Found it!

Mike discovered our trusty truck had a broken tailpipe. Of course, we went to Shorwen for a repair guy referral. Remember, there are no addresses here . . .

. . . There's a painter and a mechanic right next to where the big noah ark are before getting to punta gorda there is a guy there by the name of David he can do that for u.

Cool body shop. More modern than I expected. Mike said it reminds him of the 1960's body shops. Kind of like when he was growing up in his dad's shop. 

There was Dave, who speaks no English, and his son, Jonathan, who translated. There was another worker busy painting a car in a different area. A cute young kid brought out some dusty old chairs for us to sit on while we waited for the diagnosis. Nice people. 

Wow, right?

They want us to bring the truck back on Monday and leave it for two days. $450 USD.

Mike checked in with Shorwen who said that is "too much. way too much. you must negotiate it down."

Yesterday was the first trip down island we'd made without the dogs. We let Marba know we were leaving and asked her to call if their barking got crazy. I did check in with her at one point and she said everything was fine.

We decided to take advantage of our time alone by having lunch at Bella's Place. Her restaurant is unique in that it has a swimming pool for the guests to use. We sure wished we'd had our suits with us. The heat can be oppressive, especially when dealing with a $450 truck repair bill!

Remember how everything is done very slowly here? Nobody is in a hurry. No rush. Manana.

That's all fine and well unless you are overheated, overly hungry, and dealing with a $450 truck repair bill.

We stewed during that hour-long wait for food. But we also enjoyed the breathtaking views!

Ha! Here we are! Scraggly us. Six weeks into our adventure. We need haircuts and pedicures! But that's an adventure is for another day.

For now, there is that $450 repair bill to try to negotiate. Wish us luck!