ARCAS Hawaii

Buenos diaz!

As I was finishing off my blog entry last night, an approaching torchlight signalled the arrival of Mariachi, one of the guys who works at the parque. A friendly and welcoming Guatemalan, Mariachi smiled as he thanked me for coming; he was clearly very happy that he had at least one volunteer at this usually quiet time.

I explained, as best I could in my Coffee Break Spanish, my name, where I was from, where I live now … and, seeing as I’m only on lesson 10, I decided to end the conversation there by asking what time we start in the morning and signalling that perhaps I should go get some sleep. All spare time now will be spent building on my hardly great Spanish that’s hardly been used at all in the last 12 years since my last Central American adventure.

I slept well, and so far haven’t been bothered by malaria- and dengue-carrying mosquitoes, though their sandfly cousins are happily doing their best to annoy on the mosquitoes behalf. The rolling of the waves, just a turtle-run from my quarters, soon lulled me to sleep, and I was woken shortly before my alarm by the sun’s rays creeping through the mosquito netting in the east-facing window. The puppies greeted me as I emerged from my room and showed me where the bathroom was before electing one of themselves to escort me on a morning stroll of the beach. A pelican foursome glided over the waves in search of snatchable fish while a fishing boat trawled a net into a large circle just beyond the breakers.

The white pup drew my attention to a hole dug in the sand just beyond the shoreline. It looked to be the size of a turtle nest; further down the beach we spotted a couple and their child digging a similar but larger hole at the water’s edge. I went to investigate, but my limited Spanish ability and understanding of local arrangements left me with little more to do other than photograph the diggers to show the parque managers, although it’s probably nothing as we are clearly no longer in nesting season.

Mariachi just arrived, but then popped down to the nearer tienda for a Guatemalan momento—I guarantee he’ll be at least 45 minutes. The pups became excited by his arrival, and so did the mosquitoes, who are now nipping at my arms and legs in hunger. I’m going to Deet up. More later …