Today will always be remembered. Always. As such, it was the first day that I truly regretted having a broken camera. But perhaps it’s for the best; it could have demystified the surreal experience.
I get in touch with Alvaro to make the call to the auto parts store at 9AM. Jesus wasn’t able to find the brake pads I was looking for. He tells us, though, that we have a couple options. 1) see if any other similar brake pads fit the Mercedes model, and 2), he may be able to take out the brake pads and get the fibers made at a shop in San Jose. Which means that it would cost me a lot of time and money for the carrier to make it to San Jose, cut new fibers there, and carry it back, leaving me stranded on the beach. Being on the beach is nice, but when I’m in a time crunch, it’s not such a great feeling at all, especially when I’m already sun burned.
So we head over to the auto parts center to talk to Jesus about my options. But the guy up front says they don’t carry any Mercedes brake pads at all, and I am not even considering option 2 at this point. I would rather try and get to South America and find the parts there than anything. A big risk, but I really don’t have the time.
Alvaro is there with me to translate, and he makes another phone call to his friend, who used to be the Director of Customs in Costa Rica. Now he’s the chief engineer of some company, and he has a lot of connections. And he tells us that 1) if I am going to Colombia or any South American country for that matter, it’s better to go to Panama and seek options there. Plus, he says, there’s a ferry that goes from Colon to Colombia, which I’ve heard of but haven’t ever been able to verify. 2) About the brakes, he says, go to Grecia and not San Jose, which is about 30km closer than the capital. That is the capital of the auto centers. Meaning all the cars being imported to Costa Rica go there, and the town’s economy is driven by the auto sales. They’ll be able to cut me a fiber if need be in one day, not 4-5 like the other option indicated.
Alvaro tells me another route to go to the mountains, a more scenic route through what the map tells me requires a car ferry. But he says there’s a bridge there now. He tells me about an American dude that works at an air condition repair shop in Grecia. It’s about 6 km up from the highway, a bit off the Zocalo. So I say a quick farewell to Alvaro, who’s been so much help to me, and drive towards Grecia. By then it was 12 noon, and I was too busy all morning to have eaten anything before this 4 hour drive.
I am not a guy that prays very much for anything. I feel like if I deserve it, I will get it. And if not, then I won’t get it. I always feel like I have to live up to my own expectations, which are much higher than what anyone would expect from me. And I never feel great about asking for help. I’ve always felt like I need to earn what I get.
Which is why it’s been a while since I’ve prayed. Why pray when you think you’ll get anything only based on merit? But being so worried about my own safety as well as the outcome of the entire trip, I prayed a simple prayer before I left at noon. I held the steering wheel while my car warmed up, and said, “Dear God, please be with me today. I feel so weak, and I need your strength now. Help me carry on with this journey.” And I drove off, feeling silly about what I just did. That was a very unorthodox way for me to start a day’s drive.
Costa Rican roads aren’t bad. They’re just tiny 2 lane highways. And when you’re talking about being on the only major highway leading up to the capital that’s in the middle of the mountains, you’re talking about a lot of trucks. A lot of trucks that go 15-20 miles an hour going uphill AND downhill. So I used my engine to brake a lot at this point, because I don’t trust my brake pads at all. It didn’t sound great, but I did it anyway. I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. I believed that if I used it up too much too soon, I could very well end up tumbling down the mountains the next time I try to use the brakes that aren’t there.
I get to Grecia at 4PM. Even though I’m hungry as hell, I want to at least find the place to get the fibers cut tomorrow, so I search for the Air Condition repair guy. I find his shop, Johnny’s Air Condition Repair, pretty easily. I hop out of my car, tell him my brake pads are gone, and even before I start telling him about my options, he says that I probably need to get new fibers cut for it since my Mercedes is old and they don’t have anything like that around here. He tells me great directions as to how to get there, but I get lost. Along the way, I ask this guy about brake repair shops. He doesn’t talk english at all, but he tells me to talk to his taxi driver. The driver talks in great english, and tells me I’m only about 2 blocks off from where I need to go.
The guy gave me perfect directions. I find the place within a minute. They look through a couple books as to exactly which parts I needed. And within minutes, I was holding the spare brake pads that I needed. I wasn’t just happy. I was overjoyed. I tell them in broken Spanish mixed in with English that no where else in Costa Rica do they sell these parts. And they must have understood my reason for celebration, because the lady working the cash register tells me in Spanish that I will like the price even better. It’s less than 10,000 colones (<$20). No need to cut new fibers and pay a lot of money and wait. Just like that, the search was over.
Meanwhile, I catch a glimpse of her T-Shirt. I didn’t pay attention to it very much at first. It said GAP, something we’ve all seen plenty of times before. But written underneath it was something that stunned me.
G.A.P. God Answers Prayers.
Someone out there has always, always been on the lookout for me. At the end of the day, I haven’t always gotten what I necessarily wanted, but I’ve always gotten what I needed. And today, some one or some thing needed me to keep going on this long journey, so that I wouldn’t give up prematurely.
The story doesn’t quite end there. I ask her in English if there’s a mechanic around that understands English. She gives me a number for Stanley. As soon as I call and ask for Stanley, the voice on the other side shouts, “Oh did you get the parts you needed?” Surprised, I said yes, I got the brakes, how did you know? And he replies, “I’m the guy that told you how to get to the brake store.” He was no taxi driver. He was a mechanic waiting for his customer at the ATM.
He drives about 5 minutes from his house/mechanic shop to come get me and I follow him in my car. He goes to run errands for 20 minutes, and inside is one of his best friends, Dan, who was born in Costa Rica but grew up in America and speaks perfect English. He’s been back in Costa Rica for about 6 years now, working in a company called Psych, a third party telephone customer service company that GE employees.
I park on the sidewalk/street and he fixes up my brakes within 30 minutes and charges me 10000 colones (less than $20.) Meanwhile, it’s getting dark, so I haphazardly ask him if I can happen to stay at his place for the night. I tell him that I have a sleeping bag and he can charge me whatever he wants. He replies, “Relax! My sister comes down here from Dallas every once in a while so we have a guest room upstairs you can stay at for free.”
I didn’t think much of it first, being in Costa Rica in the middle of nowhere. But this guest room is actually bigger than my mother’s own master bedroom, and quite possibly even bigger than a 1 bedroom apartment. It’s got comfortable beds, and the bathrooms are top notch, all comparable to the high-middle class American houses, and even has a balcony with a beautiful view of the Costa Rican hills. They have a swimming pool that seperates the guest house from the main house. I take my first warm shower in a week. Stan, Dan and I all hang out playing Medal of Honor, Need for Speed, and Black on his Playstation 2. Stanley’s mom cuts me some fresh mangos, and Stanley picks up some beer and orders a pizza.
G.A.P. God Answers Prayers.
Today, He did more than just that.