I suck at being a MAN

I suck at doing manly stuff. I don't know engines. I'm not technical or mechanical. Need something fixed? Don't call me. I don't know how to use half my tools. Seriously, I only bought them to fill the box. Plus I don't like to get dirty.

My gifts lie in identifying the things I'm NOT good at, and then surrounding myself with people who are. Arriving back in Costa Rica I had 3 critical manly things that needed to get done on the van. So I went on a mission to find the manliest man I know, my pal Chad from Pleasure Device. Luckliy Pleasure Device wasn't far away. They were set up in a little surf town called Esterrillos Oeste only 30 mintutes south.

After arriving in the heat of the day, I proceeded to rope Chad into the projects. First up was to install the new van refrigerator. The guy at the store told me, "the installation is a slam dunk, plug and play, a monkey could do it." That last part was enough to convince me that I needed Chad's help. Turns out it wasn't plug and play, and thank god Chad knew all about wiring, shimming, fuses, and capping propane. He did let me hold the lighter and melt a plastic thingy.

Next up was replacing the turbo resonator again. If you follow the blog you'll remember that this part died on us back in Honduras (read that post here). Luckily I was carrying the spare factory part. But there was no way I was gonna let that happen again. The best offense is a good defense. I found a custom built all metal version of the plastic part online and brought it back from the States. It's called the ELIMINATOR! Won't have to worry about that little problem again suckas.

Chad's next job wasn't so easy. I wanted him to build wood panels that block off all entrances to the cabin of the van. Why would we do this? Good question. For those who don't know, there are no roads that connect Central and South America. There is a 100 mile stretch of jungle between Panama and Colombia called the Darien Gap. The only way around this is to ship your vehicle on a freighter. Our van won't fit into a container, so we're going to have to hand over our keys. Someone will drive the van onto the boat and we'll fly south and pick it up in Columbia 2 days later.  All we can do is hope that nobody is motivated enough to cut through our protective wood panels and rob us blind. Joy. FYI, We plan to ship to South America at the end of May.

After the work was done, Pleasure Device sprung a little birthday surprise on us. They had secured a really nice bottle of champagne. We love these guys. They are so amazing! The sad thing is that we're not going to see them again for a long time. They are heading to Tierra Del Fuego as well, but they plan to lurk in Costa for another 2-3 months. By the time they leave we'll be deep into South America. Eventually we'll see them, but probably not until fall or maybe even winter.


I think Chad was pretty shook up about it. As we pulled away he followed the ADVENTURES OF PLEASURE LIFE tradition of waving and running next to the vehicle. He even tried to climb into my window. He was doing well until I hit the gas, which sent him spinning and almost falling to the pavement. It was awesome. Goodbye Pleasure. We love you guys. TREE