Santa Marianita - Windsurfing, Puppies and "Church"

About a 20 minute cab ride ($8 fare) south of Manta is the tiny village of Santa Marianita, known for its windsurfing. We typically spend lazy Sunday mornings there, stopping at the Donkey Den (yes there are donkeys) to meet friends for breakfast, and then retiring with our coffee cups to "church", where we relax, trade stories, watch the windsurfers, fishing boats and the occasional whale.  

Here's ken hanging out at "church" to the right.  Church is basically a big thatched roof gazebo loaded with hanging chairs and hammocks where we (literally) hang out after finishing our breakfast.

Sometimes our lazy mornings extend into lazy, sunshiny afternoons, forcing us to hang out on the beach where we treat ourselves to fresh coconuts, fruit or ice cream from one of the vendors carts. 

On one such occasion we met up with our friends Fred and Carla and Carla's cute Chinese Sharpei puppy.  Yes Carla is just as beautiful as she looks, but it's impossible to hate her because she's equally beautiful inside and out.

When a friend of Carla's joined us with her equally adorable English Bulldog puppy, we just had to have an impromptu arranged marriage and wedding.  Here's me practicing to become a grandmother should Suri and Pita's union prove to be fruitful.   

It's a tough life, this retirement business, but we're learning to embrace it!

 



Isla de la Plata - a poor man's Galapagos

Just off the coast of Puerto Lopez, Ecuador is the island preserve of Isla de la Plata.  A national park sometimes referred to as "the poor man's Galapagos), it's the nesting place of several different kinds of boobies, frigate birds, tropical birds, sea lions and a variety of other sea life. We took the hour long boat ride over, stopping to watch a pod of whales on the way.  This family of four followed along with us for a while.

Once on the island, we had a choice of several hiking trails with a guide who was there to point out the wildlife and to ensure that no-one interfered with the environment.  As we've said before, Ecuadorians are very serious about protecting their environment.  One of the trails was closed because some condors had decided to build a nest in the middle of it and they were waiting for them to hatch.  Anyway, after a steep climb of around 200 steps built from rocks, bamboo and rope bridges and what basically amounted to wooden ladders, we realized what poor shape we were in and elected to do one of the shorter trails.

One of the highlights was watching a pair of boobies doing their mating dance. They circle each other with the male doing a high-stepping goosestep while whistling at the female, who urges him on with squawking sounds until he gets close enough to touch bills.  This picture shows them at the end of their dance, when they stopped to look at us as if to say "Can we have a little privacy now please".

Standing on the top of a high cliff, we watched these beautiful cliff birds, which our guide simply called "tropical birds".  They swoop high above the break, and then gracefully land on the cliff side clinging to the rock with their wings out and their meter long tail feathers spread out behind. They nest in little crevices in the rock. Facing extremely high winds and craggy, open rock faces, it's amazing they manage to procreate at all, let alone accomplishing it while looking so graceful and majestic.

A few hours hiking the island, then back to the boat for lunch, a bit of snorkeling to observe the colorful fish surrounding the island, followed by a very fast and bumpy ride skimming the tops of the waves all the way back to the mainland.  All in all, a wonderful but exhausting day.





 

Puerto Lopez - A Lovely Weekend Getaway

About an hour south of Manta along the coastal road is a lovely town called Puerto Lopez.  We headed down there with friends one weekend and stayed at the amazing Hosteria Mandala http://www.hosteriamandala.info.  The couple who own the resort started with a couple of cabins many years ago, and now have around 20; each one nestled down a private path surrounded by beautiful flowering plants and trees brought in from all over Ecuador.


While the landscape around Manta is mostly desert, the Mandala is a beautiful rainforest retreat.  The owner's are artists and have decorated each cabin with a theme.  Our cabin was the Pulpo or Octopus cabin, so the etched glass doors, carved hardwood sinks, toilet seat, etc. were all adorned with various octopi.  Our outdoor deck had two hammocks and a seating area for relaxing after a long walk on the beach 

The main reception area, dining room and even the gates of the retreat are beautiful treats for the eye, with everything carved from local hardwoods.  

Each of the hand carved table tops in the indoor-outdoor dining room contain a board game.  After a gourmet meal served by friendly staff who speak several languages, you can sit and listen to the ocean while challenging your partner to a game of backgammon, chess or a myriad of other games. 

Hosteria Mandala may well turn out to be my number one favorite place in Ecuador!

