Beach Life

Monday, January 15th, 2018 Canoa
We walk along the beach for at least an hour every day, usually longer. Sometimes there are thousands of small red crabs that scurry away as we approach.
Fishing in Canoa doesn’t seem to have changed much over the years. The only technology is an outboard motor, usually 40 horsepower which seems a little underpowered for the seas and the weight of the boats. Two fishermen will carry the nets wrapped in a tarp and suspended from a long pole with each man holding one end, to get them down to the beach. The nets seem to be about 100 m long and less than 2 m wide. With floats at the top side and small weights at the bottom, the nets are stretched out in the water and then the boat loops around and the 2 or 3 fishermen in the boat pull in both ends of the net. It seems there are different sizes of mesh used to catch different sizes of fish found within 2 m of the surface of the ocean.
One fisherman will carry the outboard motor from home on his shoulder. Two others will carry gas cans strung on a pole. Older children often help. Most of the boats are rolled up or down the beach on logs.  The more fortunate of the fishermen might own an old set of wheels to make rolling the boat into the water easier. Then they push out through the surf, start the motor quickly and bounce over the waves to deeper water. Mostly they seem to stay within a few km of shore.
We’ve never seen any fish finders or other technology. The outboard motor is as high tech as it gets. The fishermen seem to know where they want to fish. Experience.
Some days, a group of a dozen or so fishermen will stretch the nets out in a loop from the beach. Three or four men will pull the net out into chest deep water and loop it around. Then everyone pulls both ends back up onto the beach. We’ve seen them catch dozens or hundreds of small fish at a time, including a few spotted rays, which are also harvested and eaten. Small children, not yet in school, will often be with their mothers and help with gathering the fish.
It’s hard to understand the economics of so much labour for what looks like a modest return. However, the fishermen seem to get by. Homes are often modest by our standards but people have motorcycles or old trucks, TVs, satellite dishes and cellphones. Electricity, food and taxes are cheap and there’s no need for home heating. Yesterday we bought the biggest head of broccoli we’ve ever seen for $1. The taxes for our condo, worth at least $100,000 US, are about $40 per year. Electricity was about $5 or $6 a month for the house we rented 2 years ago. We don’t know if that’s typical. We heard that people had to pay $3,500 for a unit in the new government housing that replaced the tent city where many lived after the earthquake. The children all look healthy and happy as they go to school every morning in their school uniforms. Like children everywhere, many of them often stop for a treat at the little convenience stores after school.
In the cities of Ecuador, the standard of living seems higher, but it still seems that a minority would have as many luxuries as we have in Canada. However, as in everywhere else that we’ve been, there may be a very wide range of incomes. It’s hard for a visitor to get an accurate picture of what life is really like for the local people. We don’t pretend to understand much of what we see but we love seeing it.

Canoa - Same Same but Different

Saturday, January 13th, 2018 Canoa
Yesterday was a sunny, beautiful day again so we walked 50 minutes along the beach into Canoa. When we got there, we walked up to our old house where we had the 2nd floor apartment for 2 months in 2016, just before the earthquake. The first picture is how it looked then. The 2nd picture is how it looks now. The couple living on the 3rd floor were injured but survived. It looks like we would probably have survived had we been there but we’re very happy to have left 2 weeks previously. There was no water or electricity for a long time and we would have had nowhere to stay.
The little bamboo house just down the road from us where the lady used to work on a sewing machine all day is still there but is abandoned. A bigger building that was across the street from the bamboo house is now a vacant lot. Nearby there is new government built housing for people who lost their homes.
On the malecon (beachfront street), the Surf Shack, where we used to go when we felt like a good burger or to enjoy the trivia challenge night, is still there but is missing a part to the right side. The buildings that were on either side of it are gone.
The fancy painted hotel on the Main Street up from the beach is pictured as it was in 2016. It’s now a vacant lot.
The clunky old water truck that used to deliver water to our cistern is still working (sometimes) but there are vacant lots scattered all over town that used to be houses or small hotels.
The beachfront is much the same, except that the big washroom/changeroom building is gone. The footbridge has been repaired. Most of the ceviche huts are still there including one of our favourites, Cevicheria Saboreame #2. We stopped in for a lunch of  ceviche de cameron and pescado encocado and a large beer (total $12.75). I managed to use a full sentence in Español to order and the waitress understood every word and didn’t even roll her eyes at my pronunciation. I must be getting better.
And finally, the beach is still there. A few Ecuadorian families and foreign backpackers were enjoying it on a Friday, but not many.
By the time we walked all the way back to our condo, we were ready for happy hour and a dip in the pool. We’re glad to see that the village is gradually coming back together.

