here blows north from the southern latitudes, the world turned upside down.

Nearly Complete

2026-05-17T02:00:00.000-04:00

When our new inverter arrives, any day now of course, GANNET2 will be ready for the road complete with 540 amps of Victron Lithium, 220 volt and 110 volt shore power charging, engine charging via a 50amp DC to DC charger from our starting battery, cabin heat from our new gasoline cabin heater and repaired carpentry projects that were annoying but not fatal.

Adrián polished off his superb work with a clean up of our home. He vacuumed the interior and washed the exterior and parked our home next to our rented cottage which at $20 a day is cheaper than driving with gas at $8:24 a gallon. A pretty sweet situation.

We’re likely to be here another week we figure, not because of Adrián as he can install the inverter in an hour when it arrives, but the question is: when will it arrive? It’s a $3,000 item and we said we’d pay for it when they have it in hand. I figure the importers at TerraVentura want their money so I figure we will get word as soon as they have it.

It’s expensive as it had to be special ordered as most inverters here are 220 volts but GANNET2 operates household appliances on board at 110 volts: the induction cooker, the microwave, the charging outlets, our heavy duty fans, the air fryer and Starlink are all designed for the US market.

We could convert Starlink to 24 volts but Layne is reluctant to add $600 to our already enormous bill and it works very well on 110 volts through our inverter. We really like having our big old second generation dish firmly planted on the roof of GANNET2. However we had to deal with an issue which was not technical but billing.

Since we landed in Colombia in February 2024 we have been using residential roam service based on our Airbnb address in Cartagena. The cost was $60 a month which soon went up to $80 then last year went to $115 paid in Colombian pesos through our credit card: easy. (Maria-Jose, Adrián’s girlfriend and her inevitable maté:)

Starlink has a rule for residential roam and that is you only get two months outside your home country. And they require you remain at a new address for at least three months before you can do another address change which would only last for two months... Anyway they caught up to us, I suspect because we used Starlink while in motion. So we decided to go to global roam which allows you to move and use Starlink on land or water anywhere in the world. The catch is it’s more expensive, $500 if based in South American countries but only (“only”) $250 if based in the US. So we bit the bullet and made the change rather than lose service altogether.

I always knew prices would go up as Starlink is a monopoly but it is an amazing service. Sometimes people tell us they enjoy being out of touch on vacation but we aren’t on vacation and we aren’t terribly interested in hermitage in our van. Nor are you if you are reading this, let’s face it. If Google ever offers satellite service I will be sure to look into it.

Stay in school, work long and hard and pay your Social Security contributions to get a decent pension as prices will only go up as you age. Thats a pro tip in case you need it. You might not like living cheap and saving money in a van in old age and a pension comes in handy when you are an unemployable curmudgeon… Which leads me to Claudia and Norbert from Zurich in Switzerland, retired and driving the world for the past 13 years.

They have driven across Russia to China and back through Mongolia on the Silk Road to Turkey then through Africa to South Africa and started on South America last year. They are on their way to Venezuela through the Guyanas so we told them what we encountered there driving our modest two wheel drive delivery van. They’ll probably do fine in their six wheel drive high clearance Mercedes powerhouse.

They stopped by to have Adrián refurbish their portable generator. They use it to run their roof top air conditioning in their giant 6 wheel drive Mercedes van and they know they’ll need it in the equatorial Amazon.

Then we all had a barbecue.

We didn’t eat the cat but Rusty was sleeping and happily didn’t notice me fondling it.

Adrián the Argentine took to the grill in best local style and cooked beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Just a mere snack to get us through a cold Saturday afternoon.

We had a weird but delicious boiled egg cheese and rice salad (above) with a more conventional carrot salad and Layne produced a couscous feta and tomato salad which tasted exotic to the locals. And there was a cheese fondue.

I asked Adrián how it was to be an outsider coming to this country and he said if you want to work you can get ahead but Uruguayans whom he views as lazy, get annoyed if incomers are too successful. He plans to be very successful, our ambitious and capable Adrián. Coffee revived us momentarily but a long nap was indicated.

Claudia and Norbert looking unusually serious.

Maria-Jose and Adrián’s gardener a Peruvian called Hoger. We reminisced with him about Peru and its food.

Your maté kit, bitter chopped grasses mashed in the cup with hot water from the thermos to top it up from time to time. Wussies add sugar, locals don’t. It’s disgusting stuff.

Argentines and Uruguayans will haul maté around with them everywhere. You know you’re entering Argentina when the customs counter has a maté cup and straw sitting on it. Everyone in Argentine offices across the country suck from the same straw from their shared maté cup. I told you it’s disgusting. But cultural.

