Day 192

Guadalaraja, Mexico

I finally got some new mirrors so I’m gonna be out of here tomorrow. With Easter making all the shops close for a week I didn’t want to have a 400km journey over to Morelia with no mirrors, or even my little hand held mirror taped on… I went down to the ‘Spare parts’ district on Saturday after I found everywhere was closed from Wednesday onwards and you should have seen the guys running after me when they spotted I didn’t have any mirrors. One guys seemed to think he could get some but after standing around for 5 minutes I drove off, much to his dismay, I’m perfectly capable of getting my own mirrors… Some other guys stopped me, and wanted …. $120! wow! They dropped down to $90, and kept going on about original parts. Big deal, they’re only mirrors, and they’re probably MY original parts. I wasn’t prepared to negotiate from such a high figure so left the area. Its a great scam, I saw a few other people with US plates looking for mirrors… Steal their mirrors, sell them to the shops and everyone is happy. Apart from the gringos.

I went back this afternoon and got 2 mirrors and the plates for $40. I probably should have haggled harder. He started at $60 and kept making a show of calling someone on his mobile to get a cheaper price. As usual the threat of walking away got the price down, but I suspect you could get exactly the same mirrors for $20 in a US breakers yard. So if you’re driving south bring a spare mirror, or 2. There’s a good chance they’ll be broken sooner or later anyway. So after 2 weeks of hanging out in a large city, reading, writing and learning Spanish I really have to get a move on.

With some luck I will be doing some more paragliding later in the week, apparently a place called Valle de Bravo, near Meico City, is quite good for it. Wish me luck! :)



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