Baja's Burning 'Buggy'

While visiting in a local hospital, I got to reminiscing about some old Baja adventures with someone who has shared a few with me.
Here's one I have wrote about before and revisited today...for old times sake.


My old Baja buggy could hardly be called a serious dune buggy or, heaven forbid, a 'rail'..but it was a ton of fun for the 6-7 years I had it...until it's unfortunate demise!

I was in the market for such a Baja Bug when I first saw an ad on Saul's Window in Mulege.




Now, Saul’s Window is used by the general public who are advertising STUFF FOR SALE…and the selections are rather unique to say the least. Over the years I’ve found some truly great deals… a see-through kayak, a grilled cheese sandwich bearing an image of the Virgin Mary, a lava lamp, a Gatling gun, canned unicorn meat, a date with Low Tide Lola….and a Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit with machete, sharpener, etc. See pic…



The Bug

So, one day while scanning the taped ads on the window I spotted one saying “Baja Buggy For Sale”. My friend Kelly was a good mechanic and went with me to check this rig out. Seemed good for the price so I bought it, mounted the longhorns on top, and drove that machine over hill and dale..(have you ever found a 'dale' in Baja?)






We had some memorable trips in that buggy. To the mountains and deserts, faraway ranchos and villages, to remote beaches, to town regularly, ....everywhere a goat could go, I would go.

Once I had it on a camping trip to Laguna Manuela and got it stuck in the wet sand at low tide on Playa Largo (Long Beach). In trying to grind it out, I had buried it to the frame. Ouch! I thought it was lost to the incoming tide until I saw a truck full of people on the dirt road going up the coastline. I ran over waving my cap and asked for help ... maybe a towline? Heck..no towline, but about 15 people came back with me and literally brute forced that buggy up from the sucking sand and pushed/pulled me back up on the road. I gave my profuse thanks and offered a good peso reward, but my gratitude was enough for that load of Samaritans. That was a good first lesson for me...which taught me to stay off the beaches!!

I even made good use of it as a golf cart…back in the day at Pta. Chivato.



I used that buggy for many years and had a ball with it..until one fine day in 1994 when a few of us took our buggies and rails on another camping trip. This time to San Sabastian Cove on the Cortez.


The fuel pump starting acting up and finally pooped-out alltogether. We worked and worked, but couldn't get that sucker to pump gas anymore...it was shot. But hey, this is Baja...you improvise!

I talked to a friend who lived there in the Cove and he scrounged up an old outboard engine gas tank hose with a squeeze bulb. I bought the hose and squeeze bulb for a few cold Pacificos, then jury-rigged the out-hose to a five-gallon jug of gas behind the drivers seat and the inhose to the engine's carb. It got a few stares of disbelief from my compadres..and a couple of warnings about explosions, etc. "Not to worry, I said. Well, it worked like a champ and we went merrily along the desert trails...squeezing that bulb ever so often to keep gas to the engine..a real Baja fix!

I was grinning like a Cheshire cat!





That squeezebulb gasline idea was so Baja and novel that I decided to leave it in place....but that would prove to be disastrous!

One day soon after that quick-fix I was late to meet some friends in town for tacos and hurriedly started up The Buggy and spun out the gate..squeezing the bulb a lot more than I should have.

As I made the turn onto the highway I thought...'Well, it's going to be a warm day'..I could feel the sun heating up my neck and shoulders already.



I am shifting up gears and driving by Bony's café... waving at him and his dad, Manuel Diaz. They are waving rather excitedly back at me..'Hmm..why so much enthusiasm in all that waving?..and why are they running towards me? Holy crappola..my neck is really getting sunburned or what? I wonder, is something on....What the??...FIRE!!! Good God..no wonder my neck is hot! The whole back engine is aflame!!'

I quickly skid to a stop and jump out...grabbing a floormat to start beating at the flames. Now Bony is running over with a 5-gallon bucket of water..slopping a lot on the way cuz he’s kind of short and stumbling...'Thank you, Bony!!'.. I’m thinking…as he trips and falls over his own feet, the bucket splashing all over him...'Hey…Nice try, Bony!'. I shout.

Frantically beating with the floormat and getting nowhere I decide to throw sand and dirt on it to smother the flames...which are now starting to melt the fiberglass body near the engine.

Suddenly, from the north a beat-up Mexican van slides to a stop, the passenger's door flips open, and this guy comes running up with a open Modelo beer can, shaking it with his thumb over the hole and sprays it on the engine...grinning his face off. Looking at this hombre, I think, ’Jesus, Mary, & Joseph….this Modelo guy’s a couple cards short of a full deck.’

Meanwhile, Manuel has taken the bucket away from Bony, filled it himself, and calmly walks over and drenches the fire out...

We stand around looking at scorched and melted fiberglass..burned wiring..and inhaling a terrible smell. The Modelo guy finishes off what's left of his beer, grins from ear to ear, and walkes back to the van.

Manuel, Bony, and I assess the situation and decided it might be best to push this smoking crate off the highway before the next semi flattens it. I get the wheel and start pushing with Manuel and Bony behind...we only have a short distance to get it into my yard..thru the entry gate we go...when the damn thing bursts into flames again!! The hell with it, I said...lets just leave it and good riddance!

But Manuel puts it out again with some well-placed dirt and we push it to a corner of my yard far away from anything flammable. We get into my pickup and head back to the cafe where I can buy breakfast & beers for everyone.

Later that day I hear through the Coconut Telegraph that all day long Manuel relates the morning’s events with customers and using real names, so I stop in for a cold one.



I sit sipping my cool brew and sigh… thinking,”What a helluva way to start this day...never a dull moment…wonder what’ll happen manana?”




[Edited on 4-8-2014 by Pompano]

Here's the last one I rebuilt...



[Edited on 4-8-2014 by Bob53]

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob53 Here's the last one I rebuilt... [Edited on 4-8-2014 by Bob53]

I just got this little cutie last weekend to run around at my house in the south campos. I'm looking forward to having as many adventures in this one as you did in yours Pompano. Well, except for your last one!