The Empanada Man

     What started out as just a normal walk for me a few months ago allowed me to cross paths with a very special man, who has since become a good friend.  I met Enrique Mendez while I was walking down a dirt road not too far from our house.  He was on a motorcycle and stopped to say hello and introduce himself.  Enrique sells empanadas and juice off the back of his bike. After the introductions were out of the way, he gave me an empanada and a cup of juice.  I explained to him that I had no money on me, and he said, "no, this is a gift for you'.  All in Spanish of course, since Enrique does not speak English at all.  I told him to stop by our house some time and we would buy some empanadas from him. 
     Well, that day started our friendship. Eventually he got to meet John as well, and now we buy empanadas from him a couple times a week and if he ever sees us out walking, he stops and gives us each an empanada and juice.  The other day when Enrique stopped by, our friend Ian was here, who is bilingual.  So finally I was able to communicate with him a little more than normal.  Ian discovered that Enrique was originally from a small town about an hour north of us called Barbascal.  He now lives in La Libertad.  A good portion of the money he makes from selling his empanadas goes to help the elderly people that live in his home
town, usually by bringing them large bags of rice and other things they need.  I asked them if they had many children in the town and he said yes, about 100 or so.  We then explained to him about John playing Papa Noel at Christmas time and possibly we could make a visit there.  He readily agreed, but said he would like us to see the town first.  We set up a time for him to meet us at our house on the coming Thursday and he took John, Ian and I to Barbascal on the bus. 

     Ian and Enrique were able to chat on the way, so we were able to learn much more about him.  Enrique is a huge advocate for the elderly people in his town, in fact all of the people there.  He has a foundation that is working on building a place for the older population to be sure their needs are being met.  Already I am seeing the hidden gem of a person underneath this man that sells empanadas. We stopped in the city of Colonche, which is just a few minutes before Barbascal.  Enrique wanted us to see the church there, which was built in the 1700's, totally from wood (Guayacan- which is a very durable and termite-proof wood).  It was gorgeous!  We hopped back on the bus and headed down the road to our destination.  Barbascal sits on top of a hill and overlooks the beautiful countryside.  We walked a couple blocks to a community center (which Enrique was instrumental in getting built) and inside was about 20 elderly people sitting around a table working on a art project. We found out that Enrique had informed them that we were coming and asked them to be there to greet us.  One by one, each of these people came up and greeted, hugged, kissed, shook hands with all of us.  It was an unbelievable experience.  Enrique explained to them what we wanted to do at Christmas time.  They were all so warm and welcoming.  From there Enrique took us to his brother's house where his sister-in-law had prepared us a wonderful meal of chicken, rice and plantains.  We were given a tin bowl of water and a bar of soap to pass around the table and wash our hands first.  To say the food was delicious is an understatement.  Enrique told us they do not normally eat this type of meal and that it was prepared especially for us being there. 
     The experience of this entire day was so overwhelming.  It was a very special day, for sure.  So, tomorrow Enrique transforms back into The Empanada Man.  But his good will and giving nature to the people of his country, of his home town, continues.  Papa Noel will be making a visit to Barbascal at Christmas time and we look forward to seeing all the smiling faces, young and old alike, again.  

Our lives have changed in the following ways;

