James >> Our plan today was to take a bus back to Copiapó, pick up our fixed van and hit the road again. The Chilean way seems to be, even when you should open at 10 doesn't mean you do. The ticket office was 2 minutes walk away from the bus station, and opened at 10, the bus was scheudaled for 10:20. At about 5 past the women running the office turned up (with shopping in hand) and slowly started to open the office. By the time it came to buying the ticket, she looked at me strangely and confirmed I wanted the bus that now departed in 3 mins (of course the ticket office is not at the bus station). With tickets in hand I got back to the bus station just in time for the scheduled departure. Of course the bus was 20 minutes late, so no dramas there! We boarded a bus that seemed to be doing a long haul journey; the people looked haggered, and the toliet really stunk. Interestingly there was a group of transsexuals on the bus; the size of their breast implants was impressive, more impressive still their buttock implants, they were HUGE!!!!
We arrived in Copiapó around midday. Walking up to the mechanic, we found the previously busy street was now filled with a market! The gate for the mechanic was open (great since we were not entirely confident they would even be open). As we approached the van we saw that the engine was still in parts, which was not such a great sign. We asked the men working in the adjacent workshop where the mechanic was, they directed us to his phone number and told us he would be back. The guys there were bending pipe to make new exhausts, apparently they have no need for a hydraulic pipe bender, they just use a big lever and the strength of two grown men.
We wandered through the market to kill some time (our large bush walking packs and all). The market seemed to have everything; the usual fruit, vegetable, fish and meat as well as second hand circuit breakers, and smashed mobile phones (including THE original Nokia 3310!). We decided to ask Dan (who helped us get the RUT in Santiago) to call the mechanic for us. He didn't answer calls or our messages (although we know he did read them). We went back to the workshop and again asked the exhaust men, who brought us chairs and told us to wait. We set about measuring up mosquito nets for the windows and whiled away a few hours. Eventually a man turned up who worked for the mechanic. We got Dan to speak to him. After quite a lengthy discussion (apparently Chileans get as frustrated as we do with their own inefficencies) Dan said it seemed the part required needed to come from Santiago and wouldn't arrive until Monday or Tuesday, despite the mechanic previously telling us the van would be ready to go today. They then apparently need a day or two to put the part back in. Dan assured us that it is the Chilean way not to answer calls or messages when the news is bad. With another 4 days to fill, we decided to stay put; it would be at least a 5 hour bus trip to anywhere, and a lot longer to somewhere we hadn't already been. Booking some accommodation for the night we realised that we had spent more nights in hotels/apartments/hostals than in the van. Deciding that our time would be best spent improving our horrific spanish, we set about finding someone who offered English lessons, and hoped they would also be able to provide us with some assistance with our Spanish. Fortunately one of the people with ads responded to us and we set up a meeting for the next evening!