Date:         Mon, 29 Dec 2003 14:24:47 -0800
Reply-To:     Fin Beven <FinBeven@MSN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Fin Beven <FinBeven@MSN.COM>
Subject:      Re: Looking for advice re. Mexico
Comments: To: Sean Garrett <SEAN.GARRETT@ASU.EDU>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

We were on a trip in the "old" bus (the '84) down to see the whales at Scammons Lagoon last March, and had two failures within an hour.  The right-rear CV joint (which our local VW agency had told us "looked" OK before we left) started to "rumble" a bit, and then the starter motor went into perpetual-on as the hot-start relay shorted out in very heavy rain and fairly deep puddles.  (We were later told that the relay had been installed upside-down, allowing water to accumulate in it).

This all occurred about 50 miles south of Ensanada in a heavy rain storm.  

The local police station in San Martin was VERY helpful in lining up a tow for us, with the hope that we might have gotten some service back in Ensanada.  No luck.  So, we got another tow to take us back to Tijuana.  There's a dealer there, but he said that it could take him a week to get the parts we needed.  So, we got still another tow with the clearance to take us back across the border to the dealership in San Diego.  That was a long day.

And a fairly expensive day.  Those three tows cost us about $750.  And, as you might expect, they don't take AAA.  

Fortunately, we'd stashed nearly $1000 in the van, and were able to pay and appropriately tip the drivers, as they were really trying to help us as best they could.

As an aside, one way to look at tipping in a poor country like Mexico, is to look at it as a nice form of charity...giving to those who are really trying.

Fin Beven
Pasadena, CA
'84 GL, Camper conversion
'90 Carat, Camper conversion
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