Beach Break

Since it’s holiday time, we went on a trip to the beach. 

 The beach is really nice. A little crowded maybe.

Having just arrived from really freeeeezing Europe, it was such a nice experience to feel the heat of the sun at sea level. It’s amazing, what 2.500m height difference make. Although the temperatures in Cuenca are really nice, 30 degrees is just something else. The nicest thing though at Ecuador’s beach around Montanita is that it actually cools down at night so you have no problems getting some good sleep. Having said that, Thomas (the 2 month old) occasionally had other plans for us. He likes to choose the very early hours of the day for his breakfast and doesn’t want to rest afterwards. To compensate for that, we went to bed early – well, at least some nights…

 

 The kids found many starfish. After they presented them to us they were of course released again...

We were guests of one of Sole’s uncles. He has an amazing house near the beach, about 15 minutes North of Montanita. The house is fabulous and has all you need for a great break. Since pictures say more than words, here you go.

Montanita is a buzzing beach town with many young people that like to hang out in the evenings in one of the many bars or cocktail stands and surf the waves during the day. We decided to stick to what we know – so no surfing for us.

Check out those birds. Those on the power line above the people. No-one seems to know why they are there and why they only stick to about 100 meters of that one road.

 And yes, catching up with friends and family also works thanks to the free WLAN at Hola Ola (open 24hrs).

 Fireworks sale Ecuadorian style - off the back of a pickup truck :)

Apart from a lot of eating, drinking and relaxing, we also got engaged in some physical activities. Well, we walked from the house to the beach through the forest. :)

An hour drive South you find Salinas. A larger town that feels a bit like one of the beach towns on the US East coast. Tons of seafood restaurants, bars and a beach drive. Also, it has one of the few yacht ports in the area: 

Feliz Navidad

Finally, it’s here. The days we have been looking forward to. Merry Christmas to all!

Since families are much larger here than we are used to in Europe, the Christmas dinner is usually split up into 2 or 3 sessions. The first we had yesterday at Jim & Sole’s house. We prepared a huge (11kg) turkey with all the traditional sides and quite a few drinks. Here are some pictures of a really great evening.

Don Federico

Tonight, there is another dinner at one of Sole’s aunties house.

The banking story is finally over. I received my account numbers and banking card today. So, should you want to transfer some money into my account, feel free to inquire for the banking details ;)

Banking - Part 2, Historic Town, Christmas Shopping

To set up an account is after all not as easy. I went there yesterday again since the web-based app didn’t like foreigners in the first attempt. When I arrived at the agreed time, guess who wasn’t there. Yes, the customer representative. I was told to come back in half an hour, so I drove around the area a bit and made some pictures.

 This is one of the 5* hotels in town. It is in one of the nicest locations, directly at one of the 4 rivers overlooking the entire city.

 An old mill at the same river. I will tell you the name, once I get more familiar with the area ;)

After I got back to the bank, the lady was still not there, I left as there were enough other things to do.

I went to the historic part of town with Sole to do some Christmas shopping. I got myself a nice Panama hat for the beach (10 USD) and some small gifts for the family. Here are some pictures of town.

Today, after finally receiving my bank account details (at least for the savings account) Jim, Sole, Thomas and I went to finish the shopping for the Christmas dinner. As I was more support than active in the purchasing, Sole couldn’t resist to take the following picture. I guess it’s the first that shows me with a baby. I think Jim can be very proud of his little son. He is such a joy!

After all that running around and facing the stress of many people on their last round of shopping madness, we are relaxing a bit at home. Jim and I will go out later as he wants to show me Cuenca by night.

Banking in Ecuador

Today I went to the bank to open an account. Sounds easy and almost was, if there weren't the tricks software sometimes has in charge for us. The application was easy because I had a local person's reference - which foreigners need to open bank accounts. I had to sign about 10 documents for all sorts of things (check book, bank card, identity proof, general terms and conditions and so on). Once the lady at the bank wanted to enter all that into her laptop, a message popped up stating that head office in Guayaquil needs to approve, as I am a foreigner. A phone call couldn't solve this and no-one really knew what has to happen. So, tomorrow I will return and shall find all in order. We will see... :)

Apart from the hour in the bank this was a relaxed day. We dropped the car off at a local garage to have it tuned (it didn't burn it's diesel properly). It's great to see how real mechanics to their work. They don't just swap parts and connect their laptops to the vehicles but actually approach the issues like in the old days (after they are done with their laptops).

May I introduce Fredo and Lulu to you?

Fredo is an English Pointer and deeply in love with Jim. Lulu is only 6 months old and obviously a Golden Retriever. Both are fun to be with and only pretend to be guard dogs. Once the gate opens, they are full of joy about the visitor. Please don't tell any local thieves. But - as a taxi driver told me today - Cuenca hardly has any of that sort. After all, Cuenca is the best place to live. It's safe, most people have work and the weather is great. True, today we only had a few drops of rain and a really nice sunset.

