Brother Jim is on the way with a suitcase full of parts. Yup, like the Deus Ex Machina, Jim is going to help us out of our current situation.



Why Jim? Well, a) he was ready, willing and able to come; b) he knows his way around VWs and has rebuilt the engine on a vehicle similar to ours; c) he speaks spanish and d) he is a savvy traveler which may help coming through customs.

Jim flys in tomorrow and will work his way to Villa de Leyva on Sunday. Mike has spent the past week watching videos on the Samba on the delicate operation they are about to perform. Through many emails and phone calls they are ready to tackle the project.


While I should be excited about the repair, I am more excited about having our first visitor. Jim will be here a week and I hope the repair goes quickly so the three of us can do some traveling and exploring before Jim heads back. I want to share our experience of life on the road.

Thanks for all the comments, both here and via my email.....however, I asked what YOU would do, not what you thought we should do. ; -)

Stay tuned.

Trish

Hi All,

Want to live vicariously? Here´s your chance to weigh in and let us know what you´d do....

We have run into car problems. After a significant amount of testing and diagnosing, we have determined that we have blown rings in engine cylinder number two. Now, I don´t know much about engines, but doesn´t that just sound bad? You know, rings, valves, cylinders, gaskets....

We do not think the ring issue is related to the oil that leaked on the loading dock in the C´gena port. That was corrected when we had the powersteering pump rebuilt. We travelled on our merry way until we got to San Gil and then we noticed a substantial loss of power and suspected something was amiss.

As you know, we are in Colombia. Forget everything you´ve heard about ´lots of old VWs in South America´. Here, every 3rd car is a Renault. New Renaults, old Renaults and really old Renaults.

I honestly don´t know if I have ever known anyone who owned a Renault; I certainly don´t know anyone who drives one now, especially a 30 year old one. I digress.

The good news (there is always good news) is that we are in a stylin' town. You couldn´t ask for a better place to be ´stuck´. Here are a couple of links from the New York Times about Villa de Leyva Colombia. Seriously, you´ll want to come here.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/25/travel/20091025-villa-slideshow_index.html?scp=4&sq=colombia&st=tcse

http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/central-and-south-america/colombia/overview.html?scp=1&sq=villa%20de%20leyva%20colombia&st=tcse

We have had many, many conversations about what to do. Early on we eliminated the option of scurrying back to Cartagena and shipping the vehicle back to the US. We are both still very much committed to this trip. We also knew when we signed on for this adventure that situations like this happen and are to be expected on a journey like this.

So after determining that we do not want this set-back to be a trip-ender, we evaluated what our other options were.

Necessary decisions included the extent to which we wanted to make this repair, and the best way to obtain the parts needed. Do we go big and replace the whole engine, or just address the parts we know are needed? Do we have the parts shipped directly to us, have someone fly down with the parts (Colombia, anyone?), or secure the parts from Bogata through the mechanic here in Villa de Leyva.

As you an imagine, each of these decisions comes with sub-decisions regarding costs, time, logistic, risk, etc.

We have found a good mechanic in Villa de Leyva, referred to us by the great people at Colombian Highlands and Renacer Hostel (not where we are staying, but they have been super helpful). Though Mechanic Javier speaks little english (no english, really....very few people in Colombia speak english, not even un poco), he has the same VW manual (the Bentley you´ve heard so much about) as we have, only his is in Spanish. Seriously, what were the odds of that??

Soooooo, take a minute to consider what you´d do. Sell the Beast and fly home? Ship the Beast back to the US? Replace the whole engine? Replace only what´s needed? Secure parts from the US? From Colombia? Start drinking heavily?

Weigh in. We have pretty much made our decision, but this little exercise will give you a moment away from your life (that´s why you´re reading this, isn´t it?), let you think about how you would handle this situation and it will be fun for us hear from you.


If you are someone who wants to know all the details before weighing in, here is a link to the Samba website, that online forum (cult) of VW owners. They have been very helpful in pointing out things to test, what to check next, and other things to be considered. Spoiler alert; I think Mike may have posted our plan there for the other Sambanistas to see.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=409796

More on our travels, the big-ass ants in San Gil, and our new life in Villa de Leyva in a few days.

Trish

P.S. Great news about the hot water at the Aquatic Center! Bacano!

Leaving Cartagena

After nearly 2 weeks, we are getting ready to leave Cartagena.

