Date: 04/04
City: Esquel, Argentina
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 40450
Street: single lane dirt
Weather: sunny/cloudy, warm

Betina and Negro picked us up and brought us to the hospital. We saw the doctor, he found two problems, first the broken bone, which is obvious, but there is some damage to the ligament as well, which can take up to six weeks before it is healed. After talking to him, the whole surgery and continuing our trip doesn’t look as good anymore. Three weeks after the operation the bone should be fine, but the ligament can take up to 6 weeks, depending on the damage. That would bring us into mid-May when we continue and it would be end of May when we arrive in Ushuaia, which might be too late.

To add to the frustration: the internet at our accommodation doesn’t work, and we feel unable to work on a solution without internet. Anyway, we will work on that later. We ordered Sigrid’s spare parts – the parts for the operation – screws and a plate apparently made in Switzerland, so that it would be there when there is a time slot in the theatre. For the operation we have the choice of two hospitals, one in the public hospital, cheaper but takes longer to get the operation, the second is a private hospital, faster but more expensive. Negro passes our accommodation tonight and gives us all the facts and we can make a decision. The doctor was puzzled why Sigrid cast covered the whole knee, so he suggested cutting the top part of to make it easier for Sigrid. When the nurse came with the circular saw, Sigrid started to look concerned. I remember that feeling from eight Months ago 😛.
Right picture, Sigrid is happy that the leg is still attached after the cutting exercise 🙂

To get Sigrid ready for the operation she needs to get an EKG done, and some blood samples just to make sure that she is fit enough for the operation. After three hours the EKG doctor send us home and told us we don’t need a blood test, so we went home. In the evening Negro came

He told us that we needed the money for the operation in the private hospital in advance in cash; we told him that we wouldn’t get as much money out of an ATM but we will have a look tomorrow. Negro also asked what happens to the blood sample, the doctor was surprised that they were not ready at night. Great, so first thing tomorrow morning we’ll be going back to the hospital and getting the blood samples done and talk to the bank to see what our options are.

Date:05/04
City: Esquel , Argentina
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 40450
Street: single lane dirt
Weather: sunny/cloudy, warm

Got to the hospital in the morning, and Sigrid got here blood samples done. Meanwhile I took the picture without looking, blood is not my thing and I didn’t want to add stiches in my head 😉

Then we went to the bank and we were lucky to meet Negro again, he helped us by the translating and we noticed that there is no way to get the money from the teller, only from the ATM, where the fees would be very high and most likely we wouldn’t be able to get the money in time. So we departed and Negro told us that he would be at our place around lunch time with more details about the operation in the public hospital. At lunch, it was raining cats and dogs and we were happy to sit here warm and dry. When Negro came he told us that for the public hospital we need only the money for the spare parts and can organize the other payment later, maybe even with credit card (TBD) and that Sigrid could be operated on Tuesday. That’s all great news. In the afternoon I went to the city centre, got the first lot of money from the ATM and organized a new accommodation with internet for tomorrow. When I came back I notice the first snow in the mountains around us, hmmm, it’s not bad as long the snow stays up high.

At night the internet in our accommodation started to work partially, Skype and receiving mails, sending mails and no browser would work, so we called our family in Australia to update them with the latest events.

Date: 06/04 – 08/04
City: Esquel, Argentina
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 40450
Street: single lane dirt
Weather: sunny/cloudy, warm

Moved into the new hotel which has working internet, hello world we are back! We started to investigate some options for the rest of the trip and at night we went (or should I say hobbled?) out for dinner in a nice restaurant. For Sigrid it was a long trip, it was 6 blocks from our accommodation and it was hard work for her to get there. As a treat, we got some very nice food. I got a nice trout meal and Sigrid some duck leg.

On the way back we got a taxi….

The next couple of days we were busy with organizing things and trying to find out what would happen after the operation. We got a rough idea but have to talk to the surgeon to get something more tensible. So we prepared some question with help from Google translate. Then our host had a look at them and made sure that the translations made sense in Spanish, and finally Negros nephew gave them the final polish. We will see, tomorrow morning Negro picks us up to show us where to check in for Sigrids operation.

I hope that everything goes well.