Day 23: Tire blowout near La Ventosa

We made it through the mountains from Oaxaca all the way down to an area near the coast to get the coastal highway to Tapachula.  Tapachula was our goal yesterday (Sunday, July 27).

When we arrived almost to La Ventosa, we pulled off the road to say hello to Saul, an employee of Growers First who is working with the local farmers in the surrounding mountains on some coffee plantations.  They are forming a cooperative and now raising coffee using organic farming methods.  Saul got a chance to sit in the driver's seat!  Oh, the dream of driving an ambulance!  Saul has no idea what is to come....

If we had more time, we would go visit a project, but we were already behind schedule.  Soon after we said goodbye to Saul and headed on down the highway, we lost one of our rear tires to a blowout.  So we called our Mexican car insurance company.  We had purchased roadside assistance as part of our policy.  Fortunately our policy was still in effect for a few more hours, and they authorized the tow.  We waited on the side of the highway for about 3 1/2 hours until our tow truck arrived.

A very special thanks to our teammate Axel who spent literally hours on the phone talking with the insurance company and the towing company to get the tow authorized, to get the right tow truck, and several more calls to get the tow truck to hurry up!  And once the tow truck driver got the ambulance up and it was time to go, Axel again came to the rescue with the negotiation to get the tow truck driver to go past the next little town and drive another 40 minutes to the next town that was larger and had more facilities to take care of us.

This is our second experience with a tow truck.  This time, the fit between the rear wheels and the tow truck was even tighter!  Nick had the great privilege to sit up in the cab and actually drive the ambulance onto the tow truck's flat bed.  He put his seat belt on for good measure.  How tight of a fit was it?  The outside tires were literally touching the tow truck's edges.  No room left!

Another issue with towing the ambulance is the distance between the rear tire and the back of the ambulance.  When you incline the ambulance to get it onto the tow truck, the rear of the ambulance goes too low and starts hitting the ground.  We solved that problem by putting wood on the ground under the rear tires.  And the tow truck driver even found a piece of discarded concrete along the side of the road to use for that purpose.  Amazing!  Even the next-door gossipy rooster had to come over and take a look.

So it took a lot of time for the ambulance to arrive, and a lot more time to get the ambulance to the mechanic.  We decided to take it to a full-service mechanic because we had heard some funny noises from the rear wheel and we wanted to check that out as well.  We were not sure that the blowout and the noises were related.  Since it was Sunday, the mechanic was closed and the tire shops were all closed as well.  It was enough to get the ambulance to a safe spot, and to find a place to spend the night.  We'll take care of our tire issue and the weird noises tomorrow.

We are very grateful to Saul, who only anticipated a quick handshake and photo opportunity, but ended up spending seven hours with us to wait for the ambulance, help us find a good mechanic, and then give us a "tow" to find a hotel that was just a minute away from the mechanic's shop.