     We have just completed seven months of living in the midst of renovations of our house.  Would we do it again?  Probably not the right time to ask...  It was kind of one of those things comparable to walking in a snowstorm. You pull everything in real tight, put your head down, squint a little once in a while so you can see where you are going and celebrate when you get to your destination. Yes, that is exactly what it was like.  But now... it is awesome and well worth it. I do not regret at all living here while the dust and dirt were flying, when sometimes we had no hot water, we had no kitchen for about 4 months, many workers were in our house every day.  I am not complaining.  We chose to do this and we certainly made the best of every situation as we came across it.  All in all, we are pretty adaptable people. Some of the changes of been slow and some of been drastically fast.  Now, with the ability to look back (with no snowstorm going on) we can finally sit back and say "wow!!".
     One of the changes that came upon us subtly, but now is very clear, is that we hardly ever leave our house.  And we actually like it that way.  We are not bored.  We don't crave shopping, eating out, movies, concerts, etc... like you would think.  Once every couple weeks we make a point of getting out somewhere just so we don't lose our social skills.  It is very nice to see our new friends here in Ecuador. 
     We are outside every chance we get. Every meal is eaten on our porch (we have three tables we could eat at in the house and have only used them a handful of times).  Instead of 3-4 hours of television a night, we watch about 1 hour or until I fall asleep (whichever comes first).  We watch our U.S. television shows on the computer instead of our tv.  We have turned the tv on a few times.  Mostly just to watch a movie. 
    I just realized yesterday that I haven't driven a car in 8 months.  This came up in a conversation yesterday with my good friend Mary in Phoenix.  We will be staying at their house for a couple days when we go back to visit and she said if you need to go somewhere you can use our car.  I said, "Oh, yes, sure!  I haven't driven a car in 8 months".  I am thinking she will probably drive me where I need to go.  Realistically, I think it is just like a bike. No problem.  We take the bus, we take a taxi. Whatever we need.  It really isn't an inconvenience for us.  John does want to get a motor scooter, so as soon as he gets his Ecuador license, we will do that.
     We speak a lot of Spanish.  Not the flowing kind you hear the natives speak. I would say more pieced together phrases with English words thrown in when we don't know the Spanish word. Fortunately our guardian, Jimmy is pretty good at understanding what we say. And we have become pretty good at recognizing the look on his face when we have totally lost him.  So now we are starting to take Spanish lessons. We have an excellent teacher and I am very excited at the prospect of actually being able to communicate without sounding like a kindergartener.  A word to the wise: do NOT trust Google Translate!  That is all I have to say about that.
     My two best friends here now have four legs each.  They are really good at listening, don't gossip (much anyway) and they are always in a good mood.  Oh, their names are Annabel and Josie. They are full of energy and keep us on our toes, too.  We love our puppies!
      I know have talked about this before, but cooking is very different.  All the convenience items I used to cook with in the U.S. I don't use anymore. At least most of them. There is an international aisle at the grocery store where I can get a few of the things I miss. I try not to overdo it there though, because it is very expensive and it is defeating the purpose of trying to eat healthy.  Milk comes in a 1 liter bag.  I very carefully snip off both corners before pouring it into my pitcher.  (Yes, that was a live and learn, thing there).  Also the milk is bought off the shelf, not out of a refrigerator.  It's ok, though.  Seriously. Same with eggs. 
     It is a much more laid back, relaxing lifestyle here.  Now that the work is done on the house, we can begin to really enjoy that.  We are looking forward to meeting different people that come through on their travels.
      We keep up with our friends and family via Facebook, Face Time, Skype,  and phone calls. Of course we miss everyone, but technology sure helps with that.
      We take the good with the different (there really is no bad), and really try to enjoy everything about our experience here.  And for the most part we do.  No regrets.  It truly is all about being adaptable.