Of course we didn't just relax at the resort.  A walk down the beach to the ubiquitous fish market was in order.  The market in Puerto Lopez is right on the beach in the centre of town, with fishermen pulling their small fishing boats right up on the sand and then unloading their cargo onto old, well-used tables to sell their catch whole, or filleted if you wish. 

Weaving our way through vendors, fishermen hauling in their catch, dogs, locals and tourists, we saw swordfish, dorado, shrimp and crabs being brought to small tables where the bartering began.  The market is a bustling cacophony of sights, smells and sound, and then by the lunch hour it's all cleaned up and the beach is pristine as though none of it occurred. 

Ecuadorians are passionate about their eco-system and their environment.  Garbage pick-up is every day.  All the leavings from cleaning and filleting fish at the market is put in buckets or tarps covering the sand on the beach, and then hauled away (probably to the pet-food factory) before high tide, which then comes in and washes the beach. 

Walking back from the market to the hotel, we were a bit intimidated by these guardians of the environment.  The sign urges you to protect the beach and the aquatic creatures.  We made sure we complied! 

Old Meets New in Cuenca, Ecuador

One of the most well-known destinations for visitors to Ecuador is Cuenca.  A city of about half a million people nestled high in the Andes about 2500 feet above sea level, Cuenca is a Unesco Heritage Trust Site lauded for its beautiful surroundings and ancient buildings.  We found it to be a bustling city with cars and people everywhere. 

Cuenca is known as a haven for Canadian and American "ex-pats".  I always find it amusing that when people come to Canada or the U.S. they are called "immigrants", but when we move to another country, we call ourselves "ex-pats".  Also, people in Central and South American call people from the U.S. "Norte Americanos".  They don't appreciate the term "Americans" being only applied to people from the U.S., as they consider us all to be Americans (North, Central and South). 

We booked ourselves into a lovely little European-style hotel called "Los Balcones" right in the heart of old Cuenca.  Our room was huge with 3 beds and 2 balconies, beautiful old hardwood floors, frescoed walls, an outdoor breakfast buffet on the rooftop overlooking the town, and a fine dining room in the courtyard below.  We had a little pause for concern when we couldn't find the shower, but we opened one of the doors in the wall-to-wall closets, and there it was!  Unfortunately, we were in Cuenca when our camera wasn't working properly, so a lot of our pictures didn't turn out.

Walking the streets of Cuenca  proved to be a challenge.  Streets tend to be narrow and crowded with cars, taxis, buses, 3-wheeled bicycle cabs, and street vendors carts.  Sidewalks are even narrower and merchants tend to put their wares out on the sidewalks when they open their tiny stores in the morning.  Walking down the sidewalk, we found ourselves having to hop down onto the street to avoid bumping into mannequins or being decapitated by hanging merchandise, then having to quickly jump up again to avoid being run over by a fast-moving bus.

It was fascinating watching the merchants arrive to open up shop in the morning.  Some came carrying goods on their back, or on top of their heads.  Others marched briskly to work wearing their native dress, and of course the always present panama hats, which are actually made in and native to Ecuador.

Cuenca is a city of contrasts and surprises.  Walking the streets of old town we found shops full of modern shoes (although not in Ken's size 12 - they laughed at him and called him "big foot"), clothes, jewelry, luggage and so on.  Then we'd walk around a corner and find old style crafts and carved wooden bowls and utensils, hand woven goods and street vendors selling just about anything that could be boiled or deep fried.

Two of our most interesting finds were barbeque racks for the native dish of "cuy", which is guinea pig.  We didn't try it.  Then there was the line-up at a tent containing several old women who appeared to be beating small children all over their bodies with bundles of herbs and dried flowers.  We discovered these were shamen who were performing some sort of blessing or cleansing rite as their smiling parents held them on their laps. We thought maybe they were ridding their children of brattiness, as Ecuadorian children tend to be very well behaved.

The biggest surprise about Cuenca is that even though it is very close to the equator, it is cold.  Our bed had sheets, two heavy wool blankets and a comforter, and we used them all.  We even had a heater in our hotel room which we turned on at night.  We were happy we packed jeans, jackets and running shoes, and we used them for the first time in four months.  Cuenca's average daily temperature fluctuates between 15-20 degrees (60-71 for the Norte Americanos) during the year, and on cloudy or rainy days it feels very cold and damp.  It is a lovely city to visit, but not the retirement haven we are looking for.