Happy New Year from the Southern Hemisphere

     Today we had tacos, Spanish lessons, a cook out on the beach with new friends. Now we are at home watching and listening to the locals shoot off lots of amateur fireworks. Look for new pictures posted today and many more yet to come. Feliz Ańo Nuevo!

Same surf time, same surf channel

    I have not posted in a couple of days because we have been busy and content. On Friday we took our first Spanish lessons from http://www.outdoorecuador.com/. It was an hour and a half and the kids lasted an hour. We need to do our exercises for tomorrow. We will take lessons three days a week. Sorry Mrs. Tilley but this was much more interesting.
     We met a nice English family who are living here full time. We went for lunch at the beach and they were eating there as well. They have a 7 year old daughter that Lumia quickly became best friends with and the Dad loves chess and already started a game with Cael. They are very friendly and knowledgeable. They showed us where to get rotisserie chicken, beans and rice straight from a grandmother's kitchen. It was very yummy. The husband of the chicken lady also delivers the bottled water around town. We will meet our new English friends for a cook out on the beach on New Years Eve Day.
     With a working fridge and a better knowledge of what we can buy and make we are planning better meals. This will not stop us from going out because that is how we meet people.
     Cael and I are venturing out further into the surf at low tide (high tide is pretty rough) and the farm girls are close behind. Cael and I will take lessons this week.
     We will also probably take cooking lessons. Tuesday we will hire a cab and head into the big town to the grocery. The hardest items to find here are a can opener and good wine.
     It is exciting to see that you are all reading this. Keep is up and please comment. Thanks to my commenter Elizabeth Austen.
     I should also thank our fantastic neighbor Tony from Texas. He has helped us on many occasions including holding our groceries when the fridge died, introducing us to Gringo Hour at the beach (big beers and lots of them) and telling us about all the locals to call for things like water and transportation.
     The season if picking up. More Ecuadorians are here now for vacation then when we got here so the town is very busy. Our spot is  a bit down the beach so it is not crowded but there are definitely more crazy ATV drivers, para-gliders and beach goers. It is supposed to climax New Years Eve and they stay busy for a while. They make paper-mache effigies and burn them at midnight. I will take pictures.

Feliz Navidad!

     This Christmas Day we went down the beach at low tide this morning to watch the local fisher men. We had been watching them from our house. They used a skinny old green wood boat to take a big net out past the surf. Then tens of them came up to the beach and hauled it in. Then they rolled the fish in the surf with the net until they were all in a big pile. A slippery shiny pile of skinny silver fish, the same fish we have been eating in town. Next week I will learn how to cook this local faire. All of this was done through a cloud of big black frigate birds and pelicans that were frustrated by the net.

     Santa visited in the night and bought some toys and a book for the kids along with American candy and Christmas Jammies. I love Lumia’s enthusiasm when she declared this the best Christmas ever although we all agreed that next Christmas needs to be spent at home.

     The clouds have burned off and it is a hot beautiful day. We are inside for the hottest part. Cael is reading from the Kindle (actually now playing World Cup Soccer) and Lumia is playing kindergarten level education games. There is too much to think about so I have not been able to read a serious book. I go back and forth from reading my new Dungeon Masters Guide (be prepared for my return fellow adventurers) and writing for your and my entertainment. I also put some black beans to simmer for lunch.

     I have not told you about our house. You can of course see pictures but I will also tell you about it. We are on the beach end of an east-west dirt road with 5 houses between us and the main road. There is a white wall most of the way around the house with lockable gates. The house is two stories with a large patio facing the ocean and two smaller decks up stairs. The patio has a large cabana bar covered with a palm leaf roof. There are three beds rooms upstairs and an open kitchen, dining living area down stairs opening to the patio. It is all white washed masonry over concrete with red brick tile floor. There is also dark wood details and glazed tile. The stair way is probably prettiest part of the house. Beds in Ecuador are made of concrete with a mattress on top, firm but comfortable. The water pressure only works for one thing at a time and the hot water is hit and miss, fortunately we don’t need much hot water. There is no air-conditioning but the house stays pretty cool with lots of open windows and ceiling fans. We have renamed it Casa de Sandra, hopefully it will catch on. Our closest neighbor is Tony from Texas at Casa Bonita. He is down here fixing up his house while his wife is back in the states finishing up her last year before retirement. His house is beautiful and twice the size of ours and he has been working on landscaping. Eventually Casa de Sandra will be available on VRBO so start planning now.

