Salinas fotos

Working

Sitting area

Kitchen/eating area view

Out the window

Pool area

View from the front entrance

La playa a la dercha (notice all the people).

Mismo

La playa a la izquierda - es una mejorara playa

Mismo

The yacht club

Condo entrance

Condo

Been enjoying la playa.  Have met some folks here who are on the buying frenzy in Ecuador.  It is very tempting.  Price are ridiculously low by US standards.  Took some pictures of the condo and beach.

Cuenca reflections

As we wind down in Salinas, we are going to try and take some time to jot down some thoughts about Cuenca. Salinas has been spent mostly en la playa. I will take some pictures after the weekend crowd leaves.  Although busier than during the week, it has not been bad.

I am going to start with electronic technology.  Cuenca has cable internet and wireless internet.  Everyone has a cell phone.  Many have smart phones. Apple just opened a store in a very modern shopping center.  With all this, it is very odd that most retail stores will give you not only a computer invoice, but a handwritten one as well. And often a cash register receipt, also.  I got the impression that the handwritten one was the receipt that was really worth something. Check outs could take a considerable time as all this paperwork was being generated.

Social networking is very strong, in Cuenca, on many levels.  The young people are very active on Facebook and You Tube.  Many of my guitar lessons had a You Tube component on Pablo's smart phone.  Especially clips of the old performers doing the old songs. But there is still a reliance on the old reliable methods. On Sundays, trucks go up and down streets with blaring horns. People can dump old furniture and appliances in the trucks. The collectors sell the merchandise.  The furniture is stripped and redone and resold.  Same with the appliances.  Also, during the week, the gas men drive through neighborhoods, honking their horns. They have trucks full of propane tanks. The tanks are used in the houses for cooking.  People can exchange their tanks, on the street, rather than going to an outlet.

The mega phone is, also, used widely. Religious groups and politicians walk the streets spreading their message.  The best thing is the cars or trucks with PA systems that drive the streets promoting musical events.  The Blues Brothers live on in Ecuador.

GPS. They don't use it here - but really need to. There are very few road signs. The GPS system, in Cuenca, is, while stopped in traffic, to get someones attention and ask directions. You may or may not get accurate directions (no one wants to say they don't know or appear not to help). On our way to Salinas, with a Cuenca driver, we got lost in Guayaquil. We stopped at least ten times before we got correct instructions.  By then we were on the opposite side of town from where we should have been (not good - Guayaquil is the largest city n Ecuador).

Few businesses take credit cards, in Cuenca. If they do, they charge you extra for the fee. It is really annoying.  There must be some difficulty with international transactions or something.  But, it really holds them back. In Salinas, a tourist town, we haven't seen that.

Television is mostly satellite (Direct TV).  It is mostly in Spanish - good for our practice. U.S. football comes on Sunday and Monday nights. It is in Spanish.  It is actually better that way.  The announcers get really fired up. It is interesting.  You sometimes can hear the american broadcasters in the background.  Apparently, the spanish speaking broadcasters are listening to the americans and broadcasting simultaneously.  Pretty amazing.  A few shows come in English.  They are usually very odd ones.  Like American Chopper.  Maybe Senior and Junior can't be translated into Spanish.

Salinas

We are in Salinas.  Por fin, puedo llevar pantolones cortos y sandalias.  Leaving Cuenca fue un poco triste.  We were both listo, but there were some relationships and memories that were hard to leave.  Our trip to Salinas was, actually very good. Our driver was not trying to impress NASCAR through the Andes.  Also, I figured out that if I put my I Pod shuffle earphones on and turned the volume up as high as it would go, my brain would not worry about the road. Plus all the drugs helped (just kidding).

We are staying in an incredible condo, owned by an artist in Maine. We are on the 20th floor, with incredible views.  I forgot to take pictures for this post, but will take some for the next post. This would be unaffordable for us anywhere else in the world, but Ecuador is still a real estate bargain. There is a condo/hotel going up fairly close to us (same builder as this building).  Apparently, all the units are sold. Contrast that to the rest of the world - and you can understand why Ecuador is booming. We spent our first afternoon and day exploring and getting set up with provisions, etc. We have had a bit of sticker shock at the restaurant p,rices after Cuenca - but will be doing a fair amount of cooking at the condo, especially this weekend when the place will get crowded.  Right now,the place is deserted. It is great. After Cuenca, we appreciate less traffic and congestion.

