More gifts from the Fishermen

The other day we got a surprise visit over the fence from one of our fishermen Nexar, I had been in the house and heard him whistle for my attention, I went out and saw him holding this...

I'd seen this type of crab before, once at the Manta fish market, it had been the size of a backpack, and the man said it cost $10. (Turns out it's a Southern King crab) Well this one wasn't that big, but it was free! Nexar kept trying to hand it to me, but I just couldn't get my hands to grab hold of it, thank goodness Mike came out at that point and took it.

I had just been talking about wanting some cangrejo so I was bound and determined to find out what to do with this monster. First, we had to kill him, because, yep you guessed it, he was still alive! We put him in the shower to sit while I looked online about killing, cleaning, and cooking. Here's the ever inquisitive Shadrach checking him out.

He was so furry, like the algae that grows on pilons and piers, how was I ever to get him clean? And how necessary was it to get his outside clean? Mike and I researched Google and Pinterest and formulated a game plan, a pot of water went on to boil, and he went in the sink to get a bath and a scrub. After the water boiled, we plunged him in for a minute to kill him, then we could work on cooking. It turned out to be quite a bit of work, and for not much pay off...

My idea of crab salad sandwiches for lunch was not going to happen. But, plan B was save the crab salad for Happy hour and eat with a cold cerveza at sunset, yep, that worked!

Several weeks ago Fernando Father Fishermen gave us these fish, I tried to tell him we didn't know how to filet or clean them, and he said "just scale them, gut and throw them in a  soup".

And these...

Langosta, yum! I'd already looked them up, so I knew how to clean and cook these. I don't remember, but I think these went into a lobster Alfredo.

So much fresh food and time to mess with it! Because it's papaya season, I've started adding papaya to my morning smoothies, getting healthy benefits and vitamins, and I don't even know it! I've started buying real butter, and gave up on margarine, just one more packaged, manipulated food product not going in our bellies anymore...

Welł, that's it for the gifts, for now! Can't wait to see what we will be given next. I've got oranges, and will make a batch of orange water to pass out to the fishermen in the morning when they are doing their nets in the sun. I'll leave y'all with this, a cute picture, and epitome of Ecuador...when something doesn't work, go with plan B

Stay tuned! The adventure continues!!

Bahia day trip

We recently had our first blog reader visitors, Mark reached out thru email, wanted to know if when he came scouting, we could meet, of course we said yes! We emailed several times, I stalked him thru Facebook (just to see what I was in for, he already knew all about us...) he seemed normal, so as the time came closer we made plans. He stayed at our friends at Casa WF for two days and we showed him San Jacinto and took him (and travel companion) to the Charapoto market. Then they headed to Bahia for several more days to check it out, it was number one on his short list. We got the bus early, only had to wait about 10 minutes (it can be as long as an hour) which was lovely and met them at their hotel.

Hotel Herradurra was a very interesting place, according to the owners, it was once a private residence, and all (or most) of the pictures and furnishings were original. It had ocean view on the one side, where the restaurant was located, and then lots of little nooks and crannies to sit and enjoy tranquillity. 

Beautiful plants and decorations everywhere you turned, they said the rooms were quite comfortable and I believe it was somewhere around $45 a night. I would certainly have taken my morning coffee and breakfast here on this patio, it wasn't the ocean side, but it was very nice.

The previous day Mark had met up with a real estate "agent" and had seen several condos on the market, so he walked us around the point and showed us all he'd learned. A little morning marine layer and it was a very nice walk.

So many of these condos are only short time leases, because the owners in other parts of Ecuador want to be able to use them at their leisure. Not even half are full time residents.

We ended up walking the point and then up thru the streets of El Centro. They showed me what their other guide had told them, and we shared what we knew. One thing we went to see was the indoor market. Everyday til noon this market is running full tilt, main floor was everything from flowers and incense to bagged beans. Meat, chicken and seafood, fruits and veggies, and there were restaurants on the second floor. It was already a little after noon, so much of the stalls were empty, but wow! If I lived in Bahia I would certainly shop here!

