A last taste of Ecuador - July 2018

Bienvenidos a Guayaquil

It was a sad goodbye leaving our beloved Tag and Patches in Mirador San Jose to continue our travels in South America.   A few days before we had welcomed the new housesitter and spent a couple of days handing over the reigns.

We took our usual bus to Manta to get a connection straight through to Guayaquil.  A bit of a backwards way of going forward, but being a Sunday and having all our luggage with us, we didn't fancy the shorter more complicated route that at busy times there are no seats to be had and you're it, standing in the isle till a seat becomes available.  Fortunately our bus stopped in Jipijapa (pronounced: Hipihapa) where our favourite coffee roaster has a stall at the bus station.  There seriously is no other reason to go to or stop in this place but his coffee is amazing!  We had previously made the treck on a friends recommendation to buy five packets of the stuff to last our stay in San Jose.  This day we bought a hot coffee to enjoy on the bus.

Guayaquil is a bustling, noisy port city and is the gateway to the Galapagos.  Although the Galapagos was one of our wish list items of places to see in the world, we decided it was far too expensive and touristy for our budget.   We later found out that it may have been possible to talk a local boaty into taking us out there at a much cheaper fee.  Oh well, maybe next trip to SA ;-)  We were happy to just hang out in the city for a couple of days, enjoying the markets and street food. The quails eggs were to die for!

We also enjoyed the way the coffee was served in the cafes.   Strong cold espresso in a bottle which you added to hot milk or water.  A pleasant change from the 'not quite' Nescafe instant supplied on most of the cafe tables we had encountered so far.

We came here with a mission to buy a pair of jandals/flip flops each as both our pairs had died the silent death of overuse with two months on the beach.  Can't do better than US$5.00 for two pair.  The hussle and bussle of the markets are always great fun but soon have you feeling dirty and tired and ready to retreat to your hostal for a shower (and you are lucky if you have hot water) and bed.

We ventured out into other parts of the city to discover some awesome colonial architecture.

Some interactive (?) sculptures

Note the aforementioned new flip flops

And Simon Bolivar Park (many South American towns have one; poor man will be turning in his grave at the state Venezuela is in right now!) .... filled with many large lazy iguana.

And thanks to the smiley policewoman who took this photo for us :-)

Next we were headed into the mountains to the quaint wee town of Cuenca.  The views out the bus window were spectacular and reminded us very much of New Zealand.

In Cuenca we checked into a charming hostal, Casa Rumi, run by an equally charming expat US guy, Gary.  He was most accommodating and informative and cooked us a very filling breakfast every morning.  It was at one of these breakfasts that we met a fascinating Taiwanese couple who were cycling around the world.  They had already done a stint from NZ to Panama then returned home for a year and were just starting again.   Having exchanged social media details, we have been enjoying following their journey ..... part of their Ecuador story

Again we were impressed with the architecture ...

The wood carved inside of an old Farmacia

We were lucky enough to go on a magical mystery bus tour of the city!!!   The story starts with a guest at Rumi who was leaving Cuenca gave us a bus card and said if we put a couple of dollars on it we could get on the bus for 30c each and go as far as you liked on that particular bus.   Boy did that turn out to be true!   Having googled which bus we needed to get as close as possible to the lookout on the hill .... off we went.  (Spoiler: this is not the first, and won't be the last, time google information has failed us in South America :-)

Reading the paper at the lights!

Apparently there are two number 15 buses!  The one we confidently borded completely bypassed our drop off point and we ended up going to the last stop .... high on a hill completely on the wrong side of the city.   Not to be detoured, we had a cup of coffee and took another bus down the hill, across the city and got off around where we wanted to walk up the hill to the view point.  Mission accomplished.  This was the first time we had been at altitude for a while, Cuenca being at 2,500m, and it really does affect ones lung capacity on the uphill slog.  Still, it was worth the effort.

Big walk, time for a rest

After walking back down the hill (much easier), we stopped at a roadside roastery and enjoyed a meal of pork and veg. Delicious!   We turned down the opportunity to try the cuy (guinea pig), a local delicacy, at $20 a pop.

Roast piggy

Chicken and cuy roasting away

Remember that bus story above? .... it's about to get even weirder!  Priding ourselves being city bus experts by now, we got on a bus back that posted Terminal de Bus.   This would, in theory, drop us very near our next tick list item, the Panama Hat factory.  Hmmm, again we miss our stop and end up accompanying the driver to his last stop .... on the top of a hill on the other side of the city.   At this point we realise our poor grasp of the Spanish language is letting us down.  There seemed nothing to do but hop off and join some locals and other drivers (who found our predicament rather amusing) for a hot chocolate.  James got talking fishing, as you do, to another bus driver who then offers to take us where we want to go on his bus.  Or at least that's what we thought he said ;-)  Hey, don't knock it.  You can pay $8 each to go on the red double-decker bus on the full city tour, or you can get a completely accidental tour of the city for 60 cents each!  Hope you're keeping up so far ...

Oh, and true to his (Spanish) word, the bus driver did get us to the hat museum,free of charge no less.   The Panama Hat was actually founded in Ecuador and the museum was a real treat.   It was free to enter and really fascinating to be able to watch the process in action ... and try on some of the more upmarket hats.

Exhausted from all this galavanting we limited the balance of our stay to activities closer to home.

Mercado 10 de Agosto ... another whole pig roasting

This cute young man is enjoying a yoghurt
drink we gave him after being given a couple
at a promotion further up the street

Oranges on the loose

Cake shop

Not seen a harp busker before!

