At the End of The Day a Family Dog is Still a Dog.

Of course that doesn’t end the story, because truthfully there will be a lot more stories in the future I’m sure… but at least for now, I have one more.  And it ain’t pretty people.

My biggest fear in moving to Costa Rica was that the dogs wouldn’t take it so well.  They are a mother/ son combo, though you could never tell by looking at them, and really haven’t been around too many other dogs outside of each other.  Well Puerto Viejo is like one big dog park, with owned dogs and strays running around freely EVERYWHERE.  I was and clearly now rightfully so, worried about how the dogs would handle all of the new friends, or foes, around them.  

After we got to Puerto Viejo, we decided to rip the band-aid off so to speak and let them meet Niki and Khalil’s 2 dogs, Kobe and Taco.  IT WENT FANTASTICALLY!  They were smelling and sniffing and running around like they had been there the whole time.  Gemini and Bentley LOVED being in the ocean and in fact we could barely get Gemini out.  It was fantastic.  I was so relieved.  And then yesterday it changed.

The bar was closed for the day, like every Wednesday it is, so we were all just hanging out.  The dogs were all within eyesight but were just playing in the water, having fun, being dogs.  Well unfortunately at the end of the day that is exactly what they are… dogs.  The next thing I know, we hear this unbelievable sound and it takes a moment or two to realize it’s dogs fighting… our dogs.  Something must have happened between Bentley and Kobe because they were going at it big time… and Bentley was winning, not an award I ever wanted him to own.  Bentley got on top of Kobe and Gemini teamed up and they looked like they wanted to kill him.  They were pulling at him and it was horrible.  Admittedly my next actions were stupid, but they were instinctual and I jumped in there and started beating Bentley and pulling them apart.  Niki is screaming in the back, the guys start running up, and even some neighbors come running, one with a shovel in hand… I’m glad it didn’t end that way.  I was finally able to separate the three, covered in sand and a few cuts myself I realized later, I swear I thought I was going to throw up and have an asthma attack at the same time.  Abasi took both our dogs into the backyard and locked them up and I ran upstairs to see if Kobe was ok.  And turns out Thank God that he was.  In fact aside from his ear being cut, he was all smiles and seemed in good spirits.  I still think he’s scared of me now, but we shall see.

I go downstairs and just sob.  My worst fears have come true, our dogs within one day couldn’t handle it and had not only fought a dog, but our families’ dog.  It was heartbreaking.  Anyone that knows Bentley and Gemini know they are the most loving dogs that would rather lick your face off than bite it.  I simply couldn’t understand it.  How could our dogs be sooo mean?

I showered up and did the only thing I knew how to do at that point… Googled it.  Turns out, and I guess I knew all along, that it doesn’t matter how sweet your dog is, he is still a pack animal at the end of the day.  Instincts will take over if there isn’t enough control and I guess it got the best of them.  Not defending them AT ALL, but this move has been different and new for them… our house was continuously changing the last couple months we lived there as we slowly sold our possessions.  I’m sure they could sense the change and then an 11-day trip through so many different places probably put them on sensory overload.  But still it isn’t acceptable for them to fight.  So, I am now their pack leader.  Laugh at me all you want, but I’ve watched enough Cesar Millan, and after reading through his website last night, realized that while the dogs listen to us, they still have control.  And that won’t happen anymore.  I was very different with them last night, my actions, my words, my presence was stern and commanding… and they listened.  I think it will still take a lot of time, and they won’t be off their leashes in public for the indefinite future, but I know my dogs aren’t malicious.  I understand dogs aren’t humans and don’t compute things the same way we do.  But if they feel I am their leader, which every human should be to their pet, and I will protect them, they won’t feel the urge to be the pack leader themselves.  I hope this works, I pray it does, because last night was a horrible feeling and I don’t ever want to look at my dogs with such sadness ever again.  I love them, we love them and they love us… now we just need them to know who rules the school around here… and it is us.

America the Beautiful...

