Breakdown – Mexican Style!

From reading my articles and blog postings you probably have come to the conclusion that we really do get into some interesting situations.  We also have phenomenal luck and that was how today worked out.  We had an excursion today, for Tom and Mall Boyd’s last day, to the Friday market of Ocotlan (you remember, the place where Amanda had her purse slashed and money stolen) with our wonderful amigo and guide/driver Sebastian.  No, we did not have a theft.  It was a great day and one wonderful event made it exceptional, but that will be in a subsequent posting.

When we were on our way back home we smelled something burning, and we just assumed it was one of the taxis next to us on the very crowded road as we entered Oaxaca.  We had noticed that in the afternoon our air conditioning was not putting out cold air.  Just past the airport road and near the new Walmart, we all noticed that smoke was coming up from under our hood. I don’t mean steam, like from an overheating radiator; I mean smoke from something really burning.  Needless to say, this requires crossing three lanes of traffic to get to the curb, and you know—with our smoke everyone seemed to let us get by.  This is unusual courtesy from an Oaxacan driver!

Sebastian and Tom Boyd get out of the van, open the hood, and inspect the engine.  Now I am not sure either of these gentlemen knows the difference between an engine and a tail pipe, but they diagnose the problem.  The air conditioning motor has overheated, probably from lack of coolant and is busily proceeding to burn up the air conditioning motor belt.  Neither one of them knows whether this motor runs only the air conditioning, or if other things work off of it.  This is when the “Miracle de Sebastian Pablo Villa” occurs.  Humm, maybe you need to know that Sebastian’s full name is Sebastian Pablo Villa.

We are all at this point baking in the van, and Sebastian gets on his cell phone.  He comes back after a couple of calls and tells us “No Problemo!”  It turns out that Sebastian’s wife’s cousin has an automobile mechanic business about five minutes away.  He is on the way.  The cousin also owns and provides drivers for three taxis so we will have transportation.  A few minutes later the cousin with his tool box, and a cab arrive.  We are all bundled into the taxi, the driver is given instructions on finding the casa, Sebastian stays behind with the van and cousin, and we are off.

So far on this trip to Mexico, we had not used a cab.  This taxi was something to behold, and I am sure not much different from the thousands of taxis we have seen in Oaxaca.  It appeared that the only working seat belt was the drivers.  The front passenger seat had a seat belt, but no receptacle in which to lock it.  I assume, because all of the bright sunny weather in Oaxaca, all the cabs seem to have a plastic darkener over the upper third of the front windshield.  On the outside of the visor there is usually painted the name of the neighborhood that the taxi works in.  It is good that the drivers are short so they can see out.  Tom Boyd was in the right front and he couldn’t see out at all. 

We have suspected that because of the way the taxis drive it is tough to keep them at a high standard of mechanical fitness.  Our cab, when driving down the street rattled so loud I was surprised that he could hear and talk to his dispatcher.  But he was multi-dexterous.  He was listening to Mexican music, talking to the dispatcher, on his cell phone, and asking me if I spoke Spanish, all at the same time.  We were all hoping that the cross hanging from the rear view mirror really would provide us with good luck.  You know what, it did!  The cell phone call was from Sebastian, and that the van was fixed (by cutting the air conditioning motor belt), and he was just a block or two behind us. 

Our “savior” taxi driver pulled over, Sebastian drove up, we transferred all our stuff back into the van, and we were again all on our way to the casa.  We are now discussing adopting Sebastian.  And I thought this was just going to be an ordinary second visit to Ocotlan.  Life is just a lot of surprises and miracles – and the wonder of the Mexican extended family.

 

 

Ocotlan Friday Market

 

Ocotlan Friday Market

 

Octolan Church

 

Quirky Living Note

 

The little scrubby sticks at the kitchen sink – At our casa the ladies, and the men washing dishes, have been using the little bundle of sticks to clean out the pots and pans.  Everyone seems to think this little local item is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It consists of some very strong sticks held together with wire.  One day when going to the Etla Market day, it was decided we needed to find and buy these items.  I was the daily hero as I spotted them in a bunch of things in the items being sold by a native lady when entering  the mercado.  Mall bought the kind with rough points at both ends and Mary Ann got the one with the string so it would hang from a hook (see photo below).  Who knows, maybe we can patent them and market them all over the U.S.  Sebastian advises us these are called escobetas.  The English-Spanish dictionary defines this as a whiskbroom -  a small short-handed broom with stiff bristles, used to clean small areas.

 

Escobetas