Got duct tape?

One more thing I love about living here is improvising when things go wrong or get broken.  Rather than run out and hire someone to fix it or run out to get a replacement part, one just wings it.  And of course, the joke is that with duct tape and a paper clip, a Mexican can fix most anything.  This is simply not true at all and I present the following example to back this up.

After driving around a few days,  I got this weird vibe that I should check the engine and, lo and behold, the oil cap was gone.  Who knows what happened, but I bet some idiot was involved... moi.

There should have been oil all over the place, but there wasn't.  Even though I had just driven it to Teotitlan del Valle and back through the city, I was hesitant to jump back in the car to get a replacement.  I looked things up online and they warned of fire and oil damaging belts and such, so I had to come up with a quick fix.  And voila...

See it was not duct tape and a paper clip after all, even though I have used that one plenty of times in the past.  No, it was gaffer's tape and a lid off a wine bottle..... and it worked like a charm.

With the fix in place I was off to try and find a replacement cap.  I drove to the two small places right down the road, both run by middle-aged ladies, but no luck.  Although one of them told me of a place to try not too far away.  On the way, I stopped at Autozone and they had one, but it was way across the city.  The lady's recommendation was just on the other side of the road, so what the heck.  It was a tiny place, a real hole in the wall, and was run by an old lady with a cat in her lap.  She said, "Sure, I've got one," and pulled out a box of various caps.  "Here, this looks right. Try it."  It worked and the adventure ended with me happily handing her $1.25 US.

So there, you see, it isn't always duct tape... well actually, it is.  I should tell you how I fixed my brake lights with tape and a one peso coin years ago and it still works.