The kid made the story up, apparently after seeing me walking down the road
in this small mountain village.  At one point the men brought him over and he
pointed right at me and said, "it was him".  Apparently (i learned later)
rumors are common tto the effect that gringos steal kids.  At least two guys
didn't seem to be convinced and one of them seemed sober, so after an hour or
more of repeating that I didn't do anything and insisting that we could n't
go anywhere anyway, the crowd filtered away and the situation slowly
diffused.  If my spanish weren't as good as it is, the situation might have
gotten really ugly.

I will strongly consider carrying 2 spare tires and a pretty good tire repair
kit.  I made a pathetic patch with super glue and duct tape, but it was good
enough to go about 10 minutes at a time and get us the hell out of there in
the morning.  Can I buy hardware to mount an extra tire on the front or rear
of a Vanagon?

Doug

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