Playing Tourist

     For the last 13 days, we have had the great pleasure of having Matt and Nelly Klein visit from Santa Fe, NM.  I met Nelly back when we both lived in Phoenix.  We were running partners for a couple years and even did a 1/2 marathon relay together.  With all the time we have been putting in to getting the house finished, we decided to take these days off to be able to spend time with them and also to get to see some of the area that we hadn't yet.
     We enjoyed some time hanging out at the beach and in our pool.  The table in the pool got broken in good with some nice, cold beverages.  On Saturday we made a trip down to the La Libertad malecon where Nelly had some awesome shrimp cerviche.  From there we made our way up to the mercado where we had a batido (which is a fruit smoothie).  It was absolutely the best I have had.  Since, we were kind of eating our way through La Libertad, we ended up with lunch at our favorite little restaurant, El Coronel, where we had our $2.00 almuerzo (inludes choice of two soups, two different entrees and two different juices).  To say we were stuffed would be an understatement.
     On Monday we took our first trip away from home.  Miryan, Kevin and her sister's family took us up to Dos Mangas (near Montanita) for a hike to some waterfalls.  The hike itself took about 4 hours round trip.  We spent about an hour or so at the waterfall (a small one), so we could eat lunch and the kids could swim. Having the young kids with made it so much fun.  They ranged from age 7 to 11 years old.  Oh, and Miryan's sister is 8 1/2 months pregnant.  I can't believe there was not one ounce of complaining from anyone.  We saw a lot of different fruit trees and plants and even got to try some mame (best described as something between a peach and a mango). It was delicious!.  We did hear some monkeys for a while but unfortunately never got to see them.  It was kind of an eerie sound to hear them calling.
     After the hike, Miryan and her family headed back home and we all went to Montanita to stay overnight.  We got checked into our hostel, The Hurvinek.  The location was good because we were just a couple blocks from all the action in downtown Montanita.  Montanita is a surfing town with a lot of very laid back people in it.  A very different atmosphere, but enjoyable.  You will never see more dreadlocks anywhere else, I swear.  The lobby/dining area of our hostel was very nice with lots of homemade wooden furniture.  Then we saw our rooms.  The mattress was no more than 4 inches thick and hard as a rock. It would have been more comfortable to sleep on the floor.  At least they did have hot water.  I think their main clientele is backpackers and younger people who don't care about comfort as much.  We had a good time, nontheless. 
     On Tuesday, we took a tour through Montanitours (which I would highly recommend if you plan on spending time in Montanita).  They can help you out with just about anything and there are people there that speak English as well, if needed.  We went in a van north up to Puerto Lopez where we took a boat out to Isla de la Plata (named after the silver color of the island which comes from bird poop).  It took about an hour to get there.  This is also nicknamed the poor man's Galapagos.  The island is uninhabited, but very cool.  We took about a 2 hour hike, where we saw many blue footed boobies and red breasted frigates.  After the hike, when we got back on the boat, we saw sea turtles swimming beside us. Also some very pretty black and yellow fish.  We were then given the option to go snorkeling if we wanted. The water was so cold I didn't stay in long. John, Matt and Nelly were smart and didn't go in.
     Since we had one more night to stay in Montanita, we hit the town again.  We went to a hookah bar, which was a new experience for me.  It wasn't too bad. We tried some fruit flavored tobacco.  It was actually quite relaxing.  The next morning we headed back to Montanitours to go on our zip lining excursion.  I had no idea what to expect, but was very pleasantly surprised on how beautiful it was!  The ziplines crossed valleys of green, lush areas where there were even cows grazing below. I have to admit, I was a little freaked out at first but very determined to try it. I went first and it was awesome! I never felt unsafe or scared, just in awe of the view I had way up in the air.  You can see the beaches of Montanita.  We did six different lines ($15 per person).  Nelly was so brave she even did one hanging upside down! I would definitely do it again. So much fun.
     We had so much fun just hanging out at home, as well.  One day we did surf lessons out on our beach here in Punta Carnero. It is $20 per person for a one hour lesson.  We each had our own instructor.  It was a great experience.  Again, I was determined, but never quite got up on both feet.  Both Matt and Nelly were able to stand up, at least for a short time.   The next day I think we were all a little sore. Nelly was lucky, though because I had helped Matt set up a 2 hour massage at our house for her with our friend, Janis who is a very experienced massage therepist.
    The weekend ended with a fun Cinco de Mayo party at Sin, a bar in Salinas.  Matt and Nelly got to meet a lot of our friends.  On Monday, Nelly and I went to the mud bath in San Vicente.  Was that ever an experience. We hired a taxi to take us there and wait to bring us back.  It is $2.00 to get into the mud bath and mineral baths.  For $3.00 you can get vapors (like a steam bath with eucalyptus, etc...) and for $5.00 you can get either a mud massage or an aloe vera massage. Nelly went with the mud massage and I got the aloe vera.  If you have any inhibitions, you might want to skip the massage part. It is topless and they don't avoid any areas.  Surprisingly it was not as weird as it sounds.  Pretty much you are rubbed with either aloe vera or mud from head to toe.  The mud bath was quite interesting.  I had to shower off the aloe vera first, then rub mud all over and let it dry.  Then another shower so we could go in the mineral baths.  The whole thing is pretty rustic, but we had a good time.  I would definitely go again.
     Today we said our goodbyes to Matt and Nelly.  It was so awesome to have them here and we will miss them terribly.  We look forward to our next visitor, our friend Lynne, who comes the end of June.  And all the new people we will meet as we open our bed and breakfast.  At least we have now experienced some things that we will recommend.

