Trip to Tapachula Mexico

Monday, Oct 9, we left the SETECA headed for the Guatemalan/Mexican border town of Tapachula Mexico. We took Bob and Shirley Kasper, retiring CAM missionaries, who were heading for South Texas. We drove through sugar cane fields, rubber plantations and tropical lowlands. Glenn got to eat at one of his favorite restaurants, VIPS! We had an uneventful trip, PTL! We were on a stretch of 2 lane road and an oncoming semi-truck was coming in the opposite direction ~ just as soon as he passed us, we heard a "booom" and then looked in the rear view mirror and saw only smoke. He had blown a tire. If it had happend just 2 seconds before, we know we would have been hit with flying rubber pieces. It did rain in both directions in the afternoons. Buckets and sheets of rain. We were able to get another 90 day visa stamped into our passport.

For about 1 hour on a narrow 2-lane hiway, we were driving through small towns and villages that had “speed bumps”. Many times there were signs ahead advising us of the speed bumps. Lots of times, we would watch the car in front of us to see if they slowed down or something like that. These speed bumps sometime were not painted more often than not.

Word lesson. The word for speed bumps in Guatemala is Túmulos, in Bolivia it is Rompe Muelles (spring breakers) and in Nicaragua it is Policías Dormidas (sleeping policeman).