What's new?

Another month has come and gone...where does the time go? As our days drain away, so it appears do the months, all of a sudden they're over and another beginning. Wow, time flies! 

August is the month of the San Jacinto festival, so neighborhood and beach clean ups are going on, painting in El Centro, and vacationers spilling into town. The first of the festivities was the other night, crowning of Miss San Jacinto. (According to the calendar of events, this was to take place after 8pm, but the next day this picture was posted on Facebook...)

The next events are this weekend, Friday, a night of recognition for important townspeople, and Saturday a "night  of culture". 

In other news, The sand is coming back to our beach. The boats were all lined up, for a couple days not a single boat out front, the boat parking looked like in this aerial picture we found. (You can't see our house, but it's behind the white one on the point)

But...one day last week

The sand formed a barrier, then the water came in from the side, filled in the low area, and this water can't get back to sea. It's an even larger pool today, not threatening, but making it difficult to get the boats in and out.

So interesting to watch how the water, sand and fishermen change over time. We have five boats that usually park here, they are all getting the prime parking spots at the road entrance, further from shore, but safer from high tide. The other boats forced to park here are giving us new fishermen to connect with, yesterday I was given these.

This is a dinner plate, the big one is the size of a banana, no joke! So after I bonked the little one on the head to get him to quit squirming,( that's how fresh) I continued to clean them, then I cut a pineapple and took it out to share with my new neighbors.

Have been working on some painting, have a table set up in the living room, this is the "view from my art studio"

Walking and beach combing everyday this week, low tide was in the morning, and I'm on the hunt for wood. I have a large project in mind, but must gather the materials, and wait.

We had the opportunity to kayak up the PortoViejo River last weekend, it was great fun! Got up early, skipped market and got on the water before 8am, kayaked almost 2 hours, then had brunch and mimosas, what a lovely day spent in the fresh air with friends!

There were so many Pelicans, frigates and heron back in these mangroves, (hard to see without a zoom on the camera), but it was such a sight, and sounds! Awesome, and the marine layer held on just til we were done, which was nice, so we didn't get cooked. We will certainly do this again!

Lastly, we have a new dinner place to add to our rounds, Shawarma by Fransisco in San Clemente. He used to work for Pablo, so he has the recipe down pat. We went Friday before last and it was Muy Rico! We will go again, and get some meat to go...love leftovers!

Life is good! And Fresh...on the coast of Ecuador! Stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Being famous has some perks

Friday night I realized I was famous. Mike and I had of course been counting the days til the weekend because that means $2.75 shawarma, but when we got into town...the place was closed! Plan B would be the Cuban restaurant, but gasp! That was closed too! What the heck? The only thing we could figure, was the festival had plum tuckered them all out and they were taking a break. Well, on that note we decided to walk back to San Jacinto and eat at Ali's.

We had about a quarter mile still to San Jacinto when some men walking towards us, stopped and said "you're Paige and Mike, I follow your blog!" We chatted a couple minutes, found out they were heading into San Clemente for the infamous shawarma, but upon learning of the closure they decided to come to Ali's with us and get to know each other. Dinner was great, as always, and the company was better, we had a great time. Actually closed it down, and we made plans to try shawarma on Saturday.

Marty and Jim are from everywhere, been together like 25 years, and bought land down in San Jacinto on the Boca. (Mouth of the river) They've been building a house over the past year, and finally came for good. We found we had North Carolina in common, and talked a lot about the culture of the South, and how it prepared us for South America. (Hijacked this picture from their Facebook, hope you don't mind guys)

Saturday we did meet up for shawarma, Pablo was in Manta, but had everything ready and Fransisco did a great job putting the shawarmas together. Silvia was there helping him, and the two did very well, Pablo should be proud. After shawarma we took Marty and Jim next door to the Cubans, and we had a donut and coffee. Having lived many years in South Florida, they are excited to go back and try the Cuban sandwich and other dishes. But agreed that the donuts were out of this world.

