Moving2Ecuador

Our lease is up on July 7th and we are to fly out on the 13th of the month, so I am feeling some urgency about getting all my belongings organized. I had a huge pile on one side of my bedroom and today I decided to devote all my energies to that pile and not leave the house until I had mastered it. I gave Maya a list of violin tasks to do while I dove in. And I focused and persevered and by noon the pile was gone. Except that the pile on the left side of the room was much larger. The left side holds everything that I plan to put into the four suitcases Maya and I are allowed to fly with. Our major outing of the day was to go by Ecovia to the Mariscal to purchase another suitcase. Eric had directed me to Amazonas next to the Coffee Tree, where I found an expandable bag on wheels. It can be small and it can be enormous. I am not sure about the quality, but it will do for the journey to Baltimore. Orchestra and violin lessons took over the late afternoon and evening, but I was able to pa...

We woke up to mist and rain again today, thankful that we had stayed on the beach all day yesterday. It was our final day at 'Mantaraya', so it was our last opportunity to visit the archeological remains in the area. The Machalilla Park is the site of several significant ancient cultures. The Valdivians, the Chorrerra, the Machalilla, the Bahia and the Manteños all settled in the area and left their mark, and there is evidence of Inca remains as well. A local indigenous group developed their pueblo into a tourist site after archeologists excavated some graves and discovered evidence of a large community of over 5000 inhabitants of the Manteño culture (800 to 1500 AD). Agua Blanca is part of the Machalilla Park, and one enters into the community through a gate to arrive at a museum filled with Manteño artifacts. Our guide was 'Klever' and he led us through the museum and the gravesites and the whole community. He realized very soon that we were interested in birds, so h...

Rain or shine, today was to be a beach day, and so it was, and an absolutely marvelous one. We took a 'motortaxi', which is a motorcycle which has been attached to a two wheeled buggy. The contraption hardly looks safe, and is loud and slow, but is the premiere mode of transport throughout the town of Puerto Lopez, and up and down the road that follows the shore. We arrived at Los Frailes beach before 10, established our space a little to the left of the entrance, and explored in both directions. Maya was in her bathing suit in minutes, despite the lack of sun and threatening rain. We followed the pelicans diving into the water to the left of us. They were busy fishing and ignored us. There were tide pools with crabs and sea urchins and sea stars, so Maya was scrambling all over the rocks. Two small very inviting enclosed beaches on the other side of the rocks beckoned, but there was no dry sand to sit on, so we did not move our 'spot'. I settled in to read a book that...

It was a grey, misty, rainy, warm day without a glimpse of sun. We joined an Argentinian couple and a group of giddy Guayaquileños for a day long trip to Isla de la Plata, the 'poor man's Galapagos', where blue and red footed boobies, frigate birds and albatrosses can be found. We drove to Puerto Lopez and walked along the beach, where all the fishing boats were pulled up on shore. It was Sunday, so it was a day of rest and the fishermen were on their beached boats fixing their fishing nets. We had to hitch up our pants and wade out to our boat, where I insisted on climbing to the front so I could look out for whales. The waves were huge and I soon became soaked from the spray. Maya and the rest of the young women moved to the protected area of the boat but I continued to sit and get wet. There was an American fellow with his Ecuadorian girlfriend who became seasick and entertained the group as he vomited off the end of the boat. We were far out to sea and near the island w...