2018 - A NEW ADVENTURE
If you get car sick (Is that an actual medical term?), I wouldn't advise driving from Quito to anywhere. Toronto boasts of its bike lanes. Well, here they have them on the main highways. That's bikes competing with transport trucks, buses and cars travelling at 100 kph. The problem it seems is that the vehicles think the bike lanes are simply an extension of their domain. So, now we have vehicles of different sizes and length passing in the bike lanes. Heaven help the bike people.
Before we left, RM said she needed to get the insulin out of the fridge. No problem. The manager would look after it and get it on the van before we left. 45 minutes into the trip we realized there was no meds in the van. We turned around while the driver's wife called Juan Pablo at the hotel. OK, he'll now meet us halfway. He arrived with a bag of drugs and RM started hyper ventilating (not really but it makes it more exciting). Lociento, lociento. Everybody is sorry. Back goes the hotel manager to get the bag he missed. Off we go again with a friend of the driver riding up front as a translator.
As the sun began to set, we got lost even though our translator had her gps on. Running in the dark through the mountains gives you a whole new appreciation for the term "pucker". When we arrived at the Aquamarina Hotel in Manta, the girl at the desk looked up and said, "you are Mister Donald Ballantyne?" She told me our room and all 12 pieces of luggage was on the 2nd floor and there were no elevators to that floor, only in the towers. She saw my cane and immediately took us to room 102, just off the lobby. She is now my best friend. The following morning we went to the Cafe for breakfast (free) and got some coffee and toast. All of a sudden, a staff person had two plates of scrambled eggs for us. Muchas gracias! Then he came over with a plate of fruit with grapes the size of plums. Just then Juan Zambrano arrived to take us to the lawyer, grocery shopping and home to Vistazul
So, here we are, 304 Vistazul, San Clemente, Manabi Province, Ecuador, South America. The sun is just starting to come in the front windows so sunset is close - about an hour away. We'll be ready to hit the sack for sure.
Peacock feathers in jar
I've included a couple of pics from the first hotel which is an amazing place with its architecture, menagerie of sheep, sheep dogs, cows (they milk them and ship milk), llamas, peacocks, ducks, rabbits, huge guard dog (friendly) and approximately 33 different species of birds. They also have great kids' menu. Check out the web sight : www.sanjosedepuembo.com
It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. I've been sick as a dog and haven't been out of the condo since we made our trip to Portoveijo to see our lawyer. Rose Mary thinks it's pneumonia and it feels like it used to when I was at Camp Widjiitiwin. We hope it will leave as quickly as it arrived. RM contacted our "over the fence" neighbour to find out about a local doctor. He's ex FBI, Submariner, and he called Dr. Christina when he saw me. I had a 104 on the F scale and was prone to hallucinations seeing a group of Metes in my bedroom and they wouldn't let me turn on the fan.
The weather has been "open the doors and windows" warm and breezy. I'm hoping for a nice storm off the Pacific. We had a little 4.9 'quake last week. It felt like Posie had jumped up on the bed. Marcelo said it was 25 miles off the coast.
Tonight we had yellow potatoes (boiled) and carrots to go with our fresh fish. We ran out of butter and had to eat the veggies without it. I'll never put anything on my veggies again in Ecuador. They were delicious and the fish was firm and moist. Tomorrow we go shopping locally and then on Sunday, we head for Charapoto for the open market. We'll get lots of pics this time as we'll be on our own.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Yep, tomorrow has arrived and it's just the same as yesterday. We went to the hotel for dinner last night. It wasn't a special anything, we were out of groceries. The picture is a natural rock formation between Quito and Manta. The next picture is our best buddy Posie. She's nine years old and we miss her. She's hanging out in Sarnia with her two favourite people, Dianne and Roger and can still visit her other favourites, April and Dave and of course, Bre. There's a mixed breed crazy dog two condos down. She comes to our condo when she gets loose and we open the door and this whirling dervish comes flying in the door, charges around the kitchen then blasts out the door and back to her boss. We think Posie will get along with her when she arrives.We went to Bahia and got a whole mess of food. I tried out a lawn chair and when I heard a snap and my right butt cheek dropped lower than my left one, I waited for RM to come along and pull me up. Time to leave.
