Sunday Muddy Sunday

Sunday, February 28th 2016 Canoa
Life in Canoa is about the same. I've decided to give up surfing. I was getting a little better each time out but my back was getting a little worse. It's not the riding in, it's the paddling out. You have to lay on your front with your back and neck arched. Not a great position if you've got a bit of mileage on your back like me. Oh well.
Last night we had dinner at the Surf Shak, an expat bar on the malecon that sells burgers and pizzas. We sat with a young Scandinavian couple. The woman had stepped on a stingray in the ocean that afternoon. It stung her ankle and she said it felt 100x worse than the worst wasp sting you've ever had. She went to a little clinic here, had the wound treated and got a cortisone shot. After an hour the pain subsided. It took the doctor 3 tries to hit a vein with the needle so she was bruised from that too. Not sure how dull the needle was but hopefully it was new at least. The key to co-existing with stingrays is to glide your feet when you walk in the ocean, not to lift high and step down. That gives the stingrays time to know you're there and get out of the way.

 About every 3rd night, we eat at Cevicheria Saboreame #2 on the beach. It's not fancy but the food is great and cheap. Occasionally, you have to kick a dog off a chair but they always go quietly.

 It seems that every building in Canoa has an in-ground cistern for household water. There are a number of trucks that deliver water. This one, made from an old bus, is delivering to our house. All drinking water is delivered by pickup trucks which drive up and down the roads beeping the horn. When you hear the horn, you run out with an empty 20 litre jug and, for one dollar, trade it for a full jug. It's sort of like the way we trade in empty propane tanks for our barbecues, except it's delivered. We bought a full jug at first for $7, when I think I should have paid $6 but at least then we had a jug to trade.

 It rained fairly hard last night so our road was muddy again this morning.

You never know who you'll meet on the way to town.

Even the malecon was muddy this morning. It looks a lot better when it's sunny and dry, which is most of the time.

Surf Shak - Great D_inks and Amazing Hangovers (somebody scratched out the "r") - what a slogan, but not a bad place for a burger.

Waiting for the plumber

Tuesday, February 23rd 2016 Canoa
While we're waiting for the plumber to return with a toilet bolt, it seemed like a good time to write a new post. The bolt that holds the tank on the toilet base was apparently just caulked in place. The nut doesn't fit and never did. With slight rocking of the toilet, it all came apart. The desk clerk at La Vista called a plumber and he arrived within an hour. He's back now with new bolts so we should be all set soon. I've built, renovated and inspected a lot of houses but I've never seen a mismatched toilet tank bolt and nut before. Even the plumber who's fixing it is rolling his eyes.
The last few days, we've gotten into a routine of Pilates when we get up and then breakfast of eggs and toast or oatmeal and yogurt, always with fresh fruit. Then, it's a 1 1/2 to 2 hour walk down the beach and swimming in the surf whenever. We come home for a salad lunch and then go back to the beach to swim and lounge for the afternoon. After a shower and happy hour, we go down to the beach to watch the sun set and then pick one of the little restaurants for dinner. After dinner, we watch an hour of Netflix and usually pass out before 10 pm. It sounds boring as I write it but we love the life here.
Calling this the rainy season on the coast of Ecuador is like calling winter in Combermere the snowy season. Every morning we check the Weather Network and every morning it's supposed to be cloudy with showers or about 90% chance of rain. It has rained a bit at night but so far it's never rained during the day. It can be cloudy, hazy or sunny. Any of that is fine because it's always about 30C. The last 2 days have been particularly sunny so we have to be very careful not to get burned. Equator and all that.
Yesterday morning I set out to buy a surfboard. The young couple who live upstairs gave me some good advice about long boards, fun boards, short boards and fish boards. I went to 5 surf shops, which is pretty well all of them, but I couldn't find a board in my price range. So in the end, last night I rented a fun board from Joon, a Japanese Ecuadorian, for $42 a week. A fun board is shorter than a long board but longer than a short board or fish, so it's better for a beginner like me.
I surfed, if you can call it that, for about an hour this morning. Like any new sport, it's very awkward at first but I can only get better.
The pictures below show Anita walking down our road toward the highway and the village. We don't mind the 5 minute walk to the beach at all. Then there are a couple of pictures of life on the beach at sunset. The 4th picture is the new footbridge over the creek to the north side of town where big developments are planned. We were surprised to see such a fancy bridge in this little village.
Finally there's a picture of most of the eggs, fruits and vegetables (we ate some) that we bought at the little market this morning for $5.50 US or about $7.70 CDN. Everything is probably organically grown on little farms and tastes great. We have a much healthier diet now that we have our own kitchen and don't eat all meals in restaurants.
Tomorrow, it's surfing at dawn, enjoying the beach and dinner out after sunset. Somebody's gotta do it.

