Igor is still not fixed...

When we left you yesterday, we were pulled off on a farmers track by the side of the road. We were about 2.5 kms (a mile) or so downhill from the small town of Tuzamapan in the state of Veracruz.

The nearest larger town is Coatepec (pop 55,000), about 14 kms away. And we are about 24 kms from the city of Xalapa (pop 450,000).

So, the plan was to walk up to Tuzamapan and see if there is a mechanic there. But it was still early, so we first went for a walk along the farmers track just to see what there was to see.

Guaranteed we are the first Canadians to ever walk along this road!

Nice view.

We saw this waterfall in the distance, but couldn't see how to get to it.

Back at Igor, we were trying to decide if we should attempt to drive him the 2.5 kms up to the town, or we should walk up first to see if there is a mechanic to look at him. If there is not, then attempting the drive would be pointless because we would end up having to get a tow truck anyhow.

And if we attempted the drive and were unsuccessful, I would have to find somewhere to safely pull over. And it's a fairly busy, steep uphill two lane road with a lot of curves and no shoulder.

Not an ideal situation to try to limp him up there.

We decided that I would walk into town alone and Ruth would stay with Igor.

Looks like a space capsule!

I made it to the outskirts of town and asked a couple of ladies if there was a mechanic in town. They pointed me towards the central plaza. It's actually a larger town than I was expecting. Maybe 5,000 people.

I was walking towards the central plaza when I came across two guys in their 50's chatting outside a little shop. I asked them about a mechanic, and the one guy was giving me directions when he stopped and said just to come with him and he would walk with me.

We went to four different places. They were either closed, or the guy wasn't around. Finally found a shop. Very basic, outdoors, lots of junk lying around. But at least they appeared to have a lot of tools and equipment. I said goodbye and thanks to my new friend Sylvestre, and he wished us good luck.

I explained the problem to the two mechanics and they packed up a bunch of tools into a pickup truck and the three of us drove back down to Igor.

The pickup truck was an old piece of shit and wasn't running much better than Igor! I was thinking "holy cow, they can't even get their own vehicle to run right!"

Back at Igor, they got to work checking things out. The fuel pump was the first thing. They had a gauge that they could attach onto the fuel line at the intake manifold and it showed a steady 40 psi... exactly what it should be. We tested it under load and warmed up, and it didn't change... so that rules out it being the fuel pump.

They worked for about four hours trying various things. I'm actually starting to lose confidence in their ability to fix it. 

They called another guy who brought some parts on a motorcycle.

We decided to try driving him up the hill, but couldn't even get off the track onto the highway. There was no way he could make it up there under his own power.

The one guy took off on the motorcycle and came back with a larger truck. They hooked up a rope to Igor, and he pulled me up the hill!

That larger truck had to work hard to get us up there, but we made it.

Too funny. It's always an adventure in Mexico!

Pulling into town it was really congested.

And of course I had zero maneuverability and no power steering or brakes. It was a bit hairy getting through there because if I misjudged a turn I had no way to back up!

Parked up outside the mechanics house.

By this point, it was about 5:00pm. We called it a day and they will look at it again with a fresh start this morning. I've been doing some research and think I may have an idea and will run it by them to see what they think.

If we don't see any progress by the end of today, we will get a tow truck to bring us into a larger center with better equipped mechanics.

Wish us luck!

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