What's a few bumps in the road?

     We have been in Ecuador for almost six months. In that time we have lived in a house that is undergoing major renovations.  People have called us crazy, brave, insane and probably many more things, but as we are nearing the end of this wild ride of construction, I have to say we would not have done it any other way.  Everything has taken us much longer than we thought, but I think in the end we will be very glad we made the decisions we did. 
     About three weeks ago, when we were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we had a little snafu.  The electricity ground line broke at the pole and sent power surges through our house. It shorted out one of the two phase lines into the house.  Instead 110 volts of electricity we had 220 volts surging through (after speaking with John's brother Jim who is an electrician, we found out this could happen anywhere).  Needless to say, we had some losses of electrical items.  The dishwasher, refrigerator, dryer, coffee maker (my nice big Cuisinart I brought from the states), Keurig and television all have taken a trip to the appliance graveyard.  A couple of the things we could live without for a bit, but the coffee maker and dryer were devastating.  A huge thanks to our neighbors, Bob and Freida, who brought down a big pot of coffee for us the day it happened.  We try to look on the bright side of things, because, to be honest, it just sucks not to.  We now have new electricity lines running to our house, but of course the electric company didn't want to repair anything too quickly. So we hired someone to take care of it for us.  That repair was only $120 so not too shabby.  The cost of replacing the fried electronics, well, hopefully our homeowners' insurance will take care of a good chunk of it. There is, of course, many hoops to jump with and we won't hold our breath for that to be settled.  On the bright side, I was able to find the exact same coffee maker I had, but it was about $150 more than I paid for the original.  Ouch!  The Keurig is nowhere to be found here.  We are very lucky that this happened at the time it did.  Thank goodness we were not open yet, so we were the only ones affected by this.
     I know someday we will look back at this whole experience and say, how did we ever do that?  The short answer is, one day at a time.  And also, you just cannot take things too seriously.  When our puppies dig and roll in the mud of our flower bed and come up on the porch and look at us all innocently, we just laugh.  When one of our workers puts all the handles for the screens on the wrong end, we just .... well, not laugh initially... that one take a bit.  We really just want to be finished with the construction phase. We have had our fun out of it so time to move on.
     The next bit of excitement for us will be having our friends, Matt and Nelly visit. They fly in on April 25 and will be here about 10 days.  It will be a nice break for us, because soon after that, we will be heading full gear into our grand opening.  The tentative grand opening celebration date is Sunday, May 26, with the actual opening being Friday, May 31.
     We have taken the good with the bad, enjoyed every moment we could, but it is time to move into the next exciting phase in our lives. If you haven't yet, (and you really want to :), "like" our Facebook page, Las Palmas Del Mar.  Thank you!

Our Daily Lives

     We have been in Ecuador for over five months already.  It seems like much longer than that.  When we look back to our first month or so here, it seems like eons ago.  Our house is pretty much unrecognizable from when we first arrived.  Slowly but surely it is coming together. Emphasis on the slowly part. 
     Even amidst all the construction and chaos, John and I have developed a routine in our day that has helped keep us sane.  Our morning coffee and breakfast on the porch is one of our favorite times. We have realized we spend most of our waking hours outside, although lately John has been painting which keeps him inside more than usual.  If it weren't for the fact that we were opening a bed and breakfast, we could easily get by with a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen (along with our front porch, of course).  Probably one of the biggest changes we have made is the amount of television we watch.  Unfortunately, in the U.S. we watched way too much tv.  Here, if we watch one hour a night, it is a lot.  And most of the time I can't stay awake for the whole show (probably because of all that fresh air).  That is definitely a positive change for us.  We enjoy walking on the beach which is great exercise for us and the pups. 
     Another change is we really don't leave our house too much.  The grocery store and the mercado are two of the places we go the most. The mercado in La Libertad is my favorite outing. We actually prefer to go on the weekends when it is busier and more festive.  We don't have a car, so when we do go somewhere we take the bus, which we don't mind at all.  In fact, we find it quite nice not to have to worry about driving.  We have also found that we don't really miss going out to eat as much as we used to (one time in the last month).  It is just more relaxing to stay home with the puppies. 
     We are excited to be done with the construction and get ready for our grand opening.  We haven't set a date yet, but hopefully by the end of May...  The pool construction is going great. Our pool contractor is our guardian, Jimmy's dad and so far he is doing a fantastic job.  He has a full crew here every day (but Sunday), and they work hard.  Meanwhile, we just keep plugging away, doing what we can.  One day at a time...