     For our afternoon quite time we finished The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. I was a nice return to a classic and the first time for the kids. I love it when Imogene is worried that Jesus would never pass 1^st grade having to write his name. But truly I miss my copy of Little House on the Prairie. I would love to read How Mr. Edwards Met Santa Clause. Now it is nap time because the kids were up to early.

     The gardener came by to put in a number of plants. I guess you don't get Christmas off around here.

Christmas Eve

     Merry Christmas Eve! Today we rode the chicken bus up to the local orphanage for their Christmas Program. Lumia pointed out some of the similarities with The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, which we have been reading. Every Ecuadorian knew the words to the Spanish Christmas songs that they sang. There was a nativity, folk dancers and Santa. The expats had given a decent amount so that every one of the kids got a new back pack full of fun things and one wrapped present. The orphanage is on top of the hill immediately south of town and has a great view. Things learned, little boys everywhere cannot keep still and little girls everywhere like to dance a program for an audience. 

Lumia is cutting out ornaments for our construction paper Christmas Tree. She said, “this is the greatest Christmas tree ever.”

     New unintended adventure for today is a dead Fridge. Hopefully we will get a new one today but most likely Friday or Saturday. We will eat out a lot and keep a few things in our neighbor’s fridge. Yesterday the local construction gang came and installed accordion doors on the inside of every easy access window. Their idea of clean up is to push the dust into the corner so we had a clean the house day. The kids were very helpful.

     Last night we rode the chicken bus into Montanita for dinner and a moment on WiFi to down load books and check the Book of Faces. The town matches every description of a hippy surf town but there are a lot more places to eat with some more familiar menu items. There was a bakery at the bus stop where we stocked up for a few breakfasts. The local behind the counter was super nice when she picked up our forgotten wallet and held it for us till we got back. “Rookie mistake,” said an abashed Steph.

     Anyway, have a Merry Christmas everyone. I hope to get back to WiFi soon and post more pictures.

Two days

12/21

     We are settling into a routine. We are hitting the beach twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening to avoid the strongest sun. Then we have reading, writing and home work time in the mid day to avoid the heat. It has not been to hot yet but we are certainly not used to any heat

We are doing our best to avoid lots of mindless screen time which is made easier with a slow limited internet. We are however reading lot of books on our devices. Last night Cael and I worked on his book report for Ender’s Game.

     Today we walked into town and looked up the places for Spanish and surf lessons and will return tomorrow when they are open. All the locals were out getting ready to watch the final Ecuadorian fútbal match. Lots of people were wearing their blue or yellow jerseys. There was a local match taking place on a concrete pad and lots of old men were watching. Walking into town by way of the road is much less attractive than by the beach. The road side is littered with trash. There are many messy construction projects.

     All that said this place is beautiful. We are at the south end of an 8 mile beach. Coconut palms and palmettos are the primary plants. There are also occasional trees with bright flowers from purple to yellow. Each end has a reddish brown rock hill trust out into the sea. Less than a mile to the south the rock has a church and an orphanage. The hills to the side and behind us are covered in dry brushy plants with occasional cactus and palm trees. While it has remained mostly over cast it is still very bright and last night the clouds cleared for a vivid orange, pink and purple sunset. At night you can see 20-30 little lights bobbing out in the ocean, fishing boats. The beach is 100 feet from the back of our house and the surf is always pounding. Follow the link to the right for my Flickr page where you can see lots of pictures.

     One mile to the north is our town of Olón. The beach front has lots of little restaurants all serving the same seafood fare from ceviche to, pasts to fried fish. All the seafood is very fresh and yummy. So far we have tried the fish, skinny and white and the shrimp, plump and fresh. The beers are large, cold and crisp. The town is a few streets wide and deep and mostly tiny shops and hotels. The expats report that this town is much calmer than the next town immediately on the other side of the hill to the south. Motanita, Sodom and Gomorra as it is called, is a bigger surfing town and we have not explored it yet. We have been told to avoid it at night.

     We have seen lots of birds. There are pelicans, sand pipers, are little white cranes. We glimpsed a bright yellow bird but I was not able to get the camera in time. There are lots of little brown lizards and we saw one pretty good sized green iguana.

