Lost In Translation

I suspect we will be tempted to write a lot of blog posts in the next few years titled "Lost In Translation".  Given that we plan on spending the next many years in Latin America, I would say we should get moving on learning a bit more Spanish.

One of our more recent lost-in-translation moments happened after we stopped on the side of the road to see if a large family needed our help.  Their vehicle and trailer were parked in the sand on the side of the road.  One of the younger girls came running up to the window and started spewing Spanish at Scott.  Despite multple attempts to get her to slow down, he surmised that they had spent the night on the side of the road, and someone wanted to catch a ride with us into the nearest town.  In his best Spanish, Scott tried to confirm that they wanted a ride back to town, and if so, how many people.  Before we knew it, 8 people were in the back of El Tigre (4 adults and 4 kids).  The only person who stayed back was grandma.  "Regresamos (we will return)", said the last adult son as he closed the camper door.

Driving 1.5 hours with 8 Mexicans would have been a good time to practice some Spanish, but our Spanish is so poor that we didn't even try. We feared that the translation would come out something like this sign we saw on a beach near a fishing cooperative. My favorite part is "LAKEWISE". Scott likes "THE PAIN". 

The extraciton is prohibited of marine products concesionados to the cooperative and protected species, for the commission of protected natural areas.  

Lakewise they are informed to all those people that they are surprised with products concesionados, in times of prohitibed or of it carves inferior to the established one for the law of he/she fishes, it will be sancioned and alternated to the federal autorities, and they were applied the 1 articulate 420 established wich aplies the pain from 3 to 6 years of prison without right to deposit.