Day 88 - Ready to continue the journey

(Ursula) Wally and Heinz completed the engine and used a hydraulic jack to reinstall this heavy thing where it belonged. That took a while but then came the moment of truth. Will the motor start up again? Wally turned the ignition key, and voilá .... she was humming again! A final adjustment on the carburetor and we were done.

We washed our baby and went for a test drive down the Panamerican Highway to the restaurant by the gas station. The guard back at the dealership was reluctant to open the gate for us, afraid we would disappear and not come back. We resolved that issue by promising him a shot of Tequila when we returned and left him our tape recorder as collateral!

July 29
(Ursula) Heinz and I were very proud of Wally and glad to be able to continue the journey. We didn’t know how to thank him enough for the work he had done for us.

After saying our goodbyes to the management and staff, we took a group photo in front of the dealership. The only thing left was to settle the account. Gerente Victor was extraordinarily fair and only charged us 250 Pesos for everything. We were pleasantly surprised and had every reason to be thankful. We only lost eight days which could have easily been 3-4 weeks. We should be OK meeting the August 19 deadline for the boat to Colombia.

And on, we went on our journey in the direction of Tapachula. Wally and Heinz were pleased with how the engine was running. The new front shocks made the ride a lot more pleasant too!

Crossing the border into Guatemala sounds easy, but it was not. It was a five-step process. Immigration, customs, car papers & insurance, and car search again. Heinz got quite irritated, and that didn’t help either. We were charged $5 for overtime and another $5 for disinfecting the tires. What a hassle! We better be more patient and get used to these lengthy, complicated procedures in the future. It’s just the way it was down here!Read more