A New Experience (South American Futbol)

 Heather asked me to write the blog post this time, because other than our swimming pool construction starting, not too much new here. I was fortunate enough to have the experience of a lifetime. I went to my first futbol [soccer] game. My good friend Will, my building contractor Rodolfo, and our guardian Jimmy traveled to Guayaquil to see the Ecuadorian champs, Barcelona vs Argentina Boca. Argentina won 2-1, but that is not the story.

To preface this, I have been to over 200 Green Bay Packers games in my days, at several stadiums, but never have I witnessed what I saw on Wednesday. We got to the stadium and it's like any other stadium with vendors selling their goods. Food, beer, water, soda, fireworks, etc. That's right, I said fireworks. In any stadium in the USA, you can not even smoke, but here you can bring in fireworks.

We enter the stadium and security does its thing and searches your bags. I really don't know what they were looking for since fireworks are okay. Again, it was like any stadium in the USA with the hustle and bustle of people, food and beverage vendors. The only difference is that I had a 22 oz. beer and a foot long hot dog combo which cost me only $3.50. The beer was ice cold and the hot dog did the job. My friend treated us all to a bag of plantain chips. These are green plantains sliced very thin and fried like potato chips and salted. Bet you can't eat just on!? They were a perfect compliment to my beer and hot dog.

 Onto the game. The referees came out and everyone whistled. This would be comparable to booing in the US. Argentina came out and the whistling continued. The Barcelona Bulls came on to the field, and the crowd immediately in unison started to sing a song. It was like being at a Wisconsin Badger game when the band plays "Roll out the Barrel". Both countries' national anthems were played and at the end of the Ecuadorian anthem came the first barrage of fireworks, toilet paper, smoke bombs and who knows what else. I was in awe, as my Ecuadorian friend saw the big smile on my face, and was proud of his country's enthusiasm for its beloved team.

The game begins and just like every football game I've been to, fans are shouting out their opinions and ideas for the coaches and players. What I didn't expect was the party happening in the end zone.  This area would be equivalent to the bleacher section at a baseball game. They are the lower priced seats and it's where the party fans are allowed to do just about anything they wish. The crowd in this area was approximately 5000 fans and as soon as the referee started the game, the drums started to bang and the crowd started to sing. I thought how cool to have them singing to start the game. Well, again I was wrong. They sang throughout the whole game except during halftime. One song that they sang, and they sang it probably 5 or 6 times, the crowd would work their way to the top of the grandstand and when it was the correct time they would stampede to the bottom and back up to the top. This happened about 4 times during the song. Yes, people fell and others helped them up so they could continue their dance.

At times you would see them collect the toilet paper that had been thrown and start a little bonfire right there in the stands and people would dance around the fire. FYI, the grandstand is 100% concrete, so really no worries from the rest of the crowd. During the whole game there were roman candles, bottle rockets and various fireworks going off.

In the US opposing fans sit amongst the home town crowd and for the most part with no problems, except at an Oakland Raiders game. Here, for their safety, they must sit in a protected area that is well guarded by the police. I asked my Ecuadorian friend, Will if it was that dangerous for these fans of Argentina, and he assured me it was just precautionary, but there have been a few instances at games, but mainly in Europe. I'm guessing if you have a bottle rocket in your hands and someone upset you, well, you get the drift. All in all the crowd was fantastic and I never felt any presence of danger.

