Change is good, right??

Just a short note to let you know that I am moving the blog...and we moved from Ecuador to Costa Rica!

I'll get into why we moved to Costa Rica in another post, so please stay tuned :)

I am moving the blog to WordPress because I have more design flexibility. WordPress is also a globally accepted blog platform and I want to ensure I, and my blog, stay current and relevant.

The name of the blog will still be The view from here, but the URL will change and I will be sharing the new site with all of you in the next week or so.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates on life in Costa Rica!

Random experiences living in Manta, Ecuador

We've been exploring Manta and becoming more familiar with the rhythm of life here. For today's post I have documented some of the small experiences we've had as part of our day to day living in Ecuador.

Buying a pen & paper:

I needed to take notes for a project I'm was working on and I didn't have a notebook. I rarely use paper as I'm a techy person and also a tree hugger, but I had to make an exception this time. I had a ride along scheduled with a Real Estate Agent to make notes about properties she was listing for sale. I was also going to taking pictures of said properties with my ever so cool camera.

There are no (or few, maybe we haven't found one yet) one-stop shops like Target or Walmart here, so if you need to buy paper you go to the paper store, paint to the paint store, books to the book store...you get the picture. We walked to the paper store about a half-mile from our apartment. The paper store carries a fair selection of notebooks, pens, printer paper, party supplies, etc.

I selected a notebook and went up to the counter to pay for it. I spotted some pens behind the counter. Pens are easy to steal away in a pocket so they keep them out of reach. I asked the girl behind the counter for a pen. After a few minutes of her trying to understand me, and me trying to make my need clear, I settled on a pen and handed the notebook to the clerk. She scribbled with the pen to ensure it worked (you don't return things here so you better be sure it's working before you leave the store), rang up the items and put them both in a bag. Then she handed me the receipt, but not the bag! I asked her for the bag and she pointed down the counter to the caja, which means cashier in Spanish. I walked to the cashier to pay for my purchases but the cashier was behind a dark pane of glass that I couldn't see through. I wasn't sure anyone was there. I put the money in the tray and crossed my fingers. The cashier took my money - $1.40 - and gave me the receipt, then she walked back down the counter, picked up my bag and handed it to me. It took two people to sell me a notebook & pen for $1.40. Another one of the peculiar things about living here.

Taxi rides:

Taxis are abundant and inexpensive here. In a country where most people can't afford to own a car good transportation is a must. We usually walk up to the main road, about a quarter mile from the condo building, to flag down a cab on Flavio Reyes. A cab to anywhere in town costs between $1 to $1.50. For around $8 an hour you can hire a taxi to take you all over town to run errands.

Flavio Reyes is one of the main commerce streets that run through Manta. They don't have the same type of zoning laws and restrictions in Ecuador that we have in North America, so many streets are a combination of businesses. Grocery stores, small shops, restaurants, bars, discos, and apartment buildings are often found in just one block. Many buildings have businesses on the bottom floor and apartments in the floors above.

Not the cab we take in Manta.
This is a taxi in small beach towns. 
This one was in San Vicente.

Each taxi reflects the driver's personality, as does the music they play. It's common to hop into a cab to quite loud music blaring from the radio. If you are lucky the cab driver will turn it down long enough to hear you tell them your destination. Although the cabs look pretty much the same on the outside (yellow), many reflect their owners personality on the inside. One of my favorites was the cab with the dashboard covered in grey faux fur and trimmed out with red fringe. Most cab drivers have some type of dashboard talisman, be it a statue of their favorite saint - the Virgin Mary is a popular choice - a bobble head of their favorite futbol star, or some other trinket. 

Buying antacid:

I had a bad case of heartburn and needed to buy some antacid. We walked to the pharmacy because you can't buy over the counter (OTC) drugs in the grocery store. I looked all over the pharmacy for antacids and couldn't find them, so I took a number and waited to speak to a pharmacist. My Spanish isn't too bad, but it is less than sufficient in this type of situation, so I used a combination of words and hand gestures to get my point across. Now, all I wanted was the equivalent of a Rolaid or Tums but apparently they have many pills for heartburn. The Pharmacist very patiently brought out several options that appeared to be increasing in potency. Just as I was about to give up my husband spotted some OTC antacids on one of the shelves I overlooked in my search, so I thanked the Pharmacist and walked away with more than a bit of relief, but not of my heartburn.

