Daddy's new jeep

I have owned two cars in my life. The first one was a Volvo 244GLE '80 which I bought in California in 2000 when I did my solo road trip across America. The second one is the one you see here, a flame painted Suzuki Escudo (called Vitara in Europe) '94 with attitude. Though the slogans "Eat your heart out" and "Yeh you still talk" perhaps would not have been my top choices, the jeep is a actually a pretty sensible choice considering the pothole-riddled, steep and winding roads it will be traversing. The price tag was $20,000 ECD (41,000 NOK/8000 USD) and knowing next to nothing about cars I can't really say if it was fair or not, though I like to think it was. A friend of ours had a look at it before we made the deal and was of the opinion that we should move quickly.

Finding the car was easy, the seller being a friend of the proprietor of a restaurant close to our apartment. And after eventually having obtained enough cash through ATM-withdrawals, I went with the now previous owner to Kingstown on Thursday, to do the paperwork. I had braced myself for another brutal encounter with bureaucracy, but was pleasantly surprised. The transfer of ownership and the purchase of insurance took no more than an hour and a half, and I could soon drive home as the proud owner of the vehicle. (I had sorted out the driver's licence earlier, but that too is a breeze. You're automatically issued a license valid for 6 months upon showing a foreign license and paying 75 ECD). I went back to Mespo, picked up Sijle and Ella and we celebrated by going to the beach.

Let me point out a funny detail. I think many Norwegians have been amused at how the Helly Hansen brand suddenly became hot in the American hip-hop industry. We've been surprised to see "Helly Hansen" printed on a number of jeep spare wheels in St. Vincent. Why, I do not know. And I have no idea why it is written on the side of our car, but there it is nonetheless, to remind us of home.

The idea of driving in St. Vincent had me a little on edge at first. The roads can be narrow, and like I said, peppered with potholes, but my biggest concern was the reckless driving of some of the van drivers. A taxi driver who took us to Mespo a couple of weeks ago pointed out a house to us where a van had plowed through the wall, into the bedroom one early morning a few days earlier. (Luckily, the people who had slept there were in the bathroom and no one were seriously injured). Not only do the van drivers go fast, they tend to drive in the middle of the road as well, not necessarily showing any sense of urgency in returning to their own half of the road when approaching oncoming traffic. On top of that comes driving on the left side, although when it comes to that I do have some experience from New Zealand and India. Well, the first trips had me on edge, but I'm getting the hang of this now, running slalom between potholes, vans and goats.

BTW: Yesterday we went ahead and bought a child seat for Ella and she seems quite happy to use it.