Villa Phantasma

Oggy's Art shot

For the first time in about 6 years I had to take part of the chimney off the roof in order to fit in the 2 km long tunnel that leads to this village that seems to be an old Spanish silver mine that now offers boutique leather hats that happen to be Oggy's private fetish. A tan leather short brim sombrero can be seen here keeping the sun off Oggy's bald spot. I think my leather binge is officially over.

one clue...

Hidden town

I can not name the town for fear the Google masters will lead other internet users to a virtual visitation but the clues are all here if you care to decode them and find your way here. I will say that I might return one day but probably not in El Conquistador. The route is simply too arduous and I overheated the coolant again because the stock fan is pretty much worthless at low speeds. In fact, I am not sure the fan does anything because it is actually the wind from the velocity that cools the engine down more than the fan. At low speeds I tempt disaster and there is no way to reach this village at high speeds. In fact, it would be better to hike here or ride a mule.

I found it interesting that Ghost Town and Villa Phantasma are the same terms to describe an abandoned village.

Rough Road

This captures how well hidden the drainage trench was. Only a tractor could free me so a Mexican onion farmer helped pull El Conquistador out of the trench in the shadows of a volcano where Hernan Cortez walked.

This still angers and disappoints me that I would be hunting for a nonexistent short cut to the autopista, off road, knowing I had sworn never to do that again, and try to avoid a mud puddle and not walk out the route first and end up in a trench that threatened to derail everything. Really dumb decision like many I have made, and I fear may have cracked the axle weld.

differential buried in the asphalt, axle hanging, muffler mashed, ego tortured

As bad as my day was, it wasn't as bad as this Python's day.

There comes a time when a man is either going to wear snake skin boots or dismiss the idea for eternity. I found a pair that fit Oggy's arthritic toes and were not audacious and had a zipper and were 3/4 height and my day had come to either be the guy in snake skin boots or be the guy who never wore snake skin boots. I wore them out of the store and I gotta say they demand a certain attitude to wear in public.

an example of a toilet with no flush mechanism, and the bucket used to flush it. (I think I left my purple water bottle there in Leon after snapping this photo. We had some good times together and I wish it well.)

Viva Mexico!

Puente De Amor

Oggy dressed as Miguel Hidalgo and the museum devoted to Senor Hidalgo

Oggy trying to feed Bukowski's face some Guyaba Pulque

I think I finally got some of the dates straight... The Mexican Revolution started in 1810. Miguel Hidalgo was the leader of the revolution until he was executed. This was one of the few major political changes in Latin America that the United States didn't influence for evil. But it took another 10 years for the war to come to some conclusion. But the start of the revolution is celebrated on 16th of September which is complicating my life for reasons I will go into later, These are small details in the story of traveling with nonexistent plans...when I least expect or want it I will arrive in a town on the day of Independence Day.

Final Days in the highlands.

Yet another Spanish Courtyard, the guard called it a Placillo or Patio

The meek shall inherit the earth, so everyone should give me their money and land.

Zapatista dolls. One is Comandante Marcos

Soldering Skills

I tried

I did find a replacement electrolytic capacitor and soldered it onto the legs of the old one that blew up but this didn't work. The soldering job isn't the problem. I think the integrated circuit is also toast. I hooked it all back up and nothing happened except a little static came from the alarm speaker. This may be the end of my decade old alarm system. I put the new cap on both controllers and neither one worked so it's toast.

But in other projects I'm finishing before my escape from Mexico

Gourmet Coffee. (I put so much honey, condensed milk and chocolate in it that it barely qualifies as coffee)

Native Spirit and a new strap courtesy of a sheep and some local macrame artists. Gracias.