Without much
discussion it was an agreement to avoid the Capital cities. There is nothing really of value to us to
visit there and they are without question the hot-spots of many of these
countries; drug wars and poverty and population just make for a bad mix. So no going into Capital cities.
Yea riiiiight.
It all started by our
overnighting it in Watts followed by an early morning cruise through Times
Square NYC. Just why??? Then our trusty Felix (our GPS) decided that
the one and ONLY route through Mexico City was right through the friggin middle
– with NO regard to whether our plates made us legal or not. We scraped through that one but not without
the stereotypical traffic adventures.
Belmopan known as the
smallest Capital out there stuck in the nowheresville Belize was no biggie but
that started the hunt for the elusive missing piece for Bippers. That hunt for rare treasures continued into
Guatemala City and again in San Salvador and
once AGAIN in Tegucigalpa (where by the way the gunshots are a nightly
light and sound show -when it is not raining).
We have had a few good
adventures along the way and so far have avoided the rape and pillage of Bip Bip. Guatemala city was fun with the Mojica family
who took care of us. Later in San
Salvador we had the fun of hanging with Jon and Rachel and drinking not a
little bit of rum.
Tegucigalpa is the
latest pearl in the string of adventures.
One week here sussing out the transmission problems we suffered while
high up the mountain in La Tigra National Park.
A couple of days at
the Teguc Mitsu dealership lead to null (well i did get my 4x4 solenoid
replaced) which lead to a discussion with our Jose Mario of El Salvador fame
who contacted his Honduran friend who contacted her Honduran friend who ownes a
garage who contacted his friend who has a transmission shop that lead us to
Roberto. I feel like we are 4 degrees of
separation here! Roberto has been
diligently working on our issues and is a really great guy. Meanwhile Bippers and Chris sleep in the shop
yard with the rest of the carcasses.
Fanny took the red-carpet exit and took a delux bus to Managua to meet up with
her friend.
As with all best-laid plans we eagerly waited the arrival of Delphine from France. And not one week before her arrival for a guided tour of Nicaragua - after a lengthy negotiation on how and where and when you can be assured - Bip Bip decides to pack it in with a strange puff of smoke from under the dash panel. We have been carrying a fire extinguisher but mostly for the Honduran COPPERS but I almost broke it out all over Bippers face; lucky right? Fanny took off and if we ever get Bippers back on 4 wheels I will follow and try to catch up. I am a bit down as I keep hoping to spend some time on the surf and always something comes up. This is becoming too much like hard work.
As with all best-laid plans we eagerly waited the arrival of Delphine from France. And not one week before her arrival for a guided tour of Nicaragua - after a lengthy negotiation on how and where and when you can be assured - Bip Bip decides to pack it in with a strange puff of smoke from under the dash panel. We have been carrying a fire extinguisher but mostly for the Honduran COPPERS but I almost broke it out all over Bippers face; lucky right? Fanny took off and if we ever get Bippers back on 4 wheels I will follow and try to catch up. I am a bit down as I keep hoping to spend some time on the surf and always something comes up. This is becoming too much like hard work.
Anyway it turns out it is not
the transmission, I would have preferred that it was however we burned up a bit of the wiring harness leading from the
transmission to the transmission TCU and ultimately roasted the transmission
TCU itself. So Roberto got the wiring
sorted out (we dearly hope) and the TCU is a simple plug and play device if
ONLY i can get my hands on one… and for the meantime I must now treat our
automatic transmission as a manual. That
is an easy compromise as the only other option involves matches and gas jugs
and bus tickets.
Oh yea and it is
raining here. When it rains it floods. Time to reassess this
friggin adventure.
Damn cars! Whos idea was this anyway!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck my friend, my the car gods smile upon you and BipBip