Since I last posted I flipped my dinghy leaving the beach at Santiago and had to have the outboard worked on here in Barra because of it. Now my outboard runs better than ever. There is a fourteen year old hearing impaired student here in Colomilla. I met him when I had to go get permission from the teacher for Yoanne to join me for a video chat. The hearing impaired student only knew rudimentary sign and I could tell he did not interact much with the hearing students. He is from the larger town of Cituatlan and I surmised he was getting harrassed quite a bit there because of his deafness and so he and his brother commute daily to this outpost of a community. He had a sign language book that has been lost and I told Yoanne that I wanted her classmates to learn some sign language so they can communicate with him. They desparately needed a book, so I looked around Manzanillo and came across one that I thought was amazing but was being sold to another person. So I put an order in for the same book and had to wait ten days for delivery from Guadalajara. I took a bus from Barra to Manzanillo and picked up the book and delivered it to the school with instructions for all his classmates to get involved and learn some sign. I also gave them $100 pesos to get copies of the ABCs and the often used words and phrases so all the students could practise. I went back to the school today and asked the hearing impaired student if he likes the book. The look on his face and the thumbs up sign he gave me made it all worthwhile. Yoanna also said they have been practising and things are looking up for the students.
I sailed over to Cuastecomate which is half way to Tenacatita so I could clean the bottom of the boat and change oil in the diesel. When I was finishing up on the bottom cleaning I decided to dive on my stern anchor. I'm glad I did as it was wedged in an old metal fishing boat wreck on the bottom. I didn't have air in my tanks so I had to free dive in fourteen feet of water. After about 5 dives holding my breath, I finally got it loose and move it over to sand bottom. The next day I sailed over to Tenacatita so I could do the mangrove river tour and get online with my Banda Ancha. The second rate company I went with this year wouldn't come up, so I sailed back to Barra.....got to have that internet connection, eh. Besides, there was a red tide with jellyfish everywhere, so coming back was a good choice.
There are still quite a few repeat cruisers this year, but a whole lot more newbies down here. It seems the new class is not like the old cruisers in there attitude toward being here in Mexico.....or maybe it's me! The blog photo is me having to suffer through another Mahi-Mahi dinner on the beach so I don't have to cook and get dishes dirty. I might leave here in about a week and mosy on down to Santiago for my last visit of the season to that beautiful area.