Just Another Bus Story...

Punta Arenas, Chile

March 7, 2007
S 53°09.763
W 070°54.475

We arrived in Punta Arenas a little before 1:00 PM today and quickly headed to the same place we stayed last time we were in Punta Arenas, approximately two weeks ago. We expected to arrive a little earlier, around noon, giving us one hour to do a few things before the siesta started and everything closed down. Instead, we hit it perfectly!

The reason we were later than expected is because of a little “mishap” on the bus. The bus departed Puerto Natales at 8:30 AM for the 3 ½ hours ride. I quickly finished my book, “Hard Rain” and relaxed in my seat for a nice little nap. Two hours into the trip I woke up, confused as to why the bus stopped, and assumed we must be picking up a new passenger. I wasn’t sure where the passenger was coming from since it appeared we were in the middle-of-nowhere (BFE). There was nothing for miles except for open fields.

The driver and his assistant, possibly both mechanics, headed to the back of the bus to check out the engine. Marc peeked out the window and noticed a fan belt in the middle of the road. “We must have broken a fan belt,” Marc said. I figured we were in good shape and would be off in no time since the two “mechanics” seemed to have the situation under control and were making a few calls via cell phone (possibly notifying their boss they will be a little late). The driver came back onto the bus to start the engine. The engine struggled to catch, but failed... apparently something was still really wrong.

Marc and I got off the bus which was now steaming hot, especially since we were both wearing sweaters. We wandered around BFE for a few minutes since we didn’t have anything else to do. We thought about hitch-hiking the rest of the way, but figured the bus would be moving soon enough. We didn’t want to catch multiple rides, and really just wanted to get to Punta Arenas.

After about 35 minutes a white service truck pulled up. The driver quickly walks over to the truck and grabbed two big canisters of petrol from the back of the truck, the assistant grabbed the other two. Each container probably held 5 gallons of gas each.

We stood on the side of the road and watched our driver and his assistant proceed to siphon (coughing and spitting) the gas from the canisters, to the bus... we were in shock. How does a bus driver or a bus company forget to put enough gas into the bus before a 3 ½ hour bus ride? After the gas was in the bus, the driver jumped on the bus and the bus started right away. Yes, we really did run out of gas in the middle of BFE.

How this happened is beyond us… we did make it to Punta Arenas for what we hope is our last night in Chile. We just hope the next bus we get on doesn’t forget to fill-up first!