More Salinas Ecuador Pictures

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry for the delay in posting more about our trip to Salinas. We returned to Cuenca on Sunday and it was my intention post first thing on Monday morning. When we got home late Sunday afternoon, we discovered that we had no internet at home. It never goes down for long so I knew that on Monday morning it would be ready for me to post.

Bottom line, we learned only today that the problem was not our internet provider but the problem is our router. We are now at the California Kitchen restaurant having lunch and catching up on email, blogs, and posting to our blog. We are extremely fortunate because the wi-fi here at the California Kitchen is the fastest wi-fi in town.

Now to finish up on our trip....

After picking Randy and Karen up at the Guayaquil airport, we headed back to Salinas. The drive from Guayaquil to Salinas is about 2 hours. We arrived in Salinas just before sun down. We strolled down the beach for dinner and then realized how tired we were so we headed to bed pretty early.

During the time Randy and Karen were with us we ate at every seafood restaurant we could find. There are still lots to explore, but one of our favorites for lunch was recommended to us by Nancy and Joe Levin. It is called D'Hugos.

Below is Randy's grilled lobster lunch - $10.00


Here is my fried calamari lunch for....$5.00


One of the reasons Chuck and I went to Salinas was to have a look see at the real estate market there. We were shown around by Sabastian, who works for Coldwell Banker in Salinas. Besides real estate Sabastian took us to the Salinas Yacht Club.

Here are some pictures...

Boats docked with Salinas in the background.


Here are Chuck and Sabastian by a mermaid statue.


Here is Karen viewing the scene below from a condo that we looked at.


Here is a view down the beach of Salinas by day....


And a similar view at night....


Here is a street level view of the malacon (boardwalk).


We spent another wonderful evening with Nancy & Joe. Here is Randy being a perfect host in our rented condo before we went out for dinner.


This last picture is one I made of three colorful fishing boats. I am including it "just because."



We had a wonderful relaxing two weeks at the beach. I return trip is definitely in our future. We enjoyed sharing Salinas with Bruce, Charlie, Randy and Karen.

Now that we have our internet problem solved, you will be hearing from us on a more frequent basis.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Change of Pace in Salinas

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I are still in Salinas, Ecuador at the beach and I am still having trouble with my computer and the internet. I am running my little computer on battery power and have to hurry before the power runs out. I forgot my power cord. I will share more pictures of this trip after I get back to Cuenca.

The four of us spent a great evening with Nancy & Joe Levin. They live here in Salinas in a wonderful condo overlooking the beach. Here we are on their "to die for" balcony. Nancy put together some great snackies....delicious!!

Nancy is a fun loving soul. As you can see below, she and Charlie are holding the elevator door closed on Bruce, Joe and Chuck.

Our dinner was delicious and we had a fun evening with them. Lots of great teasing and fun! Thanks Nancy and Joe.


Also, while Charlie and Bruce were here we took a tram tour to the western most part of Ecuador that is connected to the land. (does not count the Galapagos)

The area is called La Chocolatera. When looking at the stops on the tram itinerary, I thought we were going to stop at a chocolate factory. This is where the ocean and the bay come together. When the tide is up, there are some pretty spectacular wave crashes into the rocks.

All to quickly, Saturday rolled around, and it was time to take Charlie and Bruce to the airport in Guayaquil. This time the trip went smooth. Chuck did a great job going directly to the airport.

We reluctantly said our goodbyes to Charlie and Bruce.


Chuck and I went and enjoyed some coffee while the plane carrying Charlie and Bruce took them to Cuenca. Karen and Randy boarded the same plane and arrived about an hour after Charlie and Bruce took off.

We are now enjoying our second week here with Karen and Randy.

I will share more pictures after we return to Cuenca on Sunday.

Love,
Nancy

Enjoying Salinas

Dear Family and Friends,

We drove to the coast on Saturday, the day before the census. We picked up Charlie and Bruce and left Cuenca about 7:30 am and did not have much traffic until we hit Guayaquil. For the next hour we had a marvelous nail biting tour of the city....some places we saw several times. Eventually, we came out the other side of Guayaquil on the correct highway to the beach.