The condo owner referred us to a young man (Ramon) who will drive us to the airport for our final leg out of Ecuador.  He is a budding guide who is actively learning English.  He and another fellow, Chin (part Chinese) are going to school together and are partners in the fledgling guide business.  We took a tour of the Salinas area today with Chin and a driver, Juan.  We went to the Chocolaterra area first. This is an area on a military base. It was used by the US in WWII. It is called the Chocolaterra because two currents, in the Pacific, collide there and produce turbulence, and the rocks and sand, affected, make the water look brown.  The ocean is very rough here. Quite a contrast to the calm bays around the area. Apparently, our troops dumped all their equipment (trucks, bombs, etc) in the ocean , after the war.  Why, we don't know.

Nest to the salt flats.  A huge Ecuadorian company runs a salt business here. They take the salt or sea water and process into salt for the table. It is quite a process.  It takes many years to get the water from sea water to salt.  There are miles and miles of ponds in various stages of evaporation. One of the offshoots of this business is that birds, of all types, come here to feed and mate.  The water is pumped in from the ocean and contains shrimp and krill and other food for the birds. Some 125 species of birds come here to eat and reproduce. Fortunately, the company protects theses animals and the public can come and observe the aves.  The highlight is the pink flamingos that come form Chile. They come to mate and eat. They were here - but very far away for pictures. It was the first time Becky or I have seen them in the wild.

Next, was a museo sobre la vida de Salinas muchos anos pasado.  It was very interesting. It took life from the early indians through the Spanish Conquest.  We then went to an Aquatic Museo housed in a hotel above the ocean.  We had actually considered staying at this place.  It is beautiful, but very remote.  We will go up there for dinner, but we like our location better. The museo is very interesting. They have original and reproductions of very old Spanish life on the sea.  The hotel and restaurant reminded us of some places along Route 66 in the US where people have obsessive collections of historical stuff.  What they have at this place is incredible, but sensory overload. Tonight a new restaurant.  Tomorrow, la playa.

 Building near us. The structure on the right is what they bring the bricks up on - this is thaken from the 20th floor of our apartment.

Chocalloterra

 Los exranjeros

Caballos

Becky's meds started to work last night.  She felt much better this morning (although not nearly fully recovered) and was game to visit one of the expositions going on close to our apartmento. First, we met with nuestra amiga Maria who owns a small convenience store on the bottom floor of our building.  She has been a real friend and help to us. She is not open on Sundays, so we said our adioses today.We then went to what we thought was a farm animal exposition. It was really like a gigantic county fair. All around the fair grounds were venders and food sellers.  Inside was more of the same.  Also, carnival rides of all types. Even fun houses, etc.  After getting some sun glasses for Becky (lost hers on the return trip from Galapagos), we found our way to the animal area.  It was mostly all horses.  We spent the afternoon watching the show competition. Many of the breeds were specific to Ecuador or South America.  The highlight was the showing of Paso Fino horses. They are a very old breed from the Spanish introduced into South America hundreds of years ago.  They are small but quite beautiful.  Their trot gait is different than the normal trot gait.  It is muy suave. Valen's uncle has several.  We got to ride them four years ago. We walked back to the apartment.  We, first had to get past the throng by the fairgrounds and then past the mob at Feria Libre. We survived. Tomorrow some clean up and packing for the coast.  We scrapped our plans for Quito and will stay an extra three days in Salinas rather than Quito.  We are ready for warm temperatures and ocean breezes.

 Maria con su amiga

 Maria con su amigo

 A new friend

 Shetland ponies are normally cantankerous, but this guy must be something.

 The arena

 Horse being judged

 Being judged

 An American breed. Quite a bit larger.  It was crazy but beautiful.  About five minutes after this photo, the horse kicked the handler in the abdomen.  After  a few anxious moments, he recovered and finished out the show.

 Another beauty

 Paso Fino mare and foal.

 Same pair

 Paso Fino male

 Becky couldn't resist

 This sow found the feed bag in the pen. She worked and worked at the sack and finally got it open. Sow fiesta. Pigs are smart.

Becky's idea. Memories of her farm days. Or Minnesota State Fair days.

