We took off for Puerto Rico early in the morning to talk with the jefe about signing paperwork for a new project. “I can’t sign this without first having a meeting with the village”, said the jefe, which made perfect sense to me. Alvaro just packed up his papers and the nineteen-year-old topographer that the municipality had sent and headed off on his next mission. I couldn’t help wondering why things couldn’t be explained better or with more advance time. Maybe decision making doesn’t have to be all or nothing, or everything at the last minute, as it always is here.
The trip wasn’t a waste though. We stopped along the way to pick up some passengers in our motocargo, including a young mother with the most perfectly blue baby that there ever was. The baby’s hair and entire body had been died with huito until it was a deep indigo black. The perfect shell pink of the baby’s fingernails were a surprising contrast to her blue hands. This extreme skin treatment can last up to a few weeks, and protects against mosquito bites. 
I didn’t get a picture of the blue baby in Puerto Rico, but I did ask to take a picture of Señora Candy’s daughter. This little girl was also dyed with huito, although she was not quite as blue as the baby. Her father’s hands are also blue so he must have helped with the dyeing. “Why did you dye your daughter?”, I asked Señora Candy. She replied that the baby’s hair was black when she was born, but now it was growing in too light. “Are you going to dye him too?”, I asked about her curly haired baby boy. She laughed and replied that huito is only for girls.
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