Settling In

El Malecon

Note the low hanging cables. Typical here.

Pleasant routines seem to be developing of their own accord - a local gym 3 days a week ($1.50 each per day we go), Spanish lessons 2 days a week (an American ex-pat with Spanish teaching degree, who seems to have a technique that works well for us so far). In between all that, walks on the beach, or around the neighborhoods, bus rides to the supermarkets that take us through the barrios, away from the gringo waterfront towers. Maybe late afternoon a stroll along the beachfront to pick up our laundry (folded, clean and fresh-smelling for about $.40 a pound), and a stop off for tasty cerviche and a cerveza or two.

Small supermarket we use frequently

Alumuerzo spot. Full of diners, lots of music and good food

Our laundry. Excellent 6 hr service

So close to the equator, there are no long evenings.  Sun is up around 6 am every day, and goes down almost 12 hours later year round, with a variation of only 10 or 15 minutes.  I thought I would miss the longer days, but somehow I don't.  Maybe because the air is just a perfect temperature, soft and gentle when the sun goes down.  Although we're told it's relatively safe to walk outside after dark, we tend to stay on the malecon (waterfront) and busy streets in that area.  And even then, one is wise to use good sense and not carelessly display expensive devices, jewellery or wallets -  an i-pad would feed a family for a month down here.

Will's Place

We've found our local 'watering hole' (Will's Place aka Hostel Aqui aka Score Bar) and a couple of spares very close by.  'Sin' (link) is a disco/bar about a block behind us, owned by an American couple, and frequented by ex-pats and Ecuadorians.  Great place to listen to all kinds of rhythms, but primarily Latin and lots of salsa dance!  Trying to get some lessons set up for all the gringo's that stand at the bar and watch the locals show how it's done...man, they are GOOD!

It is said - and we would concur - food is very good in the coastal regions of Ecuador.  Can't speak to the mountain and interior regions yet, where I believe there are many distinct regional dishes to be tried - we'll get there in the next couple of months.  But here by the ocean, there aren't enough words in my vocabulary to adequately describe the richness of food to be had.  And I don't necessarily mean prepared food, although that is excellent too, and comes in almost any variety you could wish for.  But the availability of good fresh meat, incredible fish and shellfish, top grade produce and rich dairy leaves nothing to be desired that we have found.

On Friday, we took our friend Carlota for lunch at a local area down by the beach, specializing in ceviche and everything mariscos.  It's a chance for us to practice our Spanish. A whole lobster was $12, or a 'seafood fiesta' that would feed at least 3, was also $12, and was a mountain of seasoned rice rich with oysters, squid and shrimp,  surrounded by mussels, fish, more shrimp, several other varieties of shellfish, topped with crab legs...oh, and a dish of mixed ceviche on the side.  Honestly...for $12.

At the fishmarkets, we have found shrimp of every size ('camaron' are the smaller count, 'gamba' the large prawns), sea bass, red snapper, dorado, mahi mahi, corvina and tuna.  And many more varieties we aren't familiar with...yet.  In fact, local fishermen go by our door all day, selling fresh dorado, lobster and crab off their carts.. 

One of our best adventures to date was a morning at the Anconcito fishing village, about 20 minutes down the coast by cab ($8 ride..very expensive!).  It's an old village not yet moved-in-on by gringo influence, and the stretch of beach between there and Salinas is stunning, stretching for a couple of miles or more - and only an odd pelican or two to be seen.  We marked that playa for a day of walking..more on that another time.

As always, not having good language or negotiating skills, we were at a bit of a disadvantage in our purchasing,  but we came away with two fileted corvina (enough for 3-4 meals each) and 3 pounds of gamba (prawn), enough for 3-4 meals each , 3 mango, 2 lbs of strawberries (tasting like Nature intends, sweet, firm, juicy), 3 pounds of mandarins...6-8 meals for about $23.  So we think we did not too badly.  Given that we paid asking price....those skills have to improve!  But it was fun - we were the only two gringos to be seen, and for some reason drew a crowd as we bought the corvinas and we all watched the guy skillfully filet and skin them for us.

 All the fishing boats are in, bringing their catches up to sell.  Most of it goes to small trucks waiting to take it to the local markets.

 We think this is red snapper, or pargo rojo as it's called here.  We couldn't buy this here, unless we wanted a whole crate.  So we'll have to find the markets they are going to.  You would think the supermarkets would have good fish counters, but not so much, we've found.  And so far, we haven't found the little local markets places.  We've learned of two though, and will seek those out for sure.

 Skate?

Boat building. They take apart old ones, and remake into new vessels.  This will likely be a shrimper.

 Tuna perhaps.  I was too busy taking the picture to notice tail etc.  And the head was already removed.  Either way, big fish!
The world's largest marlin was caught off this coast, by the way.  1,000 lbs +  !!

 Friendly guys, watching us wander round.

 Long shot of the boats.

 Our purchase being fileted and skinned for us.  For some reason, we drew a crowd for this little transaction...

These are dorado at the top, and the corvina in the red bin.  We bought a couple of corvina.

This was what we came home with.

Next week we'll be taking the bus into Guayaquil for an overnight trip and a visit to the Ecuadorian Visa offices.  As Canadians, we can stay here for 90 days without a visa, but will require another 90 day extension to stay through till April as planned.  So we'll take a look at the country's largest city and see what experiences await us there.  In the meantime, tomorrow we are headed up the coast with some friends who moved here 15 months ago from Ohio (just met them last night!), for lunch in Mantanita, which we're told is a surfer town a couple of hours up the coast, with a cool vibe and lots of great food.

Our plan was to use the first month here to settle in, and get a sense of what we wanted to do whilst we're here.  So, now we're looking further afield for our adventures..volcanoes, mountain villages, rain forests, hopefully some good trekking, photo ops..and more good flavours!