Hum… Something I forgot to mention yesterday was that during that beautiful day a fateful event occured due to my infinite capacity for #massivefail. I locked the keys inside the car. Yes, I did, on a friday evening, in the middle of a National Park and as we were getting ready to drive to our hogan to watch the sunset.

So I tried to stay calm and think about a solution. Calling a garage seemed a drag, as it would take them ages to get to us, would cost a fortune and most likely would ruin our amazing plans for the night.

So I decided to ask our new friend/guide Herb for help. I assumed Navajo people would be full of resources and man, they didn’t disappoint. The incident led to a pretty memorable scene.

When I went to Herb to explain the situation, he said “don’t worry, i can open your car, I do it all the time.” I never was so happy to hear these words. He took a knife from his pocket, a bandana from the other pocket and proceeded to slide an antenna he found (?) by pulling the car window with his knife (?)

Yes, a part of me was worried that he would damage the rental car, but I felt like I could trust this guy. And well, honestly, we didn’t have many other choices….

Herb was making steady progress when his friend Watson arrived with a bigger antenna and a piece of barb wire (?)

They got the antenna into the car and were trying to hit the central “unlock” button inside the car. Not easy, especially when you need quite a bit of pressure to push it and the antenna was just a notch too short.

After a few minutes, 2 other Navajos arrived with huge grins on their faces, ready to show that they were going to fix the situation. They started fiddling alongside Herb and Watson, so we had now 4 Navajos gathered around our car trying to help. The whole scene became hilarious as other tourists walking by seemed slightly worried about that Navajo car action going on… Herb and Watson decided to leave the scene to go get “bigger tools” as we seemed to be making no progress (45 minutes had gone by).

So, predictably, it didn’t take long for the Navajo Police to show up in the person of the Sheriff (which was female). She asked a few questions but soon started laughing and stuck around just watching the scene. She looked like she was having a great time!

Finally, a couple more Navajos arrived, including a younger bloke who came accross as witty and quick. He said “What are you stupid Navajos fiddling with?” with a smile on his face, wanting to take charge…

So now we have 6 Navajos, 3 antennas, 2 pieces of barb wire, 1 knife and 1 Navajo Sheriff gathered around our car, as Charlotte and I looked at each other in disbelief. Not much progress was being made however, as the guys could touch the unlock button but still not push hard enough to press it – the barb wire was bending too easily… So the younger guy started twisting the wire into a shape and attempted to actually pull the handle of the passenger car… I didn’t think he would get anywhere but in a few minutes he had opened our door!

Ahhh the relief! Everyone clapped and we shook everyone’s hand with gratitude! The whole thing had become some sort of a competition, they all had tried to open our car and he was the winner.

Oh my.