A quick trip to Morelia ... with a few exceptions.

It was supposed to be a quick, 10 hour,450 mile, round trip to Morelia to get a new compressor for Ivone's dental office. I wanted us to take the bus but Ivone wanted to have her brother-in-law Agustín drive us in his pickup. The bus has comfortable seats, air conditioning, and entertainment. Agustín's truck has none of the aforementioned. Bus cost for two round trip tickets about $120. Gasoline, tolls and extras for the truck about the same. However .... Map

We left Zihuatanejo with Agustín at about 8am on Friday and we were constantly concerned about his driving because he drives very fast and basically "crazy". We were only about 2 hours into the trip (just through the Sierra Madre del Sur see photo above) when the truck started overheating. My first thought was "He should have checked the water before we left.". We got out to identify the problem and that's when I found out that we had no extra water and the radiator was holding nothing but steam. And that is when I noticed that the right front tire was almost flat. Of course he had no spare but that didn't matter because he had no jack either. Humm, the bus is sounding pretty good right now. So he started calling for help on his cell phone but couldn't find any. About that time a truck with three young Mexicans stopped to ask if they could help. Wow, they had water enought to fill the radiator, a spare that would fit and a jack too. They put on the spare but found that it was completely flat. So they jacked up the back and took off the good rear tire, put our almost flat tire on the back (the back end of the truck being much lighter than the front), jacked up the front, took off their flat and put the good tire on the front. (Here is the best part: the three young men would not take even a single peso for all that they did for us. I called them "angelitos")  It was just enough to get us into the nearest town, Nuevo Italia, where Agustín could buy a new tire..That done we filled with water and got back on track to Morelia. We were nearing the turn off to Morelia when the truck started overheating again so we turned the other way toward Uruapan where his aunt Biatrís lives. Not even half way up the hill we had to stop because we were out of water again. I said "Maybe there is a leak or maybe it's the thermostat.?." and Agustín replied "No, it's the fan. It doesn't work.".  I was aghast. The thought that he KNEW that the fan didn't work, that he didn't carry any extra water, and that he put us all in danger just blew my mind. So he called Biatrís who dropped everything and came to our aid with water and some soft drinks. We made it up the hill into town where we parked the truck in the area where there are many mechanics and part shops then rode in her Nissan hatchback to get dinner and a beer. She put us up for the night and the next morning Agustín had made contact with a mechanic to fix the truck which might be ready Sunday morning. We still needed to get the compressor so we got into the Nissan and headed for Morelia, about 65 miles away. It was an uneventful drive there except for a couple of close calls when Agustín tried to pass a tanker and flatbed on a long, blind, uphill curve. We got the compressor and started back with just a quick stop at The Home Depot. When we got back to the car it wouldn't start. We got it started by pushing it but it just wouldn't run right. We had no tools but Agustín found a taxi driver who had some. He helped to removed the battery, took Agustín to get a new one AND install it. He only asked $15 for all that help. Now, we were back on the road again but I noticed that Agustín was pointing at the dashboard and saw that the alternator light was on. That's when I started to laugh, quietly, to myself. Well, we made it back to Uruapan got some dinner, slept and the next morning (Sunday 10:30) we headed back to Zihuatanejo (after many,many warm thanks and hugs to Biatrís). The 10 hour trip that turned into 2 1/2 days was only made worse by the fact that I was wearing my usual T-shirt, shorts and sandals which is fine for the warm weather of Zihuatanejo but not for the cold nights in the mountains of Uruapan. So the next time we decide to take a quick trip ANYWHERE, I'm going to remember this trip and pack an emergency bag with at least one pair of clean underwear.