Waiting, waiting, and more waiting

The travel bug in me is buzzing saying in its squeaky, tiny voice, “Let’s get the move on senorita.” But alas, we are still in Provo waiting for our boat parts. Before we could receive the new shrouds, we had to send in the fittings off the old ones to the company making the shrouds. This entailed removing the rods, cutting off the fittings, motoring through the mangroves to land the dinghy near UPS, and getting picked up by Commissioner Gordon and Inspector Gadget. Ok so obviously those aren’t their real last names but I’m horrible with names so I don’t remember them (but their titles are correct). As we anchored the dinghy near a road, we see a police SUV pull to the side of the road with their lights on and see two policemen staring at us. I thought, “Oh crap. They are going to arrest us for trespassing.” But turns out they were making sure we weren’t stranded and even offered us a ride to UPS since the store was closing in fifteen minutes. Such nice guys! We walk in just before closing time, and we're told we’d have to come back another day since we didn’t bring a box to pack the parts in. In my head I’m thinking, “Oh hell no. I didn’t go through a 20 minute wet dinghy ride and walk in ooey gooey mud in my brand new flip flops for nothing.” Luckily she produced an envelope that we could use after we explained our situation. Thank you for making an exception UPS lady!! Shipping was a killer though. It cost $66 for something that would have cost $10 if we had been in the States. Plus we added in a few bucks as a tip (or whatever you want to call it) since they didn’t have change or a working credit card machine.

With that taken care of, we just have to sit back and wait for the parts. We really thought we would receive them early this week at the latest, but we were told today that the machine that puts the heads on the rods isn’t working so who knows when we’ll get them.

To pass the time, I’ve been reading, watching movies and TV shows that we downloaded, exercising and going to the beach. On Sunday we had spent a few hours on the beach at Sapodilla Bay, and when we had got back to the boat, a guy on a kayak came by saying that his friends were behind him and didn’t know if they could make it back to the shore. It was really windy that day, and they were pretty far out after going after a kayak on the loose. We offered to go out on the dinghy to help, and we towed his two friends most of the way back to their beach house. They asked if we wanted to stop by for a couple of drinks, and of course we said yes. All of the cruisers left the island a couple of weeks ago so we wouldn’t pass up the opportunity for some company. Here again I wish I could remember names, but I only can recall Courtney. They were from Virginia and had rented a beach house for 10 days. They were really nice and funny, and I enjoyed talking to them about their scuba diving excursions and other islands that they had visited. We said goodbye after a couple of bevies but weren’t ready to call it a day so we headed to Las Brisas, which is within walking distance of Sapodilla Bay. We shared delicious appetizers of brie with honey and nachos. David is not one to initiate getting on the dance floor so I was surprised when he led me to the pool area where a guy on a keyboard was playing and singing. He was definitely feeling happy from those vodka/pineapple drinks! We were the only ones dancing, but we had so much fun. We even got a compliment from another couple, although I’m sure they were just being nice. After walking back to the beach, we sat on the sand in the cool evening breeze and listened to the gentle lapping of the waves. These are the types of days I never want to forget.