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.
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