Our mission wheels - brand new Rav4. It's cruel to send a nice new car out on the roads here. After 18 months on the roads of Guatemala it will require a full chassis transplant. One of the favorite tricks is to put large speed bumps in an otherwise open road, with no warnings. And most of the time they are not even painted. But the local style of driving trains you to be constantly alert so you see them - most of the time. We have already passed two or three cases where someone's wheel just fell off while driving. 

I am developing a theory that the "wild west" (Libertarian?) style of driving here actually results in fewer accidents as we haven't seen many so far. Before I am done here I plan to write a book on the science of driving in Guatemala.

-- Ralph