Ceviche on the Beach Eh?

Monday, March 16th, 2015 Canoa
A week later, we're still at La Vista Hotel in Canoa. At least we changed rooms yesterday. We're still on the 3rd floor but we switched from room 6 to room 8. Room 6 was bigger and had a more private balcony but the roof rafters above the balcony provided a perch for birds or bats at night right in front of our balcony door. They bring fruit and other food there. They leave a lot of droppings on the floor right in front of the door, which we had to hop across to go out to our balcony in the morning before the maid came. In room 8, we have an even better view of the ocean, a flat balcony ceiling where the birds can't roost, and we get wifi in our room rather than having to go down to the lobby. All good.
Every day here on the coast, the weather forecast is "cloudy with showers" or something similar. However, although there are often some clouds or periods of slightly overcast weather, we saw no rain at all since we left Puerto Lopez about 2 1/2 weeks ago until it rained during Friday night. Then both yesterday morning and this morning we had brief light showers before the sun came out. It's still a bit overcast this morning but the sun is so intense here we don't mind that at all.
There aren't too many events here but yesterday morning we did see a funeral procession parading down the malecon while we ate breakfast at the Surf Shack. It was a modest but obviously heartfelt procession.

For the last week or so, we've eaten more at the beach cevicheria shacks more than we've eaten in actual restaurants. The beach shacks have refrigerators and the kitchens look much the same. The food is good and it's nice to sit in the shade with our feet in the sand and enjoy the ocean breeze. Our favourite is Cevicheria Saboreame #2 (saboreame means tasty) which is almost directly across the malecon from our hotel. We usually have one of the 4 or 5 set breakfasts. "Desayuno #1" is usually 2 eggs, cheese, toast or buns, freshly blended juice, instant coffee, marmelade and a big blob of margarine. As someone recently told us, margarine must be free for them to put such big dollops on every plate.
Last Thursday, I decided to try surfing. I'd been watching a few lessons and could see the basics of what to do. We went to the Surf Academy and rented a long board for $3 for one hour. An hour of surfing at a time is just about enough. It's a good workout, especially when you're just learning.
I didn't have a rash top to protect my skin so I was probably the only person in Canoa surfing in my merino wool undershirt. It was a little dishevelled when wet but it worked okay.
We walked to the edge of town where there were few other swimmers or surfers and I started by just staying down on the board, paddling with my hands to catch a wave, and getting the feel for it. Catching a wave isn't that difficult but balancing the board is a challenge.

A surfer who was just finishing for the morning stopped to talk to me. He told me he was an American expat who lived in San Clemente and taught surfing there.

He likes the waves in Canoa so he does the hour drive up here sometimes to surf by himself. He's my age but has been surfing all his life. He offered to give me some tips so I immediately accepted. He helped me for about 20 minutes after he finished a rant about what a "piece of shit" (repeated at least a dozen times) my board was and how the rental shops shouldn't even rent "a piece of shit" like that. He showed me the basics and told me all I needed was practise.

On Friday, we went to a different shop and rented a long board for $4. It was better but I still need more practise to get the hop up and the balance right for longer than a 5 second ride. It's strenuous but lots of fun. I could use the exercise anyway. Like many sports, it will be easier and more fun when I get better at it. That will be quite a few hours from now.
Other than that, we've been walking the beach, bobbing in the ocean and eating tons of ceviche cameron or ceviche mixto or aconcado (coconut sauce) cameron or aconcado mixto or ajillo (garlic sauce) cameron.....

Usually we either have no lunch or share a ceviche and a cerveza. Sometimes we have Los Croquellos frozen coconut ice cream on a stick for lunch. That's good too.

Every evening, people gather on the beach to watch the spectacular sunset. We can watch from our balcony or from a cevicheria on the beach. Either way is just about perfect.