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 25th 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.