First Impressions

Most important fact first: I am happy and have a really great time.

Yesterday Jim & Sole threw a welcome party for me. With friends from the States, England and of course Ecuador. We had a lot of fun with Karaoke, Forfeits and many interesting and fun discussions. Here are some pictures of the party.

 

Jim & Sole

 

The last beer was too much for him...

For the party shopping, we went to the local Supermaxi (supermarket). I was a bit surprised about the prices. Apart from some really cheap products, the price level is about 10-20% higher than I thought. A large steak for 2 is about 7 USD, so slightly more expensive than in the US or Canada. Compared to Switzeland about half price. In Germany I would imagine that you pay about 20% more. Or course, no-one needs to have a steak each day, so no big deal. I just wanted to find a benchmark. The basic food stuffs are much lower in cost, so no horror news here…

Prior to the party yesterday, I took some pictures inside the house and of the view out. It is a cozy place and I couldn’t imagine it much better.

 

Top: Spot the Kuckuck clock :)

Rental truck (left) - Sole & Jim's on right

Today, we had a great family lunch at Sole’s parents. 3 generations around a large table, enjoying Ceviche and other local delicacies. But have a look yourself…

Yes, you guessed right. Fish in wholewheat Corn Flakes ;)

The weather is great. Especially if you just escaped the big snow chaos in Europe. I almost forgot already how it is to sit in the sun and feel the need to take off (almost) all your clothes because it’s too warm. Being aware that the sun is extremely strong (2500m above the sea and a sun right above you), I only stayed for a couple of minutes. Still, a great feeling!

Tonight will be a relaxed movie night and probably early bedtime. Tomorrow, we want to start planning for our business ventures. I am looking forward to that.

I made it!

Finally, i arrived. The flight of my last leg of the trip was canceled in the end due to an accident of the fire brigade in Cuenca during a training in the early morning. So I rushed to the car rentals and drove the last 180 km. Piece of cake ;). Luckily I caught some 5 hours sleep on the plane. I rented a double cabin Ford Ranger Pick Up, one of the kind that was on the potential candidates to be purchased here. The engine was a joke but the car drove quite well... Ups, I guess this is not a car blog...

Now, a quick shower and then some dinner for me - didn't have much food in the past 12 hours.

What a trip

My flight from Munich to Madrid was supposed to leave at 7:05PM on the 16^th Dec. On the morning of that day, I received an automated call from Chile telling me that my LAN flight from Madrid to Guayaquil would have a new departure time “at 30AM". Although I am not American or English, I was pretty sure that this time format didn’t exist. So, I checked on the website. It told me that my flight was 13 hours late (so actually it was canceled) and thus I would have to spend a night in Madrid and one night in Guayaquil. But since I have experienced a lot of strange things when traveling, I decided to pretend as if all is great and head to the airport at the planned time and take it from there.

Check in isn’t easy if you have 5 suitcases totaling 110kg. I was prepared to pay 200 EUR for the additional luggage, since that was what the LAN website stated. Well, I didn’t take into account that my first leg of the trip was on Iberia and thus had to pay by their scheme. To make a (actually much) longer story short, I paid 270 EUR but because of two mistakes of the Iberia Ticketing lady, I didn’t have to pay 360 EUR and my luggage was paid until Cuenca (which usually is not the case).  So, check in was done after just 1.5 hours lol.

Because of the snow in Northern Germany, we had a delay of a good hour. No big deal given the fact that I had a planned layover in Madrid of 2.5 hours plus the unsecure situation with the flight itself. Even in Munich, no-one could tell me when it would leave. Anyway…

The long-distance flight actually left at about 3AM although the plane was there all the time between the initial departure time. LAN couldn’t organize a crew on time – which funny enough they knew 20 hours before that. The flight was very full. No space in Business class. I was tempted to buy an upgrade as I have quite a bad cold. But hey, I had a very nice Ecuadorian student who studies in Bonn next to me and I am sure that this will not be the last contact that we had. He also helped me a bit through customs. Although I really didn’t smuggle anything, I felt a bit on the spot when I had to open the one suitcase that had my 2 NAS and a 2TB hard drive plus some other nice stuff in it. In the end, all was cool though. No payments required.

Since MAD-GYE was delayed, I was sure I missed my connection to Cuenca. But no. The plane was still there. After just 30 minutes, I could board and thought that this would be it. Again, 2 hours late but that was ok. I fell asleep during taxi. When I woke up, we were parking at a gate. I looked out of my window and immediately realized, that this was not right. We didn’t lift off…. And even had to leave the plane again. Now, about 3 hours later, I sneaked into the VIP lounge and even got hold of the WLAN password to write this blog :)

The flight is now due in about half an hour – 5.5 hours after the original departure time (which, as I mentioned I would not have made anyway). So, in South American terms, I guess I should be quite happy. Could be much worse…

I’ll keep you posted.