Sunday was a lock down day. We had to stay indoors from 7:00am until 5:00pm. This is how the census is done in Ecuador. Everyone, except police, emergency workers and census takers are required to stay in their home during this time. The police were out to enforce this requirement.

We are staying in a 3 bedroom condo on the beach. We are observing the world from the 16th floor. Sunday was like a science fiction movie.....no cars, no people, nothing going on outside.

Our census takers came to count us around 11:00am. Thanks to Charlie, our appointed interpreter, it all went very well. We had six census takers for the four of us. The census takers were high school students.

Below is Charlie answering the questions for us.


We have been having a wonderful time and although I had hoped to be posting more to the blog about our trip, the internet here is frustratingly slow.

We have been playing a board game we brought along called Upwords, eating lots of wonderful seafood, and yesterday we drove up the coast to visit Bob and Rox.

We stopped on the way up to do some shopping. Here is Charlie with a vase he picked out.



Bob and Rox took us to the famous Casa Blanca restaurant in Montinita. We had a great visit and a delicious meal. Bob and Rox are great hosts.


Here are Chuck, Rox, Bob and Bruce enjoying the sunshine while Charlie and I shopped.



We are taking Charlie and Bruce to the airport in Guayaquil on Saturday and picking up Randy and Karen, who are arriving at the airport from Cuenca to join us for our second week.

Oh, and least I forget, we saw the new unit Bob and Rox have created to rent to guests who want a fabulous Ecuadorian beach experience. It is absolutely beautiful....great work. Their pictures do not do it justice. A nice quiet place to relax. We will go back and rent from them on another trip.

We are having a wonderful vacation from retirement.

Hugs,
Nancy and Chuck

Beach Bound

Dear Family and Friends,

We are off to the beach. We rented a condo in Salinas for a couple of weeks and we are going to enjoy the warmer weather, lots of good seafood, good friends, the ocean and the beach.

Our friends, Bruce and Charlie are coming with us for the first week. We are leaving this morning and driving Puff Puff through Guayaquil to Salinas on the coast.

Chuck had originally planned to drive on Sunday (tomorrow) because the Sunday traffic is lighter, but after we learned about the census, (mandatory stay in your house from 7am - 5pm), we decided to make the trip today and have our heads counted in Salinas.

The second week, our friends, Randy and Karen will be joining us at the beach.

We are told that we will have wi-fi in the condo so I am looking forward to sharing about our vacation in Salinas with you.

Love,
Nancy

Our Thanksgiving in Cuenca, Ecuador

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you wonder if and how we celebrated Thanksgiving in Ecuador. Let me share with you our Thanksgiving celebration today.

We had a gathering of over 100 people at the California Kitchen. They served a Thanksgiving buffet that was as good as any I have had back in the U.S.

Just like in the U.S., it was a time for giving thanks and sharing with our friends. Our friends are like family here.




Did we have a good time? You bet!!

What is Thanksgiving without children? Johnny, son of Bill and Loretta, was our token child. He felt right at home with all us old folks.


Here is part of the line of people patiently waiting to get their turn at the buffet.


And what did we have to eat? Well, due to the hungry crowd, I chose to just take a picture of my plate. As you can see, we celebrated well.


I went upstairs to take a picture of the scene below. All the folks enjoying their Thanksgiving meal in the beautiful courtyard of the California Kitchen.


I took a photo of some of the desserts available. What you see is what was left after everyone was so full that they could not hold another bite. We did not miss out on anything.





While we were all gathered together, Kathy Wesson, introduced herself and made a presentation about an orphanage that has very special needs. You can read about this by clicking here.

So you see, we did not miss out on Thanksgiving dinner here. We did miss having our loved ones close however. That, my friend, is the hardest part of being an expat.

Love,
Nancy (and Chuck)