I’ve already said how I prefer to be the one driving, heck I’m the one who drove away from our wedding. It is just understood that unless I make a request, I will be the driver and Marc will be my navigator.
We were probably in Buenos Aires the first time Marc said to me we might need to rent a car in Puerto Madryn to get to Peninsula Valdez. I said, “OK, whatever”, but didn’t give it much thought.
Marc brought it up again a couple of other times but still I didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t until El Calafate that he got more direct: We need to rent a car to be able to get to and around the peninsula. And by the way, there are NO automatic transmission car rentals, period. I’m not sure if there are any automatics in all of South America.
Neither of us has ever driven a standard. Hmmm, guess I need to learn. Pretty darn quick. Thank god for the internets. I felt like I was cramming for my driver’s test all over again.
But I swear NONE of the tutorials I read said:
- Get in your little Fiat Palio sub-compact.
- Pull out of a parallel parked spot onto a busy street just before a stoplight.
- Proceed through stoplight to roundabout before heading out of town to destination.
- Continue driving for 3 hours.
- On gravel.
- In the dark. Very dark.
- And watch out for sheep, mara (dog sized rabbit things), guanacos and ostriches that randomly jump across the road.
But that’s how my “driving test” went. I didn’t do too bad, but every time we got in the car I pretty much held my breath until we got to where we were going.
Now he tells me we’ll probably want to rent a jeep to drive around the pacific islands. How bad do I want it?
{ 5 comments }
I can relate to this, except I was 16 and ran into a haystack. No straight stick for me!!
oh that brings back memories. I was 20 when I learned. found a car I wanted to buy and it was a standard. a friend was kind enough to teach me. I drove it off of the car lot lurching and stalling. I didn’t have to deal with giant rabbits though. oh my!!
Hello! I smiled as I was reading….since I have been your navigator before. That is so funny! I don’t like driving anywhere in the dark. In 1976 I learned to drive a stick on my brother’s 68 mustang on gravel….mistook the gas for the break, and blew a hose and green stuff leaked from the engine. He fixed it, but it was several weeks before I got a chance to do drive it again. Congratulations on the quick learning curve. I knew you could do it. Love to you guys, we miss you…Barb
This is hilarious! Great job learning how to drive a stick, and under extreme conditions. The little cars that you rent abroad are so amusing — we are in Mexico now and we rented a tiny little flea of a hyundai and drove it for almost 4000km. We never drove at night for fear of, well, everything, but the gravel, roadside fires, and gigantic iguanas made for a very colorful experience. I had to look up maras, I’d never even heard of them!
Now that is not easy to learn a stick on the fly. Nice going! I’m impressed!!!
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