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Happytravelling : Quelle que soit la durée du voyage, où qu'il nous amène, celui-ci sera inoubliable...
6 octobre 2009

Let´s get ready to go

After sending our combi to the doctor, he had to improve the interior. When we bought her, she was already equipped with furniture and a bed, made by the former owner.

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So we just had to remove the furniture, paint it, get the rust off the car, insulate her against the cold and put the furniture back. A few days of work and it is done. It was on August first. We finally left Buenos Aires the 15th of September... What happened?? Let’s go back to early August to understand. Getting the furniture out of the combi, we realized that it weighed a lot, being made of very thick wood. Over the time, the idea of making new furniture appeared in order to make our new home exactly as we wanted with a bed a little bigger, a locker for my skis, etc. This has greatly lengthened the process! (The description of the entire preparation will be detailed in a photo album to come).
Having planned to be gone from Buenos Aires mid August at the latest, Caris had stopped her lease, but at that time the combi was far from ready. Fortunately her parents found us a replacement flat in their building.

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In Caris’ flat, we did not have much room for sawing, cutting, painting, building, etc. and it quickly became a big mess but we could easily park right in front of her house. Our new house was a lot bigger with a balcony but was located in a saturated neighborhood where finding a parking spot is just impossible. And that's how our combi spent her first month birthday being towed...
Luckily, we finally found her a spot not too far from the flat and then we avoided to move her around. Going from the flat to the car with pieces of wood, furniture, etc. was pretty annoying, but we managed to do it, working on average 15 hours per day during a month and a half without a single day of rest (without any exaggeration!) Very impressive the time needed to renovate our new house. Everything seems simple and quick but if our combi is pretty and all round seen from the outside, the inside is the same! Everything is round, nothing is symmetrical, nothing is vertical... Which makes each step more complicated and the simplest task takes half a day.

While preparing the combi, we meet Mr. Vidal, a fan of Combis who once had the misfortune to see his catch fire, who is happy to see ours, and come to visit us from time to time. Very nice.

Sant Rosa, a storm that happens every year on the same date in Buenos Aires came in great shape this year with heavy rain. That day we went to the car to measure something and found that the water was entering through the windows! We tried to stop the bleeding from the inside. Nothing worked. So we had to put plastics on the outside to cover the windows. The storm passed. The next day, wiping a drop of water on the ground we realized before our intervention the water had had time to seep beneath the waterproof material that we had put to isolate from the cold! Forced to take out the bed / sofa already in place, the floor and break the junctions of the insulation material to dry the car. Happiness in its purest form. The reason of the infiltration? Faulty manufactured windows that do not have water outlets. Looking for someone who can fix the problem. Once again, the combi is one of a kind. Nobody wants to touch her windows. Searching through the city, we finally found someone who had a window factory at the other end of Buenos Aires ... a few pesos later, she was waterproof.

Three days of rain in three months between June and August, it was perfect. The eight days of rain in late August a lot less! Finishing the combi was a struggle but we eventually got there. Everything was not perfect, not everything was finished but after 45 days of intensive work we were on the edge of exhaustion and had only one desire: to begin our journey.
The last day before leaving was similar to all the previous ones, with its frenetic pace, seeking the garage than could do the alignment of the combi, because obviously this is another specialty that all mechanics can not / will not do.
We went grocery shopping. Caris’ mother cooked us all the tasty dishes which we got used to living in their building, for the trip.

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At three o'clock in the morning, I was still trying to complete important parts of the combi. Alarm at 5:30 with the aim to leave around 8am.
It did not start well because at 7 am I was still putting screws in the furniture...
Not having had a second free to test the facilities, I put the skis for the time in their locker. Stressful time, because making a custom furniture is good, verify that the object fits in is better. Luckily it fitted!
Putting everything in the car: 8 am ... 9 am ... noon ... 2pm ... Everything is okay, great! Ah, these three boxes are coming as well? While struggling to store the maximum we have our last visit of Mr. Vidal who came to see the final result.

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7pm we are finally ready. I try to clean with our new 12V vacuum cleaner (yes!) And nothing. Analysis of the situation: electrical problem with the cigarette lighter. Three hours with Caris’ father, formerly electrician and it's done!
10pm! Finally, finally, finally. The journey was long and difficult but we are there.
We say goodbye to Caris’ parents and off we go!


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Happytravelling : Quelle que soit la durée du voyage, où qu'il nous amène, celui-ci sera inoubliable...
  • «Un voyage se passe de motifs. Il ne tarde pas à prouver qu'il se suffit à lui-même. On croit qu'on va faire un voyage, mais bientôt c'est le voyage qui vous fait ou vous défait.» Nicolas Bouvier (L'usage du monde)
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