Day 6

Today started with coffee on the couch and getting the telescope out because last night a large boat showed up out front, and stayed there all night, so this morning we are checking it out. There is a Coast Guard boat with it, hmmm what could this be? 

Well soon enough we figured it out. We didn't know all the particulars until later, but this ship had supplies for us. Donations from people in Quito, we had heard yesterday that people were starving, standing on the side of the road with signs begging for help. (one instance where other expats had a very different earthquake experience than we did.) Well, I guess this was good timing. Later I saw these pictures, so I have more of the story to share.

Fishermen gathered to get instruction, go out to the big boat, get supplies and bring them back to this truck. Someone came around to my house asked how many in our family, and how old we are. Food would be coming in the mañana. 

This picture from the Coast Guard boat, brought me to tears when I saw it on Facebook. Wow! All those boats! We watched our boats go out all day, finally Fernando brought us over a couple cans of tuna, and said more would arrive tomorrow. 

On land, the supplies went to a building for sorting, wish we had known, we would have helped.

The people who were out on the road with signs, may not have known where their next meal was coming from, but starving I highly doubt. We are strangers in this land, but we knew there would always be something to eat from the ocean. The stores in town had food, until some people stripped the shelves, they had good intentions, it just made for a whirlwind. When word got out that these expats had free food, the were mobbed, not out of control mobbed, just...over run. Who wouldn't want free food? So even though it looked like a need, it may have been a perk, anyway...nobody starved. 

We talked to several fishermen and got their stories of the TerreMOTO, most had been out to sea when it occurred. Patricio told us he was bouncing around like popcorn and then bam, every light on land went out! Fernando said it felt just like an earthquake on land, but on the ocean, they cut their ropes and headed for land, his mother, wife and child were home alone! 

When we got our food box the next morning, rice, lentils, sugar, tuna, cookies, jello, water, toilet paper, and toiletries. We passed the food on since we were well stocked, but I've used the laundry soap bar, and the toilet paper we did need.(of course I could have purchased it in town)

Another day, I can't believe we've survived six days without power, Mike is really antsy for music, but I'm proud of us! Tomorrow it'll be a week, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Coast Guards and Carpenters

Today marks being in the new house (which we've named Casa Pescadores) a month, and during that time I have really noticed a lot about the boats and fishermen. Day before yesterday I noticed many of the boats that normally "park" out front were not in their usual spots, I wondered if they weren't finding other parking spots, so to not be in our way. But then I noticed the boats were out in the water, just a little offshore, not out as far as when they are fishing, or casting their nets, I found it odd, but continued to observe til later in the day when I found the reason. 

The Captain (for lack of knowing exactly the correct title to use) of the boats was walking towards his boats with a couple men in black and his "right hand man", the men in black (or rather Navy Blue) had clipboards and looked very official. I finally saw the back of their shirts said GUARDASCOSTA, they were doing inspections, going over every inch of the boats hull, motor, taking the cover off, checking for life jackets and fire extinguishers.

So, I've now come to assume the boats that were in the water, didn't want to get inspected that day, and the inspections did continue the next day. I observed life jackets getting transferred from one inspected boat to a non inspected boat, and chuckled. I decided to look up Ecuadorean Coast Guard, and this is what Wikipedia had to say.

The Coast Guard (Cuerpo de Guardacostas de la Armada) became fully operational in 1980. Their mission is to control maritime activities on national territory, including all river zones. The objective is the internal security, protection of human life at sea and environmental protection. 

It said they had 250 men, and quite a few vessels to patrol with, including helicopters, which we do see flying over head. They are part of the Navy, and there were some interesting info about them as well.

The Ecuadorian Navy is responsible for the surveillance and protection of national maritime territory and has a personnel of 7,258^[1] men to protect a coastline of 2,237 km which reaches far into the Pacific Ocean. The vessels are identified by the ship prefixB.A.E.: Buque de la Armada del Ecuador (Ship of the Ecuadorian Navy).  A website called GlobalSecurity tells us this tidbit...Ecuador claims a 320-kilometer-wide (200-mi.) territorial sea. In 1952, Chile, Ecuador and Peru issued the Santiago Declaration, the first international instrument to declare a 200-mile limit. The Declaration made a significant conceptual leap, however, asserting not merely jurisdiction for the purpose of managing natural resources and fisheries, but that each State "possesses sole sovereignty and jurisdiction over the area of sea adjacent to its own country and extending not less than 200 nautical miles from the said coast." Freedom of navigation was restricted to "the innocent and inoffensive passage of vessels of all nations through the zone aforesaid." The United States, in contrast, claims a 12-mile boundary and jurisdiction for the management of coastal fisheries up to 320 kilometers (200 mi.) from its coast, but excludes highly migratory species. Although successive Ecuadorian governments have declared a willingness to explore possible solutions to this issue, the U.S. and Ecuador have yet to resolve fundamental differences concerning the recognition of territorial waters.

So, there ya go, now on to the Carpenters...

