On Friday April
19th I drove with our friend Eddie to the Guayaquil airport to pick
up our first Canadian visitors, Kathy and Bill. We have been friends for 30
plus years and they wanted to come down to check out Ecuador, probably due to
our glowing reports concerning our wonderful lifestyle!
Their plane
was due to arrive around 5:30PM so Eddie and I left Salinas at 3PM just to make
sure we got there on time. The arrival section of Guayaquil airport was a bit
of a zoo per usual with lots of Ecuadorians returning home along with the odd
gringo.
We waited
and waited and as usually happens the people you are waiting for seem to be the
last out of the gate! Finally they came and after many hugs and kisses we found
our way to Eddie’s car and were on our way. Of course, the 2 hour plus drive
home included a few beers strategically placed with ice in a cooler on the back
seat. Welcome to Ecuador!
The next
morning we woke to rain. What the f#$%k! It hadn’t rained in 6 weeks but with
the arrival of our first Canadian visitors, it rained and rained all morning
long. This did not stop us from taking a long walk along the beach though.
Kathy and
Bill wanted to experience all that we normally did in our daily lives in
Salinas. This of course included walks along the Malecon, lunch with our good
friends Connie and Murray, shopping at SuperMaxi and at the Mercado, a dinner
at Will’s and at Dolar pizza, as well as 25C bus rides to get to various
places.
We went up
the coast a couple of times to check out other coastal towns. First, we went to
Montanita, a surfer/back pack town visited by many younger travelers.
The
beautiful beaches
Stopping for
beer/ coffee at one of the many restaurants lining the beach.
While having
lunch we ran into a couple of young men from our home town of Collingwood,
Ontario! Is this world small or what.
On the first
Friday, we took a drive up to Puerto Lopez along with our good friend Randy.
The scenery along the way was amazing- beautiful coastlines and lush tropical
forests- absolutely stunning.
We arrived
about lunch and first went to Shandra and Gerry’s house, two mutual friends
from Canada. To be exact, Bill and Gerry had been friends for over 50 years.
After we
walked to town and had a beer at one of the beach bars.
Puerto Lopez
is a very pretty, but small, fishing village famous for whale watching during
July to September.
After an
excellent lunch at a Colombian restaurant we drove back to Salinas.
Saturday
night was a band night at Will’s Score Bar, the expat hangout of Salinas. Lots
of friends were there and the band was excellent.
Kathy and I
also went to our Women’s Coffee Klatch held once every two weeks in a wonderful
restaurant, Common Grounds, owned by a couple from Peterborough, Canada.
Salinas is quickly becoming Canada South- LOL
Our women’s
group keeps getting bigger at every two week event.
The weather
continued to be weird for this time of year. Two or three days of cloud
followed by two or three days of brilliant blue skies! We did manage to fit in
lots of beach time under our cabanas,
many beach walks,
a real Estate tour (
thankyou, Kimberley, Bryon & Marcie -http://www.ieiecuador.com/) as well as
great diner parties at our condo.
So what did
our friends think of Salinas? Will they be back? If I was a betting person I
would definitely vote yes to both questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment