A Great Ride

This was our ride this morning. Through the flooded streets of Querétaro, Mexico. The old VW Bug, or "Bocho" as it is called here, is still a pretty popular car. Coming in at 14.5 kilometers per liter, even the gas mileage is fairly decent. But when you have to deal with some unrelenting rain, as we've had the last three days, it can be tough. There were four of us in the car this morning. Our driver Maria, Cesar, his son Alejandro, who while still a baby, takes up a lot of space with his car seat, diaper bag, toys, talking bear, and everything else, and of course, me. Now I was the lucky one because I got the front seat. You see, if you are riding shotgun, you have a job to do. You have to man the defroster. But it is not the button that most of us have on our cars. The defroster for this classic is a rag to wipe the driver's window clear until the temperature between inside and out stabilizes. That magical moment hit this morning about the time we got to our destination. Nothing better than riding four in a cramped car, all with bags, no defroster, windows partly down, in famous Mexico traffic, in the middle of a flood. But at least the wipers worked.