Cavalier

Ch3vy Caval1er

Even before I started dating J. about a month ago (a topic for another day), he offered to let me borrow his car. I sort of laughed it off because I wasn't really comfortable with even the idea of driving here. Many people don't have licenses and many, maybe even most, who do have paid someone to get the license to avoid the hassle of taking a test. This is very apparent when you even walk down the streets here. I will never take chances crossing streets here even if I clearly have the right of way. Unless I have eye contact, it's best to let the person in the vehicle go ahead. I've seen way too many drivers not paying attention, backing up and making turns without looking.

But early on when J. and I started dating, he encouraged me to drive. He took me out one night (I suggested this because there would be less traffic and no buses after 11:30 pm) and we drove to C0stco and back which is a few miles from where we live. I was nervous but I did ok. The next day we went out during the day, through the middle of town. Little by little, I've gotten more comfortable. It definitely gets easier as I learn the streets and which places are tough to pull out of and where it's hard to see markings for lanes, and which potholes to avoid and where the speed bumps are. It's not the easiest time of year to start driving here because it's the rainy season and we can get torrential downpours that make it nearly impossible to see. One night I drove on a street that is particularly notorious for flooding. I really thought the car was going to stop and get washed away. At one point I had the gas pressed down hard and was barely moving through the water.

But now when I need to do something, I know I can just hop in the car and drive wherever I want to. It really makes life easier. The other day I needed to mail a disk to a client and it was great to have that option of hopping in the car and dropping it off. Mundane tasks like that which used to feel like a big deal aren't anymore. I got home and realized I'd forgotten that I needed cat food from the vet's but fortunately could just hop back into the car and drive to get it.

Sunday, we set off to see some ruins about 1.5 hours from here. We turned off the main road onto a smaller unpaved road and then onto a smaller rougher road. The road kept getting worse, but I could see J. was on a mission to get to where we were going. I told him we should stop, that the car couldn't take it, but he persisted. I was trying not to be my usual strongly-opinionated self, so I kept quiet as we bumped down the road further over large rocks that were scraping the bottom of the car. We finally were on level ground but it was full of water and mud and the car got stuck. J. tried putting rocks under the tires for traction but it was useless and we were forced to abandon the car.

At least it was a beautiful spot.

J. feeling bad about the situation.

This photo doesn't really show just how steep and rocky the road was.

We had to hike back to the main road. Luckily a truck came along on the secondary road and stopped to give us a ride. From there we hitched a ride with a family to a small nearby town where J. knew people. They weren't home (one kid was living in Canada, the other in England?), but the mom told us we could find another friend in the next town over. We took a colectivo (little van) to the next town and walked in search of his other friend who we did find. They hadn't seen each other in 3 years so we hung out for a little while and chatted. They agreed to meet the next day to got to get the car.

Long story short, he was able to get the car pulled out with a tractor and his friend was able to patch the oil pan which had been damaged by the rocks. The car seems to be working fine. Today I took a bucket, sponge, and my neighbor's hose and gave the car a good wash which it badly needed as it was covered in mud from the tires spinning and going nowhere when it had been stuck. I'm a little nervous to drive it by myself, but I still need catfood (the vet was out that day) so I'll have to go sooner or later.

Funny how quickly I can get used to having a car!