Life's a Beach

Another month has come and gone, where does the time go? The past four days we have been pretty much sick in bed (of course someone still has to cook...) but today I am on the road to recovery. It's a good thing too, because we are out of bread and almost out of milk, I need to get some shopping done. But first things first.

We've had people visit who just can't stand all our tranquilo-ness, some people can, and apparently some can't. We fill our days with leisurely walks, finding treasures the ocean has coughed up, and getting to notice "the little things".

While walking the beach recently, we stumbled on this, we call it a "dog party".

We've seen this family before, this little brown one we call "scruffy" he has such long scruffy face hair, as you can see, they pay little to no attention to us. Just a family out for a day at the beach...

This one was taken on a Saturday, when the football league (and when I say football, you all realize I mean "soccer" right?) was playing. There are two "fields" set up, for multiple games at once, complete with referees. A couple vendors set up on the sidelines and at least a few of the ramadas have food for sale, and hammocks for rent.

A little further down past the games, are the "ruins", I've pictured them before, but when we got there on this day...they were...GONE!

The old sea wall and cistern were still there, but everything else had been scooped up and moved towards the road, piled up as a new sea wall. So weird to see after 18 months of seeing it one way.

No stairs, no pillars, just smooth sand, as if that old building had never been there.

And still further down towards La Boca the debris from the river starts to accumulate, again this year, it's mostly vegetation. We take bigger bags, and collect wood for me to paint on, and sticks for various things. I've always been a "scavenger" and so this is right up my alley. Love trash to treasure! Which reminds me, my painting recently has been ocean themed.

We are not the only ones who enjoy living here at the beach, one of our favorite things is to watch the kids play in the water. Some of the kids have boogie boards, while others play with whatever they can find. Recently the kids had a huge piece of styrofoam they were using as a boogie board, it worked! 

The older urchin has been solo lately, we don't know where his little brother went, of course he was the demon, so with him gone, the older boy is hanging out with Francis and being helpful. If he continues to be good we will look into getting him a boogie board. Maybe we could buy a couple, and loan them out, don't know, just a thought.

A couple more cute pics, this is Fernando and his son  Zadkiel.

Life at the beach, it's the life for me. So, stay tuned...the adventure continues.

Busy week

So much has happened this week, I almost don't know where to start. I guess I'll start with Monday, I went to pay the power bill at the bank in town, and the machine was down, she said mañana. So Tuesday I went, still down, it was becoming necessary to go to Charapoto to pay at the office. While I waited for an answer of a quick ride, I got to watch the continuing saga of the new sea wall being built.

So much sand had washed away, these rocks were showing, so they dug them up and started making a wall. The owner of the lot next to the lot next door may have been the financier, or maybe the municipality, not sure. But most of the work was done at that other lot. 

Don't know if they are finished, or if it's just Saturday... Stay tuned

Didn't get to Charapoto Tuesday, but we got on the bus by 10am Wednesday, payed the bill, no problem $9, and were on our way. Stopped at the fabric store bought some new fabric for pillow cases, and other odds and ends in the "big city", remember Charapoto has a stop light!

While there, we walked past the rice mill, quite an impressive machine!

I bought 2 lbs in town for $1, how does that compare to US? It's been awhile...after shopping we stopped at our friends restaurant for lunch, it was on the way home and across from the welder.

Martha, the owner/operator is the mother of Christopher, who's godfather is Fernando Father fishermen, and the young man who chaperoned us on the shrimp boat last year. Small town...lunch was great, as always and we saw Rene the welder pull up just as we were finishing. We gave him our drawing, talked price estimate, and were on our way...

Thursday afternoon, Rene brought us this baby! Recycled truck tire rim turned into a grill, parrillada in Spanish. This was a spendier option, we liked the recycled aspect of it, but since it was once part of a vehicle he wanted to seal it for contaminates, it cost us $65. Smaller and rectangle would have been closer to $30, but from drawing to execution in less than 24 hrs and delivered, we are NOT complaining! 

I buy my carne from Jenny's tienda, I never know what I'm going to get, but a pound is $3.25. Brought this chunk home and Mike said, "that looks like tenderloin!" So steaks it was, they turned out great, so lean he had to add a little butter...potatoes onions and bell pepper in the foil packet and I steamed cauliflower. EVERYTHING was Tender and flavorful, the grill is a wonderful purchase we will use often, next shrimp?

