Santiago - Lisbon October 25

25 degrees

We skipped the breakfast option at our lodging today as we are anxious to be on the road to Lisbon .  We booked a cab to take us to the car rental place and  Mr Taxi Man takes us to the airport instead, even though I showed him the correct address.  I show him the address and picture on my iPad and he gets that we are at the wrong place.  He takes us to the rental agency and confirms with them that we have a car booked, his English is about as good as our Spanish.  I did think that was a kind gesture on his part.  Our plan was to get to Lisbon , pick up my passport and be headed north by end of day...and we gained an hour..seemed reasonable.

We are renting a FIAT air bag.  The  rental agency informs us that there is an up charge if we take the car into Portugal .  Not much we can do about that.  We normally never take the extra insurance offered by rental companies as we have that coverage included with our credit card. (FYI - we also have a rider on our home vehicle policy for rentals, yesterday we came to know that only applies to vehicles rented in North America )

Just before signing the final rental documents Sid opts to take the additional coverage, reasoning that if something should happen, our lack of ability in communicating in Portuguese would be a liability.

The rental place, ACE Rental, does not provide us with any kind of map.  

How hard could this be already...just head south.  The car, of course, does not have a compass.

Sid accordions himself into the FIAT airbag and we are on our way.

It's a cute little thing.  We think we would like to rent it for an extra day so we can do a driving tour of the Douro Valley wine region.  I would love that.  We asked Rental Desk Boy about the extra day, he couldn't make such an important decision, but he gave us a customer service number to call

The drive is beautiful and we enjoy figuring out the places we walked to. Sometime around 1:30 we stop for gas, coffee and purchase a map. We are on the A1 highway which is a toll road and by this time have been through 4 toll booths. After coffee we get back on the highway and Sid comments that the car has no power.  None.  In fact it actually quits running right beside one of those roadside SOS stops.  That was fortunate at least. We place the SOS call and ask for someone speaking English.  The very first question Mr English SOS person asks is if we had just fuelled up ....

Never in a million bazillion years would we have guessed that the grade 'Simples Gasoleo' in Portuguese  translates in English to diesel fuel.

Mr English SOS person dispatches a very nice and helpful Mr Speaks Only Portuguese roadside  person who arrives at 2 pm.  He knows just what to do but of course we don't understand a word he is saying, so he calls someone who translates to Sid via telephone.  A tow truck will come to get us and take us somewhere, have the diesel siphoned out, refuel and then we can be on our way.  The tow truck will arrive in one hour. Mr Speaks Only Portuguse roadside person brings us each a bottle of water and leaves us on the side of the A 1 highway at 2:15

I have time to review our rental policy to try and figure out what will happen.  It very clearly states we are responsible for repairs resulting in using the wrong fuel...Sid says it is way better to have made the diesel to gas error as opposed to the gas to diesel error.  

The contract says that we cannot extend the contract by phone....so much for the Douro Valley.  

The contract also lays out a heap of situations  we hope to not learn about. You can imagine that this is not a happy time for us....

Mr Speaks Only Portugese roadside person returns at 4:15 and we have had no tow truck sighting.  So he waits a few minutes ...alas the tow truck appears.  We then have a game of charades with Mr Speaks No English tow truck driver.  What we get out of that non verbal conversation is that our insurance pays the tow charge and we have to pay the garage.  In cash only. No receipt 

The FIAT airbag is loaded onto the truck, Sid and I climb in the tow truck and off we go...to somewhere.

We arrive at this garage

And the tow truck driver and the garage man (maybe they are cousins?) talk about something as the diesel is siphoned out of the car

I believe their conversation had something to do with tourists...and I am certain they were mocking our pronounciation of the word Lisbon...

Mr Manuel Mechanic takes Sid to a gas station to get gasoline (!) and to the bank because we do not have enough cash on hand to pay him.  Manuel puts the gas in the tank, sits in the FIAT airbag, crosses himself and tries to start the car.  It. Took. A. Long. Time.  It does finally start and he takes Sid on a short test drive.

We are finally on our way again and are about 90 minutes north of Lisbon.  By no small miricale and 35 euros in toll fees, we end up at the same place we stayed at when we were here on our last visit...and they have vacancy...and we find parking.  By this time it is 8:30...good thing we gained an hour!

I truly believe everything happens for a reason....what those reasons might be in light of today's events are not yet clear to either of us yet.  One thing for sure, every single person that crossed our paths today was very helpful, and kind and we felt they did all they could to help us.

I still do not have my Passport.