Yesterday we had a very nice day visiting a Mayan ruins called Quirigua. We went with two other sailers, our Asistur friend Omar, and a guide named Carolina (who speaks good English and excellent Spanish and who will translate for Mom during the judicial events). The Mayan site was very interesting and I'll share more about that tomorrow.
Today was a long day, starting with a 6:30 am departure from the house, of legal sessions before a judge, the defense and prosecution. Mom got to see the arrested brothers mixed in with four other people (decoys). There were no real "ah ha" moments for Mom, as the suspects looked different than 5 weeks ago (more facial hair, and differing head hair length). After long deliberation, two people of the lineup were picked out by Mom, as possible suspects. These were the two incarcerated men (the real suspects) and therefore the prosecutor was confident he had a strong case. Mom is hopeful that there will ultimately be fingerprint results to support or negate the suspects' involvement.
After a brief pause (just long enough to run down the street to buy some fresh roasted peanuts as a snack for Mom), the declaration began. Mom had typed up the event chronology in the last few days so she could remember all of the details while talking to the judge, however as it turned out she was not allowed to read her statement. So, from memory she recounted the event, with translation into Spanish by Carolina, the guide. Once Mom was done and subsequent questions from the prosecution and the defense were answered, we spent about 2 hours editing the typed declaration. All of these events were accomplished in the very hot and stuffy judge's office in Puerto Barrios (no government money is *wasted* on air-conditioning at this place). It was really sweltering and our bodies became very sticky. Finally at about 4 pm we were done and given the "go ahead" to go home! Yeahy!
As irony would have it, hurricane Ike is due to be in/ near Houston, TX tomorrow, so our airplane flight home has been postponed until Monday….. our delays continue, but it is a big relief for Mom to be done with her declaration.
I'll write more tomorrow. Now I'm off to bed.
Love, Jessica, Nancy and Brian
