Sandbags and Sandia

This year the ocean has decided we had too much sand, and it took it all away...I remember last year, the boats were parked in front, but not this year!

This is a picture two weeks ago, when the "sea wall" went in. The big earth mover dug up a bunch of little rocks and piled them up in front of half our house. But over the course of the next weeks, the tide came over, the sand got washed away, and all the little rocks fell down. Fishermen helped us with our sandbags, after the sand in front of our gate finally got washed away.

They were beautiful new steps...until high tide!

Note the new bag holder, the old one couldn't be reached anymore, so I put a new one on this side, but after the sand got washed away, it couldn't be reached either, so bag holder 3.0 is on a pulley.

We had invited the Romero family over for Americana Norte Comida on Saturday, we had agreed on 1pm, we had hoped that when the men got back from fishing they would help us redo the sandbag steps, but they must have had a good day, because 1pm came and went, and the boats were still out. The ladies all showed up about 1:30 ish, and we went ahead without the men, thinking they would be back shortly.

I got the ladies to all have a glass of Sandia (watermelon) wine, and Mike started the grill. We visited and had many photos, the girls loved having a place to pose.

Dominica is taking modeling classes, and was ALL ABOUT THE PHOTOS! Mama Lola's birthday was last week, and I had finished her present, a driftwood cross, they all loved it.

We ate hamburgers, macaroni salad and potato chips, and even tho the men didn't get back til late, we had a good time with the ladies. I pulled out the string, shells and beads and the kids and I made necklaces before it was time for home and naps. It didn't turn out exactly like I had planned, but a good time was had by all. It was nice the ladies didn't have to cook, I think they enjoyed that, and a nice Sandia wine buzz didn't hurt.

Update on the new monument next time, 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!

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!

Working on the wall

For some time now, the big earth movers have been anxiously waiting for low tide, so they can go down and scoop up rocks. The wall doesn't appear much different from the road, but from down on the beach we could see a lot. (Photo credit our neighbor Lyndell)

We awoke to no power this morning, so we decided to walk on the beach since it was low tide. We were out about an hour, then the sun started to break free of the marine layer and we realized we needed sunscreen. We went back to the house and even though the power was back on, since we had the beach all to ourselves, we took our coffee and the pups out for more more beach time.

We took bags for shell collecting and walked about 2 miles to the south. I've had these pictures awhile, waiting for a post, and today is it. Down towards the Boca (mouth of the river meets the ocean) there are ruins, sea wall and house ruins. The ocean does what it wants, and apparently back in 1983, the ocean wanted this house.

This sea wall didn't stand the test of time, I wonder how the one they are using now will fare? What we noticed about the rock sea wall, is that instead of making the wall taller, they are widening the base of it.

The tide is back, and the earth movers are gone, til tomorrow when they will scoop more rocks to build up the base of the sea wall. Since we enjoyed having our coffee out there this morning so much, we will do it again tomorrow, maybe I'll remember the camera and can post some more pictures.

In container news:

I thought I had a lawyer working on lifting the abandonment of our container, every week I emailed for an update and she said she would find out. Finally last week, after a full month and then some I got nasty, and she confided in me that her "go to" person in Guayaquil had...disappeared! WHAT?! She said she would see if she could find someone else, but in the mean time I should look for someone else too...so she wasn't liable for any delay. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

So, here I am back to the beginning...AGAIN. I give up, the Pirates have won.  I don't know what to do, find another attorney? Another month of fees has accrued, that's put us at a grand total of $8820!  I'm wrung out, can't fathom getting out from under this now, I'm thinking better to just start saying it was stolen by bandits!  Call that chapter closed...move on. We do have hope for getting residency with the rental income from our property in the States, after months of "people in the know" telling us we'd never qualify, a trip to the Immigration office in Manta says try it. The other rental property has gone on the market and fingers crossed it will sell quickly. If it sells before our notarizations and apostilles from the States, we can use the proceeds to gain our investors residency.

We really love Ecuador, the weather, the beach, the food, the people, the slower way of life, simpler way of living, LOVE IT. We want to explore other South American  countries, but we really want to put roots down here first. The climate here is perfect, I got enough fall colors and pumpkins on Facebook, and I won't miss the snow and ice, not one bit. Below freezing temperatures are a thing of the past for this beach bunny!

So stay tuned, our South American adventure is NOT over, it continues one cup of coffee on the beach at a a time.