Well everyone… WE’RE HERE!!!  Granted we’ve been here for 2 days now so I’m sure a majority of you already know this tid bit of information.  It was an interesting last few days though, all the way from the 2 days prior to getting here, finally being here, and then yesterday.  I guess we should just start from the top…

The days leading up to being in Puerto Viejo were spent in Nicaragua and obviously Costa Rica.  Well we almost didn’t make it out of Nicaragua because the “police”, if that’s what you want to call them, are a bunch of lazy thieves trying to make an easy buck.  Well guess what, you’re not getting our money honey.

Up until this point, entry into a country had always been the painstakingly long process full of bureaucratic crap and people trying to swindle money for something you don’t need their help on.  However, this time it was LEAVING Nicaragua that gave us so many issues.

After countless hours, (O.K. it had been a hour and half by this point, I was definitely keeping track) Abasi was informed that he now needed to get a stamp from the police to allow our car out of Nicaragua.  So Abasi heads over to the police station, where they ask him where he was from and as soon as he says the United States (God Bless It) they tell him he has to come over for an inspection of the vehicle.  Now Betty, our car, had been in the country for a total of one day, they had no (major) issues with us entering and all of a sudden when we want to leave we are huge drug dealers or thieves?  Of course.  We bring the car over, to a back part of the area where only semi trucks that are loading and unloading are at and wait for the BS to begin… AND OOH DID IT BEGIN!

Immediately we were told that we had to take EVERYTHING out of the car so they could inspect it.  And I mean everything.  They said unless we did this, we would not be able to leave Nicaragua.  Well of course they were only doing this because they wanted a pay off.  One of the number one tried and true ways for foreign cops to get money from stupid travelers who will pay is to make a HUGE inconvenience for them, so that the pay off seems like the better option, and to be honest it did seem like a better option.  IF WE WEREN’T PROUD AMERICANS WHO WON’T BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!!!

Of course, Abasi and I, being who we are, stubborn, proud and in my opinion, AWESOME people, refuse to “take the bite” and we take every single thing out of the truck… clothes, boxes, dogs, the whole shebang.  That’s right folks, instead of paying them whatever ridiculous amount of money they thought was worthy of us to sell our dignity, we spent 2 and half hours unloading and then RELOADING the entire truck… all the while singing The National Anthem.  If you think for one second I am kidding about singing the National Anthem you are sadly mistaken… we sang it loud and proud, and Abasi obviously has a beautiful voice so it was quite the rendition.  Who knows if they understood what we were singing.  I honestly wish they all knew English because I would have taught them the lyrics to our AMAZING Country’s song. 

So after we unloaded the car, we sat back and watched them do a drug sweep of the car, checking for hidden, hollow spots, where obviously we were stashing the truckfulls of cocaine we just picked up.  I mean it was the most ridiculous sight to see this young, stupid kid, knowing now that he HAS to do the check or else risk looking completely obvious in his efforts of trying to get money.  Now I did have a sweet picture of the guy crouching inside our trunk, waving his finger “NO” at me for taking a picture of him, but I actually lost my camera on the last day, major bummer, and now don’t have that awesome picture which could pretty much tell the whole story itself.

How they even consider themselves police, I don’t know.  The female “officers” wore HIGH HEELS!!! What criminal are you going to take down in high heels?  You couldn’t even run after a child appropriately in heels.  And the male officers were like children themselves, sitting around a TV, thinking they were important.

So finally we loaded the car back up, and if we’re being honest, it was a major pain in the tush so they definitely won a little bit there, but we may have lost the battle but we won the war.  As we drove away we honked the horn, waved goodbye enthusiastically and sarcastically thanked them for their time.

We enter Costa Rica and there’s really nothing to get into there. Yes it took a long time, but only 2 hours in comparison to the hellish 4 hours we had just spent trying to leave the previous country.  So finally all the paper work is done and 6 HOURS after we try to cross borders, we finally do.  This put us honestly at almost 5pm and as we all know the sun starts saying adios at 5:45, 6ish so we really didn’t have too much time to make tracks into Costa Rica.  We ended up staying the night on the West Coast of Costa Rica, hoping tomorrow would be an easy drive to Puerto Viejo.