Lost Bag Recovered - a Copa Airlines Miracle

Friday January 12th 2018 Canoa
I skyped Copa again early Tuesday morning at the number on the back of my Property Irregularity Report. This time I was basically told they couldn’t do anything from that office, wherever it is, other than tell me that my bag had been found and was in Guayaquil airport. I was given a phone number for Copa in Guayaquil and extension for the baggage department that I should call after 9 am. At 9 am I called on Skype and punched in the extension. It rang 3x and then disconnected. I tried several times and the same thing happened.
So, feeling more than a little frustrated, I called the original number again. Once again, after arguing for 20 minutes, I was told my case would be “elevated” to a “priority”. All of these calls are accomplished with a poor connection and talking to someone with a heavy Spanish accent. That afternoon, someone called Samia, one of the property managers for our condo, whose phone number I had left with Copa. I got an email from Diane, the owner of the property management company, saying my bag would be delivered by a delivery company named Servientrega the next day, Wednesday, at around noon. It seemed like there was some progress at last.
On Wednesday, I sat out on our back step from 11 am to 1:30 pm to be sure that I wouldn’t miss the delivery. That was a waste of time. By late afternoon I emailed Diane again and asked how to contact Servientrega. She suggested waiting until the next morning, since noon in Ecuador can mean 5 pm, and it might still get there. She offered to have Samia call them Thursday morning if nothing happened, which it didn’t.
I emailed Diane with all the details on Thursday morning and asked for Samia’s help. Then we went shopping in Bahia. It’s easy to get there from here although it’s about 20 km. The main (only) coast highway is right behind our condo, between the beach and the cliff. Buses go by about every 20 minutes. We can walk out our gate, watch for any bus and just wave at it to stop. We hop on, find a
seat and eventually the bus attendant will find us. We say “San Vicente” and hand him 50 cents each. Then, in San Vicente, we walk to the little taxi stand just before the big bridge across the inlet to Bahia and get a taxi to El Paseo Shopping Centre for $2.
We spent a couple of hours in the shopping centre. There’s a big grocery store that sells everything from oatmeal and roast chicken to toilets and sinks. There’s also about 10 other smaller stores, a food court where you can get KFC, Carl’s Junior Burgers, Chinese food and a couple of others, plus 2 banks with 3 ATMs each. We got cash using my VISA card and my Credit Union debit card but, for some reason, the ATMs don’t like my CIBC debit card. Not a problem.
We loaded up with groceries, 2 more bottles of rum and a case of wine since we didn’t want to bother coming back for a few weeks. We can buy veggies, fruit, cheese, eggs and roast chicken in Canoa. Plus, we’ll probably walk to Canoa more often now to eat in the ceviche huts on the beach or at the Bambu or the Surf Shack restaurants. For $8 a taxi took us back to our condo.
As soon as we arrived, there was an email from Diane saying that my bag had just arrived at the Servientrega office in Bahia. Unfortunately, they had no intention of delivering it until Monday. I got the address from Diane and printed it on a card to show a cab driver. After lunch, I went back out, caught a bus to San Vicente and a cab to the office. There was a small foyer. Beyond that was a big metal cage like a prison where the 2 employees and all the boxes and bags stayed safe. Petty theft and even armed robbery happens here more frequently than in Canada. After I showed my Property Irregularity Report and my passport for ID, they opened the cage and I finally had my backpack, 9 hours short of a full week since it disappeared. My cab had waited for me so for a total of $10, he drove me back to our condo. The picture shows me arriving in the same clothes I’ve been wearing for a week. No longer. When we checked, nothing had been stolen from my bag. It’s a Copa Airlines miracle!
We’ve also included a picture of the most action we’ll likely see on the beach this morning.

Our Home for the Next Few Months

Monday, January 8th, 2018 Canoa
Yesterday we walked along the beach into the village of Canoa. It took us 50 minutes. We wandered around town for awhile trying to remember how it used to be. Much of it is still the same along the malecon but some buildings are missing, destroyed during the earthquake that occurred 2 weeks after we left in April 2016.
Our favourite ceviche shack on the beach, Cevicheria Saboreama #2 was still there so we had a lunch of ceviche camerone (shrimp ceviche), camerone enconcado (shrimp in coconut sauce) and a big beer, all for $13.50. After lunch we bought some vegetables from a guy with a bike cart and then some more veggies in a new mini market around the corner from the market where we used to shop frequently but was destroyed in the earthquake.
On the main road out of town, the rotisserie chicken restaurant was still there. We bought a whole charcoal roasted chicken with rice, beans and cole slaw for $14. It seems a little expensive but we get 3 delicious meals from it. Across the road from there, we bought 8 eggs for $1 from a really friendly old couple. In all of these transactions, no-one spoke any English. We used our rudimentary Spanish to express what we wanted. It’s not that hard to get along. Only the people who deal with gringos every day speak any English. And there aren’t that many gringos around, compared to the Ecuadorians. Although there is a large enough expat community here, most tourists to Canoa are other Ecuadorians who come to the beach on weekends.
It was pretty hot and we had a few bags of food, so we walked to where the few taxis wait at the main corner. For $3 we got a ride back down the highway to our condo. As we drove out of town, we saw the house we rented in February and March of 2016. Part of it is still standing but most of the roof collapsed during the earthquake. The timing of our departure before the earthquake was extremely lucky.
The rest of the day we hung out around the pool and eventually had dinner on our balcony, watching the sunset.
Today, we re-started our Pilates routine and, after breakfast on the balcony, went for a long walk on the beach. After lunch we took another leisurely beach walk and then cooled off in the pool for a few hours. There are never many people around our condo area but the few we have met are friendly and seem to travel a lot. We’re always glad to learn about travel to places we have yet to visit.
We were expecting my backpack to be delivered today but it never came. I’ll have to Skype Copa Airlines again tomorrow morning to get this sorted out. It’s now been a full four days since it disappeared.
We have enclosed some pictures of our condo, which is the one that’s in the left building, third floor on the left. There are a total of 15 units in the 3 buildings, some occupied by owners, some by renters like us and some owned but currently unoccupied. Our condo has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living/dining/kitchen area and a balcony with doors from the living room and our bedroom. It’s very private and right on the beach. The cost is $800 US per month including all utilities. There’s a maintenance man/gardener who keeps everything looking great. We’re really glad we decided to stay here.