We found this cool museum which is built on an old Incan ruin site, telling the story of the Inca's history.  James wasn't enamoured with the layout which attempted to tell the story by region rather than by timeline.   Still, there were some very cool displays.

Street art of Cuenca

Playa San Jose house sit, May - July 2018

Statue of woman weaving a Panama hat, Manta

The bus trip from Quito to Manta took approximately 8 hours and went surprisingly well considering how sick we had both been throughout the previous night.  The scenery through the mountains was a true delight.  Arriving in Manta we took a taxi to our pre-booked accommodation and really could have done with going straight to bed.  But no.  We couldn't rouse anyone by ringing the buzzer, had not credit on our phone to call the number on the sign outside so just had to sit on our rucksacks. We must have done a good job of looking forlorn, as a lovely guy from a house across the street came over and asked it he could help.... in English, no less!!!  He called the proprietor who came back in a taxi from wherever he was and declared he had not received our booking.  We couldn't have cared less at this point and headed straight to our room where we slept like babies and awoke feeling much better.

We arrived the next day at the bus station in Manta which, in the cool light of day, turned out to be a really modern place with an awesome food court and supermarket.  We caught a bus to the place we would call home for the next two months, the journey along the coast taking only and hour and half.

Mirador San Jose is a Canadian owned and operated residential development on the beach.  It is marketed in Canada to those looking to relocate as a first world tropical paradise.  The reality is that it is a gated community with many third world problems but we like our new place instantly.  It was the 'off-season' during our stay so most of the Canadian and American people who lived here had returned to their 'other' homes for the summer.   So we had no neighbours and for the most part the place was fairly deserted and quiet.  Just how we like it!

Our charge, Tag, turned out to be an absolute gentleman and very easy company.

Tag has a girlfriend, Patches, who lives up the road and these two were dynamite together.  We had so much fun on our daily walks on the beach, picking Patches up on the way there, running her ragged getting her all sandy, then dropping her back home.  Simple pleasures in life for us all!

Digging for crabs

Our house was a small yet comfortable two bedroom, the best feature being the rooftop deck where we were capable of whiling away large patches of the afternoons.

We took the bus back to Manta once a fortnight to stock up on groceries.  Rafael came twice a week with a cheap and (mostly) quality supply of fresh fruit and veges, cheese and peanut butter.  We were happy to be able to re-establish our habit of fresh fruit smoothies with pineapple, coconut, bananas, strawberries and anything else available.  In countries such as this you can't have pre-conceived ideas of what you want to eat.  You need to be flexible enough to appreciate what is fresh and local at any given time .... and run with it!

This is a Pepino Dulce (it wasn't very nice)

The water wagons came around weekly to replenish our drinking water and the gas guy also came to swap bottles.  We just left the empties out front of the house with the money under them.  $1 for a 15L water bottle and $3 for a 15kg gas bottle.  Some things in Ecuador are really cheap.  Petrol is only $1.50 per gallon!

We took a day trip down the coast to Puerto Lopez, a reasonably touristy coastal fishing village, found the fish market and bought some fresh fish .... chiefly because James hadn't caught any yet ;-)  We also enjoyed a bowl of ceviche at a local restaurant.

The malecon - Puerto Lopez

This lady filleted our tuna

Looking back at Puerto Lopez

Speaking of fishing, there really was all sorts of fishing to do on the coast.  James quickly made a local friend, Luis, whom he went fishing with most weekends.

Luis walking over the ridge to access
the rocks at low tide

The fisherman waiting for tight lines

On Father's Day we made a day of it, lunching with Luis and family at their home, then packing the car with the six of us (including Luis's two boys) and headed to the same spot.  James was the only one to catch that day ... a Jack Cravell and a Snook.

All prepared and ready .....

To make ceviche!

Fresh fish, red onion, tomato, avocado, coriander all 'cooked'
in lemon juice

The guys and their mate Terry hired a boat for the day and went fishing out at Isla de Plata off the coast of Puerto Cayo.  Luis and Terry both live in PC and it is about a 20min bus ride south of Mirador San Jose.

This is Luis taking a break from building his house ;-)

The boys are proud of Dad's catch too!

One day, whilst walking on the beach at low tide, we came upon some local guys trying to drag their very heavy set net in.  James quickly stepped in to give them a hand.  After a few of them working hard at it for about 20mins people started appearing out of nowhere to help.

They came on foot, by motorbike and by car.  Apparently, the locals have a bush telegraph so that when a catch is hauled in, if you are there to help you get to take some fresh fish to feed your family.

  We were grateful to be able to choose a couple of sierra mackerel as we have not tried it before.   Very yum!

Tag was also happy with Dad for 'bringing home the bacon'

We came across all manner of living and dead gems during our wanders on the beach ....

Pelicans flying overhead

This poor guy had a broken wing

Pelican skull

Sadly, were many dead turtles washing up on the beach ...

The cycle of life and death ... vultures
cleaning up the dead turtles

Turtle skulls are bigger than you think!

These amazing corals growing on rocks .....

Clare managed a little recycling of her own by knitting a market bag out of plastic shopping bags.  Unfortunately Ecuador does not yet have a concept of environmental conservation and there is plastic EVERYWHERE, including all over the beach.  Reusable bags have not caught on here yet.

This was gifted to a friend as it is a bit
bulky to fit into our 'carry your worldly
possessions' lifestyle

Some of our favourite pics of our canine companions ...

Tag loves to play

 

Best mates