With Mario gone, I had to speak Spanish full time. It took a lot of patience from all of us but we managed to learn a bit about each other and 'Operation Argentinian SIM Card' was a success.
(For info, we've gone with a network called Personal because they're meant to have the best internet service. We paid 30 Argentinian pesos (a bit more than £3) for the SIM. That includes 20 pesos of credit, and we topped up so we could buy a 'pack' for 34 pesos that gives us 10MB of data a day for a month. Miguel had to activate it for us because it involved ringing the network and going through a menu of options.)
The van had its alarm fitted on Tuesday morning. It's pretty loud and reassuring. It cost a fair bit, but we decided we needed it after some lads on motorcycles tried to open the door on Monday afternoon while we were inside (with the doors locked). Mario's nieces saw and came out of the house and they rode off, otherwise we're not sure what else they would have done.
So, alarm fitted and goodbyes said, we set off on the first leg of our road trip on our own! Our destination was San Juan - about 200km north of Mendoza, en route to the national parks of Ischigualasto and Talampaya. I think we were both struck by how flat and barren it was. The road was good and even though we did about 2/3 of the distance we travelled on Sunday, we used nowhere near as much fuel because it was so flat. There was a random checkpoint along the way where they asked if we had any fruit and let us carry on when we said no. I also had my first go driving the van! It's nowhere near as scary as the 25ft RV we had for Burning Man! And kids have been waving at us as we go past - we almost feel like celebs!
We were aiming for a campsite called Don Bosco that was mentioned in the guidebook, but when we got there, the gate was locked. Luckily, as we'd stopped, a pickup truck had emerged from the gate next door, so Paul went and asked the woman about camping and it turned out the family allowed campers on their land for 25 pesos (£2.50 ish) per person. They even supplied electricity and drinking water. Unfortunately, we've yet to get the cable we need to hook up, so we just charged our devices from the outlet!
The first thing Paul did was wind out the van's awning and set up the BBQ.
