Stuck on the side of the road...

We headed out from Chris and Juan's at about 9:45am... about 15 minutes later than planned. We always try to have a plan that sees us arriving at our destination by 2:00pm or so. That always gives you lots of daylight hours in case you have problems.

Well.. we had problems.

We had a great time with Chris and Juan. Thanks again for having us, and we hope to see you guys again before the end of winter!

Kevin, Ruth, Chris, Juan.

We made it as far as Linares where we filled the gas tank at 23.99 pesos per liter ($1.65 CAD per liter, $4.46 USD per gallon). Yes, fuel is expensive in Mexico, compared to both the U.S., and Canada.

Juan had made us some burritos for a snack along the way, so we had them there. 

Delicious!

Then we headed west into the mountains...

Heading into the mountains.

Just as we started doing some elevation, Igor started to act up. Bjorn and Freja had mentioned they had a similar problem in Texas, but the next morning the problem seemed to resolve itself. Bjorn is a mechanic and he thought the problem is the electric fuel pump, and now that it's happened to us, I would tend to agree.

We had to pull over, because Igor was about to die. The problem seems to repair itself after sitting for a while. It's like the pump is overheating and binding, then when it cools off it works fine.

Pulled over at the side of the road.

At least we were in the shade.

We found that if we sat for a half an hour or forty five minutes, it cooled off enough to make it another 4 or 5 kms before it started to spit and sputter again.

We made it to the town of Iturbide where I found a mechanic. He suggested that we should first change the fuel filter, and we did. It was filthy, and when we fired it up, he ran well. So I figured maybe that was the problem after all, but it didn't make a lot of sense. Sure enough, after 8 kms it started acting up again.

View leaving the town of Iturbide.

Beautiful scenery. 

There was actually a great boondocking spot down this little lane, and if Igor would have been in shape we would have probably spent the night down there.

Igor, taking another break.

We had been trying to make it to a Pemex and Oxxo station about another 8 kms, but it was atarting to get dark. We found a spot at the side of the road, but there was a shepherd's house there and I went and spoke to him and we spent the night right there.

Not the nicest view out our side window!

We made it to the Pemex Oxxo at 7:00am, and will head into Galeana (another 8 kms) to find a mechanic to get the fuel pump changed.