We are off to see our lawyer in Portoveijo to get our background check completed tomorrow, January 22 at 10am.
THE LAWYERS
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| "Flori" Zambrano Law Firm Owner |
Veronica translates all our documents into Spanish. I hope you realize the magnitude of this. We have a ton of work in our presentation in order to secure a visa.
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| Veronica (Translator) |
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| Jorge (Paralegal) |
para and then we had to go and get fingerprinted by the federales in Portoveija. Where we went, there were all these national police standing around the front of the building and they look a little more menacing than our cops do. Jorge took us through the process and we are now officially on the files of the Ecuadorian Federales. They were very mannerly gentlemen who opened doors and helped me up and down the steps. You just wouldn't want to meet them doing something illegal on your part. Now, we wait for something to happen - like getting a bill. The rates are great compared to Canada.
Rose Mary commented on the number of taxis we see everywhere. Not just in the cities but everywhere, literally. Our village runs around 2,000 residences and there seems to be taxis running up and down the streets all the time.
THE AGONY OF DE FEET
If you remember the Wide World of Sports, Jim McKay made "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" a much repeated line with a little variation thrown in. After walking more than I have walked in one setting in years, my feet were in denial and that isn't the river. They wanted nothing to do with coming down the stairs but I whipped them into shape and got down.It's weird out today. Our indoor temp and outdoor temp are the same. Usually the outdoor is less but not today. Rose Mary is making a salad for lunch, then it might be time for a swim but I'm not sure. Talk to you again.
Just got up from a nap. That's a nap with no guilt. Here, if you're tired you just lay down for awhile. If you're reading at 2am who gives a diddly squat. It's freedom,
Rosa Maria has a new/old bike with more than one gear. She rode it to Mayers Beach Front Ghoulash Joint (?) and has to take the day off tomorrow to get rested up.
While looking out the front window, Rose Mary saw something sitting on a windowsill of one of the condos. After looking at it through the
It's strange to see an owl pop out of a hole in the ground and look around with that haughty attitude.
Here it is, January 29 and no major storm yet. Today we walked to the San Clemente bus stop to catch a bus to Charapoto. This is where we would go on Sundays for the open air market. It rained yesterday and it made the streets little seas of mud. We had to pay our Direct TV, internet and hydro bills. We haven't got Hydro paid yet and am not sure what the glitch is other than I don't speak Spanish. After stopping for a cold drink and a sit down, we looked for a $4.00 taxi, well actually, they're all $4.00 but there weren't any taxis at all. This is strange as there's usually side streets full of yellow cabs. I think the mud has chased them away. Finally, a shirtless guy enjoying an ice cream said uno momento and he jumped in an empty cab and took us home.
Tomorrow morning at 10am a rep from the company that makes and services my CPAP machine is calling to take me through the steps to reset it. She's calling from Australia. Small world, eh!
A major calamity has occurred - I have lost my left hearing aid. There may be some nefarious circumstances and I hope to learn more tomorrow.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Literally (February 21, 2018)
Tomorrow is here, a little late, but here. I thought I'd better get busy again after all the admonishing flying my way. Some of you are a little impatient but I take responsibility. And no, nothing on the missing hearing aid although there is a reward offered for anyone who finds it.
Our friend at the hotel had his bike for sale and Rose Mary thought we should get one - each. So we bought Marcelo's as a starter. He had a friend or a cousin (he has 80 cousins) who also had one. This one has 21 gears and the lovely lady below said she would take the next one and I could have this one. OK. Well, the next one didn't work out so we have one and it's beautiful. It even has a basket for Posie.
Rose Mary usually walks to the cliffs on the beach every day and today we finally downloaded the tide times for a year. She is always afraid she'll get caught and not be able to get back when high tide rolls in. It can be 2.5 to 3.0 metres difference in height. Now, for us oldie moldies, that's 7 feet to 10 high over low tide. Last year in January we witnessed a high tide that was throwing waves in the pool. The staff had to close some wooden doors to the beach in order to stop the force of the waves from turning a fresh water pool into a salt water pool.
