2 dumb gringos blow up their car

OK, this will be short and sweet because I'm wiped out- what a day! We packed up for our trip to Phoenix and were on the road at 7:30. At about 8:15 the car stalled, we pulled over and there was steam pouring from under the hood.

When the steam cleared, the rad was empty. Carl spotted a broken hose and we hoped that was the problem. Still, it wasn't looking good for getting to the book sale on time. We tried to flag someone down, and finally after a while a Koppel truck driver stopped. He told us there were no Green Angels on this road. By the way, all the conversations related here were almost totally in Spanish, no one spoke English. Which is fair enough, since it IS Mexico.

We decided that I'd go with Javier the truck driver and try to get a tow truck in Sonoita. We were about halfway there. Carl would stay with the car. Which works out well, because I like these kinds of adventures and if I stayed with the car, my head would explode. Whereas Carl was able to have a little nap.

Javier's truck was full, so the fastest he could go was 60 kmh. But we got there. We even chatted a bit. He grabbed something to eat for his breakfast, (he was headed for Mexicali), and then we went to a mechanic. That person couldn't help. So Javier took me to a taxi stand and explained what I needed.

Soon Manuel came over, and he said he was a mechanic and could give us a tow. There's a new word- remolque. I was glad I had my English/Spanish dictionary. Manuel took me in his taxi, and first we went to his place to get the keys, then to the school to get the truck from his son, then to his brother's place to pick up a trailer, some water and tools, and his brother. And we were off. Got back to the car about 9ish. In conversation I learned (I asked) that Manuel has 6 children. He grinned and thumped his chest. Virile!!

I was able to tell him in Spanish that it was a red car, in a rest area on the left, just after a curve, as we approached the area. So we loaded it up and went back to the brother's place. I got to ride in the car on the trailer, that was fun. I had a plan that if the trailer broke free I would start the car so that when I hit the airbag would deploy.

Manuel and his brother took it apart and we took the radiator to a...guess what? a radiator place. Where they basically flushed it and rebuilt it. Completely. Took about an hour and a half. And cost $1565 pesos. Then Manuel took us to a bank at my request, and then we bought a thermostat and a tube of some goo and a bottle of coolant. $265 pesos, are you keeping track?

Back at the shop, which was outdoors, we watched the buzzards hover overhead( no, really!), and tried to talk to another really nice man who had two of his 8!! kids with him. These kids were beautiful. Yes, one thing I know how to ask, ¿cuántos hijos tiene?

Now it's about 2:30 Carl and I are saying, ok, we'll skip the book sale and just go visit Peter and Betty, that will still be fun, and we can have a hot tub, stay tomorrow, we can still do a little shopping, it'll be great.

About 3:30 the car's all back together. They ask me to start it, but there's still a lot of steam. Shut down, work some more, start again, the gauge is going up towards hot awfully quickly. Now I have three guys all talking to me in rapidfire Spanish. They see the deer in the headlights look and then just one guy speaks, slowly and with a few English words thrown in. Seems the cabeza (head gasket) is blown. The motor basically needs to be rebuilt.

It would take 2 or 3 days there. Can we drive it back to Puerto Peñasco? They don't think it would be wise. Maybe if we stopped every 2 or 3 kilometers and filled it with water, but water is coming out of the exhaust, they don't think we'd make it.

OK. OK.... how much would you charge to tow us back to Puerto Peñasco? At this point I'm just grabbing words at andom out of the dictionary, I'm tired. Carl is too, but we've both kept our cool. The have a chat, and for the work they've done, plus the towing they've already done, plus the tow back to PP, they say $3000 pesos. I say, ok, bueno!

So we get the car back up on the trailer, and we climb out the windows, get into the truck and we're home. We'll see a mechanic (Oswaldo's trustworthy guy) on Monday. Now we have to cab over to get Shadow, then we'll walk him home to work out the day's kinks.

Oh, the total? 4830 pesos, about $389 USD.

Off to Phoenix

It being late October, the book sales start again in Phoenix. So we're heading up early Friday. I'll drop Carl at the sale (Shadow will be with his dogsitter Adrienne, which he loves, don't let him tell you any different.) Then it's clothes shopping time! I'm meeting a friend, and I have a whole list of other things as well, from as pedestrian an item as red wine vinegar to a new soft-sided cooler. OK also pretty pedestrian. However, Carl scored the perfect collapsible book cart down here, with folding boxes:





Cheryl and Dan's friends have been here for nearly three weeks, and we've spent some time with them. They are loving the beachy life. Actually, it's a daughter of friends of Cheryl and Dan's, and a friend of hers, so they aren't actually even friends of friends, they are total strangers, but lots of fun. Cari-Ann and Nick:



We've been out to dinner a few times, and had them over here once. And we went out to Pinacate once, sans Carl. I'll go again, it's quite beautiful- the sun is so intense here that the signs that were facing the sun are burned out:














I've done a little snorkling latey, and have seen many sergeant fish, little and big:


As well as a garfish:


triggerfish:

and button jellies, which aren't really jellies at all, and don't sting but look like little blue daisies.


We also saw the most amazing schools of little tiny fish on the shoreline. It was like a black cloud moving along the surf, and when you got close you saw it was composed of thousands upon thousands of little fish. They moved as one, and if you stuck your hand in amongst them, there would be a gap around your hand, and when you removed it it would close up again.

The little boy next door just came up to me and said, "What's up?" with a big grin. What a cutie! I used to just get scowls from the little boys around here (I think because we made their Oswaldo move away), so it's nice to get grins and waves and "what's up"s.

We got the AC in the car fixed for our trip, and in the process found out that we need a new starter. Better here than in Phoenix. So we're just waiting for that to be fixed. Because they do that right way, no waiting. Sort of like doctors. I need to get my tailbone area infiltrated with cortisone, and the doctor, a specialist, said to meet him tomorrow at the clinic with the drug and he'll do it then. I made the mistake of looking at the needle and now I'm a little freaked out, but it will be ok. At least it's not going behind my eye. Been there.

In Phoenix we'll stay with Peter and Betty again, always fun. I've sent an order of MagicKitchen.com food over there, thanks to Greg, so we'll attack that on Saturday. And I think some pool swimming on Saturday is in order as well. We're staying an extra day this time instead of coming right back.

I'll blog again if anything of interest happens in Phoenix!