Fortunately it was not the bike, it was a friends van. We had been into La Ligua on an errand of mercy with Lorraine, who we have been staying with. As we left La Ligua I commented on the smell of oil and water coming from the van. Lorraine comfirmed it always smelt that way, so I stopped being nosey.

10k later on Ruta 5, the PanAmerican, the van spluttered and died.

We checked the radiator, no water. Handily there was a nearby dumpster with some empty plastic bottles and some houses on the other side of the highway. After some traffic dodging and chatting to a chica we had some water.

We refilled the radiator and tried to bumpstart the engine.

Nada.

No problem, we will ring the emergency recovery. But the number was back at Lorraine's.

Flag a police car down ? If only one would pass.

Jean and Lorraine started to hitch back into La Ligua and I waited with the van. It was starting to get hot.

Eventually a police car drove passed and pulled over. I'm sure my stilted Spaninsh was amusing to them as I explained that it was not mine; it belonged to a friend who was 'walking in the road'.

"Mi esposa y amiga, en la ruta con pies" (my wife and friend, in the road with feet)

One of the officers wandered around to the back of the van, as the door was wide open. I decided this was a good time to tell him that Gregory was in the back, and he was dead. That made him stop.

Gregory was a dog, and we had just been to the vets to put him out of his misery of gunshot wounds in 1 leg and the other broken a week earlier by a car.

I may have actually said, "in the back, there is a dog that bites" ("muerte" and "muerde" sound very much the same). But it was obvious Gregory was going nowhere,

Finally the girls turned up with a tow truck and the driver kindly dropped us all at the house of the dog's owner, Lorraine's friend. Where a burial ceremony took place.

The owner had been very confused when the local police (who are also friends of hers) called her to say that they had found a man with a white van and a dead dog on Ruta 5, did she know me ? They had worked out the van belonged to her 'gringa friend with the dogs' from my description of where I was saying.

We then had to walk 2kms back to Lorraine's with the shopping, through the bushes, trees and scrubland between the Pacific and the highway. Making the bags lighter by drinking the beer.

Finally an asado (BBQ), a sunset, and a dog (Luna)