September 14 to 19- Whale watching in Salinas, Ecuador

From June to October, there is whale watching in and around Salinas.

http://en.ecuador.travel/what-to-do/for-activities/ecotourism/whale-watching

Uwe and I had been wanting to go on one of the many whale watching boat excursions since I arrived back from Canada. One thing or another always seemed to prevent us making plans- I know, hard to believe when we are retired but you’ve got to be there to understand how busy life gets in retirement- LOL

Twice we did actually book and pay for a trip with our friend Edison and twice it was cancelled.

We finally approached Ben, our local whale expert, to take us. On a Saturday, we first went to his restaurant for an excellent lunch.

 

While there we had a chat with Ben and then went to his whale museum, a place I had always wanted to check out. It and the restaurant are located on the far eastern block of 2nd Av.

http://www.museodeballenas.org/

 

                                        Here is Ban standing in front of his most interesting exhibit.

 

                                                        A must see if you are in the Salinas area.

 

We had decided with him to try for this whale watching trip on either the following Thursday or Friday and we were to check if any of our friends wanted to come along. We could bring no more than a couple because we would be using a very small boat- OMG!!!

Thursday was to be the big day. Our alarm woke us up at 5AM- horrors- and after coffee and a small breakfast we were off to take the local bus at 6:30AM. We were picking Ben up on the way and then the three of us would meet our friend Randy near the mall. Randy has a car and had offered to drive us to the little fishing village of Ayangue approximately an hour north of Salinas where our boat and captain were waiting.

                                               The very deserted beach in Ayangue

 

                                                        My amiga Randy and I waiting for our trip

 

                                                        Our boat- I did mention it was small!

 

This morning was a bit more blustery than most mornings and there were waves. Uwe gets a bit of sea sickness but he had fortified himself with drugs before we left home and had additional doses with him.

                                                                                Our capitan

 

                                                Cruising through the waves out into the ocean

 

First we went to a small island a few kilometers out where there were nesting sites of Blue Footed Boobies and some rare terns that Ben was hoping to see. We did see lots of cormorants, pelicans and our blue footed friends but no Inca Terns. Then off to the sea!

After approximately the first hour, Uwe spotted our first whale. There were possibly two who were swimming maybe 100 meters ahead of us surfacing once in a while. These were not Humpback whales who are much more active so we saw no breaching, tails or those other interesting sights. OK, so off we went further out to sea to find our quarry. Another couple of hours passed before we finally saw several Humpback whales ahead. And wow, were these active. We were so busy ooing and aaaing that I got few pictures. It was very difficult to hold the camera in a moving boat, with moving whales, and unsteady hands balancing while bouncing over the waves. We were all thrilled to catch such wonderful sights.

                    Whales in the ocean playing and obviously enjoying themselves.

 

 

We were out in the ocean for more than four hours and got back to shore in time for lunch. Our capitan also owned one of the local beach restaurants. After a satisfying almuerzo consisting of juice, soup and breaded fish, rice, plantains & salad all for $3, we returned to Salinas very satisfied with our trip.

 

September 9- Our Renovations are Complete

During week 6 of our renovation, our workers started  into the painting of the kitchen and balconies, finalizing the kitchen cabinets and hardware, installing under-counter lighting, finishing all the new electric outlets and the final polish of our beautiful black granite. I could see the end of our construction ordeal coming to an end and two weeks under estimate. WOW!

Remember that we had a total kitchen demolition and rebuild including moving plumbing and replacing the kitchen sink and faucet to an entirely new location, new custom –made kitchen cupboards and pantry doors, new electrical outlets, an existing door closed, a new door archway opened up, the entire kitchen painted along with the installation of granite and backsplash, a wall demolished and the door, wall, electrical, and doorbell moved 15’ further out as well as new floors throughout our 2100 square foot condo plus another 300 square feet of balconies, new balcony doors in three different locations plus most of our windows replaced. And all in six weeks!