Next on our walking tour...we decided to find the stairs and walk up the hill to the big cross. In hindsight, we should have done this earlier, because the sun was peaking thru and it was getting warm, but we did it! Over 750 steps!

Half way point...(actually it wasn't even a third)

Looking east towards San Vicente and Canoa, low tide, you can see the big sand bar in the middle of the marina.

More stairs! I opted not to go up the last batch, the view was plenty good from the courtyard area.

After we walked down, (that's when Mark counted the steps, 375 each way up to the cross, I don't think he counted the cross steps)  we had jello legs and decided it was time to eat, we took them to our favorite Chinese restuarant and enjoyed it, all of it, we had leftovers for three days! We wandered a little more then grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal, they went with us and bought their tickets for their upcoming travel to Quito and we said our goodbyes. Another great day in this wonderful country I now call home, new friends and possibly new neighbors. Mark really fell in love with a fixer upper condo, if anybody wants to be an investor...?! Get in touch.

And there you have it, our short walking tour of Bahia on the bay...stay tuned, the adventure continues!

San Clemente Festival

I've said before the San Clemente Festival is "mucho loco" and we honestly weren't sure we were going to go, but low tide cooperated on Saturday, so we walked down to check it out. We missed the parade, but thanks to Facebook, I can still share photos. The festivities started with a week long evening mass at the statue of the Virgin.

It got fresh paint, windows cleaned and pretty fabric and floral decorations. Hundreds of plastic chairs were set up every night, and the towns people prayed for the strength of the Fishermen and the cooperation of the Ocean to bring the livelihood of the village. (Total paraphrase)

San Clemente always has a much bigger parade than San Jacinto, and this year was no exception. They had the children's English class taught by many of the expat women in the Norte Barrio

They dressed as pirates, pretty cute. As were this group...

The volunteer fire department, and volunteer lifeguards...

Another well costumed group of young performers...

Not sure who these guys are...they look like trouble. Probably SC's version of our Los Vagos (the lazy) group, the card playing men's club

And of course, the snake man...

Drum corp and the trick ponies

Everyone paraded down towards the main stage, where the prominent people were sitting, the Royal court, Queen and Princesses etc. May have been a tad weird at the end, the parade to a dead end, guess they just turned around and went back the way they came.

After the parade was over, the tables were set up for the Gala. We were in town from late afternoon til after 9, and never saw anybody sitting at these gorgeous tables, but after the band started I'm sure people sat. We did not stay late enough for the band, it wasn't to start til 11pm...

We wandered around, eating fair food and shawarma. 

There was a small merry go round, (my picture is blurry) and table games for the kids. 

I met a young man from Chone, and he said most of the tourists were from there. San Clemente is THE "vacation spot", where, most of the SJ visitors come from PortoViejo. (Don't know how much truth there is to that, but he spoke well and wanted to practice his English)

 

This had raffle tickets for sale, probably collection for next years events. We tried to hang out til Pablo's smoked sandwiches were ready, but honestly we'd had enough shawarma, we were ready to head home. 

As we walked southward we passed so many people heading into SC, so as the night wore on, it just got busier and more crowded. Glad we escaped when we did, we rounded the corner into SJ and sighed a sigh of relief, home...our peeps. We tried a new milkshake place, Casa Jeremy across from Minimart and had Oreo milkshakes for dessert. And ho hum, home by 11.

Sunday there were kids games in the square, and music in the afternoon.

Heard thru Facebook, there may have been a small fire, and someone fell and broke their eyebrow, ouch! Surprised that's all the damage, glad it was minor. Everybody had a great time, and I'm sure the town is quiet today. 

So, there you have it. Another San Clemente festival for the books, Charapoto is next on the festival circuit, Joffre took us last year, maybe we should start planning an outing. Stay tuned...the adventure continues!