Mural Painting

Our friend Leo and Martha have been running a resturant, with Carnival coming this weekend I offered to paint for a day and spruce up the place. Mike and I went Wednesday morning and got busy. Mike helped get some old paint covered so I could begin my masterpieces, but then went home to let me "do my thing".

There were words on this other wall, and I had quite a time covering it, I ended up having to go back the next day to put the finishing touches on it. While I was painting the ocean mural, a man stopped by to admire, and asked if I wouldn't do something for his place. We walked a little ways down to his place , and I realized we had looked at this property to rent before we moved into the beach house. He remembered me, and I apologized for not remembering him, I said it was because he had a hat on. He laughed. He wanted two sections painted, with anything I wanted, but he was only willing to pay $20...We agreed upon the next day at 9am, and I got back to my other mural. 

I knew I needed to pick something easy, and large. I didnt want this to turn into a two day project! Doing it for a friend for ceviche and beer is one thing...Freddie Zambrano (a very popular name in town) had picked out which panels he wanted, and again said anything I wanted, he knew it would be beautiful. He got busy washing chairs, and I set to work.

I did the stripe first, had brought with me a chunk of cardboard and pencil that I used to make the stripe even to the top. Then I did the flowers, with the purple being the last. Decided that if I painted the purple leaving the old white wall evenly around, I wouldnt have to outline everything, and it worked out perfectly. During the day He made me freshlime juice, and later asked if I wanted lunch, that he could go get something, as he didnt prepare food, I told him no, that I was fine. 

By the end of the day Freddie was so impressed he had decided he wanted two more panels done at a later date, maybe different colors. He said he would provide shrimp ceviche and cerveza for the next painting day, that doesnt suck! It was a long hot day (9am-2pm) in the blazing sun, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I didnt get rich, but paid for some paint and thoroughly made a neighbors day. When I got home the power was out, Mike said it had been out most of the day, but I didnt even know! I showered, and we spent the rest of the afternoon out back in the beautiful breeze dreaming of our next projects. So much to come, so stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Looking Up

This week has been drier than last week, and next week is Carnival so hoping it will be even drier. The rain on the paved streets dries pretty quickly, but drainage seems to be a problem in the smaller streets. Makes sense, since we are at (or below) sea level. 

Walking the other day showed how much sand has been washed away, looks like the fishermen have made and remade the sandbag steps to our old house. Doesnt it look different. I do miss it, but am glad to not have all the sand. People have painted the rocks to get ready for Carnival, and some have washed off already from the ocean waves. The ocean is still jefe.

We had a small earthquake and that made our landlord want to reinforce the center of the building, which meant tearing up some of his brand new concrete. We had some minor issues, resulting in some raised voices, followed by some pouting. But in the end, all is well.

The rain has slowed construction, but progress is still being made. 

 My friend Eduardo's house, from start to present. His 50th birthday was on Valentine's Day but he was in Bahia with friends, I'll have Nexar make a small cake and we will celebrate on one of the Carnival nights.

We both have been doing Painting projects inside by the fan, I am  looking forward to having our back patio better than before and put back together. I have been working on a mural, and its slow going, but I completed a lamp yesterday I'd been thinking about. Decided I didnt need the Christmas lights up anymore, so I made them into this table lamp. Really got my brain going, The possibilities are endless...so stay tuned, the adventure continues!

More rain

The rainy season has started in a big way. Several days it hasnt even slowed down for hours at a time. The pictures posted on Facebook, show some real doozies. 

We had a leak in the closet, that got most of our clothes wet. I hung them outside the next dry day, but then the hanging bar fell and it lay on the floor until morning...guess what, the window leaked that night and the whole hanging bar was in a puddle the next morning. Maria, Nexars wife offered to help do the laundry, and we made quick work of the things from the closet disaster. 

The river meeting the ocean is brown, brown brown. So much mud from all the rain, and the river debris has started. We walked down to the boca the other day,  but the camera had not been charging, so will document another day. We did run into friends gathering stumps, and now know someone who makes tree trunk tables.

In another part of our province over 800 pounds of trash was collected. They literally weighed it. Maybe from the river, but usually we dont have that much trash on our beaches.

The landlord came and wanted to repair the cement, so it drained away from the house. We now have a nice new cement patio, and the shade structure plastic got straightened out, so it is nice and dry. Today is sunny and blue skies. Now that I know the patio is water proofed, I can put things back together. Phone is charged, so maybe a beach walk before it gets too hot. So, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Photo Album

Some may have noticed I am only using two word titles these days, the reason is the app for this blog program needs updating, and one of the glitches is the title sequence. Oh well, now you know.