Canoa Ecuador Again

Sunday, January 7th, 2018 Canoa Ecuador

After lunch on Wednesday, we left home and drove to Gatineau where we stayed overnight with our son Zack, his wife Annie and our grandchildren Maia and Noah. At 3:15 am on Thursday, we got up, got ready and drove to our son Dylan’s apartment in Ottawa to pick him up so he could take our car back to his place after we got out at the airport.

Check-in and security clearance went easily and our first flight with Air Canada left on time. Luckily we had 2 hours in Toronto to get through immigration and security before we flew on United Airlines to Chicago. Our next flight was with Copa Airlines to Panama City. Our final flight was again with Copa to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we arrived at midnight, very tired but glad that all of the flights had gone smoothly. We even got moved to the emergency exit seats with more legroom on both Copa flights. We had flown on Aeroplan points so Aeroplan decided our route and which Star Alliance partners would take us.

Immigration was quick and uneventful. In Ecuador, there is no visa requirement for Canadian visitors. They just stamp and date your passport.

Unfortunately, although Anita’s backpack arrived in Guayaquil, mine did not. After filling out a “property report”, we went to the taxi booth inside the building and got a cab for $6 US to our little hotel, the DC Suites, which is near the airport on a little side street that the driver had trouble finding. He kept asking in Spanglish, “How much did you pay for this place?” It made us wonder a bit.

However, when we got there and woke up the night guy, he led us in another door and upstairs to a perfectly clean and adequate room. We paid $40 US for the night and $4 US each for breakfast the next morning. We slept from about 2 am until about 5:30 am.

The next morning I called Copa on Skype to inquire about my backpack. I was told that they did not know where it was and it would take 48 hours to locate it but when it appeared they would deliver it to my address in Canoa. 

After breakfast, our host at the hotel provided a shuttle to the bus station. We shared the car with 2 young Korean women who were going on to Peru after visiting the Galápagos Islands. We had been to the busy Guayaquil bus station before so it wasn’t as overwhelming this time. It didn’t take long to buy tickets to Bahia de Caraquez for $8 each plus 50 cents to exit the door to the bus platform on the upper floor.

Before anyone can get on the bus, a young woman frisks them and searches any bags they want to carry on. Apparently bus hijackings are still a problem here so they have to check everyone for handguns. However, we’ve never seen a problem or had anything stolen in Ecuador. 

As we got on the bus, the only other gringo couple, who were sitting right in front of us, asked, “Are you the Boles?” It turned out that they were the property managers for the condo we rented in Canoa. They were just back from visiting family in England. They had arranged to be picked up by their assistant in San Vicente, the next little town north of Bahia. We paid an extra 50 cents to stay on the bus to San Vicente so we could travel with them. Six hours later, we were in San Vicente.

Their assistant, Samia, dropped them off at their condo and then took us to ours and showed us everything. Then, since she lives in San Vicente, she drove us back south through there to the Bahia shopping centre and dropped us off. 

Somehow, on very little sleep, we managed to buy some groceries, rum and wine. We had already arranged to buy beer from the maintenance man at our condo ($15 US for 12 600 ml bottles - a good deal, especially since we didn’t have to haul it from a store). In the big grocery store, we also managed to buy a T-shirt, ball cap and cheesy flip-flops ($2.54) for me. I had board shorts in my carry-on daypack so now I was set for the next 3 months, even without my big pack. Stepping outside, we got a taxi to drive us back to our condo for $8 US.

After a couple of drinks on the balcony while watching the beautiful sunset, we fell into bed. We were too tired to sleep in and were up at 4:30 am. Old people’s insomnia.

Yesterday, we walked the beach, lounged by the pool and just enjoyed being here. Last night I slept for 10 hours and Anita slept for 8. Today, after Skyping with our 3 grandchildren, I called Copa again. This time, they said my pack was in Guayaquil where I could pick it up. Not happening. I protested and they agreed to deliver it to us within 24 hours. We’ll see.

The picture is the sunset from our balcony. More pictures later.