After a lovely time at the beach and spending Christmas with great friends, I packed up the trailer and set off on the first leg back to Zacatecas. I took route 80 which happens to pass through Villa Corona, and from there I already knew the basic path back to Zacatecas. From the beach I very rapidly recovered several thousand feet of altitude and started to feel the slight difference in the engine performance. I had this subconscious habit of reaching down to see if the handbrake was on every so often. Mexican roads are adorned with speed bumps called topes throughout every town, an easy and very effective way to control speed. Pulling a trailer, I have to come to almost a complete stop at every one. Down at sea level especially I got into the habit of leaving the transmission in third gear and after crawling over the tope just letting the clutch out. The 6-cylinder has enough grunt to recover from about 800 rpm smoothly, from about 5 mph back up to cruise at 50 mph or so. This little trick started to get to be a struggle at 5000 feet!

Anyway, I was cruising along the Periferico, a ring bypass highway around Guadalajara, when disaster struck. Watching for the signs to Saltillo and looking for where I had to pull into the right lane, I was lulled into complacency by what you assume to be a limited access highway, three lanes each way, with on and off ramps and such. Not so, they sprinkle normal at-grade intersections in from time to time! Sun glaring low in the sky behind me, beach grime on the windshield, etc, well, suddenly I noticed a jetta hitting the brakes hard and almost at a stop right in front of me. Too late to swerve with the trailer behind, I locked the brakes but too late, the van plowed into the rear of the jetta, offset a bit to the driver’s side, and sent the jetta careening out most of the way across the intersection. I was stopped amid a sea of broken glass, very confused, looking up at the red lights, smoke billowing up from the tires, just a few meters forward from where I was supposed to stop. Before I could even get out of the van, half a dozen people appeared and helped the other guy and pushed his car out of harms way to the other corner of the intersection, now pretty far away from me. I got out but couldn’t cross the intersection now filled with cars again, looked at my van, and a cop showed up right away. He calmly and politely asked for my papers and started directing traffic. I called the insurance and they showed up in about 20 minutes. The ambulance came quickly and took away the driver of the jetta. They put him in a neck brace but luckily he seemed to have no injuries and he was walking around soon after with no difficulty. Whew, what a relief, nobody got hurt. Accidents are always no fun, but I am thankful since it could have been a lot worse. So basically it took about 2.5 hours and after a lot of broken spanish on my part and broken english on their part, we got it resolved. The police were good-natured and very helpful and did their best to make the best of it.

The jetta definitely got the short end of the stick. The bumper was basically pushed up to the rear wheel. The car was just folded up like an accordion, completely totaled.

The van, well, look at the photos. The bumper is wrinkled up a bit, the headlights were smashed out (but they actually all still work!), and the metal is bashed in some. The door is pushed backward an eighth inch or so, such that you have to close it a little harder to get it to latch properly. That’s about it. The grills even mostly survived. Anyone worried about riding in a vanagon with no engine in front of you?

So, I’m back in Zacatecas and Mark and Patricia are being incredibly gracious hosts again. I got the special treat of meeting their two children and family! Today we went back to the Dorado de Villa and they also invited a wonderful Mexican family, friends of theirs. Somehow I kept up a lengthy conversation in Spanish, such that I finally had to stop talking and eat my dinner after everyone else had finished.

I’m back at 8000 feet and feeling again what no air feels like – having to stop and catch my breath going up staircases. Engines give a lot more power at sea level too, but wow the starter whips that engine over fast here!

Now I’m watching the weather back home, trying to sneak in there in a window so I don’t get rained and snowed on.

Hasta luego,

Hans

Posted on December 29th, 2007 by hansachter
Filed under: Hans and Nellie