Experimental Dining

Sid can't go anywhere without trying something new. Today it's a "spikey" fruit called Soursop. It's not really sour but not quite sweet either. The juice can be used in drinks or to flavor ice cream.

Shopping in Manta

Mary, our hostess more or less, and her friend, Mesfin, took us with them up to the big city of Manta today. They have a huge shopping mall, a big hardware store and a fantastic grocery store. We had lunch at the food court with a view of the ocean.

One of the more random items for sale in the mall was a complete dental chair setup.

Playa Los Frailes and the Marichililla National Forest

We are encouraged to make the most of sunny days here. So we took ourselves off to the National Park for some hiking, spectacular views and a swimming beach.

The park is about 40 minutes and $0.75 a piece away. The nature trail takes about 2 hours with views of two different beaches (Playa Prieta and Playa Tortuguita). Swimming here is forbidden due to dangerous currents and submerged rocks but the walk ends at Playa Los Frailes which is safe enough to swim and mostly deserted this time of year.

Las Palmas Projects (or how we earn our keep)

The community we're living in was intended to have 37 homes which would pay HOA fees to support guards for the gate, a landscaping crew, pool maintenance, etc. However the builder "went out of business" after collecting most of the money and partially completing only a few houses. Nine homes were eventually completed using another builder. So the HOA fees aren't sufficient to support the staff, maintain what's been built or to complete items that weren't completed (like paving the streets). Also because of short cuts taken in the registration process they can't form an HOA or require dues. But the residents and some of the lot owners have banded together to voluntarily contribute to a fund to pay for these items.

Five years ago the let go the full time staff and started to use "Workaways" to convert the guard shack to the casitas, keep the beach clean, keep the vacant lots from getting overgrown, and do minor maintenance and repair. They accept couples (so we don't get too lonely) and require a month minimum stay (to smooth out the transitions). We each work 15 hours a week. So far we've painted the speed bump, swept the pool area, rebuilt some sketchy outdoor furniture, replaced bamboo edging around the gardens, jerry-rigged the tennis court gates so they can be secured and won't fall off (serious rust issues abound here). We plan to help with programming the automatic gates, and cap off the water line to the cistern that won't be used. The builder plumbed it to accept city water but didn't permit it, etc. It still gets filled by a truck when needed.

Any of the residents can come up with projects for us but so far they don't need much.

Daily life at the casitas

Our normal routine is to work a few hours in the morning with breaks to stare at the ocean waves followed by a simple lunch and a walk in to town or a nap.

The walk is about an hour on the beach except at high tide. At high tide you'd have to walk in the soft sand and it would take longer. Luckily the tides are in our favor.

Puerto de Cayo has a dozen restaurants along the Malecón (beach view) - seafood and beer are not unlikely in our day. The town is very small, less than 5000 residents, and has four or five shops around a town square with some food. Enough for us to pick up some meat, eggs and veggies for dinner. Then a short walk to the gas station to catch a local taxi. The ride home is $2.

There in no hot water in the casitas and the water is not potable. We can boil water to wash dishes or pretreat it with chlorine. Drinking and cooking water comes in 5 gallon jugs.

The shower head is electric; it heats the water as it comes out. They call them suicide showers. Don't touch it when the hot water is on; you will feel a jolt.

The clothes washer requires a bit more intervention than at home but it is automatic. You manually control the water addition, then open the drains when the timer turns off the cycle, close the drain and add the rinse water, open the drain again, then transfer the clothes to the centrifuge to spin them "dry". Then you hang them on the line. Until today we haven't had much sun but the wind is strong and things dry quickly.

We have both a gas stove and an electric skillet for cooking and a random collection of leftover spices, some not marked, to keep the cooking interesting. Right now we are waiting on the veggie truck. He comes on Monday morning and is like a mobile roadside stand. There is another truck that delivers later in the week but apparently this guy has better prices and is the local favorite.

Since today looks to be a sunny day (rare here in Winter) we will pick up trash along the beach as our "work" and then head out on a bus to Las Frailes; it is part of the National Park of Machalilla). It's about 20 minutes South of us and has hiking trails and a good swimming beach.

Getting acclimated to our new home

We found the pool deck (the pool is closed), the hammocks, the beach, the ocean and met a few of the neighbors.

Puerto de Cayo, Ecuador

Our home for the next month will be this casitas. We can see the Pacific from our door. The community has a private beach and currently only 14 residents so it is very quiet.