Category: Argentina

After a day of complete and utter rest on Sunday, today is a complete contrast.

Sunday night in the park filled with people, bands, and crafts stalls.

The first task for the day is getting the missing and broken pieces on my bike replaced. So contracting a taxi driver to shuttle me around the town, I move from place to place searching for those elusive bits that seem to belong only to the bygone era when the bike was made. Although many parts come close, there is nothing that works.

Pipa’s Workshop
The main bearings are easy to find, as the shops here are large and filled with every variety of item. Quite a contrast from the places that I have known in Corrientes. The other parts remain missing, but my taxi driver who also owns a couple of motorbikes makes a suggestion. He knows a guy whom he claims is the best guy in the entire city to solve my problem. If  this guy cannot fix my problem then it cannot be solved in Saenz Peña.

Skeptical at first, when we arrive at Pipa’s workshop I start to believe the claims about the place. A motorbike workshop that specialises in racing bikes, it has all of the lathes and other specialised equipment needed to fabricate any broken or missing part. When presented with the broken bits of my bike, the guy suggests that it is possible to fix, if I leave them with him until the afternoon.

Some of the damaged parts from my bike.

It is still morning when I consider calling a shop I know in Resistencia to see if they have the parts. When I am assured that they do, I return to Pipa’s to inform him. His preference is to fix it here, and my presence sends him into action, looking for a solution. Half an hour later I discover that there is no solution for me in this town.

Searching for a Solution
My solution lies in Resistencia, or Corrientes where there are shops with the parts that I desperately need. Already into the fourth day of my saga, my search for a courier service that leaves today to take my parts ends up fruitless. It would now be tomorrow evening at the earliest that my parts would arrive here.

With desperation rising, there had to be another way. There was. The only other way to get the parts today was for me to go for them myself. That meant a bus ride to Resistencia.

The bus terminal in Saenz Peña.

Pirota
At 5.30pm I arrived in Resistencia after a two and a half hour journey on the bus and went straight to Pirota, a shop I had known only through phone calls and recommendations. Well presented, and filled with plaques and paper clippings about the owner as a basketball champion, it was an old guy that served me.

The shop was busy and he was on his own, so it was a long wait between other customers for him to help me out. As the time wore on, it became obvious that he had no actual replacement parts for my bike. The parts that were appearing on the counter before me were assorted bits and pieces that may or may not work in solving my problem.

Andérica
When it became more obvious that these parts were a gamble, there was only one place that I had left to go. Andérica, Corrientes. They have been the ones that have been able to supply me with genuine Siambretta parts when I have needed them.

Having made some good friends at this shop, the guys there were very surprised to see me again after my final farewells only a few days ago. They all wanted to hear the story of what happened and how far I got and so on. We chatted away as they searched out the missing parts. All genuine Siambretta parts. Almost all perfect for the job.

On the way home over the bridge to Resistencia.

Heading Home
Now that I had my parts gathered together, I needed to get back to Saenz Peña where my hotel room was still booked. Time was tight to get the 9pm bus, so a couple of taxis were needed to get me to the bus terminal in time where I grab one of the very last seats.

The journey back home was uneventful, and by midnight my day had finished. I now had the pieces. Tomorrow we begin to put them together, with some extra work required to get everything to fit.