BobnRox in Ecuador

I guess the little planktons have decided to group right in front of our beach tonight, as the light show we just witnessed, far surpassed last night...

Last night we had glowing white waves that had a blue tinge that turned bluer as they rolled in.

Tonight we have all that, but we have almost green, incredibly bright,  lightning bolts, flashing all through about every fourth wave.

Rox and I felt like we were watching a tennis match as we tried to keep up with the rolling green flashes all along our 180 degrees of beach.  In fact, when we decided to go to bed, Rox saw a particularly grand wave about 1/4 mile wide all lit up and flashing...so...we trooped back out to watch for another hour.

For our friends south of us in the Salinas area--if you keep watching, we think you will get the light show in a couple of days.  It's coming south right at ya!

This might be a once in a lifetime event, and we are thrilled to see so much of it!!!

Hot Flash!!!  Just got up about 3:00 am to see what was going on in the ocean, not much--white waves but no big show--UNTIL...a fishing boat speeds by about 500 yards out, and his bow wave is incredibly bright irridescent GREEN!  A true green arrow zooming right to left with a 100 yard wake of chruning bright green suds!  What a sight--one in a million!!!

For the last several days, Rox and I have seen the waves as "whiter" than we have ever seen them.  It looked like there was a powerful spotlight on the waves as they broke, but there was no car and the moon was hidden.

Then this weekend, the Coastline at Montanita filled up with people anxious to take a look at the "electric blue wave phenomenon"

So we googled the event to see what in the world we were seeing.  The first thing that most of the quoted witnesses say is "I am not drunk!"  "I am not stoned!"

So...last night as we were having dinner on the deck watching the sunset and afterglow, we really saw a show!  About every fourth or fifth would light up from the inside as it was breaking over the crest.  And the interior light would follow the break, right or left.  

Sometimes the whole long wave would light up at once, and sometimes the interior would have a blue flash about as big as a car.

This is what an expert says--

"The bioluminescence is caused by a chemical reaction involving the phytoplankton Lingulodinium polyedrum, and the movement of the waves. In a Los Angeles Times story, Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor Peter J. Franks said of the phytoplankton:

“When jostled, each organism will give off a flash of blue light created by a chemical reaction within the cell. When billions and billions of cells are jostled — say, by a breaking wave — you get a seriously spectacular flash of light.”

Take a look at these 2011 and 2005 articles...pretty rare stuff...

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2005-10-28/Front_Page/001.html

Here is what it looked like...

Otavalo is a great medium sized town...The weather is terrific...cool at night, but not cold.

We have been here five nights now and have never heard even one sound outside of our cute little casa located on this landscaped rancho 2 km out of town.

I am going to post a bunch of photos and then come back and add some information.  Most are self-explanatory...

These taken at the Gran Condor...famous for 3D wall hangings...we had to have a bunch more...

All of their creations are made on site...

Here are some that Rox has displayed around our little casita

Our place is so quiet because the extensive grounds push out all background noise...take a look...

We had to go to the huge outdoor craft market, just because money was burning a hole in our pocket...

a close up...

This is what we bought home...

Are we having fun...you bet your bippy....

This year,we're celebrating Roxanne's birthday by renting a house outside of Otavalo.  After a lot of searching, Rox found us a cute little place on a private Rancho, that was pet friendly, and was quiet.

As you all know, trying to get everything ready at home , so you can go on a mini-vacation, is so much work, that it almost doesn’t seem worth the effort.  But...we know it is...

So...the day before our departure, we are scurrying around trying to get everything done, fixed up, cleaned up, purchased, packed,  instructions written  to guests, help, and workers,

In addition to all the running around, we also had some fun stuff happen...

First, we had a nice couple ride  by our beach, wave, and give Coquita a thirll (wow! Biiiiig dog!), then we had a whole posse of riders come by out in front.  All of these folks were riding to a big horse festival in Dos  Mangos, a small town about 10 miles inland.

The fishermen surfed in on a boat that had just finished laying a huge "U" shaped net...

Things got better fast, as some of our “people” showed up with a fabulous lemon meringue pie for Rox's birthday, and even sang “Happy Birthday” to her in English!  There is no doubt that making this pie with real lemons, makes it taste heavenly—so much so, that we finished it in two sittings.  (the last part being devoured by us at 2:30 in the morning as we finished packing the car, for a 4:00 am start to a 12 hour road trip to Otavalo.  That solid sugar shot kept us from getting the “blinks” as the sun came up...we just kept the foot on the floor and drove on...

