Outing with Joffrey

Sometimes the language barrier is not an issue, case in point our outing with Joffrey. He is very gracious and kind with our limited spanish, we say we are learning "poco y poco" little by little, and one day he laughed and said "Rapido", and we all laughed because we weren't learning it fast enough. Thru Joffrey we have realized that we read more spanish than we understand verbally, so we do a lot of writing things down, plus with our pocket translator we did really well the other day.

We met Joffrey at his hardware store in San Jacinto at noon, he closed up and we waited for the bus. He had just taken a tumble, and was doing medico on his wound while we waited. The bus came and we headed towards RocaFuerte. We thought the invitation was to then get on a boat, but that never happened, we instead got a ride someways out into the farmland to a large restaurant. 

We realized we were not going to a Ceviche festival, just out to lunch for authentic Ecuadorean fare. Our first course was Gallina Criolla, this may be slightly seasonal, because I'd never seen the word Criolla until recently, then I started seeing it everywhere, I'd figured out is was cheese, but wasn't prepared for how one ate it.

It came in a bowl, very wet cheese, after mashing it a bit, it was a mix of ricotta and cottage cheese in taste and texture. It also came with what I believe to be roasted bananas (plantains), they were peeled, and cooked to a very overdone, almost chalky consistency that you then crumbled into the cheese. It was interesting, tasty, but nothing I'm going to loose sleep craving. The next item was more of a dessert item, but remember the Ecuadoreans are not huge sweet eaters.

Joffrey couldn't partake in this, because he is allergic to peanuts. (I'd wondered about that, since peanuts are so big in Ecuador cooking) these plantains are more what we get with most meals, they are grilled to bring out the natural sweetness, and are soft and mushy. The powder is mani, pulverized peanuts with some seasoning, it's sometimes sold with cheese. We were told to dip the plantain bite into the mani powder and it tasted like a peanut butter banana sandwich. Again, tasty, but I probably won't add it to my daily diet. 

This is Chicha, pronounced chee-cha, we had it once (again with Joffrey) in Charapoto, but it was very different then. Let me explain, Chicha is made with corn kernels soaked in water until they germinate. Then boiled and fermented for several days, resulting in a milky yellow liquid, sweet at the beginning of the fermentation process, becoming sour and raising in alcohol content as it progresses. It is used as a holy water of sorts at festivals, but it never gets stronger than beer, and in some areas beer is becoming more common. When we had it in Charapoto, it was room temperature, and sour, my body would only allow one sip to pass my lips, but this version was sweet, and served over ice, I drank plenty. Joffrey said the stuff we got in Charapoto was commercialized, and this was home made, hence the difference.

We paid our bill, $3.50 and walked down the road to the next stop. Had to stop for a little more medical attention, and saw some Falcons, and pretty water hyacinth.

We arrived at the next restaurant this one serving Viche, which is a peanut based soup, so again Joffrey couldn't have any. We got a bowl of Mixto to share and it was yummy, guess no pictures of that one, oops. It had shrimp,  a couple different fish and veggies. Big glasses of fresh orange juice and we were stuffed, no mas por favor! Good thing we had a bit of a walk, that Viche is filling.

Ladies in the outdoor kitchen. We walked back towards downtown Rocafuerte, talking about this and that. Found out Joffrey is one of 10 children, and his papa had another family that had 5 children. It is very common for Ecuadorean men to have more than one wife ( not in the same house) and Joffrey himself has 4 kids, but is no longer married. We walked by this rice distribution center for lack of a better word, and couldn't pass up the picture of the dogs.

Was the one in the chair recently drinking from that bottle on the table? Don't drink so much you can't guard those bags of rice, haha. Malo perro (bad dog). The first picture of the three of us is in Rocafuerte in front of the church in the main square, it was getting late in the afternoon, so much of the town was closed for Sunday siesta, so we caught the bus back to San Jacinto. 

