The Bombshell
Today was another very adventurous day. After arriving at the workshop where I left the bike, I am confronted with some serious news. The bike has a serious problem. The engine is broken somewhere on the inside. There is no quick fix.
Victor's workshop.
Worse still, is that the workshop refused to work on my bike because it was too old. Instead I am pointed down the road to another workshop that may accept the job. I thank the guy for finding the problem and push the bike down the road to the other workshop. Victor, namesake and owner of the workshop, comes out to look over the bike. To my relief he agrees to take on the job, but I must leave the bike with him.
After explaining my situation, Victor points me to the bus terminal and shortly afterwards closes up shop for the afternoon siesta. The bus terminal however, only brings sad news. That there are no buses leaving for Salta before 10pm at night. I return to my hotel, collect my bags, and head out to the main route. Perhaps I would at least be able to hitch a ride there so I could make it to the wedding.
Loaded up with my bags and heading out to the highway. Note the kung-fu shoes.
Facing Reality
The time was now 3pm, and I had been standing on the side of the road for the last two and a half hours, trying to solicit a ride from the passing motorists. I was willing to do anything to try and arrive in time for Isaac and Natalia's wedding. I never made it.
While standing on the side of the road, I considered every possibility to cover the remaining 650kms. Walking would take me between 10-15 days, riding a bicycle would be about 5 days, by horse it would take about the same time, 5 days. If I had a motorbike at 50km/h it would still take me 13 hours. By now, even at 100km/h I would not get there in time.
Waiting on the side of the road for a ride.
It was not what I had planned. Nor even something that I had considered a possibility. But here I was, having to face the reality that I would not make it to Isaac's wedding tonight. The engine on my bike was totally blown, there were no buses leaving in time, a taxi was ridiculously expensive, and after trying to hitch for so long I had received not even a hint of a ride. I was stranded and going nowhere.
Returning to Victor's Workshop
Walking back the 2km stretch to the hotel was hard with the weight of my bags bearing down upon me. Once again I checked in and then, after dropping off my bags, decided to head over to see how my motorbike was going at the workshop where I had left it. Perhaps they would know something more about it by now.
The news was that the bike was still untouched. It would be Monday before they could look at it. I suggested to Victor that since I was now hanging around and had nothing to do, perhaps I could pull the thing apart for him. He seemed happy for me to do that, perhaps because I had mentioned to him earlier that I had been a mechanic many years ago.
My bike inside and in pieces in Victor's workshop.
So with the little tools I had, and some borrowed ones, in my good clothes because my suggestion had come as a whim in the moment, and with little time before the workshop would shut, I started pulling the bike apart. Covers, cables, sides, and other parts started coming off the bike at a fast rate.
In the middle of working, a rag fell down before me, and suddenly a pair of extra hands reached down to help me. It was Victor's other mechanic who had finished his work and was now helping me to pull my bike apart. Before I had finished, Victor had also joined me, making a group of three. The whole job went very quickly and we removed everything including the crankshaft and bearings.
The Problem
It was here that we found the problem. The bottom end of the connecting rod had started to disintegrate, throwing chunks of metal into the fast moving precision areas of the engine. This caused some minor damage to the piston and cylinder, but pinned a ring to the piston, rendering it useless. Or put more simply, the engine chewed up and spat out a lot of metal chunks causing enough damage to stop it working.
The engine pulled completely apart to fix the broken bits.
Most of the parts that we need to fix the bike will be easy to find. There is one part however that needs to be perfectly correct. This may or may not cause problems. I collected all of the parts that needed to be replaced, and put them to one side. Then after a time of chatting with Victor and his mechanic, I agreed to return on Monday at 8am to search out the parts.
My bike was a mess. The damage serious. But at least now I know what the problem is, and we are on the way toward repairing it. So for now I remain here in Saenz Peña. Stranded, and going nowhere.
An overcast day in Saenz Peña kept the heat down today.