 In the “aw shucks” department we have this:  Agripina has a nephew who lives so far out in the boonies that it is a two hour walk to any sort of bus.  His family is too poor to send him to private school, so he lives with Agripina's daughters and does work for us for some spending money.  We had him painting for three weeks straight, (along with a lot of other jobs thrown in), and figured that he was taking his weekly earnings and having fun on Saturday night.  We were wrong!!!  He had been saving every penny he could, so that he could ask us if we might have a friend bring down a Walmart computer, so that he could keep up with his university studies.  Computers here cost more than double what they cost up north.  Unfortunately we had used up all of our people, and were in the process of telling him no, when we had an a great idea!

A wonderful couple, serving in Iraq, (Michael and Elizabeth) had left us one of their laptops, which we really appreciated.  We had a problem with it starting up, but another friend (Ron), was able to get it up and running.  So for the last year, we have had two laptops in case one just up and quit.

Realizing that we were just using the Iraq laptop as a spare, and that by having one, it could change Santo's life, we told him about the generosity of our friends, and how they would be thrilled for him to have such an essential tool in college.  He just about fainted when we told him that he could have it for nothing!

So...Michael and Elizabeth in Iraq, and Ron in Belmont, you done good!!!  Please be assured that you may have made a life long difference in a deserving, young man's life!  Thanks mucho!

This is Santo with his new computer sitting downstairs from our office router, logged on to his University lesson plan...

And, what do you need for a really good day, well, how about ending with a knock your socks off sunset?  like this...

We got up at 2:30 pm on the 28th to rocket away from the Coast toward Quito and Otavalo.  It's about a 12 hour trip for us to stop for Coquita, lunch, and circulation breaks...and getting lost, thanks to Bob.

We are surrounded by volcanoes now...the weather perfect...we packed all of our cold weather stuff, long pants, sweaters, coats, shoes, etc, and we have been sitting around in our shirt sleeves for three days.  The weather is perfect!!!

Here is a shot of Rox in our puppy friendly casa...nice fire!

Here's a couple of outside shots...we love it here!

Here are a couple of shots of us eating outside watching the clouds pass by the volcanoes...

Here's the birthday girl dressed up for dinner...

We like Otavalo...I even went to the market this afternoon, parked right across the street from the main selling square, walked in and bought Rox three pairs of wool socks...all in about 10 minutes...On the weekends, that would be impossible...

More later...Rox is making Beef Stroganoff from part of the Filet Mignon loin we had for her birthday dinner last night...

It doesn't seem possible, but , by adding on our fingers, we find that beginning in 2008, we have celebrated Agripina's birthday,  up on our deck, 6 years now...wow!!!  Time surely does fly!!!

A number of our readers have expressed concern that we have been posting at a slower pace than we used to.  Life tends to get somewhat cyclical after you get around to describing it for the sixth time.  By our blog count, we have made over 700 entries describing our life in Ecuador.

We wake up with a smile on our face every morning, the sun is warm on our faces, the sandy beach sifts through our toes, and the ocean waves are bathtub warm.  We wear shorts all year round, and we get to visit with a growing number of friends from up North, Suite guests, and transplanted Ex Pats...BUT, we can't just get up each day and write a new blog entry about the "same old great life"!

In addition, when we began our blog in 2007, there were only a few others writing about Ecuador, now there are more than 50 people blogging about Cuenca alone!!!

Birthdays are celebrated a little more sedately by the locals, here at the Coast.  Many times another family member is not even aware that there is  birthday that day.

In fact, it seems that when we say that we are having Agripina or Isidro for a little "birthday bash", they seem surprised to be told that a birthday is coming up!

This year Agripina had on a new dress, which added to the festive mood...

When Rox selects gifts for Agripina and Isidro, she tries to find items that would make her life a little nicer, but that she might not buy for herself...

This year, items included a huge amount of light blue yardage, that Agripina could use for a dress, curtains, table clothes and napkins, to name a few...also lots of new needles, thread, etc.  She also got new, fancy place mats.  However, the last gift was the best!  We ordered an Armitron watch which not only looked good, but was automatic, and worked underwater...

After catching up on the goings on around town, having a couple of Cuba Libres, some munchies, and the opening of gifts, we present them with a tub of ice cream, and pretty birthday cake--to take home!

We found out years ago, that Agripina saves all the wrapping paper, rewraps her gifts, and then opens them for her family (and it's a big one), and they all eat ice cream and cake to celebrate her birthday all over again!!!

Here's a shot of the cake...

As you can see Agripina;s smile is enhanced by another beautiful sunset reflected in the window...

A nice ending to another nice day at the Beach!!!