Shopping for computer chairs:

We decided to buy computer chairs because the furniture in our condo isn't conducive to sitting. We tried to find stores that sell the chairs online but searching for stuff on the Ecuadorian Internet has been frustrating to say the least. If a store here in Manta has a website at all, and many do not, the site is out of date or doesn't work. We found several sites that showed computer chairs and had shopping carts but no prices listed. When we tried to add something to the cart and checkout, thinking we would see the price, we still didn't get a price for the item. Ronnie and I joked that it was free99...if there is no price doesn't that mean it's free?

We ended up asking some of the people we've met and a few taxi drivers where we could purchase computer chairs. We visited several stores and found two we liked. They were expensive by Ecuador standards, but worth the money to save our aching backs. 

The Cloud Forest of Pacoche

We went to the Pacoche forest with our friend and Attorney Roberto Moreno di Donato. We thought we were just going to see a property that is being sold by one of Roberto's friends, but it ended up being the most wonderful day I've spent here!

Roberto picked us up at our apartment and drove us south along the Ruta del Sol, also called the Ruta del Spondylus. The Ruta del Sol roughly follows Ecuador's Pacific coastline north and south of Manta, and winds through several different Eco-systems.

Riding in a car with an Ecuadorian driver is an adventure in its own right. The rules of the road, or lack thereof, are much different than what we are used to in North America. In our experience to date, turn signals aren't used much but a loud car horn is a must. It seems the bigger vehicle has the right of way, and pedestrians have the right of get out the way. One lane becomes two or three, depending on how many rows of slow cars there are. But here is the shocker, with all of the apparent recklessness of the drivers we've yet to see an accident! The small statues and medals of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and various Saints that adorn many of the dashboards or hang from the rear view mirror must be working.

Our destination for this drive was the Pacoche Lodge & Reserve (Lodge): http://www.pacochelodge.com/. 

We met two Russian women at the property, the Real Estate Agent and her friend. Interestingly there seem to be quite a few Russian Expats living in and around Manta, as we've met at least four so far.

The Lodge is nestled on 24 acres within the 33,223 acre Refugio de Vida Silvestre, Marino y Costero Pacoche, a protected forest, wildlife, and coastal marine refuge. The Pacoche forest is one of the last remnants of semi-tropical dry forest along the coast of Ecuador. One hundred and fifty two species of birds have been recorded, along with countless species of butterflies, insects, and reptiles. It is a haven for plant lovers, with over three hundred and seventy four species of plants. 
Previous information was loosely translated from the Pacoche Lodge web site provided above

Impatients, recognize these
from the local nursery? 

It was fascinating to walk along the trail through the forest, and I identified several plants growing wild that we use in our domestic gardens, or as house plants in the U.S. 

 A troupe of Howler Monkeys lives on the property, and we were fortunate enough to hear and see them!!! At first we heard rustling in the trees above. As they moved closer we began to hear their calls. My tree hugger heart was beating along with the pulse of their voices as they moved through the canopy of trees overhead. 

I didn't want to leave this amazing place, and if we had the money to buy it we would. Unfortunately the asking price of $320,000 isn't in our price range. If only...

Click to view video of Monkeys: http://youtu.be/EwT57qNtKGQ

Our next stop was San Lorenzo, which is a sleepy little fishing village further south on the Ruta del Sol. Roberto drove us onto a bluff overlooking the village so we could take in the view and snap a few pics. Then he drove us down into the village to walk on the beach.

Village of San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo beach is a Green and Ridley sea turtle nesting ground, and there were wire cages around the nests to protect them until the eggs hatch and the tiny turtles make their way into the ocean.    

Sea turtles are threatened worldwide, with some species on the brink of extinction due to lethal fishing practices and destruction of their nesting habitat. 