While here we sprung the van out of the port, did some (more) van maintenance, got Chettie some vet care, walked a zillion miles of small streets festooned with bouginvilla covered balconies, fell in with the local social scene of hanging out in the plaza in the evenings and toured some of the must-see attractions.

We've enjoyed it here, but the truth be told we would not have stayed as long as we have if it were not for the weekend delay in getting the van out of the port and the Semana Santa holiday. It's hotter here than we like and cities are just not our favorite places to be. All three of us are ready for some green spaces. 

Colombia is a big country and drive time between places is huge. I suspect our next few stops may be lacking in internet services so stay tuned and we'll check in when we get the chance.

Mike's Adventures in AutoLand

Mike has spent  time on the hunt to get the power-steering repaired. He started by asking the attendant at our parqueo if she knew of a place he could have the power-steering pump rebuilt. She said 'Si!' and sent him to Pie de la Popa, a barrio outside the tony historic district.



He got in a cab and let the driver know what his mission was. The cabbie immediately made it his mission, too. Pie de la Popa is an incredible maze of every kind of auto part stores, shops and services imaginable. The driver took Mike to many places asking for information several times until they finally were directed to the King of Transmissions (El Rey Transmission Shop).


The King himself asked for 5 minutes to finish up what he was working on and then he'd be ready to help. Mike paid and heavily tipped the taxi driver and sent him on his way. Then Mike and the King and another fellow who spoke some English got into a customer's car that needed a 'test drive' and drove to a sidewalk shop. This 'shop' consisted of an oily wooden bench, a bent hammer and a variety of tools set up on a corner of a sidewalk....there was no building or even roof structure overhead. Literally, a sidewalk shop. The King assured Mike that this was "the guy" to deal with and that the guy owed him a favor.

From there, the guy sent two employees with Mike to remove the power-steering pump from the van in situ at our parqueo. Back at the parqueo, Mike suggested driving her to the sidewalk shop as she is still drivable, and off they went. The two young employees quickly removed the pump, cleaned up the outside and took it apart.


The sidewalk shop owner drove the seals out with his crooked hammer and dug into his parts baggie and pulled out new seals, promptly put the whole thing back together and reinstalled it. After refilling the pump with hydraulic power-steering fluid the joven empleados noticed that one of the hydraulic hoses was leaking.


They quickly removed the hose and took it down the street to have a custom hose made. Returned, reinstalled the hose, topped off the fluid and for a sum of $US75 Mike was on his way.


Now, time will test the quality of the repair. Either way Mike says they know more about such work than he does.

Note:  All of the repairs occured while MIke was sitting in the shade drinking beer provided by the owner. A unique experience indeed.

A Peak at Cartagena

• This is Semana Santa (Easter/Holy Week). As in all Latin American countries, this is one of the most important times of the year. There have been many celebrations as the city shifts into holiday mode. Its a tourist city so some business carries on, but the change in pace has been noticable.
• I was told by a fellow hotel guest that all museums were free on the last Sunday of the month, even the Castillo de San Felipe Barajas. This is a huge fortress built at the eastern edge of the city in the 1600s. So I headed over to check it out...but the guard at the gate said, "No, because of Semana Santa they were not allowing free entry." He was polite and friendly and my mild cajoling ("But I've come such a long way", big smile) quickly unravelled his need to enforce the rules. He asked where I was from and when I told him Los Estados Unidos he remarked to his coworker that yes, I even resembled the American Ambassador. Now, I'll bet there is not one among us who could identify the Colombian Ambassador given a line up of ambassadors. But because of my likeness, he let me in for free.

Trish and the girls from our hotel at the Castillo de San Felipe

Castillo de San Felipe

• There is a small plaza in front of the church at the end of our street. Every night people gather there to enjoy the evening. Clearly, the heat plays a role in bringing people out. The plaza fills with kids, adults and elders; tourists and locals alike. The design of the plaza encourages people to congregate and benches are set in such a way as to provide a measure of privacy if wanted or a chance to interact; your choice. Food vendors set up and dinner can be had for about $2.50. Last night there was a concert with four bands, great music and a fun atmosphere. Another night they showed a movie projected on a wall across the plaza.

