Salinas is Busy on a Hot Sunday

Another fantastic day. Very few clouds, a temperature of 31 degrees and packed beaches. If you like activity it was a great day. Sorry I forgot to get a picture earlier.

For a late lunch we walked around the back street and ate at the Mar Azul. We had shrimp ajillo and stir fried rice with shrimp and a personal pizza. My pizza was good- ham and cheese and pepperoni.

 But the shrimp in both the shrimp dishes was rotten or at least tasted bad. Those dishes were a waste as they were the main ingredient of each. We are hoping for health and not a GI attack. 

Someone was cutting weeds with a machete and cleaning up in front of his property. I picked up an aloe vera plant he had pulled. I smeared the juice on some sunburned spots on my legs. It was seven dollars in the store for about three leaves worth of the stuff. Days later I was still using the juice on my head and shoulder burns. It worked fine.

My chef just put the chicken on the stove. He says supper will be ready in a couple of hours. These gas stoves work different than I am used to with electric. What do I know. 

And the housekeeper just complained about a couple of small deposits of dirt that must have come off my sandals. Traveling with your staff is almost like being at home. Except I am forced to look after my own laundry here as not all the regular staff wanted to travel. 

At 6:35 I headed west to try to get to the iglesia merced by 7pm. On the way the sun went down so I have more sundown pics. 

I got to the church on time and by 7:20 was one of over 400 participants in the event. Over an hour later we all filed out. I did not understand much as it was in spanish, and the sound system just bounced off the stone walls and got drowned by the multiple cooling fans hanging on all the pillars.

Good night. Tomorrow we go fishing.  6 km today

Testing the GoPro Under Water

Today extreme low tide was at 11am. So I was walking the beach then to be able to walk out in the tide pools. I also had the GoPro as the only camera this time. It's hard to go swimming if you have an iPhone or regular video camera in your hand.

The Salinas beach at low tide

underwater with the GoPro

I did some swimming - well, floating on the San Lorenzo beach. It's clearer if you get out past where the waves are churning up the silt and sand.

San Lorenzo beach

In the afternoon we went to Common Grounds for a cappuccino coffee milkshake and cinnamon bun. Both were great. Free wifi here too with the password posted right on the wall. Big screen TV to watch futbol as we were there in the middle of the FIFA preliminaries.

At the end of the day these fishermen were beaching their boat for the night. It took five of them to move the heavy wooden boat far away from the ocean tide levels.

Then for supper it was homemade burgers and raw veggies. Another relaxing day done and gone. 

.8 km walking

Another Hot and Sunny Day in Salinas

Up to the roof terrace again today to relax and use the hot tub. It's the weekend so there are many more people around than during the week.

I walked the Salinas malecon again today. This time with sun screen and long pants to avoid burns. Quite a warm day with lots of activity in town.

We cooked in again this evening. It's a good method of avoiding disappointment from unrealistic expectations of the food here in Salinas.

This is a chicken in homemade teriyaki sauce with zucchini vegetables and rice.

2.4 km walking

Wednesday- Fantastic Weather Day

This was the best weather day so far on this trip. It was probably in the high 20s but may have tipped into the 30s as well. As I type this my phone says it is -19 back home Ahhhh!

The clouds disappeared and let the sun through right from the early morning. We went down to the beach and explored the tide pools. The water was warm and of course there were hundreds of small fish in the pools. 

By ten o'clock we had the staff fill the hot tub and were enjoying the upper deck on the 14th floor. This is good for a couple of hours and then I headed back to the beach. 

Early in the afternoon I left and walked the Salinas malecon- taking photos of each of the large buildings. It makes future rentals easier if I am a bit familiar with the locations of places that are listed. This time I went from left to right. Four years ago I went right to left and it was awkward each time I wanted to scout locations. We shall see.

At the west end I stopped for a liquid refreshment in a bar on the corner called Manaba'r.  The menu looked good and may be worth revisiting when hungry. For now just sitting and having a cool one was the best thing to do on an extremely hot day. If you need internet, this place has free wifi- just ask for the password.

Here is a beer that is billed as local but is certainly different than constantly drinking Pilsnor which is the cheapest thing you can buy that is called beer.

I wanted ice cream and walked towards a local grocery store. But I got sidetracked at a nearby salon and spa. I went in and asked the price of a haircut. The lady had her son there because of the school vacation. We spent about an hour teaching the youngster some English pronunciation of simple phrases. Kind of like the beginner things you learn in Spanish. I showed Michael how to run my video camera and he even shot some video of his mother cutting my hair. So if you are in the mood for a cut or style drop by the New Station Salon & Spa. Just up the street from the grocery store called mi comisario.

Here is the video from the event. Thanks Michael. I hope to see you again some day. I do not have an email for you, so you will have to contact me.