Pitmaster.

Stray cat found a home when pregnant. The litter found new homes and mom got fixed.

Rusty does not frighten her. Much.

String coffee with Swiss Toblerone for dessert.

Then the Swiss had to go so they did.

Monster Mercedes Truck. If we meet them again we will recognize them.

The master of his domain:

I can’t wait to test out our new systems. Living aboard should be a well electrified experience.

Our Victron Promaster

2026-05-15T02:00:00.000-04:00

Works progresses on GANNET2 and we seem to have found the cause of the problem that burned out our 110 volt battery charger. The shore power plug had crossed wires. Probably they got crossed in Brasilia and luckily Adrián checks everything.

The 110 volter inverter and charger is supposed to be in Uruguay tomorrow and Adrián is ready to install it as soon as it arrives next week. Meanwhile he is preparing to install a 220 volt plug to charge in countries that use that voltage. He inspected our 110 volt plug, the one that’s dangling above and found the crossed wires that burned out our original charger.

The 220 volt charger is the first box and it was tested yesterday: it works.

Then there is the solar charger box and the panels put out full amperage into 50 in strong winter sun. The engine charger has been dropping amperage as it warms up and Adrián is planning to move it to a separate bus bar to fix that.

We have a heater that ran perfectly for two hours as a test run. There are some other jobs to do including some carpentry work.

The parts cost is around $12,000 which digs deep. Especially as some of it is fixing mistakes made in Brasilia. But now we have a system including new batteries that could last the rest of our lives and with air conditioning heat and powerful solar panels we have a home that will be very livable.

Adrián is looking into our rain leaks that typically wet the engine on Promasters. He may even fix them knowing him. He cleaned the engine too and got rid of our red Amazon dust.

Victron is all blue:

Our new Victron 180 batteries, three of them faking up so little space.

And it’s all monitored on the phone of the owner. Amazing.

Cabin Heat

2026-05-14T02:00:00.016-04:00

This industrial photograph shows the top of the 24 gallon fuel tank which sits between the seats in the Promaster.

The two kilowatt heater uses three amps of electricity and sips gasoline from the main tank and blows heat which we have missed from time to time in the Andes, in windy Patagonia and on the cool foggy Pacific coast of Chile.

It was installed yesterday by Adrián with its switch mounted in the sidewall next to the passenger seat. This is where Layne sits when we are in the van and she will control its seven levels of heat blowing on her feet. The fuel pump cover being screwed down after the heater installation:

Our only source of heat other than the cabin blower off the engine was a space heater we plugged in to our 110 bolt system and it helped at vast cost in electricity, something like 60 amps.

The advantages of this heater are that it gives us comfort in a wider range of temperatures (and we are from the Florida Keys), gasoline burns at high altitude where diesel heaters choke, it produces no soot and it uses the same fuel as the engine do we don’t have to carry a diesel tank around with us

It comes with an optional long hose to direct the heat but we don’t be using that. Our van is well insulated and this single outlet will be fine to keep us warm on cold days and evenings.

Adrián had to remove the heavy passenger seat to get it out but he is nothing if not careful and precise. It all worked out.

The solar panels are charging and the direct charge from the engine is producing 50 amps for the house batteries which is excellent as we now have no need to listen to the second alternator protesting with its squealing belt anymore.

Up next: installing the 220 volt shorepower plug and then we await the arrival of the new 110 volt 3,000 watt inverter which is supposed to be in Uruguay from California on Friday. Maybe.

At The Shop

2026-05-13T02:00:00.038-04:00

One more day waiting for GANNET2 to be ready for the next part of the road, but the work is moving right along. Our ever irritating second alternator is out after much grunting.

It took time and effort but the accessory alternator supposed to charge our house batteries as we drive finally yielded to strength and came out.

Adrián suggested we lost more than a hundred pounds weight removing the alternator that rarely ran smoothly in five years of driving.

Piles of heavy cable cane with it all replaced by one blue box, the smallest of the there below:

Next to it are three 180 amp Victron batteries all three combined the sizes of one of our old 250 amp Go Power lithium batteries and we had two.

Adrián the retired Argentine Air Force engineer is doing a great job of doing things right. I love the logic and simplicity of his installation . We are confident this will hold together for years to come. He likes things done right. We meanwhile keep our fingers crossed.

Our neighbors and the road out front.

A French Toyota Land Cruiser in storage. In Uruguay you can easily get permission to store your vehicle up to one year so lots of Europeans do that while they spend summer at home.