As mentioned previously we have a street dog that has adopted us, she jumps over the short concrete wall at the new house and it makes our pups crazy. They can get along, we've taken walks on the beach before, but that is neutral territory I guess, but coming into their courtyard had to stop, so we enlisted a local carpenter to build us a fence. I drew up a plan, translated some key phrases and with a little help from our friend Marty tried to convey what we needed. After some confusion, we got the gist figured out and we waited for the quote. Manuel the Maestro came the next day with written quote and said it would take no more than 4 days, we paid for materials up front and he brought the supplies back later that same day.

He came bright and early yesterday with his son and they got busy. Had all the fence up by the end of the day, mostly sanded and today ready for gate installation and laquer. They'll be finished today for sure, with how fast it went up yesterday. 

I chose this design so we were not blocking our view, we really didn't need the fence for security, just for some wind break and to keep the street dogs out. We'll see how much wind break this gives us, and may add some more slats if needed for our plants to thrive.

Can't wait to see the finished project, stay tuned the adventure continues!

Cabinets, cake and the Coast Guard

Some time ago, Our landlord Dave, acquired some kitchen cabinets for the house. The previous owner had taken the existing ones with them, it hadn't really mattered, since we didn't have but 2 of anything, but now here they are! We've got them in the "Pantry", his wood guy will be around one of these days to retrofit and install them. And when we get the container, I'll have drawers and cupboards, that'll be great! He also talked again about paint next month, a fresh coat of paint makes a ton of difference.

The other day we had to go to Manta, we are pros at this by now! We get on the bus in San Jacinto, $1 for both of us to RocaFuerte, then we get off in front of the panedaria and cross the street to catch the bus to Manta. 

Manta is 90cents each, about 45 minutes and you're dropped off at the bus terminal. From there we know we can walk to the bank, the waterfront is right there, and we follow it around the marina. We saw some interesting things on that mile walk. A bar called Nashville south, had this outside. Not sure if this place is in business, it's never open when we go by, but we've never been in Manta after dark.

The city planners are very fond of traffic circles, all the big cities and little towns have them, most are decorated with statues of what the city is known for...this says capital del atuna.

Both San Clemente and San Jacinto have them also with fish, someday I'll take pictures and post. Usually traveling too fast on the bus to get good shots, but I'll try.

On the way back, we have to purchase tickets inside at the counter, I tell the girl "Dos por RocaFuerte"

Give her $2, she gives my .20cents and two tickets. The bus usually has about 10-20 minutes before leaving, we buy a water for a  $1 and sit in the bus, (to make sure we get seats), but it is hot. The breeze feels so good when you get moving, right on the ocean, but then the canneries get ya! Phew! There's about 3 miles of stink, but to me it smells of money. Local and global commerce, tuna is BIG business here in Ecuador. Anyway, after the stink it's just miles and miles of Ceibo trees, there's a naval base, Cruz verde where we used to buy fruit from Jaime and his family. And back into RocaFuerte, where we buy our cake! I did not being my own tupperwares, which I said I was ( don't really have any) but I brought a different bag, that had a flat bottom, and kept things from toppling over. We bought a couple tres leche, which were in their own styrofoam, and some donuts! Fluffy not cakey, and not near as sweet as US donuts, it was a nice treat. We are finding everything is best fresh, some things are just too disappointing the next day. Queso filled bread is best at the panedaria, can't figure out best way to reheat them. rolls are ok in plastic on the counter for two days, but we have cats that prowl our kitchen at night, so I have to put them in the "pantry". They tore open gallon zip locks, and just bite a little out of each roll...bastards.

And where we catch the bus into San Clemente. This sign says bread store and sweet shop of Rocafuerte, 45 yrs experience. Dulceria is sweet shop, of course nothing is very sweet, and we've decided nothing we need. Dry cookies, meringues and coconut caramel clustery things. No thanks, Can't wait to start baking my own sweets. Mike is missing cinnamon rolls! At least Crucita had casserole dishes, I got nothing, don't even know if the oven works..someday. And cabinets! Yippee

Now, for the Coast Guard. Some of our fishermen go out at night, and we see their lights from shore. They are spread out across the dark horizon, in what looks like a border, they make us feel safe and we started affectionately calling  them "the coast guard". These aren't my pictures, but you get the idea. (Our lights aren't green either)

Just had lunch at home, pb and j, and fresh pineapple. Will go into San Clemente tonight for $2.75 shawarma! We've decided to get three. One and a half each, we tried reheating one the next day and it just wasn't the same. So we'll have our fill and it'll tide us over til next week. Don't want to get burned out. Of course there's talk of a Cuban place called Captain Jack Sparrows we haven't seen it open yet, but some expats went last night and reported they will be open Thursday thru Sunday. They said pricey, but three people for $16, doesn't sound too bad. Maybe next week we'll try it.

Had a promising email last night asking to 'confirm authorization of container delivery', that sounds good! Right?! Of course now it's the weekend, scoundrels! But better believe I'll be getting ahold of someone Monday morning! Fingers crossed everybody! Stay tuned! The adventure continues!