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.
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6 comments:
Ah Mel & Carl you guys totally rock what a crazy day, thank you for taking the time to share it. You forgot to mention that it was probably a bazillion degrees all day long during your trials and tribulations. Kudos to you both for keeping your cool. XO
That was Den by the way!
Sounds like a good time was had by all.I'm sure this wasn't the first breakdown you ever had in another country.Up here that woulda cleaned your wallet out....and then some.
¡Ai Chihuahua! What a day! And you managed to keep your sense of humour through it all!! Thanks for sharing. I especially liked the image of you guys riding in a car ON A TRAILER! (Look Ma, no hands.) What a truly Mexican adventure:-)
Hahahahahahaha
Hahahahahah(snort!)Hahahahahahaha!!
What a day! I was wondering if the hose was the only problem, but a pull of the oil dipstick would have shown the water infiltration into the oil, the look is almost a really thick cream, maybe a bit darker and grayer depending on how old the oil was.
Blew the head gasket on my Pinto, oh so many years ago, just outside Bridgewater on my way home from Halifax, so I remember the colour very well, lol.
Dave
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