Suz´s birthday, Mexico City

Ole Yeller has had a long standing problem with the fuel pump but we got to Mexico City from Washington, over 2000 miles. However, after a hard drive, over 400 miles, from Northern Mexico on Saturday into Mexico City, the car started to belch out dark grey smoke from the tailpipe. It got so bad when we were driving into Mexico City that the traffic police pulled us over telling us we could not take the car any further due to localized air pollution! Poor JP who was driving the car, looked very red faced explaining to the traffic police that we were part of an environmental road rally. We explained that we had a mechanical problem and needed some help limping into the city to find a hotel. The two policemen jumped into their car, lights on, and guided us through traffic chaos before abandoning us on the peripherique to find our way alone. Meanwhile, Ben and Jacko´s Mercedes was dying, gradually losing power to crawl along at 20 mph. Aghr. After 2 hours negotiating traffic through a tangle of one way streets, stop lights, and spaghetti like junctions, we found the Hotel Roosevelt with help from Bryan and Paul, the dynamic duo from Colorado. They had flown into Mexico City just a few hours earlier to meet us for a few days. Safe and sound in the colorful Condessa area of the city, the Greasers decamped and quickly changed to go out to celebrate Suzanne's birthday at a nearby restaurant. Mojitos, mariachis, tequila and salsa dancing followed as the crew partied into the night.