On Monday, March 5th, I turned over a set of keys to the Casa de Schroeder to Sergio. He and his wife will live there, take care of the pool and plants and do some work on finishing some construction. Norma helped clean up the house in preparation of the change. The next morning, I washed the rig, stored the satellite dish, took a final swim in the pool, took a shower and then was off to drive to Lake Chapala.
One thing that I was not expecting was Norma planned to go with me. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes before we left that I figured out that she was coming too. We got on the road about 10 AM. Everything went well until a little ways north of Ciudad de Guzman, the rig started loosing power every time I stepped on the gas. My top speed was reduced to about 40 MPH and I couldn’t pass a slower truck I was behind. Finally I found a place to pull over and see if I could figure out what the problem was. A Mexican highway patrol officer stopped and asked if I had a “problema”. Si was my answer. At that point I thought maybe I had a clogged fuel filter. The Policia suggested that I turn the rig around and go find a mechanic in Guzman.
I started the truck and turned around toward Guzman and to my surprise everything seemed back to normal with full power again. We continued south until we found a “Returno” and then turned north again. I doubt if the problem was the fuel filter. It must be some intermittent electrical problem where not all cylinders were firing. If any readers with a mechanical bent have an idea what the problem was, I would like to hear it.
We arrived lakeside at San Juan Cosala about 2 PM and I turned down the main street that runs by the town square. Well, it being a Tuesday, it was a market day with tiangis at the square and cars and trucks were parked on both sides of the narrow street. Somehow I managed to squeeze the rig through and parked in front of Jose’s house. Jose owns the lot where I had previously parked. Jose and his wife Ilena were home and I paid Jose a 1,000 pesos for another months rent to park the rig on his lot.
Jose and Ilena both speak English and Spanish so Norma felt comfortable. They offered us pecans and we sat and talked for awhile. I mentioned that I may be looking for a house to buy and Jose told me he knew of a place so Norma, Jose and I took a walk to see it. It turns out that the house is only one lot away from my friends, Brian and Ursula’s house. The place was walled with solid metal doors so we couldn’t see much of the house except for part of the second story over the fence. Norma and I hadn’t eaten a regular meal yet that day so I wanted to try out the only restaurant in San Juan Cosala. Jose offered to show us the way. This was the second time I wanted to try the restaurant but again it was not open. We returned to Jose’s house and Jose and Ilena offered to feed us. We had Chili Rellanos, rice and beans and it hit the spot.
Jose told me he wanted to remove the van that was parked on his lot so I could pull my rig farther into the lot on a higher area. Jose is planning on putting a “T” into the large PVC pipe that leads to the septic tank so I will be able to use that. Jose also needed to build a ramp so I could get the rig up to the higher location. The work was done about sundown and we got parked.
Wednesday and Thursday, I showed Norma around Ajijic and Chapala. Norma had not been to Lake Chapala before. I think she liked what she saw but was probably amazed by all the old gringos in Ajijic. I made myself reacquainted with most of the friends I had made previously. We had the gringo breakfast food at Salvador’s on both days. Salvador’s also serves Mexican food so Norma got something she liked.
On Friday at around 2 PM, Norma left to take the bus to Jocotepec and on to El Molino. Jose had told her that she could connect to the bus to Colima from there. I have since talked to Norma on the phone and she arrived home safely.
I like the new parking spot. I have a good view of the lake and hills south of the lake from the rig’s wrap around rear windows. Norma and I used some bricks on Jose’s lot to make a path leading to the rig’s door. There is a photo following showing the new location.
Saturday I have made a reservation for the St. Patrick’s Day meal of real corned beef (rare in Mexico) and cabbage at Tom’s Bar. The Canadian singer Glen Charles will be playing and singing Irish songs. Tom has a new bartender, a cute young woman (about 22) who has been down here a year visiting her grandmother. She is a rarity where most gringos are over 60.
We may have some rain today. I am hearing thunder and the skies are threatening. Yesterday, I saw lightning south of the lake but it didn’t rain here.
This evening I plan to go back into town to go to the Old Pasado where Ron and Sally are playing tonight. Brian and his friends usually go every Tuesday night as they love to dance. Kas and Maria will be there and I want to see them before they leave for Florida at the end of the week.
Here are some shots of stores in Ajijic.
5 comments:
Darn ... I just missed you. Was hoping to drop down from Melaque to see what Tecoman has to offer
Just a note from another Expat in Mex
In my opinion you don't miss much if you miss Tecoman. Tecoman has some surfing beaches near by but if you are not a surfer, there isn't much else to see or do.
Gary, the cop may be right. We got something in our gas tank and into the fuel filter. It would float up and half clog the intake so we had no power, then when you turn the engine off it goes back down to the bottom of the filter.
Get your fuel filter changed and don't go below a quarter of a tank, there could be more little surprises waiting at the bottom of the tank.
One thing I forgot to mention again is my rig has the Banks Power System. I talked to a fellow that had experience as a disel mechanic and he thought my problem might have been the turbo system stalling because of too low of an RPM. My rig is not disel but I plan to do some more research to learn how the Banks Power System is supposed to function.
I will have the fuel filter looked at too because I started having the power problem shortly after filling the gas tank.
We have the Banks system too, we'd just had it installed a couple months before and we also thought it could be involved. When ours started, we were outside of Zacatecas and we couldn't accelerate. I don't think we got over 40mph all the way to Ajijic. We got it changed by a mechanic in Chapala, this was 2 years ago and I can't remember his name. He was on the road into Chapala from the Guad highway, past where the big grocery store is, on the right. Great guy, changed it out, tried blowing through it but nothing came through. Cost $50p but we had the filter. It solved the problem completely. Now we try to never go below a half a tank because we don't know what's down at the bottom of the tank.
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