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19 Jun ' 03:50
Because of our damaged tyres, we were unable to go to the mountain to-day. Although the list of things we need to do there keeps growing, no item was so critical that we absolutely needed to address it immediately, so we did not need to hitchhike up. Staying down actually gave us a much needed breather. I had a lot of my own work that needed to get done and I had a fairly productive day; Omelan made excellent progress on the remaining faulty RAID.
There is a new group which is going to be just up the road from us near the old sulfur mine. Run by NASA, I believe (and perhaps some other government laboratories), they will be releasing balloons for atmospheric studies. Their personnel have started arriving and to-day I met a couple of them. To-morrow they plan on dropping by to get to know the neighbours. They are very friendly and have been asking lots of questions about logistics: oxygen (or lack thereof), which roads to take, whether there is cellphone coverage, etc.
During the day, Rolando kept up the pressure on Hertz to get us a new truck. He called at noon, and then had to wait until four for our agent to get back from "lunch". But we were in the end promised a replacement truck to arrive later in the day, although it would have to be a Dodge Dakota with automatic transmission—not the most ideal for mountain driving, but the only option. It was supposed to get delivered to us between eight-thirty and nine-thirty and I stayed in the office during that time in case the phone rang. Every time a vehicle pulled into the parking lot, I looked to see if it was ours; but nine-thirty came and went.
At about nine-forty the phone range. Our Hertz agent said that the driver was in San Pedro at Don Esteban. I responded by saying that I was at Don Esteban and I hadn't seen anyone: was there some mix up? So she told me she would call back. I went outside for another look, and to my surprise there was the new car with the driver sitting inside. It seemed he hadn't bothered to come and knock on our door, and somehow I hadn't heard or seen him park there.
It also turned out to be another Mitsubishi rather than the Dodge we had been promised, which suits us very well. The driver left with our old car once I had signed the paperwork. He didn't bring replacement tyres and I hope he makes it back to Calama with only one spare. If both blow, at least he has a cell phone. Later I realised that he had left behind a loose spare in the back of the new truck and now I wonder why he didn't take it with him.
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