Another one bites the dust

I passed my test for grade B! Onto Grade C! Pero, yo pienso que yo necesito estudiar mas la vocabularia de grado B. (But I think that I need to study the vocabulary of grade B more.) There were sooo many verbs ... Olga and I celebrated over lunch in an Irish Pub - that sketchy looking one that Nealy likes!

Anyway, day three in Monterrico was short and sweet. But it started early!

Our second day in Monterrico, we arranged for a guide to take us on a lancha (boat) tour of the mangrove forest. His name sounded something like "Edgar." Nice guy.

The next morning at 5:00am, our appointed meeting time, Sondro and I were both a bit surprised to be met in the street by a man and a woman - neither of whom was Edgar. The man, who was clearly still a bit drunk from the night before, explained that Edgar couldn't make it, but this woman who was with him (whose arm was in a sling, by the way) was la esposa de Edgar (Edgar's wife).

I'm guessing he brought her along to help explain the situation and to verify his story. The funny thing is he could've brought literally any woman with him cause we had no idea Edgar was even married! Despite the fact that our guide was a complete stranger, and a little drunk to boot, we decided to go with him.

We walked through the town, past his house, to where he kept his boat. After he scooped the water out of the bottom with an empty margarine tub, we were off! But shortly after coming through the mangrove forest into the main river (the one we had taken a ferry down), the engine died. Our guide added some gas to the tank from the old tide container he had brought with him but still couldn't get the engine started. He wore out his arm on the pull start, but some nearby fisherman were kind enough to take a turn while he had a cigarette. Haha!

Finally, a ferry driver who we were told has a reputation for being good with engines stopped and started it right up! I watched him do it ... the only thing he did differently was prime the engine ... The whole time we were waiting for the first two guys to start the engine, I was thinking, "surely they primed it, right? They must've primed it while I wasn't looking." I almost suggested priming it, but I didn't think it prudent to tell these fishermen how to start a boat engine. Oh well :)

Once we were underway again, it was a fantastic, relaxing trip! The countryside was really beautiful and the full of these cranes. Pretty cool.

On the way back to town, we towed one of our guide's friends who was shrimping (that's a verb, right?). And then ran out of gas. Fortunately there was a little left in the Tide container and we made it back to Monterrico!

Before we headed back to La Calle Real (the cheap restaurant we found the day before) for breakfast, our guide introduced us to his family and showed us his puppies. After a final dip in the pool, we headed back to Antigua!

This time we took a different way - we drove northwest along the coast before heading northeast through Escuintla.

I just spoke to Sondro an hour or two ago and he picked up some sort of ailment on our trip. This is a little disconcerting, cause not only is he sick, we were together the entire time ... we ate at all the same places and did all the same things. The only thing I can think is maybe I didn't touch the river? Not 100% certain. Anyway - hope you feel better soon, man!