At Home in Canoa

Wednesday February 17th, 2016 Canoa
Although we really like our apartment, yesterday morning we had to prove to ourselves that it was the best deal. We walked around Canoa looking for other apartments to rent. There are lots of little hotels but few apartments available in town. It didn't take us long to decide ours is just fine. As soon as we got back, we emailed the owner and offered to commit to a long stay until April 1st. This week, through Airbnb, we're paying $258 CDN for one week. Since the apartment has only rented once before since renovation and we were willing to commit for a long period, the owner gave us a special offer of $625 US or $873 CDN for about 6 more weeks until April 1st. We were lucky to get in at the right time because we're sure the price will be higher later, especially for short stays.
It's a bright, spacious, 2nd floor 2 bedroom apartment with fridge and gas stove in the combined kitchen/dining/living area. The bathroom has a good shower, toilet & sink, but oddly, no mirror. However, we do have huge mirrored doors in our bedroom which has a 4 post queen bed. The other bedroom has double bunk beds but we use that room for storage and drying laundry. There's no air conditioning but we have a fan which keeps us cool enough to sleep. It's about 25C every night so there are no blankets here, just sheets.
We don't have a balcony but there are big screened windows so it's almost like being outside anyway. The building is 3 storeys with an apartment on each floor. We're on the edge of town with a dirt road about 150 metres to the paved highway. It's a little over 5 minute slow walk to the beach and about the same to the centre of the village. A local man cut all the weeds in the little yard yesterday. He had to bend right down and cut with a machete. What he worked at all day could have been done in an hour with a string trimmer but hard physical labour is how things get done here.
There are only a couple of paved roads, including the 2 lane coastal highway, in Canoa. Everywhere else is dirt, not gravel. It rained really hard all night and this morning, on our way to catch a bus to San Vicente, about 20 km south of here, Anita got stuck up to her ankles in the mud. She had to slip out of her flip flops and reach down to find them, then walk the rest of the way to the highway barefoot. Traveler that she is, she washed her feet and flip flops in a puddle and got on the bus.
San Vicente is the closest place with an ATM and a larger grocery store although there are a number of little mom and pop shops in Canoa. For 50 cents each, we bussed to San Vicente and grocery shopped. Prices aren't that much different from Canada. Shopping for groceries where there is zero English on the products makes for hard label reading but we did okay. The ear-splitting radio noise in the store didn't help either. There is far less selection here than at either of the grocery stores at home in Barry's Bay. For example, we asked for butter, in Spanish, and were directed to the margarine, not refrigerated but on a regular shelf. No butter. I think there is only one ATM in San Vicente outside the bank and there isn't one at all in Canoa. The next closest would be another few kilometres across the big bridge into Bahia de Caracquez. Ecuador is still primarily a cash economy. In Canada, we often don't realize that we have everything we want almost at our fingertips.
Since we were loaded with groceries, including 36 rolls of toilet paper (on sale), we caught a cab back for $6 plus 50 cent tip. It's mostly overcast today, although 30C as it is every day, so I napped while Anita settled in. Later, we went down the street to buy a bag of garden fresh tomatoes and green peppers off the back of a truck for $1, some breakfast and lunch buns at a little bakery and beer at a little market. Our road has dried up now so walking is easy. Tonight, we'll go down to the malecon for dinner.

 

Montanita to Canoa

Tuesday morning February 16th, 2016 Canoa
On Sunday, our last day in Montanita, we did the usual breakfast from the bakery. When we walked there at 8:30 am we met people walking along the street drinking beer. Not sure if they were still up from Saturday night or getting a head start on Sunday. Later we wandered the beach. For lunch we went back to a little shop for empanadas (deep fried Ecuadorian pierogis) stuffed with spinach and cheese, meat or chicken. Four empanadas and a large beer cost $6.
Before dinner, we checked out 4 different hotels right on the malecon in town. A lot of little hotels cater to Ecuadorian weekenders and have no international online presence. We found a great one for only $60 now in high season for the matrimonial suite including breakfast and overlooking the ocean. In April low season, on our way back through here, it will be only $50 which is $5 more than we're paying now. Looks good. After our search, it was back to El Valero for calamari, rice, patacones, salad and a drink for $3.50 each.
Sunday night is actually comparatively quiet in Montanita. We were in bed early and up at 5:30 to get ready to leave. The bakery opened at 6:30. For her morning coffee, Anita was given a styrofoam cup of yesterday's coffee heated in a microwave. Like a true addict, she didn't mind. I arranged for a taxi to pick us up at our hotel and he arrived at 7:05. For $25 plus a $2 tip, he drove like a maniac for 45 minutes to the Puerto Lopez bus terminal. A good bus was leaving at 8 am so, as planned, we had just enough time to buy tickets to Portoviejo ($3.50 each) and use the washroom (25 cents each) before we left. Next time we won't cut it quite so close.
We arrived in Portoviejo at 10:30 am. It's a fairly big terminal but all the security guards and touts were very helpful in getting us to the Coactur company ticket office where we got tickets to Canoa ($2 each). After waiting for 1/2 hour in the Coactur air-conditioned VIP lounge, we left at 11:30. The bus had AC and was reasonably comfortable but we were glad to finally get off in Canoa at 2:30 pm. We walked down to La Vista Hotel on the malecon, where we've stayed before, and the desk clerk escorted us back up through town to our apartment, which is owned by the same European (I think) expat. Although we're a 6 minute walk from the beach or downtown, we like our apartment. We'll describe it tomorrow.
Naturally, we had to have ceviche camarones (shrimp ceviche) and camarones enconcado (shrimp in coconut sauce) plus a large beer (total cost $13 + $1 tip) at our favourite beach hut diner, the Cevicheria Saboreame #2. Only on the beach in Canoa will you see a man leading a donkey past your table while the sun sets over the ocean.  