You can see the wooden gate at the right of the picture that had to be closed. This didn't stop the tide from advancing but it did stop the wave action
Today we watched a black bird looking in our front sliding door. We thought he wanted in but it turns out he(?) was seeing the reflection and was attempting to get that other bird to leave town. I researched the name of the bird and was informed it's called a blackbird. Whodathunk! They are fascinating to watch when the grounds keepers are cutting grass and looking after the gardens. Their tails will suddenly fan out and they'll run after a worker. Actually, they run like a squirrel and then suddenly jump. With a beak like a parrot, I'm not sure what avian family they belong to.
JOSH DONALDSON "THE BRINGER OF RAIN" MUST HAVE BEEN HERE IN SAN CLEMENT, ECUADOR AND he woke me up. I thought the A/C had come on at high speed and I was fumbling for the remote. I couldn't figure out why the little light wasn't on and the vents were closed. Coming fully awake, I realized it was coming from the stairway and was the rain hitting the covering over the 3rd floor stairwell. It was a Noahic deluge and I half expected to see an ark floating by. Then..... it stopped. No light mist or gentle dissipating, just stopped. The sun came out and it's now 81F. Of course, this IS the rainy season. The following is the comparison:
Above is January last year. It's graphically clear that in that sand and clay, there are little seeds just waiting for a drink. Below is what the rain can do in San Clemente, Ecuador. The trees are evidence of the nutrition that is lurking under the surface. Again, one year's difference. Our friend, John MacDonald, has many pictures of the amazing growth of his plants and trees. His blog is well written and has great pictures he and his wife Mary have shot. If you are a parent with children in school, they would enjoy his blog as would adults. It would also be a great resource for teachers.
Every morning we get up and look at our back yard to see how much taller our trees are. It's a remarkable view. The grounds keepers do all the yard work. The grass is about 6 to 8 inches long. When you look at it with the top all nice and neat, it comes as a shock to step on it and suddenly you're up to your shins in grass.
PEANUT BUTTER AND MAYO (both homemade)
Marcelo, our friend from the hotel (Palmazul) asked his mother-in-law to pick up some peanuts and flour for us. PB is worth an arm and a leg in Ecuador. The flour is coarser than we use at home so it's a matter of adjusting to it. The loaf today is great but it's a different colour. Rose Mary says the flour isn't as refined and isn't bleached so now we're straight in understanding this great mystery. How about some toast and peanut butter.
Rose Mary is at one end of the table working on a puzzle and I'm reading Nero Wolfe at the other end. We both look at each other and notice we are wobbling side to side, my chair is on rubber legs and the open door is moving. EARTHQUAKE!!!
It starts with a "bump" like a door banging softly then everything starts to move - probably 3 or 4 side to side motions. So here's a 260 lb man (all muscle, of course) moving with the earth. The reports say it could be an after shock from January. We now have our escape plan during the day - run like the dickens out the front screen doors. The back door leads to the mountain behind us and seeing as how quakes move the earth, we don't want any falling on us.
REMORSEFUL
I gotta tell you guys, you are major "nudgers". If I've heard "When are you updating the blog", once I've heard it a thousand (exaggeration) times so, here it is. Please forgive me,
SINCE OUR LAST POST
A lot has happened here in our new homeland. Most of it good! Some bumps but nothing big. One of my teeth (eye) broke but didn't come out. On a personal level, I get along with dentists. On a professional level, not so much. Well, why would I, they are bringers of pain.
Dr. Victor Correna was my new dentist. He looks like he's in his 20's but has trained in the US and Manchester, England. He has all those letters after his name like blah blah surgeon, blah, blah, doctor. Well, that's enough for me. Got the snaggly monster out after telling me that for a regular extraction, it would be $20 ( I know, now pay attention) and a difficult one would be $30. It was really in there and I parted with $30 plus $10 for the consultation. The next visit, he sent me home with a temp tooth after drilling out the rest of the root canal. The 3rd visit, he put in a new tooth. So, for a post and implant, it was $440.00. Rose Mary had a cleaning and xray for $60.00.
Along with Dr. Victor we have a GP, cardiologist, internist (diabetes), and a rheumatologist (pending). So, we're pretty well covered. Oh, we have a local house call doctor as well. Dr. Christina is a petite, beautiful, lady. We met in our living room and she took my temp.(104) and listened to my heart. The next thing I know she has prepared a needle and given me an intravenous shot in my left arm, a different one in my right shoulder and then hauled down my shorts and stuck one in my butt, gave Rose Mary a prescription and asked for $30.00. It was another good EC experience.
