Farewell Farallón Dillon

The shower has a heater stuck to the nozzle. Quite common in Ecuador.

But the kicker is that the thirty amp breaker is right there above the shower too. I guess it would give you a kick too if you reached up to turn it off and you touched the connector at the bottom. I'm not sure what a 30 amp breaker is going to protect on a 110v circuit. You would likely be smoldering before a 30A breaker flipped. All you can do is hope that ground wire is actually hooked up to something at the other end.

We had breakfast at about 8:30. It's included in the room. Scrambled eggs, toast, butter, strawberry jam, coffee, pineapple juice, sliced bananas and watermelon. 

Then I walked down to the beach for a last visit to to rotting corpse of the turtle. Two vultures were sitting on nearby rocks. They have all they can eat and more. The maggots can be seen crawling at least 50 feet away. And still more are writhing inside the shell. Another week and there will be nothing but upper and lower shell and scattered bones.  

We might swim in the pool one more time before leaving. But it is pouring rain again now. Last night the lightning and downpour started at five to four in the morning and continued til well after six. And it has not stopped sprinkling between pours.

I was just sitting here blogging and the captain's wife just came by and talked for a while. She told me that the last time she saw so much rain was 15 years ago. She also took me in the dining room to show me the artifacts from the shipwreck nearby. The salvage crew lived here and gave her many artifacts as partial pay for staying here during the salvage, which I think she said was about a year. 

She took my picture in front of the display. There are large planks from the ship mounted on the wall in the museum. She also explained that it is her nephew- our waiter, that lives in the suite above me in the tower. He has to get there by climbing a ladder. 

We got back to Salinas and decided to go out for lunch. Turns out the area we were wanting was all flooded out. It had been raining solid for two days here too and the town cannot handle it. We stopped in to talk at Luccy's and the whole place was under 6 inches of water. The fire department was just arriving and hopefully they can lend a pump so she can open at 4 pm. So we walked back and went to mar y tierra. 

My order was for seco de pollo. The sauce on the chicken was extremely salty but upon cutting into the chicken I found it was cold. Cold. Well salty too. Sent it back and had the rice seafood stir fry. The shrimps are still salty but nothing they can do with that. 

At 6:30 I went back to Luccy's Mexican Restaurant. I really did not need any more food but it was the last night and I wanted to try it. I ordered the flour chicken tacos. Medium not hot. 

Sorry no photo as I ate them before I remembered to take the picture. Pretty good tasting although if you like guacamole and cilantro you will like them even better. 

I spent the evening talking cars with the American bartender. When it came to automobiles we definitely had common interests. 

I used the magicjack to phone my son and talked the night out. Tomorrow we fly back to Quito.

Stinky Turtle at the Farallón Dillon

Woke up today to a steady rain. Was hoping for a sunrise but humidity, overcast and rain sent me back to bed. By 8 am it was a torrential downpour with thunder.

Here is a video I made of the heavy rain at the Farallon Dillon. I also found a bird had just caught a moth and was ripping the wings off so he could eat the body. Included in the video just for your watching pleasure.

There is a small drainage ditch just up the beach. But during the downpour the water tore a passage six feet wide and three feet deep. The red earth from the hillside flowed out into the ocean and created a huge dirt slick that lasted most of the day before drifting south towards Salinas. This photo is just at the beginning of the rain.

After the heavy rain there was a guy raking the beach. He had discovered something just on the other side of the ditch that had been formed. It turned out to be another large dead turtle. He went away and soon some boys came back with a shovel and rake and buried the turtle on the beach. They dug a hole and rolled it in. Packed the sand in on top. It must be a repeating occurrence. On the plane on the way home someone told me there is a problem with wild dog packs that attack turtles when they come ashore to lay eggs in the night.

I went in the pool several times during the day. Also walked the 124 stairs down to the beach three times. Yep I counted them today.

This morning the flies had abated on the dead turtle. But the maggots had hatched. Gross. They were even leaving the nest so to speak. About a thirty five foot radius of maggots traveling outward. Bones strewn around too from the vultures picking at the corpse. 

Late in the afternoon I checked again and most of the maggots were gone. Still lots though. The day has been clear and hot with little rain since about noon. Another few days and the cycle of this death will be over. I will check one more time tomorrow before we leave. 

For supper I had beef tenderloin, sautéed eggplant and onions, fries , coke and coffee. A pretty good tasting meal although I had to drink the coffee quickly as it was on it's way to being colder than a local beer. 

I decided no sunset pics today. Instead a few pics around here. The steps are about half of the stairs necessary to get to the beach. Other shots from in the museum and of a huge plastic sailor at the front door. 

 

 

Farallón Dillon

For brunch today we went to Common Grounds. It is a popular hangout with locals and gringos. They speak English and Spanish so you won't get lost here. Free wifi and soccer on the TV make it techno friendly.

Had a few of these cappaccino frapps

 

I had the cafe frappuccino and the breakfast cheese burger. Shaved and deep fried potatoes topped with a fried egg and large slab of bacon. The other half was a very good tasting burger mixed with onions and slopped with HP sauce. Still too much salt though. And add a large piece of nearly cheddar cheese. 

After the noon hour we got a taxi and headed for Ballenita and the Farallon Dillon. This is a residence, hotel, entertainment center, and restaurant. And museum. The captain used to actually sail the oceans but since retirement has built a location where his life surrounds him. He and his wife have even built a museum with their purchases and finds collected over many years. All related to the nautical theme.

 

Here is a video I made with video and photos I shot during my visit to Farallon Dillon in 2013.

Rental bedroom is only on the first floor with the stairs access. The others you only get to by a ladder on the side of the building. One of the workers lives in the second floor bedroom.

The pool is almost a true infinity pool but it's big point of interest is the nautical figurehead mermaid soaring over the pool. 

After check in I had to head for the beach and do some quick exploring. A foul smell led me to a recently died turtle of over two feet in length. The head was gone but the rest intact but swarming with flies. The death reminded me of the previous week where I rescued newly hatched turtles that would not have made it to the water. The circle of life. 

Likely the second day on the beach after washing up dead.

Sunset. Just could not resist. I seem to be posting them often. This shot is from my balcony in the tower overlooking the pool. In the distance is Salinas. 

View south from my bedroom perch in the tower at the Farallon Dillon

Sunset was 6:35 so supper is after that. For supper I had fried shrimp with vegetables. The shrimp were fresh and the veggies perfectly cooked. What's with the salt? Are the shrimp packed in salt brine and absorb the salt. Only when you bite them do you get a mouthful of salt. 

Concert at the Farallon Dillon

It was another typical lazy morning of sleeping in and coffee at a local hangout. The place is called Common Grounds.

In the afternoon we took a taxi to Farallon Dillon in Ballenita. We walked down the 3 million steps to the beach and I ran up because it made for a smoother video.

We also toured the museum with a guide that spoke great English so it helped us understand the origin of a lot of what we were looking at.

We had a meal of BBQ chicken and BBQ ribs. The meal was served with Texas beans, a couple of small baked potatoes smothered in butter, and some mixed vegetables. One of the chicken quarters was too raw to eat so it had to be sent back for rectification. 

The evening entertainment was a live music group called Trio Sandoval. Of course they were in spanish And they were obviously a cover band as the patrons seemed to be able to sing along. And there were some that made use of the dance floor.

 

It seems the trio brought some more family members to perform with them this night. I'm guessing the extra harmony singer and the percussionist.

I used to have a video here but I guess I removed it from YT.

4.1 km walking