Gracias, Mr. Moto

Sometimes this place just cracks me up at to how things can work here.  Short story long...

It's the dry season.  I have a huuuge compost pile.  Time for the wood chipper.  I have one of the few here in Oaxaca.  I used to use it all the time when I had much bigger gardens.  Now, it's a once or twice a year thing.  The thing weighs quite a bit and when I got it out, it would not start.

I may live in Mexico, but I have not quite absorbed the Mexican gift of being able to fix any motor, anywhere, any time.  So I took off a few of the heavier parts of the machine and somehow got it into my 2004 Jetta.  I knew there was a place very close that repairs thing like this.  However, like many things, it was there yesterday, but nowhere to be found today.  Now what?

There are lots of moto-taxis in this area, so I figured I would stop at one of the hole-in-the-wall places that said they repair motos, which are actually motorcycles.  They looked at it and said "Sure."

While I waited, they took it apart, cleaned it, put it back together, started it...done!  In about an hour, it was over.  All for $150 MP... that's $8.21 US!!!  I could only imagine what the whole adventure would have been like in the States.

And this is pretty typical of things like this down here. Time and time again, I have been lucky to have great work done at incredibly good prices.  Maybe I am just lucky, but I surely count my blessings.

After getting the chipper back and out of the car, it was six hours of wonderful chipping with more to come in about five minutes.  The compost pile reduces in size to about one tenth of its original size and it is such great compost material, so nicely chopped up.

Update: Well, I dunno.... As soon as I started work, the chipper sprung an oil leak.  Sigh... This time I took off the motor.  It is nice and light.  Threw it in the car to go find my guys.... closed.   Stopped at a very funky moto taxi repair place.  They said I needed a new gasket.   The only place to get one of those is in the city.  I ain't going there today.  However, I am more Mexican than I used to be.  I managed to put in a temporary fix using a heavy duty garden hose washer.  No duct tape.... yet.