Back to Mexico City
We left Xilitla in similar conditions to what we arrived; car still acting up, only this time worse, on the climbs, the car just had no power, despite putting the pedal to the metal and the revs being high the engine wasn’t engaging, it was as if the clutch was slipping, and consequently the engine was also over-heating. The drive seemed to be very long and giving the car a chance to cool down at rest-stops seemed the only thing we could do.
As we started arriving in the dark to Mexico City, on one of the last stops we made, I noticed while the ladies were sat in the car that there was no tail-lights. After inspecting a little closer, I noticed that of the 4 bulbs, not a single one of the four was working. Having not set off in the dark before I had not thought to look at the lights, but works out in mexico not having lights isn’t much of a big deal; to me, it was. Being now Sunday night you’d imagine it would be impossible, and where in Europe you’d expect to find urgent consumables in a fuel station, alas all we seemed to find were useful things like food, more food, drinks, a little more food, and then an assortment of electronic trash like battery operated fans and telescopic selfie-sticks. Things like engine oil, fuses or bulbs were irrelevant. A second petrol station we had the same experience. But soon enough we got to a hardware shop off the motorway.
The bell on the counter rang and rang and finally a 6 year old girl in her pyjamas answered me holding her blankie and a sleepie face. I hesitated to ask for her parents, but before I knew it she was fishing around for bulbs for me. Sorted, admittedly I wanted 5W bulbs but given that they only had 10W, I settled for it and installed, it now looked like we had the brake lights on. In hindsight, it seemed a futile effort, as we were probably the only car on the road with a fully working light set.
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