What are the chances?: Part II

¡Hola amigos!

So. Today I wanted to go sandboarding on the sand dunes between Reñaca and Concon. I called some friends and told them to meet me at 12:00pm if they wanted to go. Only one person showed up, but we decided to go anyway. I should mention that sandboarding depends on the fact that there is someone renting sandboards at the dunes. Last time I tried to go, no one was there, so my buddy and I went farther up the coast to a town called Horcon. It was fun, but I still waned to go sandboarding. (It's not like the U.S. where I could call ahead to make sure the guy will be there...It's just some guy with a truck and a bunch of boards and I have no way of knowing when he will be there.)

The dunes are visible from the highway between Reñaca and Concon, so the strategy is to look out the window and see if the truck is parked at the dunes. If it's there, we push the "I want to get off so please stop the bus" button, and exit. Today, I was looking expectantly out the window with my finger on the button in anticipation of going to sandboard. To my dismay, I saw no truck. Almost simultaneously as I reached the conclusion that once again I had been foiled, something unexpected happened. From beneath the micro came a horrendous "whumph" that vibrated the floor so hard I thought it would break. The primary "whumph" was followed immediately by a series of successive "whumphs" each louder than the one preceeding it. This is not a reassuring noise when one is traveling at 50 mph without a seatbelt. The driver pulled over immediately, and all the passengers piled out of the bus. I peered under the bus and saw that the drive shaft had broken at the hinge and it had been this smacking against the underside of the bus that had made the "whumphing" noise. Along with the other passengers of the fallen micro, we took the next micro to Concon where we walked the beach for about an hour.

Either way, It seems that anytime I get on a mechanical method of transportation (or biological, come to think of it), it malfunctions in the most dramatic way possible without killing everyone aboard. Knock on wood. Anyway, I figure the only other means of transportation I use are colectivos, long-distance buses (in case that's considered a separate category from micros), and airplanes. That means at the most I can have three more traumatic experiences before I leave and it means I'm not even halfway there. Ah well. Hope all is well at home.

ya me voy
Andrius