Flying Pirates

We have been house sitting since the day afterThanksgiving, it's been really nice to have the magnificent views and change of scenery. Not to mention the luxurious accomidations, that our San Alejo house doesn't offer, hot water, laundry facilities, pool...

The way the house is situated at the Boca (mouth of the river) and the Ocean, not to mention the mangroves behind is a haven for birds, they play on the wind currents and really look like they enjoy life. One came to watch us drink our coffee the other morning, and prompted the research for this post.

Veronica was very interested in our visitor, she is our "bird dog" always chasing the robins back in the States, and looking to chase the sea birds here. (Funny thing, this Frigate is probably twice her size.)

The frigatebirds (also known as Fregatidae) are a family of seabirds. They have long wings, tails, and bills and the males have a red gular pouch that is inflated during the breeding season to attract a mate. Their plumage is predominantly black. There are five species, all in a single genus Fregata, found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. They are absent from polar regions.

Frigatebirds are pelagic piscivores that obtain most of their food on the wing. A small amount of their diet is obtained by robbing other seabirds and by snatching seabird chicks. Frigatebirds are seasonally monogamous and nest in colonies. A rough nest is constructed in low trees or on the ground on remote islands. A single egg is laid each breeding season. The duration of parental care in frigatebirds is among the longest for birds.

I also read the reason they steal food, is they don't have the oil that makes their feathers waterproof, so they do not dive as other sea birds do, the stealing food and their large ominous black bodies make them known as the Pirates of the seabird world.

The word frigatebird derives from the French mariners' name for the bird La Frégate - a frigate or fast warship. The etymology was mentioned by French naturalist Jean-Baptiste du Tertre when describing the bird in 1667. In the Caribbean frigatebirds were called Man-of-War birds by English mariners. This name was used by the English explorer William Dampierin his book An Account of a New Voyage Around the World published in 1697:

The Man-of-War (as it is called by the English) is about the bigness of a Kite, and in shape like it, but black; and the neck is red. It lives on Fish yet never lights on the water, but soars aloft like a Kite, and when it sees its prey, it flys down head foremost to the Waters edge, very swiftly takes its prey out of the Sea with his Bill, and immediately mounts again as swiftly; never touching the Water with his Bill. His Wings are very long; his feet are like other Land-fowl, and he builds on Trees, where he finds any; but where they are wanting on the ground.

Frigatebirds are large, with iridescent black feathers (the females have a white underbelly), with long wings (male wingspan can reach 2.3 metres (7.5 ft)) and deeply forked tails. 

Frigatebirds are found over tropical oceans and ride warm updrafts. Therefore, they can often be spotted riding weather fronts and can signal changing weather patterns.

These birds do not swim and cannot walk well, and cannot take off from a flat surface. Having the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird, they are essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week, landing only to roost or breed on trees or cliffs.

Hope you enjoyed my post on the Pirates of the air, we really love watching them soar. I will do a post on the Boca house and guest suites next time, also going somewhere with Joffrey, the Ecuadorean hardware store owner and friend, today at noon, we think we are taking a boat to a ceviche festival in Rocafuerte. Should be an adventure! Stay tuned!!

Dogs on the beach

We woke the other day, stretched, I went downstairs, turned the coffeepot on, and about halfway thru the pot, the power went out. Luckily we have a gas stove, so I boiled water, and finished the pot by hand, and since we had no power, we decided to take our cups of coffee, and our little dogs to the beach.

That's Shadrach photobombing the shot. Our stretch of beach was empty, all to ourselves, we walked towards San Clemente (North) until we saw more people, and that could mean street dogs, so we turned around and went back towards San Alejo. Drinking coffee, Collecting shells and enjoying the scenery as we went. The dogs really love the wide open space to run, Veronica shows off, going as fast as her little legs will carry her, we call her "Rocket Girl".

Once we got back to our house, we put the pups inside, left our empty coffee cups, put on sunscreen and went back out. This time we walked towards San Jacinto, thinking we may go all the way to the Boca, but not sure. Time flies while you're on the beach, looking down (for shells) mostly, one doesn't even notice how far they've walked, and next thing we know we've got company.

