January 1 to 31- Summer in Salinas

January in Salinas is the start of summer and the start of the rainy season. Luckily for us beach lovers the rain usually comes during the night and early morning- perfect. To be exact during the entire month of January we only had 3 days of rain during the day and the sun shone most of every day- Yea!!! Of course the rain came right after we had gotten Tito to wash all our windows- and we have a lot! It took him from 9AM until 4PM to complete everyone of them- a great job followed by 2 days of rain.
                                  This is the beach during the rain- Sunday is busy rain or no rain.

 

We spent a lot of beach time with our friends Connie & Murray as well as lunches and dinners out. As well, our neighbors who bought a condo in our building a few floors up, Lars & Laurie, arrived from the US mid month so now we had a group back in our complimentary condo cabanas on the beach. On weekends the beach is 'people soup' so many people coming from everywhere to Salinas.

 

 

                                                                     But by Monday, it's all ours!

                                                                    Our friends Lars & Laurie

                           The other day we had some great surf- wonderful playing in the waves.

 

 

                                                    Here is our view from our cabana.

Did I ever mention that the beach is actually great for shopping! Many vendors, none aggressive, walk from one end to the other selling jewelry, beach clothes, food, ice cream, and of course beer- you name it, you can buy it.

 

I finally tried coconut juice still in the coconut from one of the vendors. Yummy!

 

 

And my favorite- have it every time we are on the beach. No not beer, though I need it to wash down- but Mani (peanuts with hot sauce & lime in a small cup). Absolutely delicious.

                                                            There are also ice cream vendors

                                                  And others selling shaved ice with sweet syrup

Lots & lots of food such as empanadas ( pastry with fish, chicken or cheese) and bollos( a plantain mix with fish) , all very delicious.

                                       The variety is amazing, you can forage-LOL- all day.
                           You can even get a tatoo on the beach- not quite sure how hygenic LOL

We also met some new neighbors on our floor. A German couple, Franz & Helga, who had lived in Guayaquil for the last 17 years, who are using this condo for their weekend get-away. They invited us over for drinks & snacks and we spent a couple of interesting hours discussing our mutual various travels with these interesting people.

As January draws to a close, we are packing to spend the month of February back in Cuenca. We’ve found another retired couple from Cuenca who are interested in doing a home exchange. They are coming to the beach and staying in our condo while we go to the mountains to stay in theirs- perfect!