Hi All.
Tyler, Shay and I spent a couple of days on the beach, Playa Corona,
in Panama. The guys had a last couple of days body surfing together.
On Easter Sunday, Tyler headed back east to Panama to make arrangements
for leaving his van in Panama so that he could fly home on Wednesday
and we headed west toward Costa Rica. While we have had to part with
many friends on this trip, this was, by far, the most difficult. Shay
and I pretty much spent the rest of the day snivelling.
We intended to spend the night in Playa Las Lajas. The traffic headed
back toward Panama City was unbelievably bad but, since we were headed
away, we made excellent time. When we got there, the beach was absolutely
deserted. There were miles of palm thatched shades for beach-goers and
absolutely nobody there. It gave us the creeps. Not even one restaurant
was open. We headed back to the Interamericana and the next town, David.
We spent the night in a cheapish, but clean, place - Hotel Toledo. As
we were leaving Las Lajas, I heard a horrendous noise from my motor,
followed by a lack of power steering. I made the obvious assumption
that I'd blown another belt, so the next morning we went looking for
a mechanic to put a new belt on. Unfortunately, the problem was not
the belt, though it had been knocked loose.
In Guayaquil we'd had the bottoms of the vans washed to remove the
sand and mud before putting the vans in the shipping containers. The
obviously over-eager washer had broken my oil filler tube which had
to be temporarily patched so that oil wouldn't spill out all over the
ground. I'd forgotten about it. The belt ate what was left of the plastic
tube in Las Lajas. The mechanics in David fashioned a new one of metal
and somehow welded it all in.
While we were waiting for this to be done, as so frequently happens,
a young guy came up, introduced himself as a mechanic and asked what
was wrong with my van. I said that they were repairing the oil filler
but that it did, indeed, need quite a few things looked at, including
the missing front axle. Jenn had brought me replacement CV joints and
I just needed someone to put it back in. To make a long story short,
Ludvig, our new friend, talked us into going to Boquete, a beautiful,
nearby mountain town with it's own famous volcano for a few days while
he worked on my engine. First he cleaned the miserably dirty thing with
kerosene and a paint brush, rinsed out with a hose. Then he rebuilt
my alternator, which was full of rocks, cleaned up my fuel injectors,
changed my spark plugs, fixed my air conditioner (I think!), got the
rocks out of my rear brakes, and generally went over everything. It
now sounds very good indeed. He found that the connections for the AC
were a little loose and, perhaps, that's why I'm losing the gas. We
took the van to an AC shop and had the air vacuumed out and recharged
it. Still no good. He opened up the front end (I have a Behr aftermarket
AC) and discovered that the pipes were plugged. After all that, it started
working beautifully again. It remains to be seen whether something else
is still leaking gas, but I am very happy to have my AC back.
Once all the work was done on the van, Shay and I, with Ludvig, his
wife, Donna and their 1 year old, Beverly, drove back down for an afternoon
at Playa Las Lajas. The next day we had another tearful parting.
We crossed the border into Costa Rica. What a shock the border crossing
was. In South America the crossings had become very routine. Get the
passports stamped by the police, get the forms for the van done by customs.
Stamp, stamp, stamp and you're on your way. No so with Central America,
it seems. We were there for at least 2 hours. The guards on the Panamanian
side gave us a guide. I sort of harrumphed at this, thinking it unnecessary,
but I was wrong. We had to go back and forth between several windows
many times. I had prepared copies of everything, including the title
to the van. They wanted the back side copied as well. We went back,
had the back side copied, went back to the window. Still no good. She
wanted the front and back on the same paper! It cost quite a bit for
this border but, frankly, I lost track of how much. The most obnoxious
to me was the $40 charge for Costa Rican insurance. Even though I have
international auto insurance! Ah, well. We finally got through, hot
and sweaty to be sure, but in Costa Rica.
Shay was complaining of an earache. We did what we've found to be
of unfailing help in Latin America. We went to the drug store. I told
the pharmacist I didn't know if he had an infection or just water in
his ear. She said,�"Let the doctor have a look." and shined a flashlight
in his ear. She proclaimed it an infection, gave us antibiotic drops
with lidocaine and we were on our way.
We headed up the mountains toward San Vito. Oh, oh. The brand new
front CV joint started clanking and leaking grease! And there was a
new noise from the rear, too! We turned into the first mechanic shop
I could find and had the axle out again. I told the mechanic that we
needed to leave the CV joint in. He said he'd have to break it to do
that. So I left that shop, minus the axle and with no CV joint holding
my wheel bearings in place. It was obvious to me that my diff lock,
which hasn't worked at all for some time, had somehow turned itself
on and my rear wheels were screeching around every curve. It wasn't
very far to San Vito so we limped in. I was exhausted and we ate a wonderful
spaghetti dinner and turned in.
The next morning, the differential had unlocked itself. I took it
to a mechanic recommended by my innkeeper and he found a broken vacuum
line. He glued it back together with epoxy and we went on our way.
We spent the night in Avalon Reserve. It was quite a way off of the
highway so I was extremely paranoid about the diff lock and the car
continued to make ugly clanking noises. By this time, I had seriously
come down with a chest cold, graciously donated by the lovely little
Beverly. (I couldn't have caught a cold from a more delicious little
darling.) The new owners of Avalon Reserve are Tim and Michelle, a twenty-something
couple from the US. Since it's the beginning of the rainy season, Shay
and I were not only their first guests, but their only guests! I sacked
out and nursed my cold and Shay took a hike with them in the morning.
(Sad to report, the monkeys still seem to elude us.) That afternoon
I was feeling a little better and we hit the road for San Jose.
The road leads north through very beautiful mountains which were completely
enclosed in fog. At one point, so they tell me, you should be able to
see the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Carribbean on the other. Not
us. And the car continued to clank.
We had received email from Erick Faith that he was hoping we'd call
him when we got to Costa Rica. In San Jose, we checked into the Hotel
Europa and gave him a ring. He made arrangements for me to take my van
to the local VW representative. We spent another night in the hotel
while they replaced my front wheel bearing, put my front axle in and
replaced my left rear CV joint. After we picked up the van, we headed
up to see Volcan Iracu, about an hour or so uphill from San Jose. The
van was doing fine while we went uphill. When I made a u-turn on the
top, the diff locked up again! We staggered into a flat parking lot
and Erick crawled under the van to try to disengage it, to no avail.
Finally, Erick remembered an old trick from when his brother had an
old 4WD that would stick in 4 wheel. He said to put it in first with
no brake and the boys, Erick, Erick Jr. and Shay got out and pushed
on the rear end, rocking it back and forth. Voila! The diff lock disengaged
and we headed home. I brought it to a mechanic friend of Erick's. He
found the vacuum lines broken in a different place! He has glued it
together and tomorrow we will take it out and see if it holds together.
While we were poking around under there, we discovered that the RIGHT
rear CV boot is torn and, inexplicably, the VW guys didn't even look
at it. We have found that the VW dealerships in South America have knocked
themselves out for us and I am in a state of shock that they slacked
off like this in San Jose. Since today is Saturday and Arnoldo was closing
up at noon, I will be back in his shop on Monday morning for a CV boot
replacement. I really hope that this gets us going again. I'm starting
to experience mechanical paranoia.
By the way, the darned volcano, supposedly active, decided to take
the day off too. Whew, we're batting 0.
Jeanne
