My nephew Nick (my brother's son) came to stay with us for 3 weeks. He arrived on the 4th of July so the office got together for a bar-b-que and hired a "Torito" which is a guy who runs around in a fireworks suit with the fireworks going off... BANG!
A couple days later we mounted the "hero and set out for Tabacal to look at an alignment to run the new waterline and get samples of the water to have examined for potability. Nick enjoyed teh motorcycle ride accross the rivers even though he ended up a bit sore.
In the jungle there are mosquitos... ALWAYS. I was smart enough
to bring deet to Tabacal but unfortunately left it in the village when we went out into the jungle and for some reason, instead of turning around right then, the words, "well... it looks like they aren't that bad today" escaped my lips. If this wasn't bizzare enough, I actually believed the words. Nick and I slipped and slided on the steep slopes looking at the terrain for a proper alignment, all the while being CHOMPED by mosquitoes. I actually think we must have lost weight by how much we were bitten.
In one of the streams we crossed we found GIANT spiders that run really fast and can go across the water. In this picture the rock the spider is on was about as high as my hiking boot! We cautiously crossed the streams, trying to limit the number of slips into the water.
Once we finished our evalutation of the terrain we went on to the dam where the spring was to take samples of water. We dug and took samples of water in several locations and then left for home. Unfortunately one of the samples broke on the way back to the city :(
Nick and I returned to Tabacal later with a truck full of cornmeal. He jumped right in and helped unloading the bags in typical style, carrying the bags on the back!
Welcome to Guatemala Nick, You're a great help!
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