We had a wonderful day, and enjoyed learning some spanish, and getting to spend time with Joffrey. He recently found us a little house to rent for $250 per month, and when we get settled, we will invite him over for dinner. I'm more determined to learn spanish, and will start a new online lesson today. But first, a walk on the beach is calling, the marine layer hasn't burned off yet, so it's very pleasant. A bag for shells, and our pups on the beach, perfecto! So, stay tuned, the adventure continues, one outing at a time!

Year lease

Yesterday was a new bus adventure, and an all around big day. We were headed up to San Clemente to meet with Dave and talk about renting his house across from the ocean in San Alejo.

We had gone to lunch at the expat restaurant on Friday, and spoke with her about the apartment, and decided it wasn't for us. Dave's was the one, if he'd have us, and as it turns out he's pretty sure it's a perfect match. So we committed to a year at $450 plus utilities. But let me start from the beginning, the bus.

We had to get on the bus that said Manta/Rocafuerte, and it turned out to be the  second bus that came by, so far so good. Finally got a picture, looks a lot like a Greyhound, some are more decorated than this one. We had to transfer at Rocafuerte to the San Clemente/Bahia bus, and that turned out to be a piece of cake, because as soon as we got off, (looking stunned, I guess), multiple people (vendors) asked where we were going, and were quick to point to the other side of the street where we were to wait. The bus came soon enough, except it said San Clemente/PortoViejo, and it was full, standing room only. It was cooler while standing, so that was a plus, and it all added to the adventure. The ticket guy came around, and told a man that was dozing with his toddler to move over and put the child on his lap so I could sit. Not sure if that was because of my boot, or because I'm a woman, but it was nice. We kept driving, and I couldn't be sure that we weren't going to Porto Viejo first, but it didn't matter, we were being flexible. Finally (20 minutes maybe) I felt the air thru the windows turn cooler, and I figured we were headed back to the coast, we passed a really bustling little town called Charapoto, and saw a huge outdoor market (good to know, sat and sun only) and we recognized that we had driven by there the other day with Richard, so we knew we were close. Soon it all became really familiar and we knew we were to be there any minute. We called Dave, and he had a mototaxi pick us up at the town square. We met Dave and his girlfriend Aida at the house and started talking business.

To make a long story short, we've got a list of items Dave will complete before we move in, stuff we are allowed to do, and free storage for our container if it arrives as expected sometime after June 25th. Rent starts on Aug 1st. Super excited, we'll post pictures as things progress, and a video is coming a little bit later today. The pictures and vidzwe have don't really show the potential. We have vision, and that's Muy importante! Very excited for our upcoming year at the beach! 

We had a great lunch with Dave and Aida too, right down the Malecon from the house. Al muerzo, lunch special was peanut based soup, with shrimp, yucca (thought it was potato) and corn, very yummy and then a plate of fish, rice and lentils, and came with a drink. WAY too much food, and each person was $3! The soup is called Viche, and the fish was seasoned to perfection, pan fried, I couldn't eat it all, maybe next time we'll share. Mike says we could eat there twice a week for sure, within walking distance, and at $3 we probably will.

We will bus into PortoViejo this morning, Dave told us about a new grocery store, so we'll check it out. And we need fruit, so we may stop at Cruz a Verde to see Jaime. The buses are already running, but I'm sure the store doesn't open til 10am. It'll be another great day in Ecuador!

Sunrise from the porch. Buenos Dias!

Getting our Visa

We met with Fernando yesterday morning, he's our Visa facilitator, but let me start from the beginning.

We needed a bus to Manta,we got up to the main road but the only buses we saw going past were to PortoViejo, we knew we could catch one of those and get off at Cruz Verde (the fruit stand) and get one to Manta from there, so we did. After we got to Cruz Verde we waited, and waited, and waited finally one came that was headed to Manta, but he must have been full because he didn't stop and let anybody on. I called Fernando just to let him know we were going to be later than planned, and continued to wait. About this time a taxi pulled up, and two other would be Manta passengers made a move for it, the lady who was on the corner selling newspapers yelled at us, I only understood one word "ahora" but I took her sentence to mean "get this taxi, it's now or never". (Ahora means now) so we jumped in a taxi with two strangers and off to Manta we went. It was a pretty quiet ride, the other noise was the driver had an early morning radio show on, just as irritating in Spanish as in English.

