Direction: Buenos Aires, where a lovely French family is eagerly waiting to start their own adventure with our beloved Pepe. Approximately 1500 km - or about three days of driving - away... so close and yet so far.
At nightfall of the first day, tragedy strikes. Upon entering the grim suburbs of Neuquen (a petrochemical industrial centre in the Argentinian desert, and our destination for the night), Pepe makes a deafening and gut-wrenching sound, followed by a sudden loss of power, and screeches to a halt in the middle of the road.
We both know it right away: this is bad, very bad.
It is meanwhile pitch dark, Saturday night, and we are stranded on the side of a suburban road, with not even enough pesos in our pocket (our credit cards have steadily been refused at all ATMs since two days) to buy a beer (from - oh irony! - the crafts beer shop in front) or a bottle of water. So, in around 35C, we are left with no other option than boiling some water and drink hot tea. Misfortune never comes alone...
After a Sunday of DIY engine works (where Jorg's man bun is born!), some never-far-away VW community help arrives, and we are rescued from the roadside by Carlos, a cute VW T2, and its even sweeter owners Pablo & Coline. Not quite "according to plan" (but did any part of this trip go to plan?), we spend the next couple of days in their garden, while arranging alternative transport for ourselves - and Pepe! - to Buenos Aires.
No, as dire as Pepe's future may currently look, we will not leave him behind as a "Burning Van" in the Neuquen desert.
“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
We first meet Pepe's new owners in a gloomy suburb of Buenos Aires... all four of them - be it with mixed feelings - eagerly waiting for Pepe to arrive! Oh, how much we wished we could have handed him over in more pleasant circumstances, as we oh-so-well remember the feeling of meeting a non-functioning Pepe as if it were yesterday. The circle is round.
The last couple of days, non-stop negotiation and administration, with transport companies, car mechanics, VW experts, public notaries and the likes kept us awake at night (hey, is life somehow easing us into our lawyers lives again?), yet also made this trip even more unforgettable because of truly wonderful encounters: Pablo & Coline, Arnaud & Anne, and a happy reunion with good old friends Diego & Belen, to top it off.
And when we see the two little girls jumping for joy when finally meeting their long-awaited new "home", Pepe, and we enthusiastically cheer with the "VW sign", we just know it has all been worth it.
Pepe will live forever... if not in real life, then always in our hearts.
“The idea is not to live forever, but to create something that will. ”