Then I went across the street to get my ice cream and caffe lato cold drinks. The ice cream survived the 15 minute walk home in the 25 plus degree heat. 

The internet came back on in the evening at the Ibiza with the tech company on site.  It must have succumbed to a voltage spike with the power being out in the building and the emergency generator coming on and off.

5.4  km walking

Sunday is Move Day from Ralph's Hostal to the Ibiza building

Time to move. We had only booked Big Ralph's Hostal for three nights. And we were to meet our new landlord at 10 am. So by 9:30 we were packed up and began the trek of dragging the suitcases the three blocks distance to the Ibiza building on the Salinas malecon. Not too bad except we took a shortcut up a side street. And that made us bypass the Ibiza. And that turned the trek into 29 minutes and likely 17 blocks. We still arrived on time so no harm done except for more perspiration.

You can see Ralph's from the roof terrace on the Ibiza

We got the tour and the how-to instructions. Paper in the bin not in the pot. Washer dryer is slow and you might want to get the doorman to take your laundry to a local laundry service. And the pool is down for maintenance so we won't have that either. Hmmmm. Thankfully the internet works. But the pool and laundry were things we looked for on AirBnB when we booked. My fault. I forgot to ask if they worked.

But the place is very nice. Great view. Excellent kitchen. The glass slides fully open if you want fresh air. Lots of air conditioning. Three bedrooms three bathrooms. Lots of space.

Up on the 14th floor is the terraza. It has a nice 360 degree view of the whole peninsula.

The Ibiza is high enough to be taller than most buildings nearby so the view is fantastic. It's also only three years old so it isn't crumbling yet.

 
We walked down the street behind the Salinas malecon until we got to Cafe Jazz. It's basically a light food cafe so we were able to get coffees, sugar cakes and meat crepes. A nice touch was the hot towels arriving in bowls before the food. Nice to be able to wash our dirty sweaty hands. This place is a bit of a hostal too, so there are people staying in the building.

 
Then we took a taxi into Libertad meaning to go to el Paseo mall. Gave him the wrong name so he drove way past and dropped us off in a seedy area with lots of street stalls and smelly fish. We walked through with a quick look. I was too afraid to take out a camera so there are no pictures.

We walked back to el Paseo mall and had ice drinks in the food fair to cool us off. Also a Chinese meal that was too cold to be worth eating. More ice cream. Then into the store for shaving cream and some orange drinks. Then into another taxi and off to the super-maxi on the way to Salinas.

 
Over an hour in super-maxi to fill a shopping cart. Food, cooking bits, drinks, and junk food. Now we don't have to go out for every meal. Lots of options for the two chefs in the group.

One more taxi back to the Ibiza and we are ready to live on our own.

5.9 km walking

Rain, Coconuts, Fish and Chips

Today was a travel day. We thought we were to fly at 10:15 from Quito to Guayaquil but the flight was delayed over three hours. We checked out of the Quito Suites Hotel and headed to the airport to wait it out. Dinner was at the Guacomole Grill in the Quito outgoing lounge. The food was good but not cheap, and in line with airport prices. Definitely a better service and quality offering than the burger chain before the check in at this airport which we had tried five years ago.

 While waiting in the airport we thought we were to finally board. Nope, we were being paged because everyone had to read and sign a piece of paper that would give a future rebate because our flight had been delayed in leaving. It was going to offer $60 which was more than the flight cost in the first place. Kind of useless to us as we would have to book the next flight through a specific office and not online. So I ended up with a fancy piece of paper with my name on it.

Our private driver was patiently waiting for us upon arrival and we had the most awesome ride from the airport to Salinas. We heard many interesting stories and were shown many sites that were described to us. We stopped at a roadside kiosk to purchase a couple of coconuts. The vendor hacked off the tops and we had ice cold coconut milk for a refreshment. Coco helado is what they call it.

The driver even took us on alternate routes to show us special locations. To finish it off he delivered us right to the door of Big Ralph's where we were to stay. I'm not promising at all that you would get the same tour and service but we had booked the driving services from Angela de Souza before we even left home.

By the way the desert areas of July and August are very green and lush. Many of the creeks and rivers are raging water flows due to the uncharacteristic large amount of rain this year.  In some places on the trip the rain was actually a downpour and twice water was flowing over the highway. 

 

We booked in at Big Ralph's, then walked a bit on the Salinas malecon til after dark waiting for Ralph's restaurant to open. The homemade curry sauces were brewing but will not be ready til tomorrow. So we each opted for the signature fish and chips along with several lemonades and other thirst quenching liquids. Then we sat around and chatted with Ralph and other guests before deciding to turn in for the evening.

Big Ralph in his favourite location - his kitchen.

5.0 km walking