Friday Boat Parade

We were given a schedule of events for the Festival, and Friday said it was the Procesion Maritima at 10am, we knew from the previous month the boats launched from in front of the house, so we were very excited. When we awoke Friday, there was already a buzz,  a DJ booth and shade structure was being set up and the beer was being delivered. The elves had been busy in the night and streamers were hung from the street lights, balloons were being brought by the car loads to gussy up the boats, it was only a matter of time before the loud music would start.

Behind our nearest tienda, Anderson and Patricia's family, the mass was about to take place, and then we would board the boats. Fernando Father Fishermen asked if we wanted to go in the Robinson, and we said SI! Then Raphael asked, and Ramon asked, and Fernando...it was so nice to have so many offers! When it was time, we made our way down to the water, into the boat for the first time, how exciting...we had almost no idea what was to happen, all we knew was we were on a boat.

Father fishermen's youngest boy Michael in the white shirt, Alejanders boy at the motor, and bye bye shoreline...

Robinson, Father fishermen's oldest boy, and boat namesake in yellow, and little did we know we were headed for that shrimp boat...

The boy in white tank top happened to stick close to us all day, didnt really realize til we were watching the video footage, he may have been asked to keep an eye on us, he is part of the Father Fishermen family, and always waves to us. Sweet to think they wanted to make sure we were safe, we did turn out to be the only Gringos on the boat. (most of the people were from "away" but were Ecuadorean visiting family, not many locals on the boat)

So, how does one get from a small boat to a very large shrimp boat while in the water? We were about to find out...

There were three or four young men waiting to throw ropes and help pull one up, there were some foot holds, but you had to be careful not to get fingers caught between the two moving boats...yikes, but we made it! So NOW WE ARE ON THE BOAT!

We found a good place out of the way and watched as the small boats brought the partiers, here is one of our guys, Junior after dropping off his passengers.

We made friends with the Captain, the guy in red, and his dog, and enjoyed this place until he told us it was time to move, they were going to pull up anchor. We got another great seat, right up front, watched them work to bring the anchor up and off we go!

There's our chaperon, and you can see the smaller boats congregating.

You can just see the tip of the anchor, since we were under the impression we would be in a small boat, we only took our video camera in its waterproof case, so these pictures are screen shots taken from the video.

We stayed here for a bit, then the captain asked us if we wanted to go up top...sure, why not?!

Yikes! No railings, and those ribbons were all we had to hold on to...maybe we better sit down.

Hey, is that our friend in the white tank top!?

We went all the way to Crucita, turned around and headed back. Some of the little boats dropped off, but most stayed with us the whole time. Next year we would like to go with our friends in one of their smaller boats. Thank goodness for the marine layer, we ended up being out on the water almost 4 hours.

As we approached the drop off point, we made our way downstairs (not easy in the crowd) found they had served food, chicken fried rice in to go cups, nice! And we waited to get off, Fernando came to pick us up, but we could not get off in time, so we caught the next one. (This whole trip was free, even the food? Donation? I don't know)

This boat too was over loaded, and we had to kneel in the bottom of the boat. It was very tippy and precarious, but we made it ashore with our lunch!

After we got used to walking on land, we met up with Fernando Father fishermen, thanked him and decided we were all going home for showers, lunch and back out to the beach party behind Andersons tienda. We ate our arroz con pollo, opened a beer and got from boat parade to party mode, wow! What a day! 

The party was fun, dancing with our friends, sharing beers and watching our town whoop it up, being apart of it, REALLY a part of it was awesome! Can't wait til next year, when our relationships are even stronger and we know even more towns people. This party was winding down, and we knew it would move to El Centro where the big bandstand was set up for tonight's band. We went home, watched sunset and waited for our friends to meet up. 

The streets were packed, vendors set up selling everything from kids toys to pizza. The band started almost on time, 9ish was loud and kept us moving. There were three beer tents set up, so never was the line long. (We had had enough drinking by that point) We stayed downtown til just after midnight, and then had to say goodnight, what a day! 

Amazing, can't wait til next year! Stay tuned, the adventure continues...

Gearing up for the big day

Our little village has been very busy getting ready for its biggest festival, the curbs are being painted, the store fronts are getting spruced up and...we got asphalt! It is really bitter sweet for us, we loved our little cobble stone street, but the locals are very excited, asphalt means progress.

This bench is in front of Mamas wine and liquor store, a very popular seat with the neighborhood men. (Those are vecinos knees, the neighbor who made my rake.) Many of us just stood around and watched...

