A few days ago we had mentioned to Isaac, the hotel owner's son, that Dave needed a haircut. So Isaac walked us into town today to the local gal that cuts hair. Isaac warned us that one of her daughters was getting married next week, so he had been afraid to go for a haircut for fear that the house would be chaos. None the less, we risked it. We had to walk through several yards of the local houses to get there as there are no sidewalks. Everyone just tromps through each other's yards to get where they need to go. Suffice it to say that without Isaac's help we would never have found her. Fortunately the daughter and husband to be were off getting marriage counseling from the local priest and hence were away for the afternoon so all was quiet. The hairstylist was a sweetheart, and Isaac translated what Dave wanted. When Dave was done, he thought it was one of the best haircuts he'd ever gotten. Cost $2. Melissa got a trim of the shaved hair on the underneath part of her haircut too. Cost $2. We tipped her $1 for a total of $5 for both of us. This probably branded us as big spenders.
Her daughter was so amused by the fact that the gringos had come to the house for haircuts (apparently an all time first), that she had to take pictures with her ipad. And when all was done, she took pictures of all of us together in addition to all the pictures she took of us individually getting our hair cut. We were somewhat taken aback that the daughter had an iPad. Clearly her pride and joy. Isaac explained that the local school has WiFi for the kids to try and help with their education.
As we walked around the town, Isaac told us what was what. As we had previously suspected, these pipes are indeed the town's water supply. It comes from a local well. Isaac never drinks it because he "can't drink the local water". The hotel has a UV purification system in addition to carbon filters before any water gets into the hotel.
We spotted these little guys outside the door of the local internet café.
We saw these stations all around the town. We've not seen evidence of recycling anywhere else in Central America. Odd to find it here on this small island town.
And all around town, there were women doing the wash. We were told they would be happy to do a load of our wash this way for $3. And that the whites would come back starched and crisp.
Later that afternoon, we offered to take Isaac and his staff at the hotel for a tour aboard Apsaras. Isaac translated as the staff speaks not a word of English. We piled them all in the dingy and told them it was our turn to take care of them - which caused much laughter. We showed them all the boat systems from the water maker to the anchor winch. They were completely amazed and fascinated. Isaac told us the staff said that they would dream about the boat for many nights to come.
Isaac is on the far right. He speaks perfect English as he was educated in the US. The cook that Isaac's Mom trained is on the far left. The two in the middle are wait staff who would do anything for us - so long as we can figure out how to communicate it.
