Oct.23 to Oct.30- Final Week in Salinas- Maybe?

Our final week here turned out to be the least active as far as travels go and -woohoo- the sunniest. As well, much like Italy, we started getting into a routine- reading emails & news with coffee, doing our exercises and taking our Spanish lessons. Every 4 to 5 days we'd go to the Mercado to get our fruit & veggies for approximately $5 for enough strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas, peppers, carrots, onions, garlic etc to last till the next trip. And most days we'd walk to the local grocery store to get milk, yogurt, water, coffee, wine, beer and whatever meat/fish we'd decided to cook that evening for a fraction of what we paid in Canada. If we went out for lunch we'd cook for dinner and visa versa.

Sunday of course we went to the Sports Bar, but Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday were sunny so we finally hit the beach.
The first day we sat at the main beach with Edit and Gary. And of course beer gets delivered to your chair.

Plus there are always lots of activities to watch.

Barbara taking a seadoo ride.

                               The next day we went to Chipipe beach- our favourite.
                                      What! me with another beer.

And swimming in amazingly clear water

And we got to watch a bit of an air show with the navy practicing.

Now of course when the helicopters started approaching the beach, Uwe was waiting for the Apocalypse Now music before we would have made a run for it-LOL

This beach is so wide and clean with way less people

It's like having your own private paradise! We had several beer delivered cold for $1.25 each, some great vendor food- fish & plantains wrapped in banana leaf, and a pastry full of cheese and meat- $1 each- enough to do both of us for lunch.

And this is how they get their fishing boats in & out of the water.

And finally into the water

And some singers/guitarists entertaining the people next to us

One night during this week we went out to dinner with Edit & Gary to a barbecue place they had discovered. You had to pick your choice of meat- chicken/pork/beef/ shrimps. They came with beans and rice. You could also pick mashed potatoes done on the barbecue- amazing- and a corn paddy grilled much like a potatoe pancake and a grilled banana & cheese. We had a dish each plus the potatoe, banana and corn paddy plus 2 beer for a total cost for 4 of us of $18.

The griller

The happy customers

On Friday the four of us went for Happy Hour at one of the local bars- Cranberries- and had 2 margaritas each for Gary, Edit & I and Uwe had 2 gin & tonics- total cost for all $11. You gotta love the prices.

Edit and I with our margaritas- not bad once Gary helped the bartender with the ratio of ingredients.

 

Afterwards we went for yet another excellent meal at another restaurant.

 Pescado Apanado- breaded fish 

 

Carne Apanado- breaded beef- both $4 a plate- no wonder we eat out every day- cheaper than cooking.

Fishing is a big part of both the local economy plus tourist activity. This was a huge one freshly caught  that we saw walking while along the Malecon.

Next week off to Cuenca and the mountains of Ecuador.

 

Oct.16 to 22- Week 3 in Salinas, Ecuador

On Sunday we went again to the Score Sports Bar- Uwe needed his football fix of course.
This time we took our Canadian couple, Gary & Edit and their daughter Barbara with us. Since we didn't arrive as early this time, there were lots of other expats there already and of course, more new friends to meet and another delicious barbecued meal.

As you have already read, Tuesday was our trip to Guayaquil. After our 12IX Visa ordeal we went to the Malecon. The Malecon was very long and very beautiful, clean and scenic.

And more

And then some

We had lunch finally ( hadn't eaten since before 6AM that morning) at a very cute place on the Malecon. And of course a cerveza was required to celebrate our achievement.

Me and my new buddy, Eddy

Later that week Uwe & I took a cab to the Malecon in a nearby city called La Libertad.

Here is a street scene near the Malecon

You may have noticed that every city on the ocean or river has a Malecon.

We walked up and down this one. It was filled mainly with students on their lunch hour- very few gringos in La libertad

We watched a fishing boat bring in a load of freshly caught fish and then try to move them into a waiting truck. Though I tried, I didn't get any pictures of the frigate birds diving down and stealing the fish right out of the baskets! It was a pretty amusing scene. Here are the pictures that I did get.

Here is the boat coming in and the truck waiting to be loaded.

Lots of pelicans and frigate birds waiting to steal the catch

And one of the men running from boat to truck with a basket of fish

Loads of other fishing boats

On Friday we took a local bus to Ballenita with our new friends, two couples that we had met the previous weeks.

Here is the bus- 25cents per person except old farts like me who only cost 15cents.

After a 1/2 hour ride we arrived at a very scenic sea-side spot that had several restaurants and some great photo opportunities.

Some of the restaurants

We had lunch here. At the front of the table, Connie & Darvin, originally from New Mexico, recently from Houston ,Texas, have already decided to make Salinas their home, already have their retirement visa and are renovating their sea-side condo.

Our other friends, Edit & Gary who moved into the apartment unit beside us last week, are like us- still looking.

After lunch we went to a museum storing articles from a sunken ship discovered off the coast of Ecuador plus many other nautical artifacts.

We had a guide who took us through and explained the varied types on display.

These are the wooden beams from a ship that had sunk in the 1600's

And some of the articles from the same boat

Attached to the museum was a restaurant with many other antiques on display plus a hotel. The scenery from this location was awesome.

The negative edge hotel pool overlooking the ocean

And the incredible bar with our friends & the guide

After a much required cerveza, we headed back home.