Rusty living well.

Crossing Uruguay Last Week

2026-05-12T02:00:00.009-04:00

Work is underway.

Meanwhile to pass the time a look back to last week.

We stopped in the town of Mercedes to spend the night on our way into Uruguay after our struggles at the border and we saw an illuminated sign on our way to a street camp in town. “Our Country Was Born Here.”

That statement deserved some investigation. The town was founded in 1788 named the New Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy (mercy is Mercedes in Spanish). The town has a population of 45,000 people and is known for its massive waterfront drive along the Rio Negro which was precisely where we down the night two Sundays ago:

And the waterfront was where I walked Rusty on Monday morning and where we met the locals:

The Rio Negro:

The bank of the Rio Negro:

Rusty on the bank of the Rio Negro:

Autumn along the Rio Negro.

Part of the waterfront park along the Rio Negro:

There were a couple of local RVs whose occupants we never saw.

We had some shopping to do after crossing the border and we wanted to pick up some cash at the ATM. Apparently they had plenty not that we needed that much:

After the bank got resupplied with cash we went to the supermarket and got US $100 worth of food, a reminder how expensive Uruguay is compared to other countries hereabouts:

The quality of the meat is excellent.

One odd thing about Uruguay is how there aren’t necessarily commercial districts in towns. Businesses sprout up in people’s houses and you have to know where they are especially as most aren’t very good at putting up legible signs. This seems to be a hardware store with a home on top:

The main supermarket even doesn’t have much in the way of advertising.

And that was another day in Uruguay.

Work Starts Today

2026-05-11T02:00:00.084-04:00

Adrián drove 75 miles Friday to the German workshop where we stopped previously and picked up supplies for our various jobs. UY Storage is the importer of Victron electronic parts for camper builds and Adrián had stuff to gather for our build.

So after much discussion we want to install a gasoline heater which will undoubtedly blow up but before it does it will heat our cabin easily and it won’t suffer from altitude problems like a diesel heater. Nor will we have to carry separate fuel to feed it.

Our new 110 volt 3,000 watt inverter is en route from Miami supposedly so it hasn’t arrived but it should be here soon I hope and it will look like this.

And Adrián will be removing our squealing second alternator and replacing with a small blue box that will charge our house batteries from our engine battery:

Our 2 old Canadian Go Power lithium batteries, 250 amps each will be replaced by three 180 amp Victron batteries which will be the size of one of our 250 amp blocks saving space and power. Plus we will have a new shore power charger which will take any voltage from 110 to 240:

How long will it take to install it all? Good question meanwhile we suffer through 45 degree days in Adrián’s rental cottage.

Thank god the rain has stopped because that put a serious damper on going outdoors. Now it’s just cold.

A Border Fiasco

2026-05-10T02:00:00.140-04:00

Last Sunday we entered Uruguay from Argentina on our way to Adrián’s workshop where we are parked right now. We have crossed so many borders they don’t typically stress us very much, though for many overlanders they are one of the most feared moments on a drive through foreign countries.

We like to approach a border late in the morning after the stressed out early arrivals and local commuters have gone through and the officials have had time to have a coffee and settle into their desks. We are unstressed because we have the correct papers and they are unstressed because they have finished dealing with the Type A border crossers. Good.

As we came off the bridge at the Uruguayan end traffic ground to a halt. There was a problem ahead. No one moved. We pulled off and watched a TV show as the officials sorted out whatever was wrong. We had started late in the day as we didn’t have far to drive so our relaxed approach led us to be still waiting to get to the checkpoint at four pm. Oh well we thought as we got back into line to see what was going on.

The line nudged through the bridge toll booth and we were just behind an Australian Land Cruiser with a Victoria State license plate. It was a slow pair of lines that inched to the first border booth.

Argentina has closed its frontier post on the west end of the bridge and nowadays both countries use the facilities at the Uruguayan end of the bridge in Fray Bentos. We handed our vehicle temporary import permit to a dude standing roadside in an Argentine customs jacket and drove on to the green light at the first immigration booth. We got a 90 day stamp in our passports without even getting out of the car.

The customs is always harder for us because that’s where agriculture hangs out waiting to inspect dog papers, and we have some rather uncertain papers for Rusty from Brazil creating a smidgen of uncertainty.

