Bug Camp

The great thing about traveling the way we are doing it is that we are always open to change plans.

Last Thursday, we were on our second day in Quetzaltenango. We loved that city, so we were thinking about staying an extra couple of nights. So there I was, having breakfast at a nice coffee shop, looking online for more things to do after Quetzaltenango. I decided to look at what the folks from BodesWell had done while in Guatemala, since they are cool people and I like the way they are traveling. That’s how I read about Pancho and La Fusca, a Volkswagen club in Cobán. In their page, they were announcing the “Bug Camp 2013”, an annual gathering of people and their Volkswagens, starting on Friday evening. Now, Quetzaltenango is on the west of Guatemala, while Coban is dead in the center of the country. It’s not a very big country, but still, going to Cobán would mean skipping Lake Atitlán, Antigua, and all the little towns that we were thinking about driving through.

I wrote an email to Pancho, saying that it was too bad I hadn’t heard about the event earlier, and that still it would be nice to meet when we drive through, in about a month. He wrote back ten minutes later, saying that no, that we MUST go to the Bug Camp this weekend! After a couple of exchanges, we decided he was going to set us up with a group that was caravaning from Guatemala City, about half way there for us.

Of course Stephanie, the trooper that she is, was game. So Friday morning we left for Guatemala City. We arrived in time for lunch, and met Carlos and his combi to drive together to the place the group was leaving from.

Because of a series of breakdowns (not ours, yet) and because of Guatemala Friday traffic, we ended up driving to Cobán alone. And at night. In the rain. It was the first time we break our rule of not driving after dark, and we paid for it: I hit an unmarked speed bump at full speed, and immediately after that the van died. It started again, but then, intermittently, the engine would stop, and each time it was harder to start it again. Until it died for the last time, and our momentum allowed us to drive into a gas station. This was about 10Km from the place of the gathering, so Pancho sent a bunch of his friends, one of whom was a mechanic, to help us. We stayed until 2am in the rain, trying to figure out why there was no spark, while Stephanie and Milo slept upstairs. At 2:30, wet, cold and smelling like gas I decided to call it a night and went to sleep.

The next morning it occurred to me that I had a spare ignition switch, the part in the steering wheel column that the key operates when you start the car. I know it’s common for them to fail, and that’s why I carry an extra one. I decided to try it, and lo and behold, the van started as if nothing had happened! We had missed the first evening of the meetup, and we were tired and dirty, but it sure was satisfying to fix the van without using anybody’s advice.

The event was great. We were the only Vanagon Westfalia, so everybody was interested in the van. There were also a lot of people very knowledgeable about Volkswagens, and we made some contacts that can help us with parts and mechanical work if we need it.

On Sunday everybody left, but we decided to stay one more night in the campground. The owner was gracious enough to not even want to charge us, and we had the place to ourselves for the night. The following day, we contacted Pancho, who had invited us to spend some time with his family. Pancho’s family work in conservationism. His grandfather was a pioneer in orchid preservation, and the whole family now has set up an orchid preserve in the outskirts of Cobán. We drove there together, and they brought a fantastic lunch to share with us. It was Pancho’s birthday this weekend, so we got to celebrate that with them. Afterward, they offered us to stay in an awesome cabin in the middle of the reserve. I’m sure we’ll post about this place soon.

I am constantly amazed by the generosity of the folks (or should I say, volks) that we meet on the road. The VW community is specially nice. You don’t meet this kind of people if you drive a Toyota.

In a few days we will head back to where we were, in order to see Panajachel, Antigua and all that. But I’m glad we made that mad rush across Guatemala to come here. For the price of a day of driving and one breakdown, we had a lot of fun and made a few new friends. Seems like a good deal to me.
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