January 17 to 27- Our First Family Visitor

After living in Ecuador for the most of more than two years (we return to our Canadian home each summer to visit family) finally a member of our family came to visit us- yea!

My son, Ron, flew down to spend a week with us in January. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

I drove with Eddie to Guayaquil late on a Friday night to pick him up. The plane was only a little bit late 11:45PM instead of 11:30PM and wonder of wonders, Ron was the first through the door. Many hugs and a 2 ½ hour drive later we arrived back in Salinas around 2:30AM- a very long day.

Well, you would think that we would both sleep in a bit next morning but no such luck. My body is obviously programmed to sleep no later than 7:30 in the morning, an early start every day.

First job of the day was a bus ride to Supermaxi to buy groceries. This was Ron’s first bus experience in more than 20+ years- LOL. Next we went for a great lunch at one of our favorite Gringo bars- Smokin’.

A walk on the beach, a barbecue back at our condo and a visit back to Smokin for an after dinner drink finished off this first of many busy days! Whew!

One of our favorite restaurants, Luccy’s  Mexican Café, has an excellent Sunday brunch that we enjoyed this weekend.

Monday was Frisbee on the beach (called Beersbee)  organized by our friend Kevin. It was a perfect day for sitting under a shady beach umbrella and swimming in the clear waters of Chipipe beach.

The brave players- the aim of the game was to topple the beer bottle balanced on top of pole in front of each team of players.

                                                            The enthralled audience

                              The vendors seeing potential sales with all these gringos in one place!

                                                           New cute dresses

Monday night we went to Will’s at Hostel Aqui/ Score Bar for his usual excellent fried chicken dinner along with my friend and neighbor Edith. Our best friends Eddie and Paola joined us as well.

Quite a few other gringos and Ecuadorian friends attended including Peggy and Will and their visiting son.

Another day, another dinner out! This time we met Connie & Murray at our favorite Pizza Joint, Horneo de Marco ( formerly Dolar Pizza) for Salinas’ best pizza.

Wednesday it was time to show Ron the nearby town of La Libertad. This busy town also has a pretty malecon.

                                            And very busy streets along with great shopping.

 It also has a most excellent Mercado, one that is much much bigger than the small one in Salinas and very interesting.

First an authentic Ecuadorian Almuerzo ( lunch consisting of soup, chicken, rice & salad – and of course cerveza) at a little corner restaurant.

Then, lots of fruit and veggie shopping at the Mercado and then on to the Fish Mercado where stall after stall of freshly caught fish of all types were displayed. We bought a huge filet of Dorado and a nice chunk of Tuna.

That afternoon we were invited to our friend Edith’s condo for a meal of delicious lobster ceviche and seco de carne ( beef stew).

                                                           The beautifully set table

                                                    An excellent meal enjoyed by all

Every Wednesday night, yet another of our gringo bars, The Smiley Gringo, plays music videos on the wall as soon as it gets dark- 7:30PM. This night it was a Pink Floyd video with David Gilmore.

                                                              Our group

                                              And the video on the wall- a great idea!

Since Ron had been here almost a week, it was definitely time to take him to Montanita. He has been hanging out with us old farts all week and Montanita has a much younger population. It reminds me of a mix of Jamaica & Wasaga Beach with lots of back backers plus surfers, lots of bars and discos and an incredible beach.

Of course we went the local route by bus! We took Linea 13 to the main bus terminal in Ballenita  and then the inter-city bus to Montanita  arriving some 2 hours later.

                           The streets with lots of vendors were still pretty deserted

                                            Having a late breakfast with beer!

The beach in Montanita is absolutely incredible, sandy, wide, safe with huge waves but no undertow.

           We walked to one of the few Brewpubs in Ecuador and had a couple of draft beers.

                                                         Our view from the pub.

Very good view for Ron as there were many young gringa women with some pretty good bodies- not that I would notice such a thing- LOL.

The streets of Montanita are filled with vendors selling lots of touristy stuff, tee shirts, jewellery etc etc. We bought some for Ron to take home to his son, his son’s wife & granddaughter.

Finally on Friday we had another beach day. Per usual in Salinas, the day started cloudy and gray but shortly after noon the sun came out. Our condo provides cabanas (called carpas here) on the beach for all the residents.

Connie and Murray joined us for swimming, drinking and snacking on the beautiful Chipipi beach.

                                       Huge crabs for sale by the beach vendors!

                                                             View from our carpa

                                                                   Ron hits the water

Friday night we went to a texmex restaurant called Chili Peppers where we sat and ate in their beautiful garden.

 Here they not only serve excellent Mexican food but also awesome margaritas.

After dinner there was yet another birthday party for 2 of our many gringos. This time it was being held at Sin, a bar owned by former biker Kim and his fiancé.

                                                           Lots of our friends attended

                                                          Ron met yet more Canadians!

Saturday we had our supposedly last lunch (more on this later-LOL) at Smokin. In front of the restaurant was another rally for a new mayoral candidate. Elections are in February and there are many people running for the spot. Unlike North America, the candidates use very low key advertisement as in this case, lots of people on bikes with flags and cars with loud speakers.

Ok, so now for the sad tale (but funny in retrospect) of Ron’s trip home. I can maybe blame this on my former blondness or present senility- LOL.

I had booked the ticket for departure on Saturday the 25^th of January. Somehow I had misinterpreted that 12:30AM was actually early Saturday morning NOT Saturday night! Ron left our condo at 7:30PM for the 2 ½ hour drive to Guayaquil.

Luckily we stayed up much later than usual watching music videos and also lucky that I had given Ron my Ecuadorian cell number. My cell rang around 11PM that night with a panicked(or pissed off) Ron calling that he had missed his flight by 24 hours! Since he had no visa card nor enough cash to pay the $400 transfer fee the airline wanted to re-book to that night’s flight, I told him to grab another taxi and come back to Salinas and we’d take care of everything in the morning. Did I subconsciously want my son to stay another day? The story does have a happy ending as the flight was re-booked the next day, we had yet another farewell dinner and Ron arrived safely back in Canada on Monday.