That evening, we drove into town and talked with Melchor, a local proprietor who offered to help with the hiring of a crew to begin work the next morning.  We stopped by Villa Caracol and Darryl Campbell, the owner, agreed to rent us a trailer that we could use to haul in sand.  Ditmar Biller at Tierra Maya loaned us some yard tools.

So at around 8am on the morning of the 11^th, we picked up 7 workers and their tools in town and drove them out to the house.  With the two workers Tim had hired plus Jose, we had a crew of 10 working with us.  We fed them beans, rice, scrambled eggs and bread for lunch each day and then would bring them back into town at night. 

It was amazing just how much work was accomplished the first day.   It almost seemed like the workers were competing with each other to see who could lift the heaviest rock or dig the most seaweed or move the most sand.