We had an amazing thunder and lightning storm last night, and so again this am everything is wet. But, also green...

With all the moisture in the air we have had many rainbows, and our sunsets are spectacular as well, so not really complaining. My locitas (little crazies) helping with our selfie.

More little crazies, our "urchins", David and Bamderley really are cute and good  kids, just dont always know when to stop. They have carried my groceries home from Minimart a couple times for .10 cents a piece, they do want to be helpful.

Our friend Jorge and his little guy making empanadas on a rainy day like we did last week.

The rain may have brought this little visitor inside the other night. Shadrach was very interested in him. Really looked like a sea spider...

An old picture from New Years, isnt this a wonderful likeness of Joffre? We all got a kick out of it, the effigy is really Joffres nephew, but looks just like him!

Looks like another day in the house, I have a painting project to start, so stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Visiting Perry

Perry is such a funny dog. He has bells on his collar that jingle softly as he comes and goes, and the other day I heard someone was drinking, but there was no jingle. Then we heard someone eating his breakfast, I went over to the fence to look, and Perry was on his bed letting someone finish what he didnt want. Sweet guy, or stupid?

Later we heard more drinking and saw Perry had invited a friend over! They wrestled a bit, ate and drank then finally layed down together in Perrys bed. We call this guy Gris (spanish for gray, and his muzzle is gray). He lives over by Edison our shrimp guy, and very possibly might be Perrys dad. Whatever the relation, they are always happy to see each other on the street, and now he apparently comes for afternoon snacks.

life is good, for street dogs too. So, stay tuned, the adventure continues 

Bahia Daytrip

Since moving into the new apartment we have been making a list for the "big city", we went to the "small city", Charapoto last month and bought what we could there, but now we were ready for Bahia. We waited for a day with no rain, and headed to the bus stop. When arriving at the bus stop we saw a young woman and her baby waiting. Pretty soon a taxi pulled up, and the young woman got in, the driver then asked her if we needed a ride, and she said yes. So they invited us to jump in. When we got closer to Bahia, the driver asked where we were going, and we told him, he said it would be $4. 

The driver was not getting rich off us, actually he saved us almost a dollar. It was such a sweet lesson to be reminded. Be nice, be thoughtful, it doesn't cost anything. Im sure it was awkward to ask us, the ride was silent, when if we hadn't been in the car, they may have talked, but doing a nice gesture was and is usually forfront for the Ecuadorean. We certainly appreciated getting to Bahia quickly and painlessly.

Mike had not been to Bahia since the earthquake, so we started walking around downtown before we did our shopping. While walking towards the point, we ran into a neighbor! Small world! He was doing some errands, having a cup of coffee and told us if we were done shopping and at the mall by 12:30, he would give us a ride home! What a score! Rides BOTH ways! Usually after a big item shopping day, we splurge and get a taxi home for $12, but not today.

We continued to walk a little ways, and realized it was already really warming up, so we got on with our shopping, and vowed to came again soon to look around. Maybe an overcast day, no shopping just walk around and eat, always nice to have new restaurants to choose from. We still want to spend the night in Bahia, and check out the night life...someday.

We bought new bed pillows! Joy, our old ones were mildewed (yuck). A full length mirror, so I can start sewing/remaking clothes. Looked at the blenders, because we really miss smoothies since ours died. But our options were really cheap plastic and really expensive plastic, so we decided to wait. Toaster oven was on the list, but they didn't have any, same with a jigsaw, guess we have to go to a Bigger city...maple syrup (Aunt Jemimah, not that brand matters, but taste) coffee creamer for Mike, nail polish remover, you know the things we cant get normally in town. 

We are so used to our tiendas, that even with a list when we get to the big grocery store, our eyes glaze over and we just kinda stare at all the choices. Usually we buy toiletrees, but I just did an Avon order from Nexars wife, so I didn't hardly look. 

(Arco iris in spanish)

What a nice day, we had lunch in the food court, and had a free, albiet rough ride home in the neighbors truck. After unpacking our treasures and a shower we settled down for some painting. Later I could see the sky had some color and went out front, where I saw not only the sunset, but two rainbows! Today calls for a beach walk, Perry is always ready for one, will check low tide maybe walk to lunch at Martha's and we need to go visit CasaMar this weekend. So, stay tuned, the adventure 

continues!