Bahia day trip

We recently had our first blog reader visitors, Mark reached out thru email, wanted to know if when he came scouting, we could meet, of course we said yes! We emailed several times, I stalked him thru Facebook (just to see what I was in for, he already knew all about us...) he seemed normal, so as the time came closer we made plans. He stayed at our friends at Casa WF for two days and we showed him San Jacinto and took him (and travel companion) to the Charapoto market. Then they headed to Bahia for several more days to check it out, it was number one on his short list. We got the bus early, only had to wait about 10 minutes (it can be as long as an hour) which was lovely and met them at their hotel.

Hotel Herradurra was a very interesting place, according to the owners, it was once a private residence, and all (or most) of the pictures and furnishings were original. It had ocean view on the one side, where the restaurant was located, and then lots of little nooks and crannies to sit and enjoy tranquillity. 

Beautiful plants and decorations everywhere you turned, they said the rooms were quite comfortable and I believe it was somewhere around $45 a night. I would certainly have taken my morning coffee and breakfast here on this patio, it wasn't the ocean side, but it was very nice.

The previous day Mark had met up with a real estate "agent" and had seen several condos on the market, so he walked us around the point and showed us all he'd learned. A little morning marine layer and it was a very nice walk.

So many of these condos are only short time leases, because the owners in other parts of Ecuador want to be able to use them at their leisure. Not even half are full time residents.

We ended up walking the point and then up thru the streets of El Centro. They showed me what their other guide had told them, and we shared what we knew. One thing we went to see was the indoor market. Everyday til noon this market is running full tilt, main floor was everything from flowers and incense to bagged beans. Meat, chicken and seafood, fruits and veggies, and there were restaurants on the second floor. It was already a little after noon, so much of the stalls were empty, but wow! If I lived in Bahia I would certainly shop here!

Next on our walking tour...we decided to find the stairs and walk up the hill to the big cross. In hindsight, we should have done this earlier, because the sun was peaking thru and it was getting warm, but we did it! Over 750 steps!

Half way point...(actually it wasn't even a third)

Looking east towards San Vicente and Canoa, low tide, you can see the big sand bar in the middle of the marina.

More stairs! I opted not to go up the last batch, the view was plenty good from the courtyard area.

After we walked down, (that's when Mark counted the steps, 375 each way up to the cross, I don't think he counted the cross steps)  we had jello legs and decided it was time to eat, we took them to our favorite Chinese restuarant and enjoyed it, all of it, we had leftovers for three days! We wandered a little more then grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal, they went with us and bought their tickets for their upcoming travel to Quito and we said our goodbyes. Another great day in this wonderful country I now call home, new friends and possibly new neighbors. Mark really fell in love with a fixer upper condo, if anybody wants to be an investor...?! Get in touch.

And there you have it, our short walking tour of Bahia on the bay...stay tuned, the adventure continues!