November 13, 2018 – November 19, 2018

We returned to La Serena to take Seymour into the Dodge dealership for diagnosis. We arrived early, left the truck at the garage and walked, with Piper, to a nearby outdoor mall to kill some time. We moved from shady bench to shady bench as the sun made its way across the morning sky.  We snuck into the Sodimac (South America’s version of Home Depot) to use the washrooms. We watched the security guard watch us. We went for a coffee. We searched for an outdoor plug to recharge our phone and tablet. It was a little like being homeless for 6 or 7 hours, except, of course, we knew we would have a nice warm bed at the end of the day.

We were bored of waiting, so we headed back to the garage, about an hour earlier than when they had told us to return, hoping that there would be some news.  We were worried that the starting issues might be related to the high pressure injection system, which could quickly become very expensive and could cause a long delay in our trip if parts needed to be ordered.  However, It didn’t make sense to Derek that it would be the injectors as the truck was running so well and we were getting good fuel economy, but every google search we did on the symptoms mentioned the injectors.  The mechanic told us they still had one more test to run. Derek thought that was good news because if it were the injectors they would most likely know, already.  

Finally, the mechanic came in and told Derek that they couldn’t find anything wrong with the truck. They did try removing the engine fuel filter, and that seemed to help, so they recommended changing the filter. We had never changed it as we have 2 higher specification pre-filters which are supposed to filter everything before it gets to this filter.  But we were game to give it a try. The new filter was installed, Derek and the mechanic drove the truck for a few kilometres with the diagnostic machine connected, and all seemed to be working. We were not charged anything for the labour or for the diagnostics, and just $20 for the new filter….we were very happy. We decided that we would spend one more night in La Serena and headed out for a nice seafood dinner in the number one rated restaurant in the area to celebrate.

We were anxious to make some miles, so the next day we headed in the direction of Santiago de Chile, the country’s capital city. I had found some wild camping on iOverlander that sounded perfect…a beautiful canyon with several areas to camp along the river.

After a night in the fishing village of Horcan, we drove around the port city of Valparaiso and towards Santiago, then turned off on a paved rural road. We drove past vineyards and fields of wild flowers. It was beautiful and we were excited to be back in the countryside.

We turned off onto the gravel road and followed a narrow track into a canyon. At times the narrow road lead up the sides of the canyon, and with one hundred metres or more drop offs into the canyon.  We met a dump truck along the way, and he graciously backed down the track to a pull out in order to let us by….nice, that would never have happened in Peru!

We arrived at our intended camping spot to find a fenced in “eco reserve”, with no signs of anyone being around. So we continued on a bit, but the road turned away from the river, so we found a place to turn around, and we headed back to investigate some of the smaller tracks that lead to the river.

We pulled into 2 or 3 spots, which looked amazing from the main road, but were littered with broken glass, all types of plastics, chicken bones…..we were totally disheartened. It was such a beautiful area, but the idea of camping amid all the debris, not to mention trying to keep Piper out of all the garbage, did nothing for us. We decided to head on, and camped for the night at a Copec gas station just outside of Santiago and next to the airport…about as far from wild camping as you can get.

A few days earlier we had seen a photo that friends had posted on Facebook of a beautiful mountain lake and glaciers just east of Santiago. I contacted them and asked if the area was nice for camping and if it was clean.  They assured us that we and Piper would love it, that it was very remote and we would likely be the only people there. We decided to head to Embalse del Yeso (embalse means reservoir). We resupplied on the way through Santiago, and began our drive up through the vineyard filled Maipo Valley towards the dam.

It was a Saturday, and as we got close to the dam we met many small tourist vans. When we arrived at the reservoir, there were several buses parked along the narrow road, and crowds of people out walking along the road. We drove slowly past them, often having to wait for them to get out of the middle of the road, or for them to finish taking their selfies so that we would have room to pass.

Again, we were on a road that was often just one lane wide. If we saw on coming traffic and there was a slightly wider place on the road, we would pull over and wait until the other vehicle made it past us. We finally reached the end of the reservoir where there was a wild camp marked on iOverlander. It was down in the silty flats where the river enters the reservoir. We had read that you needed to be careful, as it was easy to get bogged down and sink into the silt. We decided to drive on a bit, and were happy to find a nice solid gravel area to camp for the evening.

The next day we drove a bit further up the valley, went for a small hike, and then drove back down the valley and found an idyllic place to camp. We shared it with picnickers during the day, but then Sunday evening came, and we had the place to ourselves.

We assumed that as it was now Monday, that we would have the narrow road around the reservoir all to ourselves, but instead we had to wait for about five gravel trucks to get past us, and we again encountered many tourists strolling along the road near to the dam. How our friends got the place to theirselves, we will never know, but it didn’t matter…. we got to camp in an almost pristine setting with incredible views and it was exactly what we needed before heading into the big city of Santiago de Chile.