Day 10 - Family on their way Home!

Grandpa sent me pics from his iphone of the family readying themselves for the two day drive back to Santa Rosalia. They look a little sad to me. The kids really like visiting their grandfather. He has lots of toys and feeds them well. I guess I'd better have something yummy cooking when they get here so they're not sorry they came back. Especially since I threw away a lot of their junk while they were gone.

Notice the rental car... it is appropriately called an ELF. Even if I had wanted to go to on this trip I don't think there would have been enough room. Thank goodness I stayed behind. Getting the rental car was a fiasco, by the way. I booked it online using Travelocity.

Jim and I were lucky enough to catch a ride south from Santa Rosalia straight to the rental car office in Loreto (the closest rental car facility and 3 hours away) with our friends and fellow cruisers Jim and Leta of Panoya. They were driving to La Paz and we tagged along with them as far as Loreto. Our journey started at 8am sharp. We left the kids behind with schoolwork and food instructions.

To make a long story short, once in Loreto we were told at the rental car office that our car would be delivered in 1-2 hours. Great... no problem! Jim and I had a delicious breakfast at Cafe Ole and walked along the narrow streets admiring the different homes. When we arrived back to the rental car office 2 hours later we were informed that in fact there were no cars available at all. Apparently, the Travelocity system fails to recognize the inventory actually available in Loreto... or so we were told. The super nice manager, Felipe, told us there were no rental cars in Loreto at any of the agencies: Budget, Europcar, Alamo... none. Goody. Only one thing left to do...

Jim and I began to walk to the bus station to catch a bus back to Santa Rosalia. When we had almost reached the station, Felipe drove up and very excitedly told us there had been a car returned 2 days early and that we could rent it. He gave us a ride back to the office and we were informed that it would be about another 2 hours until the car would be washed and cleaned and delivered to us. So, we went back to the restaurant and had a coke.

By the time we got all the paperwork filled out, the explanation in Spanish of the insurance (we're still not exactly sure what exactly it covers), and waited around some more for the car delivery we were getting worried that we wouldn't make it back to Santa Rosalia before dark. On principle, we don't drive in Mexico after dark. Too many big livestock animals on the warm roads after dark! Finally, our car was delivered and it was much smaller than the sedan size I had ordered. It was the ELF. It was more like a quarter of the sedan I had ordered. I went around to the back and opened the trunk. "I think I found the glove box," I told Jim.

We took pictures of all the dents, dings and digs that the ELF had, signed the final paperwork and drove away at elfish speed. And we managed to make it back to Santa Rosalia before dark, but not before the sun went down. That was close! Now, Day 10, my family is on their way back to Santa Rosalia and I pray that the little ELF gets them here safe and sound.