Despacito

There they were… a stranded, foreign couple in the middle of nowhere, trying to flag down help on a two lane highway, in what J described as a “Dr. Seuss desert forest”.

Oh shoot… did I say “they”… I meant “we“…

You almost always start evaluating yourself from an outsider’s perspective in these types of situations….. “Would I stop for me?”

Haha, not to fear! As a couple, I’m pretty sure this was our 4th time hitchhiking… Yes, we’re real experienced “hitchers” 😉

The last time? Running down the El Yunque rainforest in Colombia, with all our luggage, trying to make the bus back to Cartagena…yes, we did score a ride (sweaty and everything) barely making our autobús. Woot!

We have the different ‘waves’ down…

This one was the forceful, double handed ‘parade wave’, communicating, “Hello, we are friendly… but, Please. Stop. Now. Thanks.”

Moments later, a small cargo truck with two men pulled off to see what the commotion was… Although, relatively calm, I could not remember the word for “tow truck”…

The stage was mine… It was like an anxiety ridden game of catchphrase… motioning and blurting out phrases, “we need a big truck for the van” … “You know the larger one to take the little one”… “The vehicle to put the other vehicle “…

“Una grúa?”…. “Si, si, una grúa”… There was only room for one of us in the cargo truck… (Neither of us wanted to leave the other alone…) After going back and forth regarding our options, the men offered to drive slowly behind us until we made it back to town.

The clanging from Pancho’s underbelly was concerning; we certainly didn’t want to make it worse. Guided to a mechanic, we posted up for a few hours to see if there would be a quick fix…

It was an interesting diagnosis to say the least. The mechanic had a hose cut on both ends and was using it like a stethoscope… holding one end to his ear and moving the other end to the transmission, engine etc. announcing, “Ruida aqui?…no… Ruida aqui…no… Ruida aqui?…Si, es el motor.. Tengo quitar el motor”.

Um… What…Remove the engine?!?! J and I exchanged some ‘I don’t think so’ looks. We quickly asked the mecánico if we could make it back to Ensenada. “Si, es posible…” That was good enough for us and really the only possibility at that point.

“Muy despacito”, he cautioned. Giving understanding nods, we thanked the mechanic for his time and started back North.

Just like the song…

“Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito
Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito”

Nervously stepping onto the dance floor, poquito a poquito, 40 mph for over 130 miles. We just kind of held our breath, encouraging each other along in this fragile dance down the highway… While stress was in the air; I’m proud we both did great at focusing on the positive ~ PMA alllll the way. The clattering had subsided some…fingers crossed…

Gracias a dios! Hours later, driving into this familiar area was such a relief… made it back to Ensenada.

A quick stop for tacos later, we were high-fiving; it felt like victory!