First, the apartment. This is the first time ever that we have been disappointed in our rental found on the Internet. Of course this time we could not use our tried and true favorite- VRBO.com. The apartment is large, 2 nice bedrooms, modern kitchen and good bathroom however the view from a very nice large balcony is crappy and the furniture sucks- to be exact- no living room furniture at all- just a big dining room table with uncomfortable balcony chairs. As well, though the kitchen has great appliances, it is the worst ever as far as cooking utensials- no oven ware, no oven mitts, no dish towels- I could go on and on.
In any case, Uwe and I are managing and that's what could sometimes happen when you rent off the internet.
Here is our apartment building only one block from main beach.
And our kitchen
Saturday and Sunday Uwe and I explored both directions along the beach road from our apartment. Lots of restaurants serving inexpensive and excellent sea food and more, lots of vendors along the beach selling touristy stuff. Salinas is where all the inland Ecuadorians go for the weekend, even on off-season which October is, the weekend was very busy.
The Malecon- main beach road
And the main beach
We found that on the weekends we saw mainly Ecuadorians- no gringos- and no one spoke English. We are determined to learn Spanish so that was OK for us- keep your English/Spanish dictionary handy!
We tried several restaurants during the first few days- a couple along the Malecon and one just down the road from our apartment- all excellent and inexpensive. Plus we have bought a snack of phillo pastry & meat twice from a street vendor- excellent!
On Monday, we finally found the expat meeting place ' Score Sports Bar' where all the local Americans and Canadians meet for Sunday Football and good food. The owners, Will and Wendy, were maning the bar and we had a couple of beers and awesome burgers. We met several expats and will definitly be returning for Sunday football.
During the rest of the week, we went condo shopping with our new Salinas Real Estate agents. We saw so many of various price ranges, all overlooking the beach.
Here are a few pictures of excellent ocean front views
You can understand how difficult it would be to pick a favorite!
You may have noticed the lack of sunshine in all these pictures. September and October are the two worst months for weather in Salinas and I am going through severe withdrawals-LOL. However, if we like Salinas in this weather, we should love it once the sun comes out.
On Saturday, we finally had time to go to the Salinas' Mercado- the market. We had been doing all our previous grocery shopping in the grocery store a block down our street- very normal and modern. The market was located 10 blocks from our apartment- a nice walk. We had a little difficulty finding it- had to ask directions from a local police man in our limited Spanish but finally got there. The market was indoors inside a large hall/colesium and had many many stalls both of fruits and vegetables but also meats and fish and shrimps. We bought strawberries, grapes, oranges, bananas, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes etc all for a ridiculously small amount of money and walked home carrying 2 large grocery bags. Again we had to use our Spanish to both ask for what we wanted- or point- and pay correct amount. I find numbers- even though I know them all- the most difficult to understand. In the case of the fruit stall, I ended up just handing them $20 and receiving $15.50 back in change- very honest people.
That evening Uwe and I went out for his birthday diner at a restaurant recommended by our Real Estate agents. This Italian restaurant was owned by an expat Canadian who had married an Ecuadorian back in Canada, raised their children there and then retired to Ecuador only to open this very fine restaurant. We had a most excellent Italian diner.
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