Hope

8/16/2013

The last bell rings at 2:35, at 3:00 we have changed clothes and are on the road to Minca, a small village in the mountains outside Santa Marta.  We have successfully finished the first week of school, and it is a long weekend.  Time to travel and see the beauty of this country.  We easily navigate the traffic of slow trucks and fast motos on the drive around the city that takes us to the one bridge that crosses the Magdalena river.  We enter the last roundabout before the bridge and the oil light flashes on.  We circle the roundabout to find a gas station on the other side.  We open the hood, it is hot with a few wisps of smoke.  The coolant is empty, and I feel a bit of relief at an easy fix.  We refill it and feel good about ourselves. 

Tara has rounded up a couple of caballeros to take a look, just in case. 

We pay them in beer and coke. 

The air filter housing has come apart. 

Buy a new hose clamp.

Put it all back together, finagle it into place.  Things are looking good.

The ground is covered in neon green coolant.

Jairo, a truck driver by trade and currently our coke drinking lead mechanic says, “Tu necicitas un mechanico, siga me.”  - You need a mechanic, follow me.

It is 4:00 and we should have been half way to our destination.

Top off the coolant

Windows down, AC off, heat on, following Jairo’s blue Chevy spark with Fernando and Gustavo, through traffic to some mechanic.

Who doesn’t have the parts.

Fernando runs across six lanes of traffic to check with the mechanic across the street. 

Who doesn’t have the parts.

What parts do we need?

Tara asks, “What is plan B for the night?”

We stick with plan A.  Top off coolant, windows down, AC off, heat on following our new friends through side streets, a few alleys a major road and a few more side streets.

We pull up to the store front of an internet café, bordered by a tienda and a carburetor shop.

Dirt parking with 5 rows of red tile in front of the café.

Open the hood.

“Podemos hacer lo” – We can do it.

Si Se Puede!

Jairo negotiates the price for us.  He says it’s a good deal.

90 mil to replace the empaque – The head gasket

The engine starts coming out of the car.  Manifold, distributor, cylinder head. Revealing the 4 cylinders.

Should there be coolant in the cylinders?

The gasket is bad.

Pull off la bomba- the water pump.

I don’t think the impeller shaft should rattle like that.

Give 110 mil to a guy, who hops on the back of a motor bike and heads off to get parts.

Chairs are brought out for the gringos.  We sit.  And wait.  In an unknown barrio, as evening approaches. 

Jairo tells us about his four kids, and one grandchild, and Fernando's 12 kids.

Jairo tells us, "Fernando no tiene un televisor........" Fernando doesn't have a TV.

Birds fly, chattering.  Parakeets; orange chinned or brown necked.  The sun dims.

Mike, Sarah, and Eric, our backseat companions for this trip, head home to make dinner for when this is done.

No Minca tonight.

Maybe in the morning?

Jairo and Fernando leave, darkness sets in.

Over half of our engine lies on the red tiles.  Our car, edged up to the store front, still rests on the packed dirt.

We wait.

A loro, Orange winged parrot, is perched in a window above.

An hour later Jairo returns, to make sure they put in the new water pump, which hasn’t shown up yet, and not the old, broken, leaky pump.

Within minutes the new parts show up.

It just needs to be put back together.

Push the care 1 meter closer to the internet café for more light. 

I retrieve my headlamp and hold it from the right.  A flash light appears and illuminates the work from the left.  We are in business.

The flashlight flickers, and dies.

We get smart, put the headlamp on the head of Jose, our 23 year old main mechanic. 

I go back to sitting with Tara and Jairo, comparing notes on life and learning some local lingo.

We sit and enjoy the slightly cooler evening.

We sit in white plastic chairs and enjoy sitting and talking.

We sit  with Jairo, Gustavo, and Kenny, “el gringo negro,” who knows more english than he lets on.

It is a beautiful evening.

As parts go back in the car, I tuck my chin to my collarbone and sleep a few minutes at a time.  Its 8:30, I am usually sleeping by now.

As the last few pieces are bolted down, we negotiate the price of an oil change – 70mil for the oil, work is included.

Jairo and Gustavo leave us their phone numbers and depart for home.

“Gracias, mil gracias”

A couple more parts, the last few bolts.

The engine is put back together.

“Pero una problema.  No podemos cambiar el aceite aqui”  - One problem, we can’t change the oil here.

For the first time this evening we are firm,  “Necesitan cambiar el aceite aqui” - You will change the oil here.

We settled on the price and the work, we aren’t going somewhere else to get it done.

They don’t have the tool to remove the oil drain plug.  So with two hammers and a machine bolt they make one.

I recognize the smile and proud joy on Kenny’s face as he says, “Improvisacion!” – Improvisation. 

There is some universal joy to making your own tools.  I wonder if crows and chimps have a similar joy in finding and making tools.

Everybody is ready to be done and hit the town, its Friday night. 

Kenny takes care of us.  He cleans the oil filter.

It is 9:30.  Our car has a new water pump, new head gasket, and new oil.

It starts.

We pay the bill – 280 mil for everything; parts, oil and labor.

We shake hands, “Gracias, muchas gracias.”

We drive away.

Sarah, Eric, and Mike have a hot dinner and peanut butter cookies waiting for us at their apartment.

We share the meal.

It is 10:30, we part ways and climb the stairs to bed.

“See you at 6:30 tomorrow.”

Hopefully the car will start in the morning.

Hopefully we will make it to Minca.

And we do!

Notes

Fairly accurate Colombian peso to US dollar conversion; Drop the mil, divide by 2, and you are close enough to the dollar amount.

Thus, 100 mil is about  $50.

Jose works, while Orlando looks on

Cylinder head, head gasket......

L to R Gustavo, Jairo, Fernando, Tara, our broke down car

Saturday morning breakfast in Minca!!!

White Vented Plumeleteer, Bird of Paradise