The vet in Uruguay assured us the permit is good for sixty days, until June 8th for us to cross any Mercosur border. Mercosur is a collection of countries forming a common market in South America, and that allows easy passage of goods and people similar to the European Union. The US isn’t in the common market of course so we have to get the full treatment at the border with a passport stamp and a Temporary Import Permit for GANNET2. We show up with our passports and our car registration and we have Mercosur car insurance coverage but no one ever asks for that though they are supposed to…So the car part should be easy and the dog part, the final inspection point, should be too even though Uruguay has the strictest pet entry rules of any country.

So that was the scenario before we got to the border. Unbeknownst to me Layne was also privately worrying that our insurance expired in a couple of days and we hadn’t yet received our coverage letter for this next year of Mercosur car insurance coverage. It costs $900 a year for liability in every country except Colombia Venezuela and the Guyanas. As it turned out no one cared, and then the customs lady in the Uruguayan booth looked deeply embarrassed telling us the computers were down and they couldn’t process non Mercosur cars. Locals breezed through but the Australians and ourselves had to park to one side and wait for the computers to get back online. It was nearly five pm already and we were stuck. We weren’t going to let Rusty out as we wanted to draw no attention to him and there we sat chatting with the Australians, veterans of overlanding in Africa and no strangers to bureaucratic delays.

Eventually the computers came back up and our embarrassed clerk hustled our papers and we were allowed to go. Just like that, no fridge inspection, no mention of Rusty or his papers we were free to drive into Uruguay. That worked for us and we stopped only when we were well out of sight to let Rusty out of the van for a bit. It was pitch dark by then and we were all ready to stop for the night.

That wasn’t the end of a rather long day because I made a monumental error worthy of an inexperienced traveler: I lost sight of the decimal point. I decided to update our highway toll account in Uruguay. All toll booths are automated and you have to buy the local equivalent of a Sunpass and stick the transponder on your windshield. Duly noted.

I got my currency conversion muddled up and to make a long story short I put US $3,000 on our account instead of $30. That discovery put a damper on our long awaited dinner in our van last Sunday night but to her credit Layne did not tear my head off for my stupidity. Not one word of recrimination passed her rather tense lips.

Every Uruguayan toll booth, though automated has an office on site staffed 24 hours a day so you can charge your account or ask for help. The next day I showed them my phone screen to speed up their comprehension of my blunder and after they got a startled look on their faces they burst into laughter after I asked them to please save my marriage. You will notice the amount is preceded by a dollar sign. In Latin America that represents the local currency in this case pesos which convert at 40 to 1. So $120,000 equals $,3000 in US dollars. I showed this to the toll booth staff:

Of course they agreed to annul the charge and let me put a more sensible thirty dollars, 1200 pesos, on my toll account. All was well after a fair bit of mockery that I richly deserved.

And some time later than expected last Monday we got on our way to the workshop after the worst border crossing we’d had in a very long time. And actually aside from having to wait a bit it wasn’t bad at all.

The toll fiasco had looked appalling at first but even that got straightened out easily thanks to the very helpful staff. I couldn’t believe my luck.

Almost all Uruguay’s electricity is generated by renewables and delivered by a national public utility. The country has the least blackouts of any nation in South America.

I like driving these highways.

Iowa in South America.

55 mph.

Our destination.

Interim

2026-05-09T02:00:00.118-04:00

Some pictures around where we are staying. I cannot deny it’s boring but the work is important. I’m hoping we will be energy independent for a few years ahead. So here we are, mostly cold and damp.

They love to grill (asado) in Uruguay just like in Argentina. We use our Skotti grill.

Gas grilling is frowned upon in countries where they require wood to cook meat. I like our gas burner.

Vans awaiting conversion.

The cement marks new column locations for a workshop to be built as the business grows.

A local customer with a Peugeot Boxer, a common diesel variant of our Promaster, both based on the Fiat Ducato.

Nueva Helvecia the big town nearby, cheese capital of Uruguay. New Switzerland:

Look at that smooth black top…Uruguay has quality main highways. The back roads and city streets tend to be crappy but 60 mph is easy on the main roads.

I don’t know how they do it but most of the dirt streets we’ve driven have been very good quality. Uruguay is known as the least corrupt most orderly country in Latin America. And the most expensive.

Fall is here. Housing stock looks like good quality bungalows but people drive a lot of older cars. We see broken down cars a lot more here than you’d expect in a functioning nation. I get the feeling locals feel the high cost of living more than they might admit.

Montevideo is the main landing port for Europeans shipping their cars to South America. They don’t hang around here much and I think that’s because Uruguay is too much like where they came from. They land on this new continent looking for adventure and mountains and folklore and llamas and all that stuff. Instead they find Iowa, so they head west towards Bolivia and Peru.

