Richard Bannister

Our fifth day in Mexico began with a morning of tourism at the Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato. We spent a pleasant two hours exploring the exhibits and nearby shops, and had just begun our onward drive when a minor collision with a curb slashed one of our tyres, deflating it instantly. We had begun the process of a change by the side of the road when a friendly local offered to assist, completing the task far more efficiently than we'd have managed ourselves. He then produced an assistant who offered to drive us and the car to a local garage for a replacement, and we decided to take him up on this. Unfortunately, he then decided to give us an impromptu tour of the city on the way back to his base, taking an extremely scenic route that, while interesting, wasted an enormous amount of time. The various delays and a meal break meant that it was well after nightfall by the time we arrived at the Feria de Puebla.

We were only able to see one coaster from the outside of the fairground, a Reverchon-built Crazy Mouse (Carlón) (#2128) located directly opposite an oval-shaped Dragon Wagon (Carlón) (#2129) and a standard model Wacky Worm (Carlón) (#2130). All three of these coasters looked and rode exactly as expected.

Our next stop was on Gusy (Carlón) (#2131), an absolutely tiny ride with a footprint roughly half that of the Dragon Wagon we'd ridden a few minutes before. The lift mechanism could not move the train with five adults in it, but rather than ask some of us to get out, the operator put in an impressive physical effort to push the train each time it went through the station. We were honestly surprised that we were given ten full circuits; we'd have been quite happy with one.

Things got even sillier as the five of us boarded Tren del Chavo (Carlón) (#2132), an oval shaped ride with a height differential of about two feet. The sight of five crazy gringos boarding the ride prompted some other adults to take the spare cars at the back, much to the amusement of the lone operator. The tyre drive mechanism probably wasn't designed to handle half the weight that it was faced with, but it coped admirably, giving us fifteen consecutive laps that were as embarrassing as they were fun.

The last stop of the night was on the powered Caterpillar Coaster (Carlón). The operator offered to take a photograph for us and ended up with a great shot that, as someone else commented, showed five serious enthusiasts just having fun while simultaneously setting the bar for a billion other people to follow.