Friday, August 8, 2008

Ay Carumba

Our car has been side swiped several times since we've moved here, but never when we're nearby. There was one time (no, not at band camp) that we valeted at an expensive hotel and the valet drove it into a post, leaving an orange streak across the bumper. We saw him stopped in the middle of the lot but didn't think anything of it until we got home and saw the damage. By then it was too late to do anything.

Yesterday Ibis called to ask if I could bring him the car. He needed it "right away" so I rushed out the door, hair still wet from my shower. When I arrived at the hotel there were several cars trying to navigate the narrow street so I parked at one end, out of the way.

Or so I thought.

I'd just locked the door when I saw a delivery truck backing up towards me. I waited next to my car so he could pass, but instead he hit the rear bumper. Not badly, but enough that the car lurched forward. He stopped - too late - and his window lined up with where I was standing.

"You're hitting my car!" I screamed, in English.

He tried pulling forward but the over-sized tire was wedged against the bumper. Not sure if he planned to take off as soon as he disentangled himself, I ran to the hotel and yelled for Ibis.

And yelled. And yelled.

I finally ran down the stairs, where one of the cleaning women was standing. She pointed to the bathroom so I screamed, "Someone's hitting our car and I'm afraid he's going to take off!"

He flew out of the bathroom (pants fastened, btw) and raced up the stairs. Now, I hadn't actually seen the back of the car so I had no idea what kind of damage there was. For a moment I actually hoped it was fairly significant so I could justify freaking out the hotel guests with my hollering.

The truck driver was still there and he explained to Ibis what happened. He seemed like an honest guy, but Ibis yelled for the cleaning woman to call the police anyways. Less than five minutes later a police car came racing around the corner and up the hill, straight at us. Several cops jumped out, machine guns drawn.

"No, no." Ibis said. "Transito."

The transit police. They have separate divisions here and we needed the others. The policeman radioed to the transit police, and we waited some more. I went down to the office to cover for Ibis, and while I was gone the man offered to call his employer and have them pay for the damage. They didn't offer money upfront, but said if we had it fixed, they'd reimburse us.

We'll get this in writing or make sure there's some way to guarantee payment. I'm excited to get the bumper repainted, but it's too bad he didn't hit the same corner as the valet.

14 comments:

Gregory Anderson said...

That would have been an opportune time to collect the money, when the police had their machine guns drawn.

"Si usted no me paga ahora diré a la policía que usted es un terrorista."

Melanie Hooyenga said...

LOL! That probably would've worked!

colbymarshall said...

AGH! YIPES! Your stories make me NEVER want to live there. I'll stay right here and you can just tell me about it, how about that?

Spy Scribbler said...

Melanie, I am so sorry. I'm sorry. I can't help it. You have the coolest life. Your memoirs darn well better be published. And SOON!

Spy Scribbler said...

Have you queried Kristin Nelson? Do you read her blog? She had a whole slew of posts about memoirs.

Zoe Winters said...

That sucks, Melanie. (course I told you that already, but yeah, lol I felt compelled to comment on the blog.)

Nadine said...

Wow, crazy!! I'm just glad none of the police were the one that Ibis told he was a lawyer!

Speaking of cars, is gas there super expensive?

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Colby, that works for me. I'm honestly surprised how often weird things happen, especially for how small this town is.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Thanks Spy. :) I plan to query Kristin, just not yet. When I return from my vacations I plan to work on the edits/rewrites, pass it off to another reader, THEN query. At this rate it'll be Christmas, but I want it to be GOOD!

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Thanks Zoe. :D

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Nadine, I didn't think of that! Too funny.

I really don't know what gas costs here. The government runs the gas stations therefore there's no competition and they don't list the prices on the big signs. Plus, they go by litres.

200 pesos ($20) gives fills roughly half of our 14-gallon tank. I guess that means we'd fill it with $40.

Janna Leadbetter said...

Argh.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Not argh, Ay. ;)

Kristine said...

OMG, good thing you weren't in the wrong place. It doesn't sound like he would've stopped if you were being squished!