Dear Asher,

We awoke to another scorcher so we decided to spend the day lakeside. Good coffee has been difficult to find for Grumpy, so we tried a new comedor roadside restaurant. They filled up Grumpy’s thermos for only 10Q and we continued our walk along the lake. We passed a sow with four little piglets, two horses, several dogs and a bay with dozens of varieties of birds, some of which have migrated from Canada. Asher, you are always content when we go for walks, mostly because you love looking at nature. Granny and Grumpy are also nature lovers and stopped to take photos of anything that moved.

We coaxed Grumpy down the rickety dock to the palapa covered benches where we spent the afternoon swimming in the crystal clear water. The water has risen several meters since our last trip so many structures are now submerged. We swam to one dock that is now under water but the palapa is still poking out, creating some welcoming offshore shade. Asher, you enjoyed your afternoon swimming with Granny and playing on the dock with Grumpy.

After all the heat and exercise, we decided to return to our sweet home for a nap. We stopped to chat with Adonias, the young man we met on our last trip, but Granny went on ahead. She sometimes sets off early because she knows we are fast walkers and will catch up, but little did we know there were other reasons for her swift strides. When we finally got back to the house, we saw Granny hunched over holding on to her stomach, groaning, “how do you say bathroom in Spanish?” Whether it was bad water or heat stroke, we don’t know, but Granny had a wicked case of diarrhea. Since we had the keys for house, she was locked out but desperately needed to open the floodgates. She went to the family living in the simple wooden hut next door and tried emergency charades for permission to use their bathroom. She clearly did not use Great Uncle John’s explosion from the bum charade and her uncontrollable flatulence did not provide any clues, so she had to hold it while we took our time strolling back home. The young boy hopped on his bicycle to come find us and even tried to push Granny over the chain link fence. Granny has a real knack for getting to know the neighbours.

Granny instantly lost about ten pounds but the anti-diarrheals kicked in quick. After a much needed nap, Granny requested the fresh air of the front porch hammock. With her Spanish phrasebook and Gatorade, she swayed in the cool breeze watching the town hunker down for the night. As we cleaned up from dinner, we could hear Granny outside saying, “Bonus Nachos” to everyone that passed by. We will never know if the passersby were snickering from Granny’s attempts at saying “Good Evening” or if word had spread about the gassy Gringo who got stuck on the fence.