Things were no longer easy for our scooter, which seemed to have engine problems again.
We left Concepción with the intention of crossing the border to Argentina as soon as possible. Kitsos has long seemed to be malfunctioning. We initially felt confident on our scooter, because we had done a good maintenance at a scooter garage in Buenos Aires exactly 3 months before. But we soon accepted that things were not going very well. The engine seemed to lose power, and sometimes it would start with difficulty. Other times we felt that something was holding it back, but we could only make assumptions for the time being. So, we contacted a mechanic in San Juan, Argentina and all we had to do was manage to get to his garage, 1000 kilometers away from where we were.
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Our last night in Chile left us with a bittersweet aftertaste as, while we got permission to camp behind a gas station on the highway and spend the night there, just as the sun went down, the person in charge changed his mind and made us leave in a very rude manner. This resulted in us finding ourselves in the dark on the highway in the middle of nowhere, not knowing where to spend the night. Finally, at a truck parking lot, after we explained to the guard the dangerous situation we were in, he allowed us to pitch our tent and stay there. The next morning, as soon as the sun rose, we left full of optimism to cross the border.
We crossed the border to Argentina through Paso Pehuenche, which we knew very well, having done the same route again – in the opposite direction – some time before. Our trip wasn't exactly fun, as Kitsos' engine was not working well – which didn't let us relax. We stayed at the municipal campsite of Malargüe and without further ado we continued to Mendoza. On its outskirts, a local vespista was waiting to host us, as the guys from San Juan had called every scooter club on our way, letting everyone know that we were heading to San Juan. We stayed at his house one night and from there, the next day we arrived at our destination dehydrated and exhausted. Kitsos' condition was getting worse and worse, but ours wasn't better either. It was mid-January – summer in the southern hemisphere – and the heat in the area was unbearable. The sun was burning our heads and we felt like we were going to pass out. Our worry about whether we would make it was only making our headache worse.
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But the news when we arrived was not the best. The parts we needed were coming from Buenos Aires, but until they arrived, the mechanic would be away on vacation with his family and we had to wait two weeks for him to come back and fix the bike for us. The only good thing about this story was that for as long as we needed to stay in San Juan, Raul, a Vespa rider who was also the president of the local Vespa Club, offered us his apartment. We had a good time with Raul, his partner Selva and her mother, but our minds were glued to Kitso who was stuck in the mechanic's closed garage. On top of it all, the news when we arrived was not the best. The parts we needed were coming from Buenos Aires, but until they arrived, the mechanic would be away on vacation and we had to wait two weeks for him to rwturn and fix the our scooter. The only good thing about this story was that, for as long as we needed to stay in San Juan, Raul, a Vespa rider who was also the president of the local Vespa Club, offered us his apartment. We had a good time with Raul, his partner Selva and her mother, but our minds were on our poor scooter that was stuck in the mechanic's closed garage.
At the end of January, Kitsos was finally ready and, with a more optimistic mood, we set off from San Juan, bound for Northern Argentina and Bolivia! But again, our joy did not last long. From the first day on the road, the problems started again. Every time we turned off the engine, it had a hard time getting going again. At first, we were in complete denial: “There's no way it's a problem, we just fixed it!” we were saying to each other and went on. Of course, the itinerary changed immediately. The plans for Bolivia fell through and this time we decided to go to Paraguay. In Paraguay we could find some spare parts and at the same time the folks from scootershop.gr (our scooter garage in Greece), could send us a new cylinder and piston, that would end the problems once and for all.
One or two days later, we managed to reach the city of Catamarca, a city that, as we passed through its ring road, I felt sad that we would not visit. Our journey had turned into an agonizing race, with constant adversities and problems. Our only concern was to get somewhere without getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. We both felt tired and thought that what we were doing made no sense anymore. At a small municipal campsite outside Catamarca, when we tried to start the engine, we realized that it had lost all compression. Logic prevailed and we decided that if we manage to get the scooter working the next morning, then we will go straight back to Catamarca to look for a solution. To make us feel better, our neighbor at the campsite offered to load the scooter into his van and take us there himself, but finally, the miracle happened and the engine started for one last time. So, we ended up at another campsite, this time only 4 kilometers from the city center. When we opened the cylinder head, we found that one of the two piston rings had broken. That's it! We were stuck for good…
The days at the campsite passed excruciatingly slowly. The heat and inactivity, as well as the complete lack of a plan, had exhausted us. At the campsite there was no internet or mobile phone coverage and we had to walk 8 kilometers to reach the city and communicate with the outside world. We couldn't go on like this. For the first time in our trip, we decided to rent an apartment and rest – to clear our minds and see what we would do. The place we rented was a small, beautiful apartment in the quiet city of Catamarca. For the first time in a while, we had our own space. We ordered new piston rings and as soon as they arrived, Stergios was quick to install them. We were frustrated and disappointed with the work the mechanics had done on poor scooter's engine. Finally, our mistake had become a lesson and we promised that from now on, no one will put a hand on our Vespa except us!
Kitsos had fully recovered, we were now at the end of February and finally, in a very short time we would be on the road again. Um, no! Just before we left, Stergio's laptop broke and of course, we had to stay until it was fixed. The slow pace of life in the Argentinian province and the comfort of our apartment was the key reasons that changed the whole story: before we noticed, it was mid March already and we were still in Catamarca. Then, news about a new virus spreading all over the world began to reach our ears...
PS A whole year passed in Catamarca, the city I was sad because I wouldn't visit when in January '20 we crossed its outskirts, still unaware of what was about to happen. The pandemic forced us to change all our plans, maybe even our philosophy of life to a certain extent. In the end, we did not return to Greece with the outbreak of the coronavirus. We stayed in Argentina, who treated us nicely, very nicely. At the beginning of '21 we moved from Catamarca to Buenos Aires where we stayed for another year and a half. Through something so bad, we came out not only unharmed, but mainly grateful for the opportunities we were given and the unforgettable moments we had.
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