That's a CAPITAL idea

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.

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.