A huge thank you to our contractor Mike Gibbs and his amazing crews. They showed up on time every day at 8AM and worked until 5:30PM except for weekends- condo rules no weekend work- and came in on budget. As well, after every day they cleaned up their daily work area and at the end of the six week period, did a total apartment cleanup. We couldn’t be happier with their work and our now amazing condo. All that is left to do is getting the rest of the condo painted which will happen at the end of this month while we are in the Galapagos.  For now we have our apartment and life back.

                                                 Here are some pictures of the rebuild.

First our amazing new kitchen designed, with much input from Uwe, by yours truly

 

 

                                        The new bar area in our kitchen- do I hear martinis?

 

                                                             Our redesigned pantry- enormous!

 

 

Our beautiful new floors throughout picked especially because they will never show dirt!

 

                                         Our new PVC balcony doors ( we have three balconies)

New windows in kitchen, living room and sound-proof windows in master bedroom all with PVC

 

 

Aug.26 to September 2- Filing to get your IVA Taxes back with the SRI

As mentioned in my blog many times before, Ecuador treats it’s older people very well. As well as half price off on most things, bus rides, plane tickets, movie tickets etc, I, as a person over the age of 65 and a resident, can apply to receive my IVA taxes back. These IVA taxes are much like our Canadian GST/HST, a kind of goods and services tax. They apply to almost everything we buy and are 12%. When you go to pay your bill, be it at a store or restaurant, you must give them your cedula so that the bill will have your name and cedula on it.

So what follows is my adventure or lack thereof –LOL- in getting registered. We’ve been over the bureaucratic nightmare many times before of living in my beloved Ecuador.

Several of my friends have already been through this and I was given many different pieces of advice. The most important was what documents were required to complete the process.

First I needed my cedula and a colour copy thereof- done. Next, I needed a letter from my bank- yes, you require an Ecuadorian bank account- see my Blog  http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2012/01/jan26-getting-ecuadorian-bank-account.html

 re getting one. We have an account at the Banco Pichincha so off we went to get that done first. You have to talk to the bank officers sitting near the front door of our branch on the Salinas Malecon. Here we took a number and then sat with the next available person. I had written down in Spanish as to what I required and handed it to the young man. He seemed a bit mystified but after conversing with his peer at the adjoining desk, he accessed the system for our bank information.  We gave him both our cedulas and our account number. When we had gotten our account back in January 2012, we only had our old passports since replaced. He told us he needed to change to our cedula numbers now and could do so - yea! After only a few moments he gave me a letter to sign for the bank’s records and a letter he signed for the SRI/IVA office. This was way too easy!

The next day after getting a copy of the bank letter- yes, you need original plus a copy- we were off to the SRI office in La Libertad where this application and future filing is handled. The office is on the main road near the La Libetad Malecon in the same block as Banco Guayaquil. We had also been told that it would not be necessary to take an interpreter if we dealt with Carla Villon on the second floor who spoke perfect English. This proved the best advice of all. When we walked in there were many many people waiting to talk to the several officers working on this floor. I went to the security guard and told him I needed to see Carla Villon on the second floor and was told to go right up. On the second floor we were the only ones and were shown into one of several offices immediately. Now the only bad news is that Carla was not there today but one of the women in that office spoke some English. Between my broken Spanish and her English, we managed to get across what I needed. After showing her all my paper work and my cedula, she gave me the application form and asked me to return  on Monday and then deal with Carla.

Monday arrived and back we went. This time armed with our August bills totaled as to number of bills and IVA for those bills. Again there were many people downstairs and again I told the security guard we needed to see Carla Villon upstairs and again no problem. This time there were two groups of people in front of us, both Ecuadorian and filing their monthly bills. Our turn came quickly and I asked the young woman if she was Carla Villon- yes- yea! I gave her all my papers, she filled out yet another form which I had to sign and then had her boss approve. And yet again- no problems! Wow, can you believe it. Can this be Ecuador?

After this, I had to go downstairs to a young man who again spoke English to get my password so that I could enter their computer system to check on my filings and returns- WOW!

And that was it! I could file next month’s bills anytime from the 1^st to the 7^th of the next month or any month thereafter ( the date depended on your cedula number) and the IVA returns would come into my bank account after each quarter. Of course, we now wait to see if this actually happens. Stay tuned.