The rainy season is finally here. We are enjoying vivid lightning shows many nights (that are unfortunately difficult to sleep through), and get buckets of rain in the evenings or mornings about three or four days out of the week. So far the roads aren't too bad in most of Tamarindo and Avellanas. Certainly not as bad as in Russia -forgive the crazy segue, but if you want to see horrid highway conditions, check this out.
Despite that fact, I did manage to get the cruiser very stuck in a relatively small creek crossing the other day. Due to a lack of a couple of key components in my self-recovery arsenal, most notably a stupid little connector for the hilift jack, I couldn't get the truck out myself. Instead we (two passengers were with me, friends, thankfully, not clients) got some local fellows to lend a hand trying to pull the partially submerged cruiser out. No dice. Their 2wd SUV didn't even move us a little bit. But it did work to drive back to a local surf spot where we grabbed another guy who was willing to come help in his Tacoma. With a lot of rigging and re-rigging, and no small amount of "let's try it again", we finally managed to pull the cruiser forward enough to get a little bit of traction, which was all that we really needed to get out.
To thank the whole crew (there were seven of us in all) I treated everyone to lunch and beer at a little beachfront soda (think: family kitchen that serves food to the public at very low prices, but with virtually no selection). One of the many wonderful things about coastal Costa Rica is that you can still sit on the sand with a fantastic ocean view and enjoy a delicious FULL plate of porkchop, salad, rice, beans and fried plantain, along with a beer and/or a fresh juice and pay less than $5/person. Everyone had a great time and the whole incident turned into a fun little adventure instead of a ruined day.
An upshoot of that experience, and some gentle nagging by our close pal Soop, is that I've got a renewed sense of enthusiasm for attacking the very long list of upgrades and fixes on the cruiser. So far this week I've repaired the brake master cylinder, bled the brakes, replaced some broken grease fittings, replaced two worn body mounts, adapted and fitted the bullbar to the front, cleaned inside and out, adjusted the relay rod, tightened some loose bolts underneath, and painted and modified the battery tray/hold down system. Doesn't sound like all that much work when I write it out in a quick list, but it feels good while driving around.

Labels: landcruiser