Sunday 15 August 2010

Disappointment and a rescue.

Sadly no pigs trotters arrived on the Casa Guatemala boat yesterday, ah well we will live to fight another day. Jose and Esperanza, who are in charge of boat deliveries, shook their heads sadly and said they didn't know about the order and the 'senora' from the store had gone to the city. Anyway they assured me that they will do their best to get the required porcine patas for Tuesday when they do their next round....

Pushing my Spanish further than it was ever meant to go I also asked if they could get some belly of pork. They must really wonder where this strange gringo is coming from! Asking them for cuts of meat that most self respecting cruisers never touch! Much gesticulating towards my, rather copious, belly reduced Esperanza to a fit of giggles and Jose to a blushing state of  embarrassment. Esperanza is similarly gifted in the 'belly' department whilst Jose is slim and fit, the bastard!! They promised to call on the vhf if they found some belly. That should be an interesting conversation for the rest of the fleet to follow...

On a completely different tack, we were headed into town on Friday aboard our trusted dinghy 'Bob". Suddenly a cayuco with four people turned over, we have never seen that before. As we changed course towads them another local boat also arrived and gave them something to hang on to. There was an old man, a husband and wife and small child. The child was swifly plucked from the water whilst the others clung to the boat in a state of shock. It's no easy matter getting a water logged person over the side of a small boat. The cayuco, basically a hollowed out log was upside down and almost totally submerged by this time. We wedged ourselves behind it's crew and pushed as the other boat heaved them aboard. The woman, clad in traditional Mayan garb was in a hell of a state, deeply shocked and waterlogged.
We manged to round up the drifting paddles, sandals and assorted floating debris and after assurance that they were OK went on our way.

2 comments:

Cindy Bonham Miller said...

Good job on helping the locals and their overturned cayuco.

Good luck on the pig belly. I wish I could have SEEN that conversation.

Love ya, Cindy

Gerry said...

All I can say is that it's a bloody good job I'm not vain...it was not a pretty sight, funny but not pretty!