On the plaza

On the plaza

Our favorite food vendor
• The Carribean influence here is unmistakable, noticed in the music and the attitude of the locals. 'Sultry' is a word that has found its way into my conversations when describing Cartagena to friends.The city is much more than the small historic area at its core and things get more real in these areas. Because of our dealings with the van and the dog we've had the opportunity to meet people who live and work here, not just those serving the tourist industry. Invariably they are friendly, warm, polite and helpful.
• There is a strong police presence in Cartagena and we've been told elsewhere as well. The current president has been in office 8 years and is very well liked. He is credited with improving safety by stepping up police presence. While it can be disquieting at first, you quickly realize they are there for the general good. They are friendly and keep a low profile, just present enough to be seen but not intimidate. Many of them joke with the locals and play with the kids.
• This week a political prisoner of 12 years was released by FARC, the guerrilla faction, and the remains of another prisoner were returned to his widow. This was covered heavily in the papers and on the news. While in a restaurant a man at a nearby table asked the waiter to switch the TV channel from sports to the news. In a show of typical politeness he first asked us if we were watching the other program and looked for assurance that he would not be offending us by having the channel changed. Then, he shared with us the importance of these events for the prisoner's families as well as for the country. There are further plans to release other prisoners.
• And about speaking Spanish....here they speak with a bit of slur and as in a few other countries we've been in (notably, El Salvador) they often drop the 's'. Now, I grew up in New England, where the R's aren't, so I know about regional accents. But as students of Spanish it makes it that much more difficult when words like 'dos' become 'doe', 'esquina' becomes 'ekeena' and 'bosque' becomes 'bokay'. Sometimes people speak so fast that it's hard to identify where one word ends and the next word starts and I find myself repeating a word or phrase and thinking, 'Now if there was an 's' in here somewhere would it sound like something I know'.

A New Continent

Happy Birthday, Mike!

A week in Panama City preparing to ship the van to Colombia and a week in Cartagena picking it up. Okay, it didn't really take quite that long on either end, but that's how much time has elapsed.

On the seawall along Avenida Balboa in Panama City with Casco Viejo in the background (new pants bought in Costa Rica--prana, no less)

Trish, Chettie and the Burly Beast (minus the rocket box) in Panama City

MacGyver plumbing fitting in public toilet in Panama City (no, that is not a turd!)

I will not go through the step-by-step process of shipping our van, as I believe most people following our blog are more interested in our travels and adventures than our days of time-consuming bureaucratic frustrations, but let me say we appreciate those before us who have posted the step-by-step details as we've used them as rough guidelines for our processes, and as a reminder that other people have done this so it is possible.

Heading into the Cristobal Port loading area in Colon after about 4 hours of to-ing and fro-ing paperwork

Stacks of containers waiting to be loaded in Cristobal Port (taken out the slider window)

Instead I'll write about gut-churning worries about dog and van. First of all, the oil buzzer had been buzzing at odd times, but we had not been leaking oil.....until we were on the loading dock in the shipyard in Colon, about to put the vehicle in the container.

According to all the guidebooks, Colon is nothing but a slum best to be avoided. We couldn't avoid it as that is where the port is. So, I had done my share of worrying before we headed to Colon. Port cities conjure up a seedy ambiance at best and Colon was true to the stereotype.

But my fears about Colon were perhaps overwrought and though hardly a UNESCO site candidate, Colon wasn't so bad. What I really should have been worrying about was the oil! That's the thing about worry, right? You spend all that energy worrying about one thing and what gets you in the end is something totally different.

So, there we were after a week of paperwork for the van, the dog and us on the shipyard loading dock finally ready to put the Burly Beast in the container when we noticed she was leaking oil. There wasn't a thing we could do: plans had been laid, fees had been paid, reservations had been made and there was no turning back. So we drove her into the container, rented a car and drove back to Panama City....with images of an oil slick forming under the engine compartment now being the focus of my worries. And, our minds began to form plan b's including shipping the van back to the states, shipping an engine to Colombia or selling the van and flying to Argentina for a few months.

Guys securing the van in the container (oil trail clearly visible)

Mike and the port authority closing up the container

Sealing the container we noticed that one of the four latches was severly bent at the bottom rendering it inoperable....they took pictures, I took pictures and that was that. More to worry about.

We flew with Missy Chettie to Cartagena on Wednesday March 24th. Further worry about her comfort on the flight, stuffed into a small luggage hold as she was. Hard thing about this is you can't just explain to a dog "Now, honey, you're going to be in a cage, in a luggage hold for an hour and a half while we fly to Cartagena but we'll be right up front and we'll be there to pick you up when we the plane lands."

