The Return of Franky, Almost - Pt3

We woke early with feelings of anxiety for the day, not entirely confident in the van. Quick run to the the shop for a coffee and freshening up in the toilet, we were dreading the worst when I turned the key. He started! Even quite convincingly, I messaged 2 different mechanics to stand down, had a little food while he ticked over and went for a spin. 10 mins away was a sister store that we got the battery from. We figured we could check the power output and storage incase there was a battery fault. Pulled up outside the store, check complete and nothing to worry. Go to start, zero power. Pop the hood again, loose battery connection, false alarm!

Unsure entirely what the next best move was but we wanted to leave the city. 1.5hr to a reasonable size town on the coast and found reviews of a 'friendly mechanic' so made a fairly sensible plan to skip town, drive there nonstop and kill the engine, hopeful there's no problem but parked at a mechanics should there be. This went nicely to plan, other than restarting the van, fully dead but parked at this nice mechanics shop/ home on a side street, on a furiously hot day. We saunter in feeling quite defeated and relay the problems. We end up here all day.

Frieby, his wife Marrinella, 2 kids and friend Roy had our backs. As the reviews went they were amazing and inspired by our journey ahead were determined to get us running right. It was a hot and stressful day but we felt in good hands. There were a minimum of 3 heads under the hood all afternoon. We were treated to lunch with everyone, cold beers turned up at 2pm when they were meant to close for the day. Parts were delivered on scooter and others came and went, offering their say. A young guy turned up late but had a fantastic knowledge of electrics. By 6pm and the sun setting we were done. We had a freshly charged battery, new terminals, lights replaced, trickle outputs found and solved, alternator tested, rewiring to all the most important equipment, hot and filthy all round, but starting well and running smoothly again. We were unbelievably grateful, they loved Franky, he is an infectious beast like that and to hear him rumble made everyone happy, optimistic and full of adventure.

They allowed us to shower, charged a very reasonable price then insisted and insisted again that we come with them to their family

cabana in the mountains an hour away. We tried to refuse once, after all we had been there all day and delayed their whole families departure for the weekend get away but in the end took the offer that was there in such good heart.

So it's dark now, it's been a long day, we don't know how good Franky real is but we followed the family up hill. We could hardly see out the window for rain and filth, Jelly was slung out the side watching for pot holes and the road got worse and worse, and steeper, then less road and more gravel, a river crossing then a couple of bridges later we pulled up to see there was absolutely no hope of getting into there property. Tired, we abandoned the van on the road side and walked up to the most beautiful handmade mountain cabin. We kicked back on the veranda over looking the land below, we put up some Christmas decorations and had a little bbq before crashing out hard from a long day, so grateful to this lovely family.

I was awake early and excited to see where we had ended up. I sat on the veranda to see toucans, parrots and other cool birds about, views of the surrounding mountains and the coast in the distance.

Frieby and I chatted in this peaceful family space while the others slowly started to surface. It turned out he had grown up around here and had 2 brothers, a sister and mother round the hills so took us with them for their tradition of Sunday breakfast at Grandma's House. This was real Costa Rica and we felt very welcome. He showed us around a little, pointing out different areas, view points and trails then popped into his brothers before settling back to their cabaña. By now it was late morning and we felt we should move on ourselves and put faith back in Franky.

He started perfectly, they cut us a huge bunch of fresh bananas, we thanked them, then thanked them again and couldn't believe how fantastic everyone had been on this tricky start for us, hooted our way down hill to pull up in the river crossing and give his dirty ass a good clean... now we're ready to roll!