Got the keys!

We now have the keys and the campervan is in our possession!  Our first home together lol!  We had to go to another notary this morning (Thursday 26th) to complete the transfer of ownership.  

They wrote a contract spelling out that the old owner was selling it to us.  Both the old owner and Paul had to sign and fingerprint 4 copies of the contract - one for each of us, one for the notary to keep and one for the equivalent of the DVLA (Registro Civil).

Shortly after this photo was taken, the notary realised that he'd only used Paul's passport number in the contract when he should also have included his Chilean tax number.  So they had to redo it!

But we finally got there and the campervan is officially legally ours.  Actually, in normal circumstances, we'd have had to go to the Registro Civil, but because they're on strike, we couldn't - the notary will push through the paperwork for us when the strike eventually ends and we'll be able to get our registration documents via the internet.  Yay for strikes!

The seller, Salvatore, invited us to lunch later in the afternoon, so in the meantime Mario took me and Paul shopping for tools and other man-things for the van (I'll buy flowers and doilies another day...)

Did we tell you Mario's a mechanic?  When we looked at the campervan initially, he said there were a couple of things that needed checking over so he's going to do that this weekend.  Today's problem was finding somewhere to park the campervan.  His parents said we could park it on their drive, but Mario wasn't sure the camper would fit...

His mum was pretty keen for it to work though, so we could climb up and pick the last 2 oranges off her tree!

In the end, Mario's girlfriend Paula negotiated for us to be allowed to park it on a secure car park near her work.  It's not far from Paula's house so Mario can drive the van over to do the work on it.  Thank you Paula for all your hard bargaining!!!

Now time for today's food picture:

This was lunch at Salvatore's: a Chilean dish that was a sort of lentil and rice stew with sausage and chilli oil, served with homemade bread.  Absolute yum!

After lunch, Salvatore handed over the keys:

Then we went to the petrol station:

And had the windscreen cleaned:

Full tank of diesel at 80p/litre cost 38,000 pesos or about £50!!  We're told Chile has the most expensive fuel of all the countries we intend to drive through.

So now we can start building an onward plan.  Eddie, the Chinese salsa teacher, is having a party on the roof on Saturday (Happy Birthday Chino!) so we are staying for that (hopefully Mario and Paula can come too!)  Then on Sunday the plan is to finally leave Santiago and drive to Mendoza in Argentina!  Yay!  

As if he hasn't done enough already, Mario said he wants to drive in convoy with us to Mendoza because his cousin there is a specialist in diesel engines and has agreed to give our camper the once over in his workshop!  So Mario, Paula and his mum & dad are going to join us on the first leg of our adventure!!  Can't wait!