Well, it kinda was, kinda wasn’t.

We got a solid start on the road at about 7ish.  Right as we’re leaving I realize my camera isn’t in the car.  It wasn’t stolen because the doors were locked and other things were in the car that would have been taken too, had the car been broken into.  The night before, right before we got to our hotel, we were pretty much side swept off the road by an 18-wheeler and things went flying in our attempt to not crash.  GOOD NEWS!!! We didn’t crash… bad news is I think my camera flew onto the side of the car and must have fallen out when I opened my door without me knowing it.  HUGE bummer, second camera I have lost/ had stolen in Costa Rica over the last couple of years, but the silver lining is that it happened at the end of the trip and I was still able to post some great pics along the way.  C’est la vie?  Right?

There’s clearly nothing I can do about it, so we just get over it and continue to PV.  We are making pretty good time coming into San Jose, where we know things will get pretty dicey.  We have our map and we’re trying to follow it but people, I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the signs in Central America IF existent at all, ARE TERRIBLE and usually just not there.  We get lost trying to find our way out of San Jose, we are on roads we have never used by bus or shuttle before and hope this is just an alternative route.  We stop and ask A MILLION times for directions from locals and cabbies, even considering paying a cab to drive us to the highway that will get us there.  We continue on, trying to navigate to highway 10, and then we find it and I’m not talking about the highway.

I don’t even know if I should share our secret route with the world, but for some odd reason we found it, and chances are if we wanted to we might not ever be able to find it again, so here goes.  We were sent down this back road and we continue driving, one because we were told to go straight and two because there is no room to turn around.  We drive on this tiny road, down a hill, over a small neighborhood bridge and come out into what can only be considered Costa Rica’s Napa Valley.  SERIOUSLY!  We were SOO high in the mountains, on a tiny road, no guardrails (sorry Mom) and vineyards all around us.  It was gorgeous.  You couldn’t pay for a better view and aside from the unbelievable heights we were driving, the roads were tiny, but in great condition.  It was breathtaking… and a little nauseating… but mostly breathtaking.  We definitely didn’t know where we were and there was NO WAY to turn around and go back up the hill we just came down so we continued to drive the only way out, and eventually we found our way out… to highway 10!  Now believe you me, this is NOT the real way to get to highway 10.  But for some reason, AGAIN, we found ourselves lost in beauty and landed right where we needed to be.  We jumped on Hwy 10, said goodbye to our secret vineyard roads, and continued on to Puerto Viejo.  Being on those back roads, we by passed all traffic, had no pollution, it was just us, the grapes and the road rarely taken.

Of course we hit traffic once on the actually highway, with all of the cars and semi’s trying to get into Limon, a major port and shipping part of the country.  However with all that traffic, we still made it to Puerto Viejo from San Jose within 3 ½ hours, so we feel quite confident that we found a shortcut in our little slice of vino heaven.

We got to Puerto Viejo before 5… which means I had to take a shot of tequila because we did an over/ under bet on what time we would make it there… and welcomed our dogs to their new lives.  Candidly speaking, I had butterflies for the last hour of our trip.  We were passing all of the familiar scenes that lead to our new home.  The beaches, the shops, the signs for our favorite places, and I was so nervous.  Excited nervous I think, but definitely nervous.  I want so badly for this to be the right thing for us and our dogs and ultimately our future.  I want to do well… better than well… running the bar and making an impact.  It’s crazy to think that just 11 days before this we had sold all of our belongings, moved out of our home, and left the town we had started our beautiful adventure together in.  In 11 days, we moved from Myrtle Beach, SC to Puerto Viejo, CR.  We drove through the States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to be here… home.  We are now home.

Ugh... El Salvador, Your border Can Fly a Kite...

November 19th, 2011


Today we crossed out of Guatemala and into El Salvador.  Let me start off by addressing the fact that from border to border in Guatemala, it was only 344 miles.  Not too shabby.  However, we drove that in 10 hours of driving time!  Absolutely inconceivable as to why it would take a person 10 hours to drive 344 miles.  I could have driven to NJ from Myrtle Beach in that amount of time, which is roughly 600 miles.