My friend Will drove us to Guayaquil in his new Ford F-150 crew cab, but did not want to park at the stadium. So we parked about 10 miles away at his friend's house and he dropped us off at the stadium and we would  catch a cab back. That plan was a great one until with about 10 minutes left in the game it started to rain. Now normally, most of the fans would walk home or catch the bus, but with the rain, by the time we got to the street all of the cabs were gone. So. in a nice warm downpour we had to hike about 2 miles to get to a major road to catch a cab. We could tell that with the amount of people trying to catch a cab, that we could be waiting for quite awhile, so Rodolfo approached a pickup truck that was at a stop and go light and finally convinced him to give us a ride for $7.00. It was still pouring rain as we all piled into the back of his truck. Soon we realized that 3 more guys climbed in also, and after a small conversation in Spanish with Will, they hopped out and we were on our way. The pickup was a mid 70's Nissan that needed an exhaust, so rain, wind, and noise were against us, but the fumes made it a little more enjoyable as we laughed all of the way. Oh yes, the truck was hand brushed bright yellow. In Ecuador, that is officially a taxi.

We got to Will's friend"s house and after a quick dry off we were on our way to Punta Carnero.  This experience will live with me forever as Heather and I are enjoying as much of the local culture, food, people and fun that comes our way everyday.

Discovering Hidden Talents

     I feel the need to state before this post that the word talent is used very loosely. It is extremely subjective as to whether there is any real talent involved, but moreso the ambition or will to do something.
     I think going without a kitchen and the ability to cook for three months, has brought out my inner Betty Crocker.  I have never enjoyed more in my life, baking and cooking.  And experimenting! Part of it, I think, is having the time.  Ok, probably most of it.  Baking is expecially satisfying to me. And John is benefiting from that as well as all the workers and our guardians.  There are things you can't buy here as far as ingredients, but that just makes things all the more challenging.  For the most part, there is a good substitute.  The first time I made something with sour cream, I am 99% sure it wasn't sour cream I used.  But, it turned out great!
     John is also working on his talents.  Of course, they were always there as well, but he just never had the time to use them.  He has been working on installing light fixtures for me.  Now, this may not sound difficult to the average person, but you have to remember, the ceilings here are made of cement.  So this involves chipping out a space for the designated light fixture.  And it is not easy!  What would normally been done in a couple hours has taken a couple days.  But, we really did want to experience the Ecuadorian life so here it is! 
     We are sincerely enjoying the beautiful weather here.  It really couldn't be any nicer, with the gentle ocean breeze coming off the ocean most all the time. Which brings me to this morning, where the breeze for some reason, decided to stop. Completely.  While I was in the kitchen preparing to make my next project, I noticed I was sweating.  A lot.  So, as I grabbed my sweat towel, I was inspired by a bit of self-written poetry.  Now is the time I will refer back to the first paragraph of this blog post.  So, I am going to put myself and my "talents" out there and share the little ditty that came to me;
The breeze has ceased,
I am on my knees,
With sweat between my breests,
Saying please, please, please,
I need a breeze!
I, personally thought it was very good, my first shot at poetry.  John, not so much. Boy, he is a tough critic!
     We really don't have much to complain about as far as weather.  Seriously.  I think averaged year round, it is probably the best.  That is if you don't like snow and cold.  Which is us.  We are plugging along with our construction.  Crossing our fingers and hoping for a Grand Opening towards the end of April.  The swimming pool construction started today and we are told it will take a month.  But we have to remember, the Ecuadorian interpretation of time and ours is quite different.  So we will not hold our breath and just be happy when it is finished.
    Annabel has turned into quite the guard dog for us. She alerts us when someone she doesn't know is in the front of the house, which is great.  Now we just have to find her "off" button.  She is a really good dog with great instincts.  Josie doesn't seem to interested in protecting the casa, but she does follow Annabel's lead once she starts. 
    The breeze is starting back up, so it is time to head back to the kitchen.  Enjoy the day!