Monday at the Mexican Muffler Shop

Yet again(!) we are spending the day at a mechanic's shop. This time it's in a pueblo so small that it doesn't even seem to have a name. It's on the toll road between Navojoa and Los Mochis, an agricultural crossroads area. Mohita started choking and sputtering on the hills and we decided to pull in and see if we could get someone to look at it. As we thought, it is clogged fuel filters which were easily changed. Since this place also replaces mufflers and ours was starting to go, we decided to have that done at the same time. That may have been a big mistake. It's not like Midas Muffler where you're in and out in an hour. This is a much slower process; we've been here for four hours now and the old muffler and tailpipe have been sawed off but the new stuff isn't on yet. Two guys are down in the well underneath Mohita but who know's what they're doing down there—maybe smoking pot. In any case, it's definitely happening on Mexican time.

My hope (prayer!) for today is that we can get going in time to get to Los Mochis (about 100 km down the road) in time to find a spot to camp before dark. Oh my, I'm having deju vu (again)! We are getting heartily sick of this process. This is the fifth time we've hung around mechanics shops since the start of our trip, actually the sixth if you count the guys putting on the chains way back there in Oregon. That seems like a lifetime ago. Meanwhile I'm sitting in Mohita in the blazing sun with all the blinds pulled down and the hatches and windows open trying to catch a breeze from the big trucks the rush by. The dogs are panting on the floor and Harry's sitting in a chair oustside watching for signs of progress. There don't seem to be any. Well, enough of my whining--I'll take the dogs out for another walk. We've found an abandoned building just down the way that has some shade where we can hang out for a bit before the resident dogs start barking insanely at us (see photo). This is how we while away the afternoon. We're rapidly improving our Spanish vocabulary for car parts. Bet you're glad you're not here with us today.

Later--
They finished the job around 6:45 pm—and by then they were our dearest friends. Raoul, the owner of the shop, invited us to park in his front yard overnight and even offered us the use of his kitchen and an extra bedroom (which we declined). However, again the kindness of the Mexican people is pretty overwhelming. Three people worked on Mohita. They replaced the muffler and tailpipe system completely (including fabricating the tailpipe), they replaced several filters and did some other necessary welding. It took them seven hours and they charged us $245. All in all, I think we did ok with that. Tomorrow morning early we'll head south for Culiacan, then to Mazatlan.