Medico

Becky's cold symptoms escalated, so we went to a clinic downtown that was recommended by a pharmacist. There were about 30 docs in this clinic. We were immediately taken to a doctors office. He saw Becky right away. After a history and exam, he diagnosed a sinus infection. Fortunately, the lungs were clear (or limpio as he said). He prescribed an antibiotic and two other medications (cough and cold symptoms). His charge - $20.00.  The farmacia, at the clinic, charged $47.00 for the three medications. Our US system needs to change to be this cost effective. And, we were probably paying gringo rates. Also, total time in clinic and pharmacy - half an hour.  We are laying low today and hoping the meds kick in quickly.

Cuenca Independence Day

We spent most of the day in the downtown area yesterday..  We went in around 9:30 to get a spot for the big parade.  It was supposed to start at 10:00. We got a nice spot on a raised walkway area. In front of us was the sidewalk.  People were sitting on the curb.  An Ecudoriano couple (about our age), sat next to us. They struck up a conversation with us. This was a little unusual, as normally (we have found) they tend to be a little reserved, at first. We enjoyed the visit. Not long after, a nun with about 10 young boys (7-8 years old) sat down near us.  The Ecuadoriano woman next to us explained that the boys were orphans and were under the care of the catholic orphanage. They looked well cared for and we assume are getting good schooling, but it was sad, nonetheless.  Family is so important in Ecuador (all Latin America).  The boys will have to make their way without the customary support network.

At 11:00, there was no sign of the parade. We began to speculate about the actual start time. As the hour approached 12:00, we feared it would be 1:00 before it got underway. It did start around noon. The parade was, primarily, floats, dancers, music etc., from the various barrios of Cuenca. I think there are 29 barrios. By the time the parade got started, our prime seating location no longer existed. People were standing in front of us. There were thousands of people. So we moved back and stood.  This provided a fairly good vantage point.  But photography was difficult. With everyone standing, could not get full shots. Also, the sun came out - then the umbrellas came out. A lot of the women use umbrellas instead of hats. Good for the hairdo but it ruins the viewing for a lot of people.  So I spent much time cropping the photos to get rid of umbrellas, etc. The parade was very colorful.  The dancing is always  great to watch.

After lunch, we wandered around and watched and listened to music and street shows. There are a million artists in town. There is much down by the river.  We plan to go there soon. Later we went to watch my guitar teachers' group play. We had to wait a while for them as well.  Not their fault.   They were set up and ready to go. But the announcer started giving away stuff to audience members who would come on stage and answer some questions about Cuenca and Ecuador. This went on forever. At one point he asked for an extranjero to come up. Of course, we didn't budge.  But then he asked the crowd if there were any extranjeros present. And, being the only ones there, people started pointing at us. So I ended up being the extranjero representative. The group finally got underway and the music was great.  Pablo acknowledged me, again, to the crowd - very nice of him.

On the way him, we passed another plaza where another group was playing. Besides the instruments, they had four singers (tres hombres y una mujer).  They played uptempo music, but did a choreographed routine a la Motown. They like that kind of thing here.

Crowd beginning to swell

Balloon guy

Smurf guy

Cotton candy

Balloon lady

This smurf lady had her daughter with her (maybe 3-4 years old). When the girl got tired, mom would put her on her shoulders and carry on.

Dancers

Mayor of Cuenca

We couldn't figure this out

Mare balloons

Parasols

Float 

Dancer

Float

Float

Kids on a float

Muchachos on a float

Dancers

Masked dancer

Mas bailadoreas

Military colegio (high school)

Riding in the semi pulling the float. Best seat and best cotton candy in the parade.

On a float

Demonstration on a float.  Most floats had a traditional life type of theme.

Barrio reina

Young dancer

On a flaot.  Not sure what this one was about.

Colonial formal wear

La misma

Cuy on a stick

The payback to Becky for this will be painful. Thats Boris on the drums.  He is a great guitar player, as well.

Dancing in the square in front of the bandstand

Colorful costume

The band.  Boris is hidden behind the led singer.

Pablo on keyboard

El grupo

Pablo - he is usually not this serious

Another shot

Becky has come down with a cold.  It is going into her lungs and she sounds like she has bronchitis. Not good as her history with bronchitis usually means a trip to the doctor. Not sure how much we will do today.