Since starting this trip we have dreaded the borders, but for the most part (aside from having Abasi's favorite machete taken from him at the Mexican border) it has been pretty smooth sailing.  Well today that all ended.  We really didn't know THAT MUCH about El Salvador because it was a last minute decision to go through it to cut down time in Guatemala, by just continuing on the Pan Am Hwy.  I swear to you it took 1 hour and 40 minutes to get through customs, immigration and car permits.  ALMOST 2 HOURS!  Poor Abasi had to deal with all of the BS while they ran him from one place to another while they sat there and did NOTHING.  They were actually the only country to ask for papers for our dogs thus far also.

Once we got out of the bureaucratic nonsense, we were almost immediately pulled over and asked to show them our papers.  They checked our papers, made some "calls" and even asked us to open the tow box on the back of the car.  But again, we ignorantly and expertly played "No Speako Spanisho" and while the probably thought we were jackasses for even trying to drive through a spanish speaking country, they also felt we were once again a waste of time and let us go.

We continued on our way, through the bad, rocky streets, through the country, on our way to at least San Salvador.  We didn't really want to stop there but we wanted to get at least that far so that we only had a bit more to go tomorrow.  We go to San Salvador, the capitol of El Salvador, and were quickly flooded intro traffic and even more annoying, a Saturday street market, where it was car vs hundreds of people.  It was interesting to see though because El Salvador uses the American Dollar as their currency, so if you're ever looking for a deal, go there.

We finally got through and decided to make a mad dash to San Miguel, El Salvador, hoping it would put us in a big city to get a room and a great place to start our trek in the morning.  Well, we did get there, because I am currently sitting in our hotel room in San Miguel, however like most places in Central America thus far, you never really know how far you're going.  There are simply no signs or they lie to you.  Honestly, one time the sign said 65km for 10 miles... it's unbelievable.  We definitely undershot how long it would take us to get there because we did end up driving in the dark for about half an hour until we finally came to San Miguel.  I know, FREAK OUT RIGHT?  Central America driving after dark?!  It really isn't that bad, just be aware and get there safely... and clearly we did or else this is a whole new kind of blog people... a haunted one.

But it's not... and we are fine.

San Miguel is actually pretty big and it even had a big carnival going on tonight, but we were obviously to tired... and gringo... to go.  Just kidding about the gringo, though we do get stared at like we are carrying some new kind of alien blood.  I get that there aren't a whole lot of Gringos in the area, especially a mixed couple, but c'mon people STOP STARING AT US!  AND definitely stop pulling us over because we have gringo plates... which happened one more time that day.

Funny story about the second time we got pulled over in El Salvador. The one military cop stayed with us at the car because he knew some English and of course we pretended not to know any Spanish.  Well while his friends looked over our papers, he talked to us in English and when we asked him how he learned English he said, and I quote "from watching Sylvester Stallone movies."  AWESOME.

So here we are in San Miguel, El Salvador... dogs are walked, fed and sleeping... Abasi is sleeping and I'm heading to bed now too.  We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow because we're trying to finish El Salvador, cross into and out of Honduras and into Nicaragua... which borders our destination country, Costa Rica!!!!  Hopefully tomorrow will run smoothly because we have some concerns about Honduras' border in terms of the dogs but we shall see and conquer whatever comes our way.

I'm off to bed now, exhausted, and hopefully the Benadryl I just took will help me fall asleep faster and make my heat blisters go away.  Honestly, who moves to the Caribbean when they have the skin sensitivity I do?  This too shall pass.

Much Love, Pura Vida.

HEEYY, get us out of here... I wanna see The Lazy Mon!

HEY, lemme out!

Some el futbol, no?

Depths of Hell... and then Antigua.

October 18th, 2011

Good morning everyone!!!  Hope it was a good morning for you because for us, it was TERRIBLE!!  Like previously stated in the last blog, we ended up staying the night in Comitan, Mexico.  When I was last blogging I figured it would be a simple night, dinner, blog, sleep, wake up.  Well what I didn't know was that perched just right outside our door was "the gate to hell" as Abasi put it this morning.

Our room was nice enough, nothing fancy, but clean and we were fairly satisfied that for the next 6-8 hours we would be comfortable.  However, somewhere between paying for our room and getting into bed, the room was transported through all portals in the world and we were situated right in the middle of Lucifer's living room.

The room which was settled between a side street and alley, had walls thinner than the paper in the hotel notepad on the side table.  We could hear EVERYTHING going on, and most of what we heard, we simply didn't understand.  There were sounds inconceivable to the human ear.  It was honestly about 2-3 am and you could hear something scratching on our door, people walking all around and outside... OH OUTSIDE!  It was even worse.  There wasn't even a raindrop falling, yet the wind just beyond our balcony door would make you consider selling your first born.  It yelled and howled, knocked electrical cords against the side and from the sound of it you would think the room was being swallowed whole.  Though Abasi and I were too scared and/or proud at the time to even open our eyes or console one another, I admitted the next morning to checking the balcony, expecting to seeing someone standing there looking at me, and he prayed for every person (and their soul) he has ever met! 

It was honestly that ridiculous.

However, the next morning, red eyed and drowsy from the lack of sleep, we woke up and continued on our path to Costa Rica.  We got to the border of Guatemala in about 3 hours, longer than what we thought it would take, yet still happy to have concluded a chapter in our travels... we had now made it through the United States (USA, USA!!!) and Mexico.

Market in Mexico right before we left.

We got into Guatemala with relatively no issues, however right off the bat, the roads sucked and we were forced to drive through villages at about 30 mph.  Understand this... we are on the Pan American Highway... it is supposed to be GREAT!  So yes, if going 30mph is GREAT then HOORAY, the PanAm is amazing... however if you are expecting to make tracks and put a little oomph in your step than you are sadly disappointed.  We were hassled right from the get go at a military stop, however we played "No speako Spanisho" and they quickly realized we weren't worth their time.  So we are all clear, Abasi and I did not get hassled one time in Mexico, and as soon as we cross the border into Guatemala, it's on.

Once they realize we are a waste of their time, they send us on our merry way right down their unbelievable terrible roads, past the animals and farms and women carrying baskets on their heads... a true talent.  We simply DID NOT like Guatemala.  I realize this is a very poor country, so  I do not blame the people, however whoever planned these "highways" needs to be fired.  As Abasi says "it can't be a highway if there are speed bumps on it."  Very true babe, very true.

Another thing about Guatemala is that they DON'T HAVE ANY SIGNS! We pretty much guessed our entire way through the country, hoping we were on the right road, hoping we weren't supposed to turn off here or there. 

AND THEY DIDN'T ASK FOR OUR DOG'S PAPERS!!! OMGosh you have no idea how mad that makes me.  I jumped through freaking hoops trying to get the paperwork authenticated by Guatemala so that our pups could cross the border.  Remember how we had to stop in Atlanta and pay a cab company to go pick up special paper work? Yea, Guatemalan papers.  It makes me want to scccreeammm!!!

          Dear Guatemala,

                Fix your roads, find a new highway that doesn't have "topes" and when you make people go crazy for paperwork... ASK FOR IT!!!

                                                                                             Sincerely,

                                                                                        Krysta and Abasi

Nevertheless we did find a gem amongst the rough.  Turns out Antigua, Guatemala is GORGEOUS. Absolutely breathtaking.  The architecture is old and beautiful, the food is mouthwatering and the nightlife is buzzing.  There are people singing in bistros, people shyly sharing their first date with a glass of wine in a romantic restaurant, or lovers easily reminded of their love while sneaking a kiss in the park.  It is simply beautiful.  We can't believe it's in Guatemala, but alas it is, and maybe it is perfect there, snuggled in the valley amongst the mountains.

We ended our long day there, with some fantastic food and double margaritas.  We were able to have the dogs in the room with us there, so it made everything even better.  I personally fell asleep while listening to Abasi Skype chat with his family... a dad in Ohio, a cousin and uncle in Washington and a brother in Costa Rica, all while being in Guatemala.  Crazy how easily everything can come together.

Abasi's traditional Guatemalan "Rooster Stew"

My vegetarian dish in a traditional Guatemalan sauce.

Inner courtyard at our hotel in Antigua.

There will always be a place in my heart for Antigua, Guatemala.

Much love, Pura Vida <3

Mi familia. <3

<3 this one.

Karma, Karma, Karma Chameleon...

November 17^th

Woke up this morning aiming to be at the Guatemalan border within 3 hours and then onwards to Antigua.  Well, no such luck.

For starters we took our time getting on the road and even stopped off to have Betty White’s tires rotated, oil changed and other spa worthy treatments for a car that is dutifully driving across multiple countries for her owners.  A girl needs to be pampered right every now and then right?

After that was all said and done, we were finally on the road, first stopping to check out a few places that might have Sombreros for Khalil (Abasi’s brother) who insists on having one.  Hate to tell ya but no such luck my friend, though we are still looking.  Not finding anything we were looking for, we jumped on the highway 190 towards the border of Mexico and Guatemala.

Again we were forced to drive mountainous roads, though by this point Abasi was practically a pro and we were skillfully passing trucks, maneuvering the roads and making tracks towards Guatemala.  And then it all went downhill… and uphill (literally) from there.

We had just gotten off one HUGE mountain that literally took us so high we were in clouds.  Actual clouds.  This isn’t the first time we’ve been on a road so high that we were in a cloud because some roads are like that in Costa Rica.  HOWEVER, this is the first time we had ever driven it ourselves.  To anyone who has ever taken a car, bus, shuttle, whatever through Costa Rica, you know what we’re talking about.  You are so incredibly high, that looking down isn’t an option, and looking forward at the trucks and cars whizzing by doesn’t seem to settle the stomach either.  Try driving it.  Or rather don’t, I don’t blame you.

Driving into clouds!

This isn't fog... it's a cloud.

Lucky for me, my main man is quite comfortable in his driving capabilities and to be honest so am I.  He is good, because he knows what he’s doing and he’s smart about it.  That being said I doubt I will EVER drive in Southern Mexico or Costa Rica, it just plain old makes me want to be sick so the passenger side is the best place for me… and all others on the roads.

Now, like I was saying, we had just gotten into a valley that housed a small village that though we weren’t yet in Guatemalan I think it is pretty safe to say it was a very Guatemalan based community.  There are physical differences in the faces of native Mexican people and their border neighbors, the Guatemalans.  Aside from that the clothes actually change quite noticeablely too.  Because of where we were, we had to drive slowly while approaching the entrance of another mountain going back up.  Out of nowhere Abasi says he wants a Coca-Cola.  This is weird for two reasons.  One being that it was completely random and two Abasi RARELY ever drinks soda.

Now whether or not you believe in God or a higher power is completely up to you.  All I know is that within 3 minutes if we had not stopped to grab a soda from a small stand, we would have been making our way up another enormous mountain… and potentially into extreme danger.

Turns out all of our mountain driving, along with the “topes” or HUGE speed bumps ALL over Mexico had really heated up our brake fluid to the point where it boiled and went bad.  As we were pulling off onto a side street to grab this “random” soda, Abasi realized we had NO brake control.  None.

Needless to say I again wanted to throw up at the thought that we could have possibly been turning a corner or going God forbid down hill before we realized what was happening.  Now, don’t freak out people, I am not telling you all this to scare you, just explaining things how they went down.  It wasn’t that our brakes were bad or not working, it was the fluid inside that was causing them to not work.

The crazy part is that we found a “taller” or mechanic in this small freaking village that on the spot bled our brakes and gave us new fluid.  Literally within 25 minutes we were good to go again and Abasi said the brakes felt great. 


I was able to take some nice pics while the brakes were being worked on...

