Beating The Heat

Last weekend was rainy and cool but the heat has returned. The sun comes up early so the boat starts feeling hot about 10. Randall hired a local guy, Lionel, to help him clean the boat and engine room. They also cleaned and sanded down our fading navy stripe along the cabin top and Randall is repainting the stripe beige. Lily and I have been assigned getting lunch each day by walking up to the two young street vendors who set up near the Nana Juana parking lot. We also try to keep the ice water coming throughout the day. I feel a little guilty every time I look out and see them drenched in sweat. They usually call it a day around three and we three head to the pool. I asked Lionel if he every swims in the river but he said it was too dirty. I told him our son and his amigos used to swim in the river right by Mar. “Ooooh,” he said. “Loco Gringos,” he was thinking.

Lily got the bike out this week right before the rain set in. There isn’t really much place to ride around here, though.

Backpackers – a Rio Dulce landmark

Lily has a new journal and she is quite good at writing every day. In the evening, we both plop down and jot down a few sentences. Sometimes I slack off on journal writing because it seems a waste of perfectly good paper but her enthusiasm makes me enjoy it again. Also, I read a blog post this same week which seemed related to journal writing albeit not directly discussed. Gretchen Rubin talks about how Something Becomes Important Because we are Paying Attention at her blog last week. I sort of think of journal writing as “paying attention.” It doesn’t necessarily need to be insightful and you might not enjoy rereading any entries. Still, it seems to make you pay a little more attention to things. Anyway, I am glad Lily enjoys it.

Intense concentration. I would say she is studying but I suspect this is computer-game concentration.

We motored around the river a little this morning and ended up a Chicki’s for ice cream and then Backpackers for homemade bread. On the way back, we watched this guy come to a stop and proceed to check his gas tank. We dingied over to offer to tow and took him in a short distance to the gas station.

Lily driving us around.

Ran out of gas just short of the gas station ahead.