Yesterday when I went to Jenny's for groceries, she had cardboard boxes flattened down on her store floor because the asphalt was being tracked in everywhere, but it's pretty and new and they love it. 

The other thing that has been happening is the blessing of the neighborhoods. The different barrios select a house (or place) to host the Mass, and then the neighbors gather to take part.

This one was set up in what will be a new park

Large crowd, the mass was to start at 8pm, I'm sure it didn't...

Another neighborhood getting ready

Another neighborhood mass

And we walked home from La Boca last night and saw another house near the Armada that had these balloons, so there are still more neighborhoods being blessed.

Also last night, the bandstand was open mic. Joffre, his brother, Edison our shrimp guy, and Pasqual the whale boat captain all sang songs (among others). 

Tonight there will be more "culture", Friday morning the procesion maritima, or boat parade, of course probably right in front of the house, Friday night dancing, Saturday there is a 5k, and more dancing at night, then Sunday the big parade with the school bands and cheerleaders, good times! 

So, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Spinning chickens and a Parade

There has been some sort of festival brewing in San Jacinto this past week, and yesterday we wandered down to see it. We had to go to the bank, and hardware store and were right in the middle of things.

This is the bank in San Jacinto, so far I've figured out the limit on the ATM is $300, so I could feasibly swipe our cards twice and get our rent out of it for only $5 in ATM fees. Faster and cheaper than a bus ride into PortoViejo.

This is the corner across from the bank, and we wandered into the Mini Market shown in this picture, it's awesome, has almost everything we would need from the big city grocery store, so it could save us a trip. The only thing we haven't found in the area is the frozen fruit pulp we use to make smoothies, and someone to make duplicate keys. We bought a "make yourself hose kit" for $9, it's 30 feet, 10 meters of hose (.40 cents/meter) brass hose fittings ($4) and 2 clamps (.50 each).

And THIS is a spinning chicken, we haven't had one yet, but I'm sure it will be good, and so many things to do with the leftovers. We've hardly eaten any pollo since we got to the beach, seafood 7 days a week, sometimes twice a day.

Here is the parade, you can see in these last ones they are lined up waiting to go, they all drive under the shade structure and out the other side...and that's about it. Shortest parade I've ever seen. But they did have trick ponies, and they were fun to watch, but didn't read on camera.

He had cervezas in his holsters, but when his horse would dance they got all foamy. He didn't seem to mind. 

Somebody must have a brother in the plastic chair business...look at all those, after the parade is done, they'll set these up under the shade for people to congregate til the evening, then they'll move them again and there will be dancing. And how can you dance with out music? Never fear the Ecuadoreans have speakers!!! Lots and lots of speakers! We are about half mile from this main square, so we hear the music very faintly, no rattling of windows like in the Crucita house.

There were other carnival rides too, behind this bounce house in a vacant lot. A beauty pageant was held on Thursday and Miss San Jacinto was crowned. A believe a good time was had by all. This is the "high season" school is out for the Quito kids and lots of families here on vacation. Here's a picture of San Jacinto beach.

And this next one is a picture our landlord Dave took of San Clemente beach yesterday, they were having a kite thing, but still much busier than our little stretch of sand.

See how quiet, even on a busy Saturday our beach is? One reason our beach stays quiet is because the high tide covers all the sand, and the beach disappears, but it keeps the sand hard, and easy to walk on, and also keeps it clean.

We went ahead and got some dirt, and told the guys that come next month we will have more cash and they can bring us some plants, we'd like to start with 2 banana trees, some bouganvilla, and sod. The guys Tarzan and Ronald were so nice they brought us some plants for free, they knew we were excited and had to do this poco , poco ( little bit). Needless to say they will be our gardners for awhile!

Sod for this whole area, with tall and medium height things around the edges.

And this area out front we just let them do their thing, and we are very pleased. People put their garbage here on this corner, and sometimes the dogs get into it, then the wind blows, a mess. So we figure if it's cleaned up, and we build a trash platform around the corner, that'll help keep it nice. There's several native ground covers growing up and down the Malecon, I'll pluck some out and transplant it in this new bed. At least I know it can handle the salt, since it's already thriving here.

Just a little more of our lives here on the Ecuador coast. We had a terrific opportunity to go to the cloud forest, but papers we were to sign in Manta won't be ready til Monday, so we decided to bow out of the trip and take care of business. Hopefully, hopefully it'll be done any day, then we can really start to get settled. I want to start making the pups food, but will wait til the crockpot. Different places to sit, a table and chairs to eat at...Awww the little things. I'm not complaining, it's great, it just could (and will) be so much better! Stay tuned! Hasta mañana,