When it rains...

We have been watching our inland area flood by the fattening river for months now, also watching horrible flooding in Columbia and Peru. We have to remind ourselves, that in the States people live in flood plains all the time, keep returning to their damaged homes year after year after the flood waters recede. It is no different here. People have land, and they live there, natural disasters come and go, we cant live life by the "what if's".

Here is school that has been turned into a shelter for families evacuated. Kids are on "winter break" so many schools are being used.

I love this one, making the best of it! Our Ecuadorean neighbors keep teaching us that. Shit happens, keep your chin up.

Our exiting president Rafeal Correa visiting the affected areas. He is indeed a special man. I cant imagine Trump doing this...

As close as Charapoto has flooded. Our friends Nexar and family live there, but are in no flooding danger.

Wherever one lives there are natural disasters, sometimes you have warning, other times you dont. We can make smart decisions, but in the end who's really in control? Make yourself crazy worrying or move on? We choose to keep it positive, so stay tuned...the adventure continues!

We have a New President

General elections were held in Ecuador on 19 February 2017 alongside a referendum on tax havens.[1] Voters elected a new President and National Assembly. Incumbent President Rafael Correa of the PAIS Alliance was not eligible for re-election, having served two terms. In the first round of the presidential elections, PAIS Alliance candidate Lenín Moreno received 39% of the vote. Although he was more than 10% ahead of his nearest rival, Guillermo Lasso of the Creating Opportunities party, Moreno was just short of the 40% threshold required to avoid a run-off. As a result a second round was held on 2 April.[2] Based upon 99.05% of the vote counted, the National Electoral Council stated Lenin Moreno had received 51.16% of votes to Guillermo Lasso's 48.84%. (wikipedia)

So, roughly half the country is happy, and the other half is not...I have confidence that Lenin Moreno will continue in the good footsteps of Rafael Correa and bring Ecuador more health, wealth and happiness. He will take office next month, and I wish him well. Stay tuned, the adventure continues...

Screened porch, Ecuador style

There are alot of interesting things about this apartment, one of them was 'what were we going to do with the huge opening'? For all intents and purposes this "apartment" is a garage, and when the door was rolled up, half our living room was open to the street.

I turned to Pinterest as I often do when I need to research something visual, and after much perusing and thought I came up with the perfect plan. Treat it as a porch to screen, and here we screen with security bars first, then we can actually add screen to keep the bugs out.

That meant a trip to visit our welder friend Rene. It took several weeks to hook up with him, (he is so polite he wouldnt bother us if the roll up door was half way) but after the measuring happened it was one short week until...

I chose a sliding door option, probably more expensive, but something we can and will take to another residence when we move. The security bars have a padlock and we can lock from inside or outside. Now we dont need to roll down the door when we go beach walk, or to the store, locking the bars is enough. We also can be in the bedroom or the garden, and not worry some bad child is going to climb over the fence. The dogs are also secure, no more immediatly running into the street when the roll up goes up, we can keep them behind the bars.

Our landlord showed up the day the bars were going in. Rodolfo Delgado.

"Filete" Jose putting his two centavos in...what a character!

Not the best picture, but you can see a couple plants and some seating and we are on our way to a cozy screened porch, Ecuador style. We need an outlet for a lamp and the music speaker and we can open the door so the porch party can spill onto the sidewalk. So many things in the works, so as always...stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Fixing Perry

We finally got our adopted dog Perry castrated and had a nasty sexually transmitted tumor taken off his "winkie". He is doing very well post surgery, and will be up to his normal shenanigans in no time. A local expat who speaks fluent spanish helped us. She stopped and made the appointment with the vet in Charapoto and also drove Perry and I there. She helped in surgery, bought the medicines from the pharmacy next door and has come three days in a row to give him an injection. A real God send! Castration was $40 and the tumor removal was $40 as well, medicines $12. Patricia would not accept any money for her help.

I brought him home and while he was still groggy put a diaper on him, it worked really well. During the night he finally got it off but it worked for a long time, and kept his nose out of his business. We put another one him again the next day, at .25 each, not a bad choice.

He has a healthy appetite, and a pretty new necklace. Sleeping in the house and getting lots of special attention. He is feeling pretty spoiled, now if he just knew where his nuts went...

Towel wrapped around his head as a diy elizabethan collar. I thought of making a cardboard one, but this worked. He really is such a good boy, his biggest problem is he doesnt want to potty in the patio, oh and he doesnt know where his nuts went...

All smiles, what a goof ball. Low tide is in the morning this week, and as soon as Tia Patricia says he can go outside, we will do a beach walk, he always loves those...so stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Sunday is Family Day

Since moving into this apartment we have become much closer to Nexar and family. Maria is often here helping, and we get to chat, look over the Avon catalogue and genuinely enjoy each others company. Mike and I were having a beer with lunch the other day and Maria said she wanted to have a little with us, so we planned a Sunday party and invited the kids and grandkids.

We bought a couple pounds of shrimp, and Maria brought the "hot dogs". They skewer the dog then spiral cut it, so when we brush chimihurri on it it goes everywhere, really yummy! I had some cabbage, carrots and such and the girls got busy making a salad, and in no time we had a wonderful lunch.

The grandkids Dayan and Johanna, both 3 years old, couldnt get enough. They really like the shrimp!

After lunch the kids thoroughly enjoyed making pillow forts, and then they played in the hose.

Another delicious meal and good time. Nexar and Maria were back and forth working, making the bread for the next day, and it gave us time to visit with the adult children. Such a nice family, we are so very blessed to be a part of it.

Maria and I are already planning the next one. We went through the whole family and wrote down everyones Birthday...any excuse to have a get together! So, stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Maykel's Cumpleanos

I was recently asked if I would be interested in attending a young boy's birthday, and I said "of course!". I do not know this boys parents, I do know his father died three years ago, when Maykel was the tender age of 4, and he is family of our "other Nexar" the fisherman from in front of the beach house.

I thought maybe the boys father was a son of Nexar, but maybe his mother is related to Nexars wife. Anyway, however they are related doesnt matter, the invitation was heart warming and Im so glad I went. Maykel was having such a wonderful time!

The invitation said 2pm, and Ive been to enough parties I knew that was waaay to early to go. I'd never been to their house either, so when I asked where it was, the kids said they would come get me. They came at 2:30ish, and I said I needed a little more time, I would be there by 4, they said ok, down by the church, listen for the dancing.

Pictures was like wrangling cats. First one with the boys, then with the girls, then with his older brother and sister. Some dancing games, musical chairs, and then time for the piñatas. One for the girls and one for the boys, so smart because those boys were ruthless!

Uncle Alvaro helped Maykel with the piñatas, and then enjoyed carrying him around for a minute. Maykel was ALL SMILES! All day!!

I was home by sunset, a couple hours loving on my neighborhood boys, showing support and love to the family, feeling so blessed to be asked.

Feliz Cumpleanos Maykel, que dios te bendiga mijo.
stay tuned, the adventure continues...