Montanita Again

February 14th, 2016 Montanita Ecuador

To start our latest travel adventure, last Tuesday, February 9th, brother-in-law Steve picked us up at 6:30 am at home and drove us to Kanata on his way to work. After a couple of hours sipping coffee in Starbucks, we walked over to the Oxhead Restaurant for our favourite V13 on the menu. Then it was a short walk to the little bus station. It felt strange to have our packs on again.
It took about 1 1/4 hours and 2 buses to get to the airport. From there we got the free shuttle to the Airport Days Inn where we settled in for the evening.
We got a good sleep and the hotel breakfast before climbing back on the shuttle at 7 am. It was smooth sailing through US customs and airport security and a short wait for our United Airlines flight to Washington Dulles which left at 9:45 am or a little later due to de-icing. From 11:30 to 3:15 we waited at Dulles in the better terminal for our flight to San Salvador and ate the bagels we had brought from our hotel. The Avianca flight to San Salvador was packed, mostly with Spanish speaking people. We wouldn't be hearing much English from now on.
The San Salvador airport is small and a little worn but after an hour or so, our Avianca flight left for Guayaquil, Ecuador. Again, everything went smoothly and we arrived in Guayaquil about 12:15 am. Customs was easy although we had to dodge the full luggage carts of expat Ecuadorians arriving home for a visit from the US with lots of stuff that is probably expensive in Ecuador due to import duties.
For $5 US (the currency we'll be using for the next 2 months in Ecuador), we got a cab to the Hotel Jeshua, where we quickly showered and fell into bed.
We were up by 8:30 am and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast before getting another $5 cab back past the airport to the big bus terminal. We were here last year but it still took us a while to find the right ticket office for a bus to Montanita. Unfortunately, 10 am was too late to book seats on the 11 am bus so we waited until the next bus which left at 1 pm ($6 each). While we were there we ate our crackers and peanut butter and chatted with 2 fellow gringo travelers, a farmer from Ohio about our age and a younger guy, Taylor from Vancouver. Taylor had gone to a wedding in Miami, saw a cheap flight to Bogota and just kept going.
Our bus left on time. As we passed through the outskirts of Guayaquil, some of what we saw was very poor housing and some was gated communities. As we've noted before, not everybody in poor countries is poor.
About halfway to Montanita, the bus stopped at a little police station. A male cop and a female cop came out and told everyone to get off the bus. The women formed one line and the men formed another. In turn, all the men had to stand spread-eagled against the bus to be frisked and have their day packs searched. All the women had their day packs searched and some were frisked, although Anita wasn't chosen for that part. She did think our sons would be amused to see me spread-eagled against a bus though. Apparently the police were looking for handguns. It wasn't a big deal but it was an indication that there is more crime here than we're used to. As always, it pays to be a wary traveler.
A little after 4 pm, we arrived in Montanita, collected our packs and walked to the Swisspoint Hotel where we have stayed before. Taylor walked with us for a ways and we showed him where some of the quieter hostels could be found.
After checking in, we walked back into the village where we dined on big burgers and fries (2 for $10), since we were hungry from our trip. It wasn't long before we were in bed. The older we get, the more we find the travel days tiring.
Friday morning we got our usual pastry and coffee for breakfast from a little shop that's just a few minutes walk from our hotel. That and 2 bananas (10 cents each) makes a good breakfast for 2 for only $2. Then it was time for a walk on the beach after greasing up. We have over 5 pounds of sunscreen with us since it's quite expensive in Ecuador. Even after a liberal dose of screen, I still got a bit burnt. However, it was great to enjoy sunny, 30C weather on the beach. We enjoyed the almuerzo or set lunch at El Valero, a little restaurant in the heart of the action. For $4 each, we had delicious fish soup and a plate of rice, patacones (fried mushed slices of plantain), calamari for Anita and fish for me, salad and juice (apricot, I think).
On Friday evening, on our way to find dinner we ran into Taylor, who had partied until 6:30 am, which is not unusual any night of the week in Montanita. He introduced us to Joel, a young guy from Winnipeg, who came here for a few days and is still here 3 weeks later. We joke that after 4 weeks you qualify for rehab. Eventually, we dined on tacos at Poco Loco for $6 and a big beer for $3, with a free shot of some kind of firewater mixed with watermelon juice for each of us.
Yesterday, we did the same sort of thing - walk the beach, play in the surf and enjoy the action. Last night we went back to El Valero for a similar dinner for $4 each. We sat up on the 2nd floor balcony above the street. Afterward, we walked along the breakwater that stretches in front of the main part of town and through the streets for awhile to watch the action. Once again, we were in bed early but we heard parties in the distance until dawn.