Day 67 - Loose ends in Mexico

25th March, 2003

Following our last days in Guatemala, we passed back into Mexico with the ease of reentering the UK and settled back in the town of San Cristobel de la Casas, Chiapas, a town we visited at the beginning of our travels here. Our sole purpose for being here is to get Herbie ready for sale and get the best price we can. Updated visual journey map (to come soon).


Upon arriving that evening we went directly to the all-you-can-eat steak restaurant we visited the last time we were here. We'd purposely been starving ourselves all day to ensure we get our moneys worth. Boy was it great, even better than I remembered. I managed to beat my last steak-eating record by 2, totaling 5 steaks! Lukas also smashed his personal best by woofing down 7 full steaks!!! We were so full we just wobbled back to the hotel for a well deserved rest. We really slept in the following morning, digesting all that meat, and set about our task for the day with a leisurely pace - get Herbie into a sellable state.

First task in this goal was to give her a jolly good clean. She was filthy having never been washed since we bought her, and there was still glass everywhere from the break in. We found a local place that spent an hour cleaning her inside and out, we even got the engine polished up as it was coated in dirt from the dusty roads. Herbie looked good as new and was much happier for it.


There were two small problems that could hinder a sale we were thinking of getting fixed; we broke the handbrake cable several weeks back, and of course someone stole our horn. We were thinking that a private buyer could get us the best money but would take too long to find, so instead we decided to sell her to a car shop/yard, hoping that they might also put the small effort of fixing the little glitches before they sell the car on, so making it easier for us.  After stopping at a repair garage we found a helpful little chap named Eduardo who was willing to help us sell the car for a small fee. We instructed him what we wanted to get, and so added his agreed fee on top as our final price we were willing to accept.

He took us across town to a street filled with car garages. We spoke to three or four garages, going over the cars condition, test driving and looking through the paperwork. Unfortunately none were willing to take the figure we had in our minds as an ideal return - seems the mark-up they expect on resale is quite high. A few came very close, but none offered us our asking price and we were adamant. Luckily, a local chap had been scouring the garages looking for cars. He came over during one of our discussion with the shop buyer and realised he had an opportunity to buy a car without paying the premium mark-up that he would going through a garage. After some negotiation and him chasing us around the neighbourhood we came to an agreement, despite the glitches that needed repairing. We drove him home to collect the cash,  got a local garage to do a security check on the car (to ensure it was stolen) and do the paperwork for the private sale. We got 72% of the original value back, making us very happy bunnies - the experience good value and completely worth it.


Following the paperwork completion and exchange of money, we handed the guy the keys and watched our baby sail off into the distance. It was a very sad moment and everything happened so fast. We didn't expect to be able to sell her that day, just do the research, but in no time at all we'd given her over to a stranger and had to use a taxi for the first time since we landed. Sob.


Herbie was our travelling buddy. When we originally bought her we had no idea we could come this far, that we could cross so many borders with the little amount of paperwork we had legally binding her to our names. We guessed we'd be constrained just to the Mexican leg of our journey, but she has taken us through five countries (two more than we planned) and driven us across 7500km (4660 miles) of central America - that's nearly a quarter of the way around the earth! She stayed in one piece (for the most part) and gave us the freedom to travel as we intended, when wanted and take us to places others couldn't get too. Letting her go was a sad experience, we wish we could have bought her home, but at the same time we were very relieved that sale went so smoothly, and we made a decent return from the sale. Has just further compounded in my mind that having your own transportation when travelling is definitely the way to go!

That evening we celebrated with 3 bottles of wine and a some Tapas. Then we counted and divided our massive stash of Pesos back in the hotel room, struggling with the maths in our inebriated state.


We've both contracted Mexican man-flu, and so have been feeling pretty rough. Also, missing our comrade to get us around we felt at a loss. We have been enjoying the coffee-shop culture here in Sans Cristobel, taking it very easy and contemplating our move back to Mexico city to get our flight home Saturday. Selling the car so quickly kind of stumped us, providing an extra day we don't know what to do with. We don't have enough time to visit one last town properly, and the idea of spending more time than planned in Mexico city didn't appeal either. So being ill we have decided to stay here for an extra day continuing our relaxation in these final days.

When back in Mexico city we intend to do some last minute shopping and meet up with our friends Edwina & Anna - the two Australian girls we met back in Orange Walk, Belize who happen to be in the same place at the same time again. We hope to see some Lucha Libre (WWE-style comical Mexican wrestling - video) with them on our final night before heading home.

I shall post one last update covering these days and summarising the trip when I return.