Sea turtle nest

We headed home from San Lorenzo and Roberto dropped us off at our apartment. Thank you Roberto for the amazing gift of that lovely day!!

Hasta luego, P.

To market, to market to buy...

We felt our first earthquake this morning (Jan. 17, I'm still playing catch up on the blog). Not all that exciting after living in Southern California for almost 9 years, but it's still worth making note of. We felt the building sway a bit and then it stopped.

We finally made it to the fresh food market (Mercado Central) in downtown Manta and it was awesome. The Mercado is set on two floors in a large rectangular building in the heart of Manta. As soon as you step into the market you are surrounded by the sights, sounds, and smells of the fresh marketplace. You hear the voices of the vendors calling out to customers as they pass by, trying to entice them to buy from their stall.

The first floor is where they sell the meat and fish. You can smell the coppery odor of blood from the fresh meat, and the salty, briny scent of the fish that were caught that morning. We see the fishermen that catch these fish buzzing by our apartment building in their boats every day. 

Fishing boats on the beach

The second floor of the market is where they sell the fresh produce & dairy products. We sampled and bought a fresh cheese that tastes similar to feta. They also had mani' (peanut butter) that they make fresh here. There were two types; the pure version you are most familiar with, and one that had achiote added to it. Achiote is a seed that is used in Latin cooking, and it adds a bright yellow/orange color to the food.

I took my camera with me so I could capture the fresh foods that were for sale and as soon as I started to shoot I was the center of attention. Most of the vendors posed for me to take their picture and they were eager to show off their fruits and vegetables for the camera. They made me laugh with their antics and they laughed right along with me. It was entertaining and enjoyable. 


Ronnie watched and smiled, indulging me as he almost always does ;) He also carried all the bags of fresh produce so I could shop and click to my heart’s content. I can't remember ever having so much fun shopping for groceries! 

I tried out my negotiating skills, in my broken Spanish, and either talked them down from their asking price (saved 20 cents on the strawberries) or they gave me more produce for the price they quoted (instead of 3 tomatoes I got 4). The man that sold me the strawberries was funny...he quoted $1 and when I asked him to go down a little bit on the price he said "98 centavos" which is 98 cents. He laughed at the look on my face and teased me by saying in Spanish "well you said to come down a little". Several of the other vendors were listening in and we all had a good laugh :-D

We paid $4 for the produce and $2 for the cab ride ($1 each way). Here is the breakdown of what we paid for the produce:

•  $1 for 2 large mangos & 7 mandarin oranges
•  20 cents for a 1 large cucumber
• $1 for 12 small limes (juicy little suckers) & 4 tomatoes
• 80 cents for 1/2 kilo (1.1 lbs) of fresh picked strawberries
•  50 cents for 5 medium red onions
•  50 cents for 2 large Anaheim chili peppers

Hasta luego, P.

Bahia de Caraquez is a sweet little city.

Bahia de Caraquez. Left is the mouth of the Chone. Right is the Pacific Ocean

We took a three day vacation to Bahia de Caraquez (Bahia for short). We needed to get away from our demanding life in Manta ;-) or as we put it, we took a vacation from our vacation.

Sunset on the beach

 Bahia is a small city on the Pacific coast about 55 miles north of Manta (according to Google maps). It sits on a point between the Chone River and the Pacific. Unlike Manta, it is a small, clean, charming, walkable Eco-city. The locals take pride in the fact that Bahia is the first Eco-city in Ecuador. They pick up and recycle the trash every day (maybe not on Sunday but I'm not sure).

We stayed at a small beachside hotel called La Piedra. The hotel has two floors and all of the rooms face the ocean, so you can see and hear the pounding surf from almost anywhere in the hotel. Our hotel room was large, clean and bright. The ceiling fan in our room made us laugh because it looked like it should be in a dollhouse. The air conditioner was an older model and sounded like a jet engine before take-off, but it kept the room cool. It was mounted in a framed hole in the wall that let in light on three of the four sides, just another one of those quirky things. Our least favorite thing about the hotel was that the wireless internet was only available in the lobby. Those of you that know us realize how annoying that was...

