So about our car...

Over the past year our car had taken a real beating. The curbs in Mexico are uneven height, you have to parallel park almost everywhere and people will hit your car and drive away as a general rule. The bumpers on both ends are scratched up. The hubcaps (especially on the right side for some reason) are beyond description. But the overall body hadn't had much happen to it. Until one day when our neighbor started some work on the water system in the area directly in front of our house. In fact, on the afternoon in question, I exited my front gate to take a walk and I found a ditch in our driveway that completely blocked us from leaving our house by car. No notice. It even seemed a surprise that someone lived there. Luckily I had about 1 hour till I had to pick up the kids from school. They assured me "no problemo". But having heard that enough that I knew I needed to check again when I got back from my walk. The owner was there and again told me it would be ready in a half hour when I needed to leave.

So they filled in the ditch directly in front of the house with enough room for the car to exit on either side of a metal pipe sticking 3 feet out of the ground. I got out and back in safely. Dave was not so lucky. Later in day he left to run an errand and when he got back was driving through the gap when the car slipped on some rocks and slid backward toward the pipe. The pipe scratched a line across 2 panels of the car.

Dave was so upset that it had happened, he looked for a body shop and made an appointment almost immediately.

He wanted to get it fixed in Mexico, if possible, because he knew it would be loads cheaper. It was. The bid was for 1200 pesos, less than $100.

Shortly before the day of our appointment I was trying to parallel park at Milli's school and hit the bumper of another car directly below the scratch. Not our best driving week. Luckily the other driver said "esta bien" and I didn't have to worry about paying him off. And the painter didn't charge us any more because of the new damage.

We scheduled to take it in on a Friday afternoon and pick it up on Saturday afternoon.

As promised, it was done. But it was the wrong color.

So we scheduled again. The weather was too wet.

And again. Not sunny enough.The shop is very unprofessional and is exposed to the elements as you can see.

And again. Not finished. Sanded but not painted.

Keep in mind every time Dave has to take it 30 minutes away to the shop and take a bus back. And then take a bus there again to bring it back home.

Finally we took it in the next Friday afternoon to be finished by 6pm. Dave calls me from the shop says that it is not done but he will leave it overnight to be finished by morning. We had planned to attend the circus that evening. So Laura picked up me and the kids and Dave took the bus and we met at the circus. We were late but we got there. While we were there it started to rain. We were all going to take the bus home, but Laura crammed all 8 of us in her little car and took us home.

Now we get to the day we were going to go to Selva Magica and Guadalajara. We finally get the car back at 4pm after being promised it by morning. It looks good. The right color and cheap, but certainly not worth all the hassle.