Boris and the $1.50 ice

In my last post, I mentioned that we had purchased a cooler, snacks and beverages at TIA.  What we didn't buy was ice; TIA doesn't sell it.  We thought it wouldn't be a problem; we had bought ice the night before at a small convenience store and planned to do the same tonight.  No such luck - we went to three different stores and none of them had ice for sale.

While we were walking around town, we met Boris.  He was the bartender at the beach bar where we had had drinks the night before.  He knew some English, so we had talked with him about living in P. Lopez and other topics.  He was proud to show off how much English he knew, and we were happy to work with him on it.

Boris was working next door to one of the shops where we tried to buy ice.  He introduced us to his friend Ronnie who had just opened the store.  The store was selling trinkets and souvenirs, we went inside to check it out.  Boris kept saying that we needed to recommend his store to our friends because, "Everything is cheap, under $1.00".  He was right on both counts.  Here are pictures of us in front of the store; the first one is with Ronnie (on far right) with his parents;

Here's a picture with Boris - he's standing between Emily and I.  (He's a very touchy-feelly kind of guy.)

Back to the ice story - we're talking with Boris about buying a cooler but not having any ice.  He says that he can help us out.  It's just starting to get dark when Boris says he can get us what we need.  We leave Ronnie's shop to go get ice.  Boris leads us down the road to a side street that looks like it's bordered on both sides with shipping containers.  Emily is walking alongside Boris while I stay about eight feet behind, trying to anticipate anything that might happen in this side alley.  (It turns out that the shipping containers are stores, just smaller, portable versions of a store like Ronnie's.)

We emerge from the alley into a recreation yard where 20-25 young guys are playing basketball and volleyball.  I'm looking around for an exit other than the way we came in and don't see one.  Just as I'm about to call this off, I see Boris circumventing the courts and heading towards a hole in the fence on the other side.  The guys on the court continue playing while Boris is waving and talking with everyone he sees.  We make it to the far side of the courts and exit through the fence.

Boris is in his element now.  He's got American friends and he's saying "Hi" to everyone on the street, flirting with girls he doesn't know but proud to introduce us to everyone along the way.

We wound up back at the TIA store where Boris quickly locates the store manager.  After their quick talk, the manager disappears into the back of the store while Boris tells us to wait with him until he returns.  (While waiting, Boris grabs a DVD player from the shelf and hugs it, saying "For me?  Oh, thank you, thank you!"  He wants us to buy it for him, but we decline.)  Eventually, the store manager comes back with, wait for it, a cooler!  Boris misunderstood us - he thought we had ice but needed a cooler to keep it in.  Oops.

We start heading back for Ronnie's store (through the same courtyard) when Boris has an idea.  The store across from Ronnie's has ice for sale, but they'll only sell it to locals.  Boris asks for $1.50 to buy the ice, and Emily and I wait in the background while Boris works his magic.  The lady at the store is about to sell him the ice when she spots us; suddenly, there is no ice for sale.

We go back to Ronnie's store and Boris begins talking to Ronnie's mom about getting ice for us.  After about a half hour, Boris is able to get two bags of ice for us.  He doesn't give it up easily, however.  He tries to convince us that we need to stay for their Christmas dinner.  After explaining that we've already eaten, Emily says that we need to go and reaches for the ice bags in Boris's hands.  Boris refuses, claiming that such a heavy load (5 lbs) should be carried by a strong man, not a woman.  Boris finally gives me the ice, we thank them all around, wish Ronnie good luck with his store and are finally on our way.

On the way back to the hotel, Emily and I both realize that we never saw Boris give any money to Ronnie's mom.  For Boris, it was a good day: he made two friends and pocketed $1.50 for his efforts.

Exploration trip - day two

Now that we're settled into the hotel and town, it's time to explore the coast.  We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel: pancakes, eggs, mango juice and hot milk for me, waffles and the same for Emily.  $4.50 each; kind of pricy but it is the ocean front hotel.

We started driving south, not knowing how far we'd get.  Just out of town, the road climbs a hill and offers a look back at Puerto Lopez.

Almost nobody here owns a car.  Most people use public transit, whether it's the inter-city bus, the three-wheeled taxis or these local trucks.  I don't know how the local trucks work, but they stop everywhere to pick up and drop off passengers.  They drive 90 kph - I don't think I want to try one.

Driving from here, the road goes inland and we get our first feel of the rain forest.  I'm sure it's nothing compared to the Amazon, but the plants are huge and there is a constant shrieking sound from the crickets and other bugs.

We found the road to Curia where Robert and Barb live.  We'll be visiting them tomorrow and wanted to know how far it was.  Turns out to be about 30 minutes south of P. Lopez.