We ate breakfast at the hotel several times. They had standard breakfast selections, one of which featured seafood. It seems they often eat fish for breakfast here, at least on the coast. Not something I think I'll ever get used to. The American breakfast wasn't what you'd expect. It consisted of sunny side up eggs and two very small pieces of thick, chewy tocino (bacon). It's not the bacon my mamma fed me that's for sure, and leaves something - fatty, smoky, yummy goodness - to be desired.

Corviche

Ronnie ordered corviche de pescado, camarones, y queso (fish, shrimp, and cheese) he’s a braver soul than I am! The one they brought him was overcooked to the point of being burnt, so I sent it back. By the look on the waiter’s face I don’t think many people refuse to pay for inedible food. 




Rather than take our chances ordering another corviche we ordered ceviche, which is fish and veggies in a citrus and tomato based broth. We’ve ordered ceviche more than once and it seems each restaurant have their own variation, all of which are tasty.

Ceviche

Dusty

We spent time with a lovely family from Canada while we were in Bahia. They showed us the town and their favorite places to eat. We went to the central market to buy fresh veggies and corn for their horse Dusty. Their 9 year old fraternal twins were well behaved and engaging. The time we spent with them was the highlight of our trip!

Celebrating a New Year in a new home

The view from the pool area. For my friends in the chilly north the avg. daytime temp is is 82 degrees

New Year's Eve 2012

We took our first trip to find food and household products today. We walked to the Ecuadorian supermarket chain called Super Maxi that is similar to our chain grocery stores back home. What a zoo! It was like Black Friday at Walmart, but in Spanish.

The differences between North American grocery stores and the Super Maxi are small but significant. When you enter Super Maxi you pass a security guard. You pick up a basket at the front door, but the checkout isle is too narrow to allow the cart to go through, so you empty the cart onto the conveyor belt and leave it for the cart guy to retrieve (not very efficient when it's crowded). There is another cart at the end of the checkout counter and the bagger bags your groceries and places them in the new cart.

Milk & eggs are found on a shelf rather than in a cooler. Yogurt comes in bottles rather than tubs. The selection of fruits and vegetables are similar but there are things we never see in the States. Tree tomatoes (savory & sweet), guanabana, naranjllo, taxo, pepino dulce, and mora berry to name just a few. There are canned whole tomatoes but no tomato sauce. The spice selection is limited :-( but I'm hoping to find a larger selection once we venture out to the mercado, which is the local fresh produce and meat market. The majority of the olive oil is from Spain rather than Italy, and the aroma evokes many fond memories of my time spent in Madrid. Beef here is grass fed rather than corn fed, so it's much leaner than we get in the states.

Liquor is expensive here, except for the excellent rum and beer they make in country. Most of the wine seems to come from Chile and Argentina. Boones Farm, Blue Nun, and Martini & Rossi are considered premium brands J We may have to build our own vodka distillery if we want martinis because a small bottle of Absolut Vodka is over $40. But hey, they grow several hundred types of potatoes here so perhaps a business opportunity…

With a lot of patience and "con permiso" we made it out of the grocery store and hopped into a cab for the short ride home. Taking a cab ride to almost anywhere in town costs $1.

I couldn't find, or maybe didn't recognize a prime rib roast at the Super Maxi, so we opted to forego our traditional prime rib dinner in favor of pan seared chicken breast, mashed potatoes and a salad.

Rather than champagne we enjoyed basil mojito's...after we wrestled with the bottle of rum for half an hour. 

The bottle of rum we bought had a normal cap on it, but when we opened the bottle there was what looked like a plastic stopper inside. When I tried to pour the rum into the glass nothing came out! I shook it, turned it upside down, even tried milking it like a cow and nothing, nada, zip. So Ronnie took a knife and proceeded to break the plastic insert out. We've since opened another bottle and there is actually a stopper inside and when you shake the bottle over the glass it pours. Apparently we had a defective bottle the first go round. I swear it wasn't user error!

We signed up for Netflix and streamed episodes of Heroes while we drank mojito's. At midnight one of the residents of our condo complex set off fireworks over the ocean. We toasted a new year in a new home!