Oct.18- Getting our 12IX Visa Registered

I decided that this experience deserved a post of its' own because no where are there any instructions/literature/warnings telling unsuspecting travellers how difficult this can be.
 We had decided to stay in Ecuador for 4 months because we didn't want to change countries around Christmas/New Years however had we known what we know now...
So on with our story.
Let me start at the beginning. In September we went to the Ecuadorean consulate in Toronto to get our 12IX visa. We had checked their web site
http://www.embassyecuador.ca/english/index.php?id=consular&nro=229
and gotten our required paperwork together. There we had no problem, everything was good and we were out equipped with visa and letters to use for registration  within an hour. Though warned that the visas must be registered within 30 days of arrival , otherwise a large fine would be incurred when we left Ecuador, at no time were we informed or advised in any way about what we had to bring with us for this registration. All we were told is to bring our passport and the letter given to us at Consulate. Piece of cake- we thought!
First of all, unless you speak Spanish fluently, take an interpreter with you. We found Eduardo Iglesias in Salinas, he drove us and helped with our Spanish.
eduardo.iglesias101@gmail.com

We left Salinas at 6AM and arrived at the Registry office in Guayaquil about 8:30AM. The woman at the front desk looked over our stuff neatly placed in a manila envelope along with an envelope this folder will fit into.
We had the following info:
Our passports
copy of picture page of passport
copy of entry stamp of passport
copy of 12IX visa page of passport
certificado de visacion & copy ( 2 pages given to you at consulate) & copies of same

We then got the following instructions from her of problems/omissions
-The entry stamp on our passport was not clear- low ink on stamp pad?- and must be rectified by going to immigration office near airport- a good half hour away
-We must include a letter in Spanish of why we were here- precise instructions given to us and signed along with passport number
-A deposit slip to pay $10 to the Ministry's bank account
-All the copies in the folder must be secured with a certain 2 pronged metal attachement to the manila folder.

First off to the Immigration office- a fun drive in rush hour traffic. Then of course there is no parking close to this location but luckily for us, Eddy convinced the local army personnel to allow us to park in an empty lot.
Once there we took a number, 22, waited our turn, paid $5 each for the paper work and were off. Next, an Internet cafe so Eddy could type the letter for each of us plus print it out. Next to a shop next door which sold the metal manila envelope attachments and then off to line up at the bank to deposit our $10 each. Luckily for us we were allowed to go in the seniors' line- slightly shorter- and after another half hour wait we had the list accomplished.

Once back at immigration we took yet another number to wait to be processed but found out that the letter Eddy had typed had one significant ? word missing! While we waited  for our number, Eddy ran back to the Internet Cafe to re-type the letters.

With new letters filed neatly in our folder, we finally had our turn. All papers seemed to be in order, the officer took all our stuff and we were told to wait again. The last person who needed to sign our passport stamp was still at lunch ( 2PM) and we had to wait for her final approval.

One hour later, she came back and several other people who had been waiting along with us finally were processed. We got our registry stamp in our passport, and had our name and signature entered into a huge book that is kept here for all immigrant/visitor visas. And we were really lucky to accomplish this task in only one day!

And a HUGE thanks to Eddy for all his translations- without him we would have not been successful!

Oct.9 to Oct.15- Week 2 in Salinas, Ecuador

Our Sunday, yet another cloudy day- haven't seen the sun yet- started with a walk down the Malecon to find an International Cabina to call home. Though we do have a cell phone, there does not seem to be any international calling cards for sale. So we do what the natives do, go to an Internet Cafe  and call in an International Call cabina- very cheap. I was having some problem getting through on a Sunday, maybe all the trunk lines tied up with other calls to North Amercica?, however I did get through and talked with my Mom for awhile. She is the only one of my family not on the internet so weekly phone calls are required. Total cost of call= $1.45.

Next we took a walk to spend time at Score Sports Bar- another weekly requirement on Sundays for my husband, the football fan. We were hoping to have lunch there but on Sundays, Will, the owner, only plans a late afternoon meal. In this case barbecued ribs were my choice so we spent the afternoon drinking beer, watching both our Winners' Pool bets lose, and chatting with other Expats gathered there.

                                             Front of Score Sports Bar

Will, the owner, cooking up the amazing ribs!

Deana, a university student, is the Sunday bartender

We also went to the Lavandaria ( laundry) to drop off our weeks' worth of dirty clothes. These are priced by weight and our 3 large bags came to $4.65 which included all our shirts/shorts/jeans/towels.

                                 Our local grocery store just a block from our apartment.

We met another expat couple during one of our many condo shopping trips and ran into them once again along the road ( because there are so few Expats here you will always run into someone you have met before it seems). We agreed to meet Connie and Darvin for lunch. This couple, we learned, had checked out several condos to purchase for their home entirely on their own- no real estate agents. They speak some Spanish and have mostly avoided the expat community choosing friends among the locals instead. We were quite envious. They also explained their experiences in registering their 12 IX visa, something we will have the pleasure ( NOT) of doing next week. I'll probably dedicate an entire post on that experience!

During this week we also took a taxi ( $2.50) to the only mall in Salinas- El Paseo. This was a large modern mall with various clothes, pharmacy, appliance, jewellery stores much like our malls back home. There was also a huge super market/ home depot combined store where along with a great variety of food you could also purchase discounted new appliances, floor tiles, any kind of building/renovation supply and department store stuff- clothes, towels etc.

                                    A small portion of the new El Paseo Mall

On Friday, the sun actually came out for the entire afternoon- the beach took on a wonderful new look! And my sun starved mood improved 100%.

 

And More

This is a very small world! On Saturday, new tenants moved into the apartment next to us, Gary, his wife Edit and 17 year old daughter, Barbara, from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada!!! The city right beside our original home town Toronto. These fellow gypsies, much like us, also own no stuff- other than what is packed into their suitcases- and are travelling around the world looking to maybe settle down.

And yet another observation. In the two weeks we have been here we have met more potential good friends and have had a more active social life- lunch with Connie & Darvin, dinner with Kim & Hector, visits with Gary & Edit- then we ever had that early on in our adopted city of Phoenix, AZ.