The ride to Manta is about 20 miles from Cruz Verde, as we got closer to the outskirts we started to see the tuna canneries, and other big businesses, we past an area where ships are being built, this is a picture from the internet, but definatly something we will try to investigate one day.

We hadn't made concrete plans as to where to meet Fernando, we were just going to play it by ear, we just knew we didn't want to be the last one out of the taxi and get stuck with a huge fare. The man in the front seat obviously told the driver where he wanted to go and the lady in back with us said yes, so I guess that's where we were going...it turned out to be the bus terminal, and only $1 a piece.

See the bus on the left, he's the first in a line of at least 10 buses. The little building right in front is the terminal, ticket stands, bathrooms and some stores selling odds and ends. We called Fernando, and he was there in no time. I had sent him a picture of us, but he said he would have known we were his clients anyway, ha you think ? It was about 9am, only a little late. 

He drove us to a copy place, where we got all our documents copied, and our Visa applications filled out, and then made our way to the immigration office, took a number and sat down. It was reminiscent of a nice DMV office, while we waited we got to know Fernando. He's from Manta, in his early 30's and wants to be involved with local politics and tourism. Very bright kid. He had gone to University in Canada and worked there for a couple years, that's where he learned his English. He spoke very well, and had a large vocabulary. 

Finally it was our turn he spoke with the lady, they shuffled through all the documents, making piles, getting the highlighter pen, highlighting this and that, more shuffling, more piles. It was a little nerve racking, but in the end all we needed was a bank statement for May. Fernando took us downstairs and across the street to a cyber cafe, we logged on to Wells Fargo, printed two copies of the May statement, $2.30 later we were back in the immigration office. Fernando had said we wouldn't have to wait in line again, but it turned out to be about 20 minutes. Still, in the States, they would make you start all over, another day possibly. Our turn came, passports were turned over, scrutinized, stuff typed into the computer, more shuffling, some printing of new applications (because we'd signed in the wrong spot, and wrote in our US mailing address, not the address here) Fernando said she liked us, otherwise she wouldn't have printed news applications for us. Long story shorter...we have paperwork that says our Visa is approved.

Official looking hologram stickers and everything. Our real Visa will be ready later this week, Fernando said he'll call on Friday, and if it's ready we will go Monday morning to pick it up and pay.  We got out of the office with our official looking paperwork about 1pm. $30 each for application fee, and about $6 for copies. We paid Fernando $60 for his help, and will pay him another $60 after it's all done. Money well spent, I can not imagine doing it without him with our limited spanish!

We were all hungry, we offered to buy him lunch, and he took us to a little place we would never have found! We had a breakfast item, his favorite and we could see why. It basically was an egg scramble, with bolon, which is plantain boiled then mashed, bacon and cheese, with cilantro on top, and the fresh salsa ( which here is more like Kim chi than typical tomato salsa) Muy sabrosa! After lunch, we toured around, he took us to the beach and saw some sights before heading back to the bus terminal.

See the blue rooftop poking thru the trees, it is a little shopping colonnade with some food and cool little tourist shops. Right infront of this picture is a workout area, with various equipment set up.

The longest beach we've seen while in Ecuador. Twice as much sand as our little beaches. Fernando says it's quite crowded on the weekends, and I can see why, it's a beautiful city and even prettier beachfront. We look forward to coming and seeing more in the future, but I think it's too big for us to live in.

Since we picked up the bus at the terminal, we were told to buy tickets, so we ventured into the ticket office, they sure like their paperwork here in Ecuador. As we exited the terminal, the bus to Crucita pulled in and we got on to get a seat, about 15 minutes later, we were on our way back to our little beach town. The bus took us thru a town we'd never seen Rocafuerte, it must have some good shopping, because everybody who got on the bus there had shopping bags. We got home about 4pm, needed a shower and a nap! The bus can be a hard ride, and what a day! But we had another adventure, and are one step closer to our goal of being residents in Ecuador. Everyday we are more sure that we are going to love living our life here, it's already begun. 

No plans today, relax in the hammock, life is good, and the adventure continues!