Hasta luego, P.

Manta or bust...or how United Airlines turned a 1 1/2 day trip into 5!!!

The hardest part of moving was saying goodbye to our family. We planned to leave right after Christmas, so we decided to rent a house in Las Vegas, NV over Thanksgiving weekend to spend quality time with our parents, children & grand-babies before we left. Our son is deployed to Kuwait, so he joined us via Skype (love that technology!). We had a wonderful time and created life long memories for all of us.

Below is the description of our actual trip to Ecuador. I know it's long winded, but at the time I wrote it I needed an outlet for my frustration, and man it felt goooooddd to get it down on paper.

Day 1 (Dec. 26) - On our way

Speaks for itself...

You know that saying "be careful what you ask for" well it rang true for us on our trip from San Diego to Quito, Ecuador (EC). We asked for an adventure and oh boy did we get one!

It started at the airport check in counter in San Diego. Two of our bags were overweight (we expected that based on the fact that we tried to stuff our whole life into those four bags and Ronnie almost got a hernia lifting them). However, one was over 70 pounds and apparently you can't take a bag onto a flight into Quito that weighs over 70 pounds, period. Of course this isn't posted anywhere on the United web site :( I know this doesn't seem to be a big deal but the United Airline's agent put our bags on the baggage carousel and sent it into the black hole before he realized it couldn't go on the plane. So we had to wait for them to get it back, at which point I removed and threw away my shampoo & body wash. Lesson learned…

We finally got onto the flight and optimistically thought that was the worst of it, but United had another surprise waiting for us in Houston. We had a 3-hour layover in Houston before our flight to Quito. Five minutes before we were due to board the plane they cancelled the flight due to the First Officer not showing up for work!! So the gate agents handed us a piece of paper and told us to go to the hotel and call the 800# that was written at the bottom later. The gate agent told us they would probably create a "special section" (a new plane and crew) and we would likely go out the next morning. We checked into the hotel, went to dinner, and then called United. Of course they weren't going to create a new flight (that was just BS to get us out of the airport without a fuss). Instead they expected each of us to find our own new flights into Quito. When we finally got through to United's Customer Care, which should be retitled Customer Don't Care, the customer service rep (CRS) was surly. So I asked to be transferred to a Supervisor. The Supervisor's attitude was no better than the CRS's. After a lengthy discussion about our flight options I turned to tell Ronnie what was going on and the Supervisor said "thank you for calling United" and hung up on me! We called back and finally were scheduled to fly out of Houston to Bogotá and Bogotá to Quito, with a 3-hour layover in Bogotá.

Day 2 (Dec. 27) - Still in Houston :(

After a sorely needed night’s sleep, we went down to breakfast. We started chatting with a couple at a nearby table that was supposed to be on the same flight with us to Quito. The wife mentioned she was having trouble rescheduling her hotels and I offered to go to the business center to see if I could help. I spent a few minutes with her finding her reservations and helped her get it worked out...gotta keep the positive Karma going :)

Ronnie joined us in the business center and we logged onto United to print our boarding passes. There were two options to choose from, we chose one and it said it couldn't complete the transaction so we went back and selected the other option. When we got to the next screen we needed information from our passports and didn't have them with us, so we closed the web page and decided we would just get our boarding passes at the airport. However, after we got to the room Ronnie decided to call United to confirm our flights (paranoia had set in by then). It's a good thing he did because the CRS told him that our flight reservations had been cancelled via the web site!!! Now we are both computer savvy and there is no way we accidentally cancelled our reservations online...there was no warning, no "do you want to cancel" nothing. We had to reschedule our flights and ended up on the same red-eye flight to Bogotá but instead of a 3-hour layover it ended up being 13 hours.

