VACATION TIME ON THE BEACH IN SALINAS ECUADOR

I have been told by a few very close friends that when you quit your job and dont work that is considered a vacation.. well I disagree. Randy and I have had some very stressful months getting settled here and acclimating to the climate, the tempo and the general idea of living in a country where most cannot understand us talking.

I had just returned from a quick visit to the States, and then we had our first Thanksgiving here, and then we moved into our newest home. So I say Hoooray for the Watsons and their offer to join them at the beach in Salinas. We did some fine tuning of the schedule and were able to keep Chuck's trips to Guayaquil at a minamum, so we were essentially flying back on the same place as their first guests who had just flown back to Cuenca.. we actually saw them deplane, and waved at them as we were waiting to board!  Nancy put a nice picture of us arriving on her blog.

Here is the beach as we first saw if from the Condo that Chuck and Nancy rented. Its on the quiet end of the Malacon, so I thought that was nice... until we had to walk several times a day to the other end where all the fun was happening!

Each nite the fisherman were out netting small fish to use as bait, they were fishing in the shallows of the waves, just standing on the beach.. We were watching one nite and this fellow was the center of attention. He had caught a huge fish. Everyone who had a camera was snapping pictures.

I was facinated with the different flowers and trees growing on the coast area. Randy became my comparisom person for this cool tree.

We walked the beach that day, and were pretty grossed out by all the red seaweed that was on the beach. Nancy said she had not seen any until we arrived... not a good sign.. Here is Randy, photo proof that he walked in the water!

We were very happy to see that the next day the seaweed was gone and it never returned to the beach while were were there.

Randy and I ate our weight in sea food while we were  there. Chuck and Nancy had figured out the hotspots to go for great food at any hour of the day. The lobster in Ecuador is a bit smaller than the Maine Lobsters, but nothing was lacking in flavor. We had lobster several times, and never paid over $10 for it. We were in love with a place called Cevechie Landia. a consortium of vendors selling food. They come out waving their menus trying to get you to come eat their seafood..most all had the same theme on their menus but we had one that was our favorite... Hugo something... again not so good with names... but I can walk you right to it!
Here is the lobster we ate. Randys is grilled, mine has a garlic sauce on it..

I took way too many pictures, so as my friend Clarke wont read long blogs I am going to keep this short, and do another about our day trip up the coast and our meet and greet with the infamous Bob & Rox in Manglaralto and Leigh and Todd in Olon.

Thanks again to Chuck and Nancy, we had a blast!