If you’re looking for a peaceful secure country with easy tax laws to settle in, Uruguay would be a good choice. It’s not cheap here but for us it’s a nice break from the organized chaos in other countries.

Chile is still my favorite country its spectacularly varied scenery and social cohesion similar to Uruguay’s. Our plan is to fully test our new systems once they are installed by driving around the country and checking it out fully. I’m curious to see what we find. Eventually we’ll be on the road.

Waiting

2026-05-08T04:07:00.005-04:00

I like living in a van. I miss not being aboard GANNET2. I have four rooms at my disposal plus a bathroom with a hot shower and a toilet which can cope with toilet paper, which in South America is not normal. And yet I miss living cramped in a small space which requires me to empty my own toilet. I am coming to think I must have a Mongolian yak herder in my not too distant ancestry.

I’m guessing she takes a shower about as often as I do. I hear other people living in vans complain about something they call “decision fatigue” and they use the term to describe the aggravation of finding somewhere to park to sleep each night. After five years of living in a van I feel no such fatigue, indeed now I am in a cottage awaiting GANNET2’s electrical modernization, I positively miss the nightly decision.

I am old enough and experienced enough in my life to know I will wake up one day and decide I’ve had enough and it will be time try something new, most likely a rest home at this stage, but for now I live in a van and I like it.

Rusty likes home life and our first full day in here on Tuesday he spent most of the day on his bed snoring, catching up on rest his nomad life denies him. Wednesday night we had a massive thunder and lightning storm which freaked him out which I haven’t seen in a while as he seems to find GANNET2 reassuring in those conditions where in the house he paced around and panted ignoring my efforts to calm him. None of us got any sleep.

Before the dismantling of our electrical system began we drove into New Switzerland to buy food and have lunch which included a Swiss fondue of course which I only remembered to photograph as we reached the dregs of the pot.

The Swiss traditions are expressed in cheese making but the locals are pure Uruguayans. The language is long since lost unlike some German communities we have seen in Brazil.

We got some smelly cheeses which can be hard to find in Latin America, land of bland white cheese.

Other than that we sit and wait for parts to arrive. The idea is that after this rebuild we hope we will have a home suitable for more years of living with power to sustain our electric home. A couple more years in South America then home to see what a mess you have made of things in our absence. All with modern self sustaining electrical set up I hope. Fingers crossed indeed we will be testing it in a couple of weeks wild camping Uruguay land of empty beaches and shy little national parks.

Uruguay Again, Repairs Again

2026-05-07T02:00:00.047-04:00

We are arrived at the mechanic’s shop in Colonia Valdense, Uruguay.

Adrián has parts ordered and he has been preparing GANNET2 for the parts that have been shipped. We’ve moved into his guest unit while GANNET2 is stripped and disemboweled.

I am exhausted after discussing parts and making decisions and planning as well as shuffling our life into the cottage. Rusty is very happy to be in a house.

And has been sticking to his bed with only occasional forays into the garden.

The shop is in the country which is pretty in Uruguay.

So here we are possibly for two weeks. We have some errors to repair and some money to spend and it’s frustrating. But we will have a well appointed van I hope with modern electronics when we are done.

The plan is to throw away the second alternator and replace it with a DC charging system off the starter battery. Then we want to install a shore power charging system for 110 volts or 220 volts so we can plug in and charge our batteries in any country. We are also hoping to figure an installation for a 2 kw gasoline powered heater for the cabin. The parts so far amount to $5,000. Massively annoying but we are hoping this will be the last time for a while we are going to have to tackle this. The parts come from the US and are expensive. Adrian seems capable a retired Argentine Air Force engineer who is studying our systems with an eye to improving the half job done in Brazil. Fingers crossed.

We are both ready and eager to be traveling again but this time we plan to head off into winter with a fully functional house.

Good Bye Buenos Aires

2026-05-04T01:30:00.096-04:00

I hope by the time you open this page we will be in Uruguay discussing repairing our shore power charger, installing a gasoline heater and removing the squeaky second alternator. That our fridge is repaired feels wonderful but we have some more jobs to get done to refresh our home. So in the meantime here are some random photos of Buenos Aires until we get back there again.

I only noticed the height restriction at the last minute. Luckily no one was behind us as I backed up.

We tried to go the Chinese restaurant recommended by Eric who came south in his Promaster last year but the area was packed. You really need an Uber for carefree travel around Buenos Aires.

Do not graffiti - historic facade.

Paula photographed her drink being made in the speakeasy bar, under the ground, entered via the Atlantic Florist’s shop. It reminded me of New Orleans so I had a Sazerac.

12 volts and running well: