Follow the Parrot: 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.