FROM ROSE MARY - May 7, 2018
PEANUT BUTTER AND MAYO (both homemade)
Marcelo, our friend from the hotel (Palmazul) asked his mother-in-law to pick up some peanuts and flour for us. PB is worth an arm and a leg in Ecuador. The flour is coarser than we use at home so it's a matter of adjusting to it. The loaf today is great but it's a different colour. Rose Mary says the flour isn't as refined and isn't bleached so now we're straight in understanding this great mystery. How about some toast and peanut butter.
Magnitude 4.6 earthquake
31 km from Manta · 11:14 AM
Rose Mary is at one end of the table working on a puzzle and I'm reading Nero Wolfe at the other end. We both look at each other and notice we are wobbling side to side, my chair is on rubber legs and the open door is moving. EARTHQUAKE!!!
It starts with a "bump" like a door banging softly then everything starts to move - probably 3 or 4 side to side motions. So here's a 260 lb man (all muscle, of course) moving with the earth. The reports say it could be an after shock from January. We now have our escape plan during the day - run like the dickens out the front screen doors. The back door leads to the mountain behind us and seeing as how quakes move the earth, we don't want any falling on us.
REMORSEFUL
I gotta tell you guys, you are major "nudgers". If I've heard "When are you updating the blog", once I've heard it a thousand (exaggeration) times so, here it is. Please forgive me,
SINCE OUR LAST POST
A lot has happened here in our new homeland. Most of it good! Some bumps but nothing big. One of my teeth (eye) broke but didn't come out. On a personal level, I get along with dentists. On a professional level, not so much. Well, why would I, they are bringers of pain.
Along with Dr. Victor we have a GP, cardiologist, internist (diabetes), and a rheumatologist (pending). So, we're pretty well covered. Oh, we have a local house call doctor as well. Dr. Christina is a petite, beautiful, lady. We met in our living room and she took my temp.(104) and listened to my heart. The next thing I know she has prepared a needle and given me an intravenous shot in my left arm, a different one in my right shoulder and then hauled down my shorts and stuck one in my butt, gave Rose Mary a prescription and asked for $30.00. It was another good EC experience.
FROM ROSE MARY - May 7, 2018
Hi everyone. We started out the week badly. Robare our taxi driver was supposed to pick us up at 7:30 am to take us to the lawyers in Portoviejo for a 9:00am appointment. When he hadn't arrived by 8:00am I started to run up the hill to try and find another taxi that was close by. Bill was driving by and said to go to his condo and Mar would call for another taxi. I ran back down the hill, and Robare just arrived. He had a flat tire and his phone was dead so he couldn't call us. So I ran back up the hill to tell Mar to cancel the other taxi. So we finally were on our way at 8:20. It usually takes one hour to get to Portoviejo and we got there in forty minutes. The paralegal, Gabby said that we were O.K. She took our payment to the bank and then we got back in the taxi and went to the government office of migration. Then we took Gabby back to the office and Robare took us to the hotel in Manta. We arrived at Mar Azul Hotel at 1:00 pm. It was very nice, it has three floors and no elevator, a pool, and a restaurant serving free breakfast but best of all it is across the street from the new Pacifico Mall. It was beautiful. I bought a teapot, Posie's back scratching carpet and two matching pillows. ( blue of course )
Tuesday morning at 9:30 we had to meet Gabby at The Ministerial de Relaciones Exteriores Manta,so we enquired at the front desk to find out where it was located and it turned out to be only 400 metres from us just across from the mall. Donnie didn't even plan that!!
We waited for half an hour and then it was our turn. The officer spent an hour reading through every page of our documents. That included our education, our marriage certificate, where we were born and of course our Police check. Then we were photographed and then we heard the wonderful sound of a stamper hitting our papers, which meant the Ecuadorian government had just accepted us into their country. I hope the Canadian Government is as picky about who they allow into the country?
We have one big problem because we have to wait for our two year visa to be in our possession. If it doesn't arrive before we leave to come back to Canada, we have to be back in Ecuador by July 1st, because that is when our extention on our tourist visa runs out. SO we are asking for a lot of prayers!
Sorry for the lack of communication, we are having Internet problems.
Love to everyone and thank you for your prayers.
Rosita Marie.
