Friday, already?

Another week has come and gone, and with it, a whole entire month too! September was a blur! A blur of painted driftwood signs and clay creations, not necessarily a bad thing, but time flies!

Here are the finished signs I was commissioned to paint for The Cottages. Numbered signs for each suite, that are changeable depending on if the guest wants to be disturbed or not. Color coded so other guests can see at a quick glance who might want to be invited, to say a pool party, or card game. Tranquilo= do not disturb and Fiesta= well means, ready to mingle

The Cottages also have a new washer and dryer for guests to use, and an outdoor restroom.

Another one, for the pool area...

One more is on the way, a vacancy sign to hang out front, and a smoking section sign didn't get pictured. It's a chunk of wood that sits on a table, and the smokers will know to congregate there. It was really fun having such a large project to work on, and get paid! Thanks Kim for trusting me!

As far as clay creations go, we have been busy painting mini plants. 

Having fun with cactus too...

And another wild one...

Mike did a firing yesterday, so we will have new things to paint. I've got to get the last sign finished for Kimberly, and continue getting other works in progress done. Going to ask Jenny our closest tienda if she would display some of our artwork, and see if any of the weekend tourists are interested. It would be nice if we could sell some of this...make room for more.

In other news, we have had some great presents from our fishermen neighbors, crab for no reason.

And we gave out apples and oranges to the neighborhood boys the other day, Alfred had his son Andy working nets with him, so we gave him an orange too...and got at least a pound of shrimp!

Such a great group of people! We certainly love our life here on the beach! Another reason...

This picture is actually Alfred trying to get his nets done before dark. He commented on the picture on Facebook, that he loved this life too.

Life is good here on the coast of Ecuador, fruit truck later today, fresh bread and a walk on the beach. Stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Good Friday

Yesterday was a great day. Most of them are, and we are so glad we moved here. It is "summer" and pretty hot, especially when you are used to being in AC, AC in the house, AC in the car, AC at work, or AC when shopping, it's pretty standard in much of the U.S.

Without having our techo (roof) built yet, we've been doing some hiding in the house, sitting infront of the fans, but we decided we had to do something with our umbrella, and make it a stand. We took one of our stand up fans off its stand and found the umbrella post fits it, it just proved too unstable in the wind. So I went out to the beach to see what I could find, and I found a chunk of cement that had once been poured into a large coffee can, it was heavy, but not too heavy that I couldn't carry it home, and voila, problem solved!

So the last couple days have been spent outside under the umbrella with the beautiful view of the ocean and the breezes that come with it. Thursday evening our fishermen were cleaning up the beach around sunset, they start a pile and then they light a fire, and everything goes in it. They do this every two weeks or so, so I didn't think anything of it...but the next morning they opened their pop up restaurant, yippee! 

We went for lunch there yesterday, had to have my favorite ceviche camaron (shrimp) and we split a breaded fish, super good! We met the brother in law of Fernando, he's a policemen, and felt every bit a part of their family. After lunch we went back to the shade of our umbrella enjoying the afternoon, listening to podcasts and about five o'clock, Fernando came bearing a gift, fresh cheese empanadas and fish conviche (think breaded hush puppy with flaky fish inside). Seemed the perfect time to open a cerveza and start happy hour.

What a perfect end to another perfect day. We shared a couple beers and watched the sunset...

Yes, it was a Good Friday, indeed. Stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Government office closed

So yesterday our lesson in being flexible just kept playing over and over...when we got back from the beach we lazed around a bit til it was time to make something to eat. I went to wash something, and there was no water, what the heck?! 

We called Wolf and he said he'd be over soon, when he got here, he looked around and said "here's your problem, the valve is turned off, who did that?" And we said, "what valve? Nobody turned it off!" We are on city water, we have a cistern (like a well) that gets water supplied to it sometimes twice a week, since this valve was turned off, closed, no water was able to be filled into the cistern. Before we got here they cleaned the cistern, they closed the valve to do that, just in case the city tried to supply water while they were in it cleaning. They then filled it with a water truck, and somebody forgot to turn the valve back on. This is the only scenario that could have happened, unless we have some jokester that scaled our 10 foot spiked walls to turn the valve off...hmmm.

