Healing Fuso Santek.

Did you ever walk in deep mud?
Fearing to slip and fall any moment?
Making you insecure and uncomfortable?

Driving the Fuso Santek from Guerrero Negro to Ciudad Constitucion gave exactly that feeling.

José, better known as Pépé, the mechanic in Guerrero Negro, had replaced the three bolts but it is sure they will break off also.
Too much weight on too weak of support.
Every bump in the road making the Fuso Santek shake, shook also the emotions of fear that the side of the camper box would come down once more needing to look again for a mechanic spending time, energy and releasing awful aggravation.

Arrived in Ciudad Constitucion the carpenter was found who did some cabinetwork on a former truck camper over 10 years ago.
But the man had died since 7 years.
Now the shop was run by his son who by coincidence is having the same name as the mechanic in Guerrero Negro: José, for his friends Pépé.


José, who we can call Pépé having known his father, got the job to construct a wooden support for the inadequately mounted square steel bracket.

This sounded like a simple task but in the end it took quite some time and effort.


A large piece of wood was tightly squeezed in between the chassis and a support beam of the camper box.
A wooden panel was bolted to the chassis using holes already there.



This wooden panel was then glued and screwed to the large piece of wood to hold it in place.


Now the camper box is attached on the driver’s side by the Santek Trailers 3 bolts of 8 millimetres and the wooden support.

This is like coming out of the mud and finding solid ground under the feet again.

Now there are two invoices of two mechanics that worked on the broken bolts saga.
The question is who is responsible for this financial aspect of the adventure?

It cannot be denied that the recent event of the broken bolts has badly influenced the normally happy mood.
There has been tremendous enthusiasm about the Fuso Santek.
Many people wherever the Fuso Santek went would come up and ask questions and proudly it would be explained what a fabulous vehicle it is.
But the enthusiasm has plummeted considerably.
It is simply not interesting to have to spend time and energy on things because someone simply didn’t do an adequate job.
A vehicle can be a prototype and issues will come up but they never should be the result from not doing an adequate job as we saw with the broken bolts.
And it can be revealed that this story of the broken bolts is not the only experience in that league.
Several issues have come up, not yet reported on this blog, costing time and energy resulting from inadequate work.

During the many hours of waiting yesterday for José, Pépé the carpenter, to do the job, suddenly inside the Fuso Santek a big tarantula was spotted.


First there was surprise.
How did this tarantula get into the Fuso Santek ?
All windows and roof vents have screens.
And it cannot be imagined the large spider simply walked in through the door.
Which is mostly closed off by a screen door to begin with.

Something had to be done about the tarantula.
As big as the hand of a grown up man.

It couldn’t be adopted as a pet because it could come visit at night while sleeping.
This imagination, peacefully sleeping while a large spider walks over the body is worse than walking in the mud.

In Pépé’s open-air workshop on this Friday night, having received their weekly salary, three guys were getting drunk.
Drinking one litre ( 0,26 gallon ) bottles of Tecate beer getting red eyes and uncoordinated with body and mind.
They had tried already to become drinking buddies, offering one of their big bottles wrapped in last week’s newspaper, but this generous offer was politely denied.

Now they were called in to have a new delirium seeing a true tarantula.
One guy ran outside ordering the others to keep a close look on the giant spider.
He returned with a Mexican broom and an old towel.
Obviously to attack the tarantula it was imagined.
On second thought, he threw the broom outside, took the towel in one hand, looked away and grabbed the spider.
This the innocent animal survived.
He was thrown on the cement floor of Pépé’s workshop and started running for cover offered by bushes nearby.
But one drunken guy ran after the fast moving spider and planted his Nike firmly on top of the unfortunate creature.
Next, they all started to study the liquid that came out of the tarantula realising it can make a man sick.

This was not the only exciting recent event.
Fervent and loyal blog readers may remember that on June 12 a conversation by telephone took place from the airport of Schiphol, Amsterdam, Holland, with Mayumi.
She is the woman who was once the wife until she was divorced 6 years ago.
It had been a good, emotional, intense and positive conversation.
The first one in many years.
And it was followed up by a short e-mail.
But now the information has been received that she wants to limit the communication to only once a year.

That is exactly in line with the advice dear friend John from Temecula, California, USA, gave recently.
Knowing Mayumi and life very well, John said:
“When you drive your car, what is more easy: driving forwards or driving backwards?”

Life makes it very easy.
Now that the Fuso Santek is back in shape the only way to go is straight ahead.