We invited them in for a nightcap, tour and meet the pups, and in no time Veronica was in Jim's lap. She usually takes a while, even several visits sometimes, before she warms up, but he must be special. (we think so) They said their house was dog friendly, and we could bring them anytime. Even offered to dog sit, which is always an added benefit, we don't trust just anybody with our furry kids. We bid goodnight, and all agree this is the start of a beautiful friendship. Being famous rocks!

The sun was out bright and early today, no marine layer this morning. Tide is high, but won't be for long, maybe pups to la playa later, and we got pineapples from Angel yesterday, so I know there's smoothies in our future. The Cubans said they would be open today til 3pm, so maybe Cuban sandwiches for lunch, but whatever we decide to do, it'll be awesome. Beautiful weather, great food,  my best friend and love of my life, yep it's pretty good...stay tuned, the adventure continues. Hasta Luego.

Shawarma and shrimp

We heard about a restaurant in San Clemente that served shawarma, we headed down there one day, just to find out that he only did shawarma on the weekends, it took us a couple weeks to get there on the right night, but boy was it worth the wait! 

Chifa Surf is the name, and if you remember from an earlier post, Chifa is Chinese food, so not only does he do shawarma, but he does Chinese, great to have two very different options to seafood! He, is Pablo, a young man originally from Lima, Peru, who has traveled much and studied cooking in Israel, he is a master! 

We got there early the other evening, he was just getting set up, but you can see the shawarma doing it's thing, let me see what Wikipedia says about shawarma.

Shawarma (Arabic: شاورما / ALA-LC: shāwarmā; Urdu: شوارمہ) is aLevantine^[1][2] meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef,veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit (commonly a vertical spit in restaurants), and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. Although it can be served in shavings on a plate (generally with accompaniments),shawarma also refers to a sandwich or wrap made with shawarmameat. Shawarma is usually eaten with tabbouleh, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato, and cucumber. 

I'm pretty sure he said this was chicken, and his toppings are lettuce/cabbage slaw, tomato, onions, and the wonderful flavorful sauces. His sister is in Israel and was trying to ship hummus and spices over, yummy!

As the meat cooks, it's juices drip in the pan, then when he cuts the meat off, he let's it fall into the pan, where it swims in the juices just a minute before being placed in the sandwich. This little tabletop meat spit is powered by a gas tank. At one point in the evening he went across the street to another restaurant and came back with another gas tank, we thought this one was out, but...

Somebody had ordered Chinese, so he started up his inside cooking space to prepare it. One of these days we will have to try his Chinese food, but the shawarma is just soooo good! Oh yeah, the shawarma sandwich...$2.75

We tried the restaurant next door the day we went looking for shawarma on a weekday, and it was Muy Rico! (Very delicious) We tried something new, camaron a la plancha, and were not disappointed!

We had been getting pescado frito, and sometimes it was pan fried, but other times it was deep fried (not what we were looking for), but we found a la plancha, is iron plate, so it is more or less seared on a hot grill. Perfecto! So when we saw they had shrimp done that way, we jumped at the chance to try it.

This was 8 shrimp, and I know I got 8 to a pound, so we got a whole pound of shrimp! Very tasty, and so was the fish. We usually get two different things and share, yum. Shrimp $7, and fish $4.50.

The ensalad is shredded cabbage, cucumber and carrots, with a delightful lime/ vinegar dressing, we can care less about the patacones, (plantain rounds) but all in all a great meal. The outdoor seating is in the shade usually, which is always a plus, and only a storefront from the beach, so beautiful view and breeze. Definatly one to try!

Just got word from Catalina, that we have more papers to sign in Manta, so we cancel our lunch date, and will get on the bus. Our lunch date was with someone who also is working with her, but has a furnished condo and was going to loan us an end table and lamp, aww the little things. But there's always tomorrow...Hasta mañana! The adventure continues!