It was kind of inevitable that something would go amiss at some point with poor old Marissa. She’s done 10,000 miles after all. And for an old girl it has been a trying few days on very bad dirt roads, topes and dirt and stones. I think she must have been awaiting a pleasant early retirement with a doddery old pensioner in a suburb of L.A. but then we came along and drove her through some of the remotest areas of Central America. She’s had to scale mountains, cross rivers and deal with incredibly bad roads for a while now. But up to this point she has been an absolute star. So, it’s about time she complained a little.
She died after a rather stressful journey down the worst roads we have seen so far. Literally driving over boulders. We were blockaded twice by machete wielding peasants demanding money to continue. As if we wanted to pay for the privilege of ruining our suspension. But we had to to get through.
Looking back on it she chose her moment extremely well. If we had broken down on that road we would still be there for sure. Stuck. Open and vulnerable to all kinds of unthinkable stuff. But she didn’t. She decided to break down within yards of a petrol station. What are the chances of that? I’m known for having good luck but this was probably the one time when it literally saved our bacon. After having a look it was obvious something must have destroyed the belt tensioner and caused it to come off! I knew straight away this was a problem I could not fix. Especially as jeeps aren’t that common here in Guatemala. With most engines these belts, if they break, cause catastrophic engine failure. Bent valves, overheating, pistons flying everywhere. But, luckily (again) Marissa doesn’t make use of this kind of system. Her belt only drives the pumps for the coolant, power steering, brakes and battery. This discovery made my day of course as I knew it was then just a case of some replacement parts. But we are in the middle of Guatemala! Land of the Toyota and the Isuzu.
Second lucky strike was that the girls at the station immediately offered us a motorbike to drive down to the local garage. Thanks girls. Don’t think I would have done that. The mechanic came back with us to look at the car. Then he disappeared, feared never to return, but he did, with his boss, a jovial and seemingly trustworthy fellow. He confirmed that new parts were needed which may be available in the next town, Poptun. So we decided Daniela should go with them due to her language skills and breasts. (Who knows? Maybe a better deal could be had?) It was only after they had been gone for an hour that I began to think what a stupid thing it was to do. In an unknown place put your petite and rather pretty partner into a truck with two rather large and greasy strangers and wave goodbye to her. What a dick!
They did return as I always knew they would. I can tell a crook or a bad ‘un a mile off. I trust my instincts but maybe that’s dumb. It’s worked out so far though and I’m getting old.
Apparently they trawled all the places Popgun had to offer but with no luck. At least the greasy guys must have enjoyed rolling up to various greasy places with a cute little Sicilian, must have made their macho days.
So a decision was made, or rather Daniela came up with the brilliant idea of towing us to our hotel for that night in Flores. A mighty fine plan if I may say so. Her tenacity and balls never cease to amaze me. A price was agreed and off the guys went to get their tow equipment. But when I say tow equipment I mean it in the very loosest terms. They came back with a chain. Now, if you have ever done any ‘being towed’ scenarios before you will know how difficult it is having to maintain a tight chain and try not to have your front end yanked apart or, worse still, smack into the back of the tow vehicle. It’s stressful at the best of times but I had to do it for 96 km! In the bloody dark! With no brakes and extremely heavy steering! It was a nightmare! I think all my exclamations stress my stress.
96km, windy roads, hills, topes, lorries. Terrible. And to top it all after about half way my battery died along with the lights and everything else. We continued for another 10 km like this until the boss pulled over and at one point I thought he was going to say he couldn’t continue with no lights. It was dangerous, but I would have offered him an hour with Daniela to finish this after all the stress. I am joking of course but I was genuinely getting to the end of this day even if it involved a little prostitution. Instead, though, he solved the problem by changing the batteries over while his car was still running. I never knew you could do that, take a battery out while the engine was running, well, I probably did but, you know, my mind wasn’t at it’s best in the problem solving department at that point.
With fresh battery and lights and our dead battery being charged we continued on our helter skelter ride for another half an hour. Bliss. We arrived at the AirB&B. And what lovely people the owners were. We pulled the car into their yard and they rang their mechanic to come help in the morning. They even took Daniela to get us a Burger King (we hadn’t eaten anything all day!). And they have now offered to pick us up and take us wherever we want in the town. This was so lovely to find. Here’s the link.
Send them a thank you. I can’t express our gratitude enough 🙂
A day like no other. I thought the mountain was bad, the flaming roadblock pales in comparison, but no, this was a tiring, stressful, scary day for sure. But we are alive, all is behind us now. The car parts are on order. We may be marooned in Flores for a few days but it is a pretty little town to be so. We will always have these stories to regale, times to relive, moments to remember with smiles and jokes. Life is such an incredible playground really. What’s the point if you don’t get out there and live it?
Pura Vida x
I am just shaking my head in wonderment !! Bearing go bad and can cause that type of scenaio. Most flywheel / pulley bearings are generic. Good Hunting. To late to admonish you for doing ANYTHING involving being onthe roads at night. ——- WATCH OUT !!!!!! — a cat only had 9 lives and you still have Mexico to go. PLEASE DON’T DRIVE AT NIGHT ANY MORE. In fact, pull over to where you are staying at 5PM. Naughty children !!
Life would be boring if stuff like this didn’t happen! Glad you’re both safe and well x