And here we are Saturday morning, waiting for the organic egg man. Mike and I are both feeling a touch of bronchitis, and so I call for a lazy tv day. Catch up on some shows, and rest up. Hope y'all enjoyed our "busy week", many things in progress, I'll share next time...so, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

CARNIVAL sanJACINTO Ecuador 2016

We had a few videos that we didn't know what to do do with so we added some pics and made a little Carnival video. We had a lot of fun but I bet you can tell.

Charapoto

Before Carnivale we went shopping in Charapoto, it's about 5miles away, and we take the bus for .50 cents each way. It has one stop light, so you know it's bigger than our little village, and therefore has more to offer shopping wise. For instance, Charapoto is the closest fabric shop, flower shop, bike shop and has several large pharmacies, not to mention the huge market on the weekend. But this particular visit, we were more interested in the new sign! 

All around Manabi (our State, or province) these new signs are popping up. I hadn't realized that each letter had a different picture, representing the area, but up close I could see them all.

Cock fights and gambling, shrimp, fancy dancing horses, music and dancing...

Corn, Charapotos flag, the hills, rice and the church.

The hills are not usually so green, so beautiful January thru March.

This street is full to the brim with vendors on Saturday and Sunday market, but this day was very quiet.

The main street looking West, towards our village

And looking east, towards Roca Fuerte and PortoViejo. Just past noon and the stores were closing up for lunch and siesta. So much for anymore shopping, oh well. It's hotter inland, so we always love getting back to our lovely San Jacinto and beach breezes.

Can't wait to get our sign here in SJ, thought it might happen before Carnivale, but no...so, stay tuned! The adventure continues!

Photo Album

After the party was over, and posted about, more pictures began to surface, so here they are.

Couldn't resist this photo op. Too cute, all those boys lined up like that. They certainly didn't care it was "drizzly"!

Mas gente! (Many people) 

Upstairs, at the White House in front of ours. No vacationers this year, maybe because it was rainy.  So we got to go up and look. Ocean is a little close...

Beautiful pictures taken by one of neighbors Glenn. Thanks for sharing, I love the colors. You don't get to see them like this when you're walking. Note the green hills too, hermosa! (Beautiful)

A good picture of Vecino, or wonderful neighbor next door. He's the strong silent type, but we know he likes us. He doesn't own the house, he's just the caretaker, he doesn't accept much help, but does let me buy him pineapples occasionally. He has started bringing my trash can around from the street after the truck picks up, and remember he made me my rake! Love him.

My newest attempt at painting. Crab on beach wood. He sits on a shelf with other decorations. Guess that's it, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

After the party is over

The consensus is Carnivale was a dud. Facebook has been lit up with complaints about the sorry state of affairs here, people "from away" who vacation here saw first hand how run down it has become. They apparently have some pull (that us little folk don't) because yesterday there was a town hall meeting, and low and behold (after several months of pleading) the three beach communities now have $361,000 for repairs and prevention of further destruction.

Twice a day the malecon looks like this between San Jacinto  and San Clemente, the ocean finds any bit of debris it can and shoots it up from the rocks, onto the road. Not much can be done, the talk is a cement sea wall added on top of the rocks, but then there is no view of the ocean...with the debris crashing on the road all the time, the asphalt is breaking down, but what is the correct answer?

Dangerous for pedestrians, motorbikes and cars. The bus has to get re-routed when it's this bad, and all one can do is wait for lower tide and clean up.

The meeting was held at the funeral home, we didn't go because of our limited understanding, especially when they are talking fast and furious. But knew I would get the scoop on Facebook. Sometimes social media is great.

So, we will see in the coming months what will be done with the new win fall of budget, and of course I will keep you all informed. The ocean wasn't the only thing wreaking havoc on this little area during Carnivale...the rain!

This top picture is where the stage for San Clemente's Sunday night concert was set up. But of course the bulk of the rain came Monday.

Note the yellow house in a couple of pictures, our friends Keith and Becky, I've shown their house a couple times...and here's why. High tide, El Niño style 2016

The fishermen told him to move his car, and The neighborhood kids used it as a swimming pool the next day. He says twice a year the tides are so high it floods the compound. They have 6 drains, and it empties within an hour, Crazy! Braver souls than us.

One last thing, photos from Nan Levin's blog. The beach in Manta, near where our friends Rubelly and Soledad live. Carnivale, and the day after.

That about sums it up here too! Hope all is well, stay warm and stay tuned, the adventure continues!