After a solid 2 minutes of me asking every 5 seconds whether or not the brakes still felt ok, always to be answered with “better than before we left the United States,” we were back on the road and cautiously headed up the mountain.  I know what you must be thinking?  Are you freaking crazy?!  To be honest, I have blisters on my right hand from holding the “Oh S*#!” handle so tightly.  I was extremely nervous, scared, prayerful and nauseous all at the same time.

In the end though, the brakes did turn out to be fixed and I trusted that Abasi would never put his own life or mine and the dogs’ lives’ in danger.  I told him I was thankful for him being so levelheaded and aware of his situation, some of the qualities I love most about him.  I quickly explained that had that happened to me alone, I would have sold the car and become an ex-pat native villager, selling fruit and handmade friendship bracelets on the side of the road before EVER getting back into Betty again.

OOHH but wait that isn’t the end… remember I told you in a previous blog to stay tuned?

Yea, within an hour of fixing our own brakes, we came upon a couple stopped with their hazard lights on… on an incline.

As we were making our way up another mountainside, we saw an old school VW bus stuck on the side of the road.  If you remember, Abasi and I had promised each other that with caution, we would try to help anyone we could because it is the right thing to do at the end of the day.  We would never want someone leaving us on a side of a mountain and it was only 60 minutes ago that a local guy had stopped what he was doing to help us fix our brakes… time to pay it forward.

We put on our hazards and pulled off to the side of the mountain road… mind you the edge was 3 feet away to the right and we were up there baby.  Turns out this couple was driving to the same border we were when their old van couldn’t make it up the mountain AND was losing their brakes altogether.  Knowing that we had a tow strap and Bad Ass Betty White that we now so affectionately call her, we offered to tow them up the mountain… and back down.

Attaching the tow strap.

The view coming at us... it's actually on a hill, just can't tell from my angle.

They were more than thankful and so we strapped up the tow and VERY SLOWLY pulled them up the mountain, turning corners, going over “topes” and hopefully navigating EVERYONE to safety.  While back in our car, Abasi and I agreed that while we felt no harm from them and knew we were doing the right thing, we would stay aware of them at all times and drop them off only in a crowded area to ensure our personal safety.

Everything was going relatively fine until their brakes gave out all together, noticeable by the stinky and dark smoke spilling out from under the wheels.  That was it, they had no more brakes and we still had a mountain to finish descending with them in neutral behind us.  What could we do?  Leave them on the side of a mountain road with no help, with nighttime coming in a few hours?  Absolutely not… karma can either bite you or help you, and we weren’t about to find out.  We continued for the next 30-45 miles pulling them at about 15 mph and them braking with only their emergency brake. 

When we finally got into the next major city, we unhooked them at a mechanic and said our goodbyes.  Though some people may worry about being hoodwinked (yea… you like that word?) and inviting danger in, we knew we made the right decision.  If the roles were reversed I would be devastated to be stuck and no one either able or willing to help us.  Travelers must look out for themselves but also for each other, and I’m glad to have been briefly a part of this moving community.

In the city of Comitan, where we towed them to and then slept.

Duh, of course there's a Walmart, Sam's Club and BK in Comitan, Mexico.

Well that’s about all the fun for tonight kids.  We decided to stay in the town we towed our new friends to instead of pushing our luck anymore that day and found a hotel room.  We grabbed some dinner and watched Mexican MTV.  We even made a game out of the music videos that we couldn’t understand.  Typically, or at least the ones we’ve experienced, Mexican music can go head to head with country music.  Every song is about someone’s wife or lover leaving them, and wanting them back.  With that in mind, we had to guess at the beginning of every song whether or not the woman came back and whoever was wrong had to take a sip of tequila.  Not a bad way to end, an extremely long day.

Adios for now and the next time I blog, we better be in Guatemala or Imma go bat crazy!  Remember, there will always be ups and downs but trust your path… it all works out! 

Much Love. Pura Vida.

"Fighting It Like a Girl" all over the world!

You think potato chips are good?  OMGosh I love Plantain Chips <3  They were still warm!