Wolf got the cistern cleaners to come again, husband and wife team that showed up with their tools...a 5gallon bucket, and for $10 he climbed down into the cistern scooped out the remaining water and handed the bucket to her up the stairs, she emptied it, and the process continued. They swept out the mud and sediment and made the tile sparkle. After they were done, we turned the valve to open, but the city did not resupply last night so this morning we got a water truck to deliver and fill us up.

So while this was all going on yesterday afternoon, we asked Wolf about a taxi into Manta for our new Visa appointment, and he informed us that the office would be closed due to the holiday...the same reason for the parade, I called Fernando to confirm this, and after he checked with the website, said yes that the government offices in Manabi province would be closed. Good to know! Geez!!

We decided to make the best of our "free day" and went to lunch and the beach, and now I write this from the hammock. So we had the water delivery this morning, checked email and such and tried a new place for lunch. It was a $3 al muerzo (lunch special) and will certainly tide us over til late evening, 

  The soup is Viche, a peanut based broth, with a plantain dumpling, like a meatball, these were filled with cheese, very good,  then the second course is rice, beans, these were like split peas, ( the other day we had lentils) and a pan fried fish. So tasty, nothing needed salt, too much food, but the fish was so good I was sad when I was at the last bite. The fried plantain still has a little sweetness to it, so I save it for last and it suffices as dessert (would be great with vanilla Ice cream). Today it came with a small soda, I would prefer water, but it was cute.

We then walked some of it off, went to the beach, Mike went swimming, while I sunbathed on the sand. Since it's a holiday, there were more families today than on a usual Wednesday, but it was not too busy. The tents were up and it looked festive,  the marine layer was still hanging on, so it wasn't blazing sun and the breeze was great. We thought about sharing an ice cream on the walk home, but it was siesta and all the tiendas were closed for their naps. Sometimes we think we need a watch, and then we smile and think, no...be flexible!

Our reward for being flexible yesterday was this amazing sunset. We'll catch the bus into Manta in the morning, meet with Fernando and have another adventure, stay tuned. Buenos tardes.

Sunset

We wandered down to the beach the evening of our bus adventure, walked up and down the Malecon seeing and being seen. I think since it's Saturday we will go tonight for dinner and see what the party looks like. Here are some pictures of the sunset the other night.

It had been overcast all day, so I wasn't sure how much color we would get, but it was marvelous. Pictures don't do it justice. Last nights was glorious as well, I'll post it after I get it from Mikes camera. 

We emailed a driver recommended by the owners, he emailed back with his rates, and stopped by last evening to talk in person. He was born and raised in Houston, but has been living here off and on for 12 years. He has a lead on a rental here in Crucita for $400, he was going to see if it was still avail and get back to us. We also have a house in San Alejo a little north of us, we will go look at on Thursday, if Richard the driver is avail, we will hire him for the drive and tour of the area, but if he's not we will take the bus and moto-taxi. We like the Crucita location, but San Alejo is only 12 miles away, and it's right in between San Clemente and San Jacinto, so there may be more to explore. We will see it all on Thursday.

Monday we go to Manta, meet with Fernando, who I've been emailing with for some time. The Visa office opens at 8:30am, we will get that paperwork filled out, some items translated and notarized, and all turned in, and then he may have some rentals to show us. Good to have options.

Here is our first attempt at ceviche, we made it from canned tuna caught in Manta, of course we want to find a source of fresh fish, but we know it works with whatever. It's almost more about the lime, onion, tomato and cilantro than the fish. 

The house that had this hibiscus, had a beautiful collection of plants, was shy to snap lots of pics, but I'll try to get more candid ones as we walk by again. Their street is paved all the way to the beach, so it's easier for me to walk on, this hibiscus was probably 12 feet tall. We are looking forward to our next place, and being there a while so we can start some container plants. So many great things to enjoy! Have a good day everybody, I know we will! Life is awesome in Ecuador!