La Gringa

She's a real truck with a five speed, four wheel drive, manual transmission. She can go ANYWHERE SHE WANTS (even over the Andes due to her low O2 engine). Can you hear Tim Allen from "Tooltime" making man sounds in the background..."Argh Argh Argh argh...."
She had an interior roll bar and a trailer hitch installed before coming home the first day...AND she has a bed liner that can haul anything....from a giant old ugly sofa we nicknamed Celia Cruz to a mangled bicycle when one of our expats had an accident in the big park below the penthouse....  She is the "White Girl."

Ella es LA GRINGA...

I did my best to buy a plush "yuppie" vehicle to drive....i.e. Jeep Cherokee Limited with leather heated seats. But after driving a Toyota Tacoma six speed manual for the past 5 years, it was hard to get away from the need for height and haul.


It wasn't hard to buy such a beautiful horse.
The Chilean Mining Company, Codelco, just bought 2500 like her the week before. Of course La Gringa was the one they REALLY wanted, but she was already taken. So, they had to order their stable from the factory in Thailand, where all the standards equal US manufacturing.
After test driving all the pickup truck (camionette) makes/models available in Santiago....I decided on the Toyota Hilux primarily due to sound. Yes...sound. When I closed the door on La Gringa there was a decided, simple "click." No other noise could be heard. The other models (built in Argentina, China, Peru, and Thailand) door closings would send a hollow reverberation noise down the side of the truck. A sound like fake, sheet metal, movie thunder...
What more can I say about Toyota quality....ahhhhhh....

The Financial Manager was quite pleased when I finally decided on a Toyota Hilux. He said smiling, "Finally...a gringo with common sense.  I can write this one off as a company vehicle!" 
So...the company pays for the insurance, the maintenance, the repair work (especially when I accidentally dinged her left eye a couple of weeks ago in an underground Providencia micro garage), and yes...even the easy tag for the expressway. YEAH!!
The challenges of driving in Santiago are much like Rome...  The traffic redondas will give you blinding nightmares during early morning rush hour. Can you sing "round and round the mulberry bush?"
Insane taxi drivers, "all-about-me" people in small cars zipping in nanoseconds from lane to lane or just blatantly cutting in front of you because they need over RIGHT NOW to make the light that is four lanes to their right, and of course the PEDESTRIANS... Lord help those morons. They NEVER LOOK when crossing the streets. The law of God gives them the right of way....even when the lights change they just keep on coming like the fish in the baskets at Jesus's Sermon on the Mount.

I like driving La Gringa....people can see her from a distance and she is big enough to make most everyone think twice....most of the time.  Now all I need is a compressed air TRAIN AIR HORN under the hood.

Click here to see how LOUD they are!
http://trainhorns.net/
Maybe next year...just for fun....

Yes, sometimes God can speak from under the hood...
TRAIN HORN!   ...can you hear me now?