The hotel allowed us a late, late check-out. We took the shuttle to the airport 3 1/2 hours before our flight time. Good thing we did, because another hassle awaited us when we tried to check-in for the flight to Bogotá. The United agent wouldn't issue our boarding passes because we booked our return flight to the U.S. 6 months from our departure date instead of 3. This wasn't a mistake on our part...the Ecuadorian government web site states you do not need a visa for the first 90 days and that you can get an automatic 90 day extension while in country. We also discussed this with our Ecuadorian Attorney because we don't want to be undocumented immigrants in a foreign country. FYI...there is no such thing as an "illegal" immigrant in EC, or in most other countries outside the U.S. Oh, and did I mention that the booking web site doesn't provide a warning about this nor ask for a visa number in order to allow you to book the flight?

After an extended conversation with three different United agents we were forced to pay $150 per ticket to reschedule our return flights to within 90 days of departure. Since when did the airlines become foreign immigration??? They are totally out of control! They finally issued us our boarding passes for the flight to Bogotá. We went though security and, because of the long delay at check-in we didn't end up getting anything to eat as all the food stands were closed.

One bright spot...apparently the United agent Alex felt sorry for us and upgraded us to economy plus, which was a happy surprise and made the flight to Bogotá much more comfortable. Bless you Alex for taking pity on two travel weary passengers!

Day 3 (Dec. 28) - Bogotá and Quito

We landed in Bogotá at 5:55 a.m. and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:00 p.m. so we had a long wait ahead of us. Fortunately the airport in Bogotá is new so there were restaurants and shops along the concourse that helped us while away the time.

About two hours after we arrived we realized that the United agent in Houston only issued our boarding passes for the first leg of our trip! Doesn't sound like much of an issue, right? In the U.S. one would just go to the nearest open gate for the airline, or to the customer service desk. But those conveniences don't exist in the airport in Bogotá, nor the airports in EC for that matter. After walking up and down the concourse several times we found a United gate that was open and a very kind Columbian United agent (the first kind United agent we encountered besides Alex) took our itinerary and passports out through customs to the airport check-in counter and had them issue our boarding passes, which he promptly handed us with a smile and a wave of his hand. I think we embarrassed him a bit with our effusive expressions of gratitude. Our good Karma kicked in just in the nick of time!

When United cancelled our flight from Houston to Quito it had a domino affect on our entire trip. We booked a hotel in Quito for one night that we were charged for but didn't get to use. We booked a flight the following day to Manta, which we also couldn't use. The owner of the apartment we were renting, and the real estate agent (Fernanda) that found us the apartment were waiting for us to pick up the keys. I sent an email to Fernanda letting her know we were delayed and were trying to contact AeroGal to change our flights. Fernanda sprang into action! She asked us to send her our flight information and then called AeroGal and rebooked our flight for us! Unfortunately the only flight available was on Dec. 30, which meant staying in Quito for 2 days. So we went online and booked 2 nights at Howard Johnsons in Quito.

Our flight from Bogotá to Quito was on Avianca airline that is based in Columbia and man you could tell the difference (from United) as soon as you stepped on the plane. The flight attendants greeted us with buenas noches, bienvenidas and a warm, welcoming smile. They were courteous and attentive - when's the last time you experienced that on a United plane? The planes are well equipped and comfortable. Plenty of leg room for everyone, not just economy plus, business, or first class. There was a plug to charge our electronics under our seat and a fully interactive (free!) personal entertainment system with games, music, movies (did I mention this was all free?). They served us a hot meal that was actually edible and also free! Compared to economy flights in the U.S. we felt like we were flying first class.

We arrived in Quito on time. The flight was a bit bumpy, but other than that uneventful. That's not to say our "adventure" ended there…

Our four large suitcases were not on the plane, which didn't actually surprise us because they did the same thing on the trip we made last December to EC. Off to the baggage claim desk I went, while Ronnie watched the bags we did have. It's a good thing I speak some Spanish. Although I'm sure it sounds broken, and my grammar leaves much to be desired, it gets us where we need to go. Once we submitted our claim it was off to the hotel Howard Johnson.

Although HoJo isn't considered one of the top hotel chains in the U.S., in EC they are one of the better hotels and are much nicer than the ones in the States. The staff was welcoming and the room was clean and comfortable. We took a quick shower and fell into bed exhausted.

