Memories of Petacalco

In 1973 we took a landcruiser and a Volkswagon squareback from Southern California to El Salvador. The trip down and back was a full three months, but the memories were priceless. I will share them with you from time to time. My buddy Tom and I thought our 1965 Landcruiser was the bomb for this trip, and really had doubts about Jim and Joe's old Volkswagen squareback. It did not take many weeks before our mighty jeep was bowing to the VW. The landcruiser was heavy, not very comfortable, and got stuck really easily in the sands and mud of Baja (we drove to Cabo on our first leg, before alot of the highway was done). And when it was stuck man was it hard to get out. The VW just went everywhere, squirming and sliding. It hardly ever got stuck, and just kinda skimmed over the rough spots. And, four people could push that puppy out of anything. We were not real bright on the offroad do's and don'ts that is for sure, but we learned. That old Landcruiser had to have the front hubs manually turned at the wheel to engage the four wheel drive. I remember crossing about a 200 yard mudflat inside of Quatro Casis (not sure of spelling), which we thought was pretty dry and and an easy go. About half way across we realized it was getting wetter by the second and she was starting to slow in the slush. We had a bit of momentum, and had it gunned, but I had the bright idea to stop and turn the hubs for the 4 wheel drive. We got out, turned the hub, and watched her sink in the mud. Christ, we were dead in the middle of this big open area with absolutely nothing to use for leverage to get her out. We spent that afternoon and the entire next day walking (a very long way) back and forth to the sides to accumulate enough rocks, sticks, and crap to get her a bit of a runway to get the momentum going to get her across. You gotta remember it was hot, a real shitty place to be, and muddy. Being covered in mud is not really that bitchen when you are traveling. If I remember right we even used our boards to jack off of (that does not sound right). Later some offroad guys said you take your tailgate off and use that. Wish I had thought of it.



And the VW watched from the other side with a big damn smile.
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