Life in Bahia and a trip to Canoa

Spending three hours a day with my Spanish tutor and studying a couple of more hours each day means we don’t have a lot of pictures or stories for the blog. Here’s the view from the park bench where Sanhi and I go over prepositions and verb conjugations. Although class is at 3:30, the Yugosi vendor is there shortly after 3, so I arrive early to get my pina-coco Yugosi (the 15 cent yogurt-based icy pop that I first had in Quito in March and blogged about).

Gotta have the food pictures! The food is still great, whether we eat out [as in the $4  grilled pork chop dinner with all the Ecuadorian trimmings: potato with a cream cheese topping, salad and the second plate containing rice and menestra (lentils)] or whether I cook, like this shrimp and pasta dish with a cheese sauce.

Every weekday morning, the same fish vendor walks down the street, yelling “pescado! camarones!” (fish!, shrimp!). He knows where to stand so we can see him and wave from our balcony. If we wave and disappear off the balcony, we are heading down to see what he has. If we wave and stand there, he knows we aren’t buying that day. He’s a nice guy who speaks a very little bit of English. Last Sunday, we saw him with his daughter at the free vaccination clinic they had downtown and he called us over and introduced us to his wife. If we want something that he doesn’t have that day, he leaves the fish he does have with us and pedals like crazy to the market on the other side of town to get it. We could probably get the fish cheaper at the market (or maybe not), but he delivers it right to the door of our building, and it has always been fresh and tasty. Phillip took this picture looking down over the balcony as our buddy sliced off a chunk of swordfish for me.

About half the time, Bahia is cloudy during the day as the sea breezes carry a lot of moisture. On the sunny days, the water in the bay is a beautiful blue, such a wonderful view from our balcony.

Probably, if we were on the Pacific side of the peninsula, we could take really good sunset shots that include more of the reflection on the water, but I like the view on this side better… mountains in the background across the bay, not just water.

Today, we traveled to Canoa, a beach town about 30 minutes up the coast from us. Instead of beach umbrellas, These tents were used for sunshade. I think Phillip needs to make me one for the pond at the ranch. The wind blows thru and the sides anchor the top and keep the sun from sneaking in the sides.  Pretty nifty and the best design for beach (or pond?) cabanas that I’ve seen.

While walking along the beach, we came across this half-buried log. “Get your paws off me, you dirty, stinking ape!”  Every time I see half-buried driftwood logs sticking out of the sand, I look for Charlton Heston. Yes, I know there was a remake of Planet of the Apes, but the original is better. And I know that Charlton Heston is dead, but still….

The sand on the beach at Canoa is a whiter, finer sand than the sand in Bahia. The beach also had more vendors, making Canoa seem more like a play area than Bahia. The town itself, however, made San Vincente across the bay from Bahia seem like a metropolis. We had taken a taxi from Bahia to Canoa ($8), but after we walked around and ate lunch, we couldn’t find a taxi in Canoa to take us back to Bahia. We saw plenty of them parked, but they were full of towels and clothes because they were being used by the driver to bring his family to the beach and they weren’t for hire.  I flagged down the only moving taxi and the driver told me that there weren’t any taxis for hire in Canoa. So, we walked three blocks to the main road for the bus. No wait, as the bus was there. On our ride back, the bus passed a carnival ride on wheels. I stuck my camera out the window to get this picture as we overtook the long bug-mobile. We got off the bus in San Vincente and took the ferry across the bay, back to Bahia.

We’ve booked a tour of Isla Corazon for Monday morning, so I’ll probably be making another post on Monday evening or Tuesday morning.