Day 4 (Dec. 29) - Quito

We spent an uneventful day in Quito. We ordered room service for breakfast and stayed in the room, checking emails and recuperating. We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and a couple of Pilsner beers each, which were quite tasty.

Day 5 (Dec 30) - Quito… and finally in Manta!

We called about our missing luggage several times over the two days we were at the hotel and finally found that three of them were transferred by United to Avianca airline and were at the Quito airport. The fourth was still in Houston because United didn't send it with the other three. The bags were at the baggage claim in the Quito airport so we decided to leave to pick up our three bags at 12:30 for our flight to Manta at 5:00 p.m. 4 1/2 hours early may seem excessive but we were already learning from our experience that things move at a different pace in Latin America.

We requested to take the hotel shuttle to the airport. We waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes. There were no other customers waiting with us. The airport "shuttle" was actually a taxi that the hotel apparently contracts with to take passengers to the airport. This taxi had been sitting outside the hotel the entire time we were waiting. Promptly at 12:30 the driver folded the newspaper he was reading and got into the front seat of the car, at which point the hotel bell hop came and took our bags to load them into the cab. Ronnie and I looked at each other and laughed out loud! Just another example of how different things are in Ecuador.

Another adventure awaited us at the airport. First we had to figure out where to go to collect our missing luggage, all the while lugging around our carry-on bags. Once we figured that out I had to go through a security door, up some stairs and down a long hallway to talk to the baggage claim officer. The baggage claim officer contacted someone else on his walkie-talkie and then sent us back to where we originally filed our lost baggage claim the day we arrived in Quito. They opened the storage locker and lo and behold there were three of our four bags. Considering we were told something different every time we called baggage claim, the fact they were actually there seemed like a small miracle. Once we collected and signed for the bags we were off to check-in for our flight to Manta.

Fernanda told us we would have to pay for changing our flight to Manta but there were no AeroGal agents at the ticket or the flight check-in counters when we got there, so we stood in the check-in line. Then we waited...and waited…

A few hours later the AeroGal agents arrived and began the process of checking in passengers. Of course they couldn't take the payment for changing our flight at that counter, so they sent me to another counter to make the payment. Another small miracle! There was actually someone there and I was the only one in line. I paid for the flight change, went back to the check-in counter, and the agents issued our boarding passes. Then we went through security. For those of you that haven't traveled outside the U.S., the rules are much different (read: easier) and you can take food, liquids, etc. through security.

While waiting to board the plane we met a U.S. expat couple from Tennessee who live in Manta. They shared some good information about the expat community - there are about 80 expats living in Manta proper and they meet twice a week. We also met a nice Latin American couple from Charlotte. She was El Salvadorian and he was Ecuadorian. They were traveling to Manta for vacation, and to drop off his daughter who was visiting them in the U.S.

We boarded the plane to Manta with a sigh of relief. After everything we'd been through to get to this point it seemed surreal that we were actually on the plane to Manta!

The flight to Manta only takes about 45 minutes. In that 45 minutes we were given a warm empanada and our choice of beverage...free. We touched down in Manta on time, grabbed our bags, and took a taxi to our new home.

Our new home is in a building called Las Olas (the waves) in a gated community named Urbanization Pedro Balda. The building is on the beach of the Pacific Ocean. Our apartment is 850 sq. ft. with one bedroom and one bath. It is open concept and we can see and hear the ocean from the kitchen/dining/living area and the bedroom. It has a small laundry room with a combination washer/dryer. We have a balcony that overlooks the ocean.

Juan, our new landlord, met us at the apartment; gave us a brief overview of the building; showed us a few technicalities about the apartment; and left. We were finally in our new home!

We dropped our suitcases, took a moment to orient ourselves, and realized we were hungry. Alas there was no food in the apartment. So we set off to find something to eat and a frosty beverage to celebrate our arrival. Lucky for us - or perhaps good karma coming back around - right across the street from the entrance to our complex is the Magic Manta Bar Cafe. The owner was warm and friendly, and the $3 subs and the cold frosty were delicious and really hit the spot!

Hasta luego, P.