No....it's more like "We're stuffing you into this cage and leaving you with some men in grubby jumpsuits who will manipulate the cage around with some other big packages and pack you into a small space (at this point you'll probably pee yourself you'll be so scared); then you'll feel the entire vessel move and there will be a sensation you've never felt before as we fly through the air for an hour and a half. After the vessel abruptly makes contact with the ground, your cage will be unloaded by different men without us in sight and brought back to a building where you'll wait till they process us though customs and then, my dear Chettie, out of nowhere we will appear and we'll be reunited once again. This time you'll pee yourself out of sheer delight." 

And so it was that we flew with Chettie to Cartagena. More worry ensued when the pilot said we were flying at 21,000 feet. Could she breathe? Was it pressurized? (This was not a big jet liner, mind you, but a small prop plane with about 25 passengers on board.....oh, yeah, we also worried about her wailing so loud that all the passengers could hear her but she never made a peep.)

All that worry for naught, we all made it to Cartagena in one piece. Safely on the ground and reunited we headed to our hotel, which was lovely but quite spendy. So while it felt like the lap of luxury to be in a swanky hotel room it was hard to sleep knowing how much coin we were dropping per night. We quickly found other digs at a 1/4 of the price and while they are not nearly so plush I'd venture to say they are in a more real neighborhood with a great vibe instead of being in a tourist quarter.

The van was to arrive on Friday March 26th. We received the confirming email letting us know the ship would indeed be in on the 26th but not till 1pm, with the container being offloaded around 3pm. Waaaaay too late in the day to handle all the paperwork and retrieve the van by the end of business Friday, so we would have to wait till Monday.

This gave us the weekend to explore Cartagena but also gave us time to continue playing out all the horrible 'what-if' oil scenarios in our heads. Another characteristic of worry: you can't easily turn it off once your mind decides there is a situation in need of resolution. So even as we explored the city, low grade concern lurked beneath the surface. I employed some meditation techniques to deal with this, but alas those pesky van-thoughts kept resurfacing.

Street performer (human statue) in Cartagena

Another human statue in Cartagena (kidding...)

Street scene Cartagena

Cartagena is a beautiful city and of the comparable colonial cities we've travelled through I'd say I like it the best. It is right on the Carribean coast so the maritime influence is present; it's not nearly as polished as San Cristobal Mexico, Antigua Guatemala or Granada Nicaragua but it is all the more attractive for it's raw beauty.

Carribean Sea from the wall surrounding the old city

Doorway-Cartagena

Clearly, many of the buildings have been preserved and/or restored but many are in rough condition. Often, however, you pass a doorway of a seeming hulk of a building to catch a glimpse of a beautiful interior replete with gardens, a pool and gleaming tiled living areas--the owners apparantly subscribing to the philosophy that it is best not to draw attention to oneself and to keep the outside humble.


And then on Monday at 8am sharp, Mike was off to the port and Seaboard Marine's offices. He had started the paperwork process on Friday afternoon, getting a jump on as much as possible without the van in hand.


I stayed at our hotel with Chettie and, yup, worried. Mike never returned till 6:45pm and without the van! As it started to get dark my worries of the van and her problems turned to worries about Mike driving in an unfamiliar city in the dark. Upon his return, he proclaimed that the van was out of the container, and there was no oil-slick under her when he drove her out. Oil levels were down slightly but not near what we had feared.

He had wanted to inspect the engine compartment before just driving her away from the port and when he saw how late it was he asked the Seaboard guys if he could leave the van in their secure lot and pick her up in the morning.

He was able to take a quick peek and determined that the oil was NOT leaking from the engine but rather from the power-steering pump. All the tight manuvering on the loading dock had been the tipping point for this problem.

Tuesday the 29th he set off to pick her up, knowing there were a couple of other logistics to finish up before springing her from the shipyard. Sadly, it took nearly the whole day to deal with them and finally around 3pm he returned with the van. She is in a parqueo just steps from our hotel and in a good place for us to evaluate the issues and deal with them in a rational way instead of in the wild-imagination way of worry.

About the Chetster: She is still losing weight and is very thin. So while we have been here in Cartagena we've taken her to another vet and had additional tests done. They tell us she still has hookworms and also has a blood disorder. They seem knowledgeable and they have been treating her for three days. So though I'm worried about her, our stay in Cartagena has been a good thing for her in terms of being in one place with good veteranian care.

We intend to stay here through Tuesday and then start to work our way south west towards Ecuador. People we've spoken to all tell us how beautiful Colombia is and all reinforce that it is safe to travel in all but a few places.