It was a nice day in November and I was driving with my Renault Samsung S3 (I didn’t even know that such a car exists) from Talca to Concepción, Chile. On my way I wanted to have a stop at the dunes of Putú (las dunas de Putú) – a wide area of sand dunes close to the sea. It is supposed to look like the Sahara, but I’ve never found out, because I never arrived there.
I was driving around Putú and looking for a way to access the dunes but I was pretty unlucky. After some kilometers, hidden between swamps I found an improvised road going to the sea. When I arrived there I was still far away from the expected destination and continued by car. The problem was only that the wind had blown a lot of sand onto the road and suddenly one of my front wheels was turning fastly and the car wasn’t moving a single centimetre.
After a second of irritation and worrying I decided to use my McGyver knowledge and collected wooden planks and to pile them under the tyre. I must admit that it didn’t work as expected and after an hour I gave up and called the hotline number at home. The specialist was quite irritated: “Putú, Chile? Never heard of!”. After a second call I was informed that someone would be on the way to assist me and just a first name was told me. I was unsure if the vague location information would lead to a quick rescue.
After half an hour a Chilean guy on a motorbike arrived. I asked him in Spanish whether he was send to me but communication wasn’t successful. But he therefore immediately started to push the wood under the tyre (he seemed very experienced) and directed me to turn the car around. It was hard work but in the end (and after offering a big tip) I was on the road again. An hour later I was still thinking how happy I am that I booked with a travel agency that offers an emergency number as my phone rang: the informed breakdown service would be driving around Putú but the guy says that he is unable to find me.
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