Lending a Helping Hand

Just when we were about to pull anchor and leave Caleta Pardita a fisherman approached our boat with a raised hand. We were thinkin' "oh boy, fresh fish", but that wasn't the case. He said that he only had a little fish but he had a problem with the control arm on his motor and was looking for help. Well, he came to the right boat. Greg the mechanic was happy to help. Apparently the seawater had corroded a bearing and he couldn't steer his ponga and he needed a wrench to fix the problem. Greg had actually been studying the Spanish words for wrench and other tools but it turned out that the fisherman had a whole different vocabulary and communication consisted of pointing and pantomime. Three hours later, after having dismantled and rebuilt the thing three times (due to the communication problem) Greg managed to repair the damaged parts and get the guy to put it back together in the right order. I offered him a glass of water which he gulped down and then a very big smile spread across his face. After all this we thought that maybe he would be grateful and give us some fish.

After waiting over an hour we figured he wasn't coming back and we started to pull anchor. Before we finished be returned with a little bag with three small fillets. Then, in what we recognized as typical pescadero fashion now, he showed us two C cell batteries and asked if we had any. We did and once again we made another gift to the local economy.

The pescaderos always tell us their names and ask ours. His unfortunately was impossible for us to understand but he made it clear that he would be a Caleta Partida for two weeks and we should come back and see him.