This sweet girl dog we've seen in San Jacinto at one of our favorite dinner spots, Ali's Coco con Salsa, she sits patiently at the curb, as we dine on the sidewalk. We don't feed the street dogs scraps, I would think it rude to feed them off the table at an outdoor restaurant for sure. Certainly don't want to reward a dog for bad behavior, we often walk with a bag of kibble, so we'll feed the street dogs away from restaurants.

As we walked we tried to come up with a name for her, we'd only just been calling her good girl, or sweet girl, and as we brainstormed it came to us. Dulce is the word for sweet, and here they use a caramel (sweet cream) in their desserts, and it's the same color as her fur, so we named her Dulce. She was fond of the birds, and would stalk and chase them, never getting very close, but having fun.

She walked with us all the way to the Boca, and back, leaving us only when we stopped at the bakery for fresh bread. Next time we walk into San Jacinto we will take some kibble and water for her, it's nice to have a dog walk along with you for protection.

Above picture is The Boca, mouth of the River, this was really low tide, and the water from the river snaked around, but at high tide where I'm walking is underwater. You can see the waterline, dark line infront of me, where the pile of debris is, sometimes a little higher, but never have I seen it look dangerous for those houses. The White House on the end (Ultima Casa) is our friends Jim and Marty and we get to house sit for them a week or two next month, stay tuned for posts from The Boca and Mangroves.

The day was a great one, many wonderful shells (some of the special ones above) quality time with my husband and best friend, and at least a 5 mile walk, the power was on when we got home and lunch was on fresh bread, what could be better...thankful we don't have to put up with bad weather, I'll continue to work on my tan while North America welcomes winter.

Found this on Facebook the other day, 51" of snow...no thanks! It's not too late to book flights, the waters warm and the shells are plenty, the adventure continues on the coast of Ecuador, stay tuned!

Being famous has some perks

Friday night I realized I was famous. Mike and I had of course been counting the days til the weekend because that means $2.75 shawarma, but when we got into town...the place was closed! Plan B would be the Cuban restaurant, but gasp! That was closed too! What the heck? The only thing we could figure, was the festival had plum tuckered them all out and they were taking a break. Well, on that note we decided to walk back to San Jacinto and eat at Ali's.

We had about a quarter mile still to San Jacinto when some men walking towards us, stopped and said "you're Paige and Mike, I follow your blog!" We chatted a couple minutes, found out they were heading into San Clemente for the infamous shawarma, but upon learning of the closure they decided to come to Ali's with us and get to know each other. Dinner was great, as always, and the company was better, we had a great time. Actually closed it down, and we made plans to try shawarma on Saturday.

Marty and Jim are from everywhere, been together like 25 years, and bought land down in San Jacinto on the Boca. (Mouth of the river) They've been building a house over the past year, and finally came for good. We found we had North Carolina in common, and talked a lot about the culture of the South, and how it prepared us for South America. (Hijacked this picture from their Facebook, hope you don't mind guys)

Saturday we did meet up for shawarma, Pablo was in Manta, but had everything ready and Fransisco did a great job putting the shawarmas together. Silvia was there helping him, and the two did very well, Pablo should be proud. After shawarma we took Marty and Jim next door to the Cubans, and we had a donut and coffee. Having lived many years in South Florida, they are excited to go back and try the Cuban sandwich and other dishes. But agreed that the donuts were out of this world.

We invited them in for a nightcap, tour and meet the pups, and in no time Veronica was in Jim's lap. She usually takes a while, even several visits sometimes, before she warms up, but he must be special. (we think so) They said their house was dog friendly, and we could bring them anytime. Even offered to dog sit, which is always an added benefit, we don't trust just anybody with our furry kids. We bid goodnight, and all agree this is the start of a beautiful friendship. Being famous rocks!

The sun was out bright and early today, no marine layer this morning. Tide is high, but won't be for long, maybe pups to la playa later, and we got pineapples from Angel yesterday, so I know there's smoothies in our future. The Cubans said they would be open today til 3pm, so maybe Cuban sandwiches for lunch, but whatever we decide to do, it'll be awesome. Beautiful weather, great food,  my best friend and love of my life, yep it's pretty good...stay tuned, the adventure continues. Hasta Luego.