We weren't sure how far we were going to drive.  Our initial thought was to drive to Salinas, but we also wanted to visit some of these beach towns as well.  Of course, we have to be back to our hotel before dark.  Just as we were discussing turning around, our decision was made for us.  As we were driving through Valdivia, our decision was made for us.  Traffic came to a complete stop!  It turns out that there had been an accident ahead (surprise!) and traffic wasn't able to pass in either direction.  This is a picture of where the accident was, but it's too far away to see what really happened.

The drivers here don't behave the way they do in the states.  This was a two-lane road, and once the accident blocked traffic drivers occupied both lanes.  I'm not sure how people were able to continue once the accident was cleared; it would be two lanes of oncoming traffic in both directions on this two-lane road.

As we turned around, I spotted a "farmers" market.  We went in to see how the local shopping was like.  Lots of fresh veggies and rice, and the prices were cheap!  The meat market was something that we'll need to get used to.  There is no refrigeration; the meat (chickens, beef, fish, pork) just sits on counters and people buy the cuts that they want.  I'm going to have to make sure that it's thoroughly cooked!

On the way back we stopped in a couple of the beach towns.  The most interesting one was Montanita.  It's definitely a touristy surfer town.  The streets had been recently paved with brick pavers and it was very reminiscent of Rosarito in Baja.  We sat on a street corner at the El Rincon Hostel and had a beer.  This was a Sunday, however, and alcohol sales are prohibited unless the sole purpose of the business is to serve alcohol (like the beach bars).  We assume it was the father/owner of the place that sold us the beers.  While we were sitting there, he was cleaning a bicycle while his (presumed) son stared at us.  We learned later about the Sunday rule, so we don't know if he was mad at us or just watching for police.

We also saw this Catholic church.  The doors were open but there was no one inside, so we didn't go in.

When we got back to P. Lopez, we went shopping.  Emily had caught a cold just before we left for Ecuador and it had gotten worse.  We went to a pharmacy where, using our translator, she bought the best cold medicine she's ever had!  They also had these little packs of Kleenex that were infused with something like Vicks VaporRub.  Sure wish they sold those in the states!

After the pharmacy, we went across the street to "TIA", the local version of a modern convenience store.  They sell almost everything (pots and dishes, dog food, groceries, toys) in a space about twice the size of a 7-11.  Most of the stuff was a lower quality, but at least they have stuff.  From P. Lopez, you'd have to drive two hours either north (to Manta) or south (to Salinas) to shop otherwise.  We bought a styrofoam cooler and beverages to have back at our hotel.

We went back to the hotel to relax after that.

Exploration trip - day one

Before Emily and I decide if we're going to retire to Ecuador, we needed to visit to see if it was someplace we wanted to be!  We left on December 23rd; first a five-hour flight to Atlanta, a two-hour layover and a five-hour flight to Guayaquil.  Both flights were uneventful.  The flight to Ecuador offered breakfast, but I was surprised when it was offered at 1:00a, about an hour into the flight.  Landed in Ecuador at about 5:30a to perfect 70 degree weather.

The only hiccup we ran into was renting the car.  It took about an hour because the guy behind the counter couldn't get authentication for my AMEX.  Emily recalled later that it's quite common for businesses to want you to use Visa because of the lower fees,  but we just stood there and waited until the guy finally accepted the card.

We also saw that Budget had Garmins for $10/day.  We had thought that our maps would be good enough - ha!  We might never have gotten out of Guayaquil if not for our GPS.

Driving to Puerto Lopez was an interesting experience.  I learned that most highway speeds are 90kph and speeds in a town are 40kph.  Every town has either speed bumps or speed "ropes" (1" thick ropes) that they use for speed control.  The ropes are no big deal at highway speeds, but the speed bumps are definitely a first gear experience.  I also learned that people there beg for money, often putting the little kids out street side to beg.  One group was especially emphatic.  Five kids and an older man stood on one of the speed bumps and started banging their cups on the car when we wouldn't roll down our windows.  I'm willing to help out these people, but I'd be broke the first day if I had given a quarter to every beggar I saw.

It took about three hours to get to the Hotel Pacifico in Puerto Lopez.  We couldn't find the hotel in this town of 10,000.  Some streets have names (most don't), but street numbers don't exist.  We finally stopped at one of the beach restaurants to ask directions.  It turned out to be about two blocks away.

The hotel was clean - one of the nicest in town.  We had a great view of the ocean and street front malecon.

One of the peculiar things that we discovered was that you can't put toilet paper in the toilet - it clogs the septic systems, and they don't have the dissolving kind you use on a boat.  Instead there is a waste basket next to the toilet for throwing it away.  We thought this would be disgusting at first, but it wasn't that bad.  Here's a picture of the situation along with the Pacsafe bag that I used on the trip:

Most people here don't have much in terms of possessions.  Most families have a single vehicle, so if you're bringing the clan into town, they all have to ride on the family's lone vehicle.

We spent the rest of the day walking around town, followed by pina coladas on the beach.