More Adventures

This morning, David and Craig were here. After breakfast, they went to the shop to get their spring made and we started preparing for the SOS team to arrive. Heidi went to market and Matt spent some time with the landscaping. Then we both spent some time addressing flood damage in the dorm rooms. We dragged carpets out into the sun and cleaned the rooms. For the most part, it looks like we'll be just fine.

We talked to Jacob about our transportation situation and he recommended a mechanic that the school uses. We called him and he came over to the house. He said he had a friend who has a wrecker that could go get the truck for us. Guess who that friend is? Yeah, we thought Martin's shop was closed with him being in the United States. Turns out that Geromino, one of his old helpers, has been running the shop for him while he was gone. We SHOULD have just tried calling over there!!!!

Anyway, Geromino and Matt got in the wrecker and headed for San Andres. Lest anything be easy, a pretty good rainstorm blew up. Part of the road was nearly impassable due to a rockslide, but we made it. Then when we got to our favorite bridge (we've mentioned this one several times - it's the one that turned us around with Baby Juana last year), it had about two feet of water flowing over it.

We stood around for a while with about 30 other people trying to figure out what to do. One guy finally got in his Toyota 4x4 and drove right through - no problems. Another Toyota. Then it was the wrecker's turn. Wreckers don't have 4 wheel drive, though, so we got stuck. Bad. Geromino ended up wading through the river with a cable from the winch to try to winch us out. The tree broke. So he climbed a hill and attached to another one, but it was too high up the hill and all it did was try to lift us.

In the meantime, more vehicles had crossed and a chicken bus finally pulled us out. Finally, we arrived in San Andres and hooked up the truck. On our way back, we got stuck in a very muddy spot. So we had to drop the pickup, drive it through the mud (it still only goes about 1mph, but at least it has 4 wheel drive), then reattach it. Then we still had to drive back through the river we got stuck in before. We had better luck this time, but another truck was stuck. So we dropped the pickup again and tried to pull him out. He was stuck so deeply, though, that we almost stuck the wrecker again trying to get him out. So we had to leave him to wait for a bigger truck.

Then, about three hours later (wreckers towing trucks up mountains are not fast), we got back to Quiche. Matt had not had cell phone service for about four hours, though, so Heidi was a little worried.

Anyway, after all that, Geronimo refused payment, so we'll have to figure out how to get them the money (the mechanic told us to expect about Q1000 - about $130) we truly owe them. Probably just an envelope dropped off at the house.

Unfortunately, since the other mechanic originally had our business and he had called Geronimo to drive the wrecker, it would be considered pretty bad form to ask Geronimo to fix it for us. So we'll have to take it to the other mechanic in the morning.

Heidi has clinic in Chichicastenango tomorrow - supposedly. She doesn't really have a way to get there yet and we're debating the relative merits of rolling the dice on the chicken bus. Pray for her safe travel if that's how we go.