12/22/14

     Surf is up. Today is the most beautiful day yet. The sun is shining, the water is turquoise and it is hot. And we all slept well. Today on my morning constitutional I noticed little red crabs that pop back into their little holes when you get close to them.

     We went back into town and had lunch at the le playa (beach) at one of the little hut restaurants. These folks were Peruvian and had slightly different faire including a couple of fish curries. We watched two Coca-Cola reps nail their signs up on every hut.

     The language is not sticking in my head unsurprisingly the children are picking it up quickly. We went to the language school and signed up for family lessons three days a week starting after Christmas. It does not feel like Christmas down here.

     Went to the fruit stand and got a number of things that you will find familiar. The carrots are huge. We also got a couple of fruits that you have never seen before. We will taste at dinner and report back. See the Flickr site for a photo of our fruit bowl.

     We made more connections with expats and have been invited to the local orphanages xmas performance. I will let you know how it goes.

     It is now night and the wind has picked up but it is still warm and we can hear the surf. I hope everyone is well back home. Sleep tight

Not fancy living

Swimming, walking, eating were out accomplishments of the day. We did not plan any more. The surf is great, it is warm and people are friendly.
People come out here to Olon to escape or they live out here to begin with. It is attached to the rest of the world by paved roads and has all of the comforts but the locals are dirt poor and getting those comforts is an adventure in it self. Our electricity was sketchy when we got here but it works now. Through that we got to meet the local electrical company.

We have met all the immediate neighbors two of which are expats. They invited us to the weekly Gringo Lunch at a ceviche place in town, a five minute beach walk.  They are nice but definitely not used to having kids around. Cael said he had heard those words before but he was still a bit wide eyed. We also met a nice family that live in Texas but are from here and are vacationing. They had two little girls that played with our two in the surf.

Even though we applied sunscreen we were all pink cheeked at the end of the day. We will need to remember to reapply.
We are very tired and will hit the hay. Sleeping with the surf sound will take a couple of days to get used too. Tomorrow we will walk into town and explore and contact a Spanish teacher. Sleep tight.

In Paradise

Nothing further got in our way in our travels. Now we are in Olon Ecuador in our beach house. Now we need to fix a few more issues here like sketchy electrical systems. But we are here, dipped our feet in the Pacific, made a quick dinner that filled us all up. Soon we will hit the hay and see what tomorrow brings.

Travel adventures the first

We are all hoping that our experience with American Airlines is the entirety of the low point of this trip. Thans you Sharon in Chicago and Emile in Miami, after much tapping on your secret airline key board you found ways to move us closer to our destination. And thank you to our personal ombudsman Eric Jordan who's travel advice and sick humor can be followed at http://www.cntraveler.com/contributors/eric-jordan

At this moment we are eating at the Miami airport. Pretty good Cuban food. Our first flight yesterday was delayed an hour making us miss our second flight. We were put on a replacement second flight to Miami this morning after a stay at the O'Hare Holliday Inn Suite courtesy of American Airlines. This afternoon we will wait standby for our final flight to Guayaquil. We are numbers 2-5 on the wait list. Last chance will be a flight to Quito tomorrow afternoon where we will have to gather our luggage and fly to Guayaquil. We will keep our fingers crossed. I wish there was enough time to ditch the airport and head to the beach. Either way we will be in Ecuador by tomorrow and the beach by Friday. Do you need a map yet?

Anticipation

     One month from now the SPCL team is headed to Ecuador for our 3 month adventure! We are super excited as preparation is in full swing. Most of our accommodations are managed. Typhoid shots and mosquito netting are purchased. Mosquito clothes are packed (end of the season sale at REI). Lists are being finalized. EBooks are being selected. Just today C got hiking boots.
     This has been a long time coming. We had years of ideas. Did we want to go for a whole year? Would we have to work? How much did we want to immerse. When is the bast time for grade school kids. Then timing was decided. We did not want to have to work. Our current jobs did not allow us to go for more than 3 months. The school supported us.  Then we narrowed down our destinations. We tossed around SE Asia, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and New Zealand. Finally fortune allowed Ecuador to leap to the front of the line.
     So we will be in Olon Ecuador, on the coast, on and off for 2 months and the rest of the time is up for grabs. Top other destinations are the capital Quito, the Amazon, The old colonial city of Cuenca, cloud forest, the largest market in the world in Otavalo, the equator, Incan ruins. The list goes on and on.

     Keep coming back here for more news as this blog will become our family blog on this adventure.