last time we checked out the salt flats but our day was ruined when we found out we could
no longer reverse reverse gear incorrect ratio we're still in Uyuni trying to figure out what
to do with very limited resources so this morning it does look like we have a transmission leak here
it's uh not the biggest puddle but it's coming right from the back part of the transmission
which it's not where i envisioned resealing but oh kind of a rough morning we're having trouble
finding a shop that's capable of diagnosing and possibly fixing anything with the van in this
small town we're waiting out front of a lubricant place and the guy said that he does work on
transmissions as well we did go to another place that has good reviews
and they said they could see us at two o'clock so we're not completely out of luck but
first thing that we want them to do is to flush the transmission fluid and also change the filter
and as they're doing that we would like them to check the wiring to see if there's
any faulty wires now we have another engine code which is for a low transmission fluid so
this is honestly like one of the ugliest towns i've ever been to there's just dirt roads and dust
everywhere dust and like garbage in the middle of the street just stray dogs everywhere it's not
dude you can't lick whoa it's not gonna work out for your tongue i can't even imagine
being stuck here well let's try and stay high spirits i'm sure if we just flush it
it's gonna be better so on a positive note i am almost done with my antibiotics today is the
last day i after the antibiotics i'm going to start a full probiotics two a day so it
feels good to be getting better i just really hope that next week i don't have any symptoms
but the coolant leak looks like not too bad we wiped it last night and there's
just barely any liquid there the level's still fine okay we have made a decision
finding the transmission fluid that we need for the van is impossible in this tiny town
and they said it would take two days for us to get the fluid here can we fix the leak externally
instead of internally or replacing the part that has the leak so he fixed it externally
he said it would be fine for us to drive to chile and so the biggest city in chile
is six hours and 15 minutes away from here the border is four hours away the road is not paved
this is a sketchy road to begin with we cannot go in reverse but it sounds like the problem
wasn't because you drove on the saw flat yeah it wasn't because of the salt flat the one last thing
that kind of is influencing our decision tree is that the pet paperwork is only valid for three
more days maybe two so that kind of uh changes how long we're willing to wait for transmission fluid
yeah if we can make it all the way to santiago and get it rebuilt while we get right to place that
would be much preferable and that's what we're hoping will happen yeah so the border crossing
with chile its uh reputation is the hardest border crossing in south america we are really sliding
into home base the pets need to be infected and they have all their paperwork we're not allowed to
have any vegetables in here at all they might even take some of our grains like rice and quinoa we've
heard a lot of people saying that they are going into your car they're searching everywhere they're
really looking to make sure nothing is getting into chile that's not supposed to be in chile
i'm not gonna lie this has been stressful just can't make any mistakes just are we gonna make
it to the next country and we've made a mistake so we did not take the right detour coming out
of town it was unmarked and i think i found a way we can turn around here but this is pretty sketchy
i did not think that that's what you were going to do oh my gosh i thought i was gonna
help you i thought i was gonna help you push it oh yeah i thought you were gonna come up
there and then i was gonna push it yeah i did consider that yeah using like a hill this is
like really scary honestly just like but you know we chose this life and you gotta be brave
so just doing our best unfortunately to unwind this last move it's gonna
be another sketchy hill over here it's not that bad going up right right yeah
okay great it's pretty nerve-wracking though yeah just really have to plan every turn
so we're passing a whole bunch of trucks and it's really scary
because right after they pass we can't see anything because of the dust clouds
with the transmission and it's bad state we have to go over a 14 000 foot pass
well i guess we don't have to worry about border control taking our quinoa oh what a mess
all clean
we should be coming up to the highest point pretty soon here but then it's all downhill
to santiago chile but we're not counting our chickens before they hatch
this is one of the mentally toughest days i think we've ever had but you can't deny it's very
beautiful up here emily was saying how this is how she imagined all waters before we started the trip
central america they were pretty populated usually it's usually a river but now it's a mountain range
and we are way out here in the middle of nowhere 14 000 feet glacier right here
takes their job a little bit except for difficulty on the engine
we just passed the turn off to the laguna route a really awesome area to the bolivia
but super cold snow on the ground and obviously we can't make it with the current state of the van
but it looks like a really beautiful turn off there
we did it we made it to bolivia chile border
i already got stamped out now we're cancelling the vehicle we are out of bolivia we were there for
less than a month so not too bad but yeah we also were able to change some bolivianos into facitos
we're almost technically across the board yeah we're driving over to chile right now and i just
i mean at least half the works down we're out of yeah so that's cool but we only have an hour left
wow so we can tell here this is the border this little shack
oh let's see how the road quality changes oh that's nice look at that water
so i got randomly selected so we gotta wait
15 minutes before we can do anything kind of sucks but we have 15 minutes 53 minutes
negative so now we can do our paperwork and the card paperwork and get to chile
oh my gosh this might be the most exciting morning crosstalk border boarding crosser
oh my gosh this might be the most exciting border crossing yet because we're just so
stoked of you in chile we've heard so many good things and honestly order not that bad
not that bad as you can tell it's my time now i think they gave us some leniency because we came
so late they wanted to go home i know every other border we were like let's get there
you know as soon as they open but lately we've done three borders in like the middle of the day
night right before they close and honestly it's worked out pretty well because then they're just
like shuffle through shuffle through honestly the trunk is like full of stuff you know and
he just like was like oh what's this and it's like a tote full of things that i have to remove
five things to get out and he was just like okay cool whenever border crossing people look in your
van you don't really like show them where things are you kind of just like let them wander around
and i was kind of afraid once we told them like we're unable to reverse like
oh great they're gonna bring this junker into chile actually the guy right after i said that
he said oh your van doesn't work and i was like no it works great it's just a little teeny
problem with reverse i can't believe how nice they were because honestly i was worried they
were going to be sticklers about everything i know yeah it sounded like from everybody
everybody said like this is the worst part of crossing ever but honestly they were very
very nice to us they wanted to pet sombrita and graham and they were excited to see them both
we came with all of the paperwork people have wrote you need the paperwork and we believed
them and we came with it and that's all you you have to just respect them you know you have to
have the things you need if you need them and his face when i said we had pets it was like proud
yeah he was like i just need copies of this and i was like all right yeah i have the copies all
ready stapled together for you my man i'll feel a lot better when we get the vans transmission
worked on you know but for now it just feels good to be in chile like if something goes wrong
we're gonna tell we're in chile you know yeah the healthcare system is better here and the
food safety is higher you don't see anything yet this border is in the middle of absolutely
nowhere so we'll let you know i guess in the next couple of days when we actually get somewhere good
how it differs from the other countries we've been to in south america so far let's go get some soul
service thanks so much for joining us in chile stay with us to find out what happens with our
transmission and this saga trying to get back into reverse if you like this video make sure to share
it and if you want to support us a little more check out our patreon we'll see you guys next time
um you