We wish the whole gang in Cucnca, and everyone else who celebrates, a really Happy Holiday, and we're sure that they blew out the walls this year in Cuenca...we will see you all soon and catch up...

It turns out that we just didn't spend the day cooking and walking on the beach, we got out all the wrapping material, and all the kid's gifts and got a good start on wrapping them all.  Rox also got the tree decorated, so it will also be included the the "Santa's Workshop" set for good pictures, and better atmosphere.

 We did a ham and trimmings this year, and the odd thing is that after finishing a really delicious dinner, we felt just fine, as if we had just had about a dozen courses of a Turkey and everything else dinner.

 You will notice under the tree, that we have limited the colorful wrapping to red and green...this is for two reasons...number one is that Christmas wrapping paper is diabolically expensive, like $2.50 for a square yard, so this year we bought about 60 yards of a paper-cloth like fabric, and it works just fine.  Reason number two is that the boys will have red presents and the girls green ones.  Rox has coded each package with signs reading "b-t-b" meaning "boy-truck-big", and "g-d", for "girl-doll"...or "lbd" or "br" for "little boy drum" or "baby rattle"--you get the idea...

There are 51 presents wrapped now, and we only have 99 more to wrap...but today was a good start...

So...this year we not only got that familiar drowsy-full feeling, but also a really nice "warm, fuzzy feeling"...and that's about as good as it gets!

We were having coffee on the deck when a dozen dolphins passed us...then when we took a walk, they passed us coming back--mucho fish this morning, and they were happy to graze...

You can see the fins off of Rox's left shoulder...

 Speaking of grazing, these wild horses decided the beach was just fine for a romp...

Our hotel is right below this bluff, where the super spring exudes all the water for the amazing waterfall...and you remember that this water has religious and mineral healing effects for many people.  So, coupled with the fact the many of the baths are heated by volcanic magma, we see many folks lined up all day and night to soak up the mental and physical relief.

Here is Rox filling up a bottle of the sacred water for Agripina.

 Coincidentally, this is the first anniversary of the passing of Agripina's mother, and since she is deeply religious, maybe this water will help her through the day...

Here are a couple of shots of paintings on buildings around town...

In addition to the regular disco scene, we detected a "Goth-Gamer"undercurrent in town, as evidenced by these paintings and by many shops that sell Goth and Dark Gamer paraphernalia... 

Another phenomenon that we noticed, is that all of the produce fields seem to be bordered by trees that form nice looking hedges...

Some of these border hedges are only four feet high and some are over 20 feet high...'course the farmers here, as everywhere, must surround their fields with barbed wire to keep the livestock out of the crops.  (One thing that I didn't notice until right now, is that Ecuador does not have mule deer, who will eat anything in your garden if you don't have an 8 foot fence).

Take a look at this pretty flower...

This flower is not pictured out of context...it is actually a fence post!!!

 Turns out that when the farmers cut limbs off of live trees to use as fence posts, that the soil here is so rich, that the the limbs just grow into trees again...thus creating the nice looking borders around many of the fields!

Since we are showing flowers, here are a couple more that we found along the side of the cobblestone road...

Taffy pulling is common in shops specializing in sweets...we saw many shops where the "taffy puller" would spend a really long time pulling this candy out about six feet and then throwing it back on the peg to pull it out over and over again...

This bus is the same one that picked up a happy group from our hotel at 10:00 pm for a night of touring waterfalls and discos...they parked outside our window and had the rock blasting back to the revelers, who all started clapping and singing as they drove away...they got back about three in the morning...but the music was turned down just a bit...they were still all laughing...

 Rox liked the real bus so much that she bought this cute little ceramic one to take home...

And, if the bus is too tame for you, you can always take the Rhino Car...

Here are a couple of footbridges to take your breath away...

  When Rox returned from a photo op at the center of the bridge, she was quite happy to be on solid ground as she said that it swayed sideways, and with each step it bounced up and down, plus the metal plating of the floor "creaked funny"...

On our drive home as we approached Milagro, a large city just northeast of Guayaquil, we passed about a hundred nurserys...We guess these folks supply a huge amount of landscaping.  This shot will give you a taste of what we saw...

Take a look at this...

The Palace Hotel has an excellent chef, so at breakfast we asked if he would lay in a special fillet Mignon dinner for us.  He said "for sure", and he even said that they would be glad to serve the whole dinner to us in our suite.  Of course, there was enough beef there to serve six.

Our suite was number 16, for those of you who wish to try it out.   Here is a shot of the church, from one of our panoramic windows...

Now, Banos is famous for its volcanoes, hot therapeutic mineral baths, discos, and incredible beauty...but, what is a well kept secret, is that it is a major agricultural center.  The volcanic rock that permeates everything makes everything grow wonderfully.  We made three day trips out of town, and wherever we went, we saw fields planted, and acres covered by plastic "hot houses"...

We took these shots before we arrived in Banos, and it is hard to believe that these farms are higher than 10,000 feet!

  These shots show how every inch of land is used if possible...frankly, we don't know how anyone can farm at such an angle...

These hothouses are everywhere, some covering more than an acre...

 This lava rock is everywhere, and makes plants grow like magic...

Here's a shot of Rox posing with the volcano in the background...

Rox said that the picture of this gondola ride looked like fun, until she saw the real thing...zoweee...

 That cable doesn't look nearly so thick in real life...not when they suspend you, stopped, next to the waterfall, and you are hundreds of feet up!  That little red spot is you!!!

This young couple rode out here in a rented quad...just to take this ride!!!

We took a ride halfway to Puyo, the gateway to the jungle on Thursday...and it doesn't take long for the jungle to surround you...

On the way, we passed the huge hydroelectric dam that provides a whole bunch of electricity, and a quick look at the water spillway, will tell all of our Ecuador based readers why we are having regular outages...'cause there ain't no hydro in the hydroelectric...

Much more show and tell coming up...stay tuned...

I told Rox that we didn't need advance reservations, since we were arriving on a Monday in the off-season...so our plan was to arrive about 2:30 and scout around to find the perfect place that also accepted doggies...

The route we planned to take was south on Ruta del Sol, west thru Guayaquil (again), then north toward Quito for a short distance, then east thru Milagro.  After that, we headed northeast toward Bucay and on to Riobomba.  All well and good.  Now, here it gets dicey.  The direct road to Banos from Riobomba disappeared a couple of years ago, and Rox and I have asked many folks since then, if the road had been repaired, or if it was toast...  The director of the AAA where I went to driving school told me that the road was fine...others said it was still out...so...we told ourselves that we would keep asking as we neared Banos, thinking that the closer we got, the more accurate would be the info...

Well...that was true to a point...the road is still gone, but one does not have to drive clear to Ambato and then wind south to get to Banos, there is a "shortcut"...on the map it shows nothing but mountains...

From Mocha, we were to drive directly east to Banos--remember we are well above 10,000 feet now--we got to a little town called Quero, and now it got interesting...some road decisions had to be made, and all we could do was head east according to our trusty compass...eventually we came to another community, and we began to see little, bitty signs saying Banos with an arrow.  The road was powdery dirt...glad it was not raining...we followed this for about five miles...and eventually did find a paved road, and joined up with the southbound road from Ambato...great fun all around, 'cause we didn't get lost...

We had already spent over an hour waiting at road construction sites on this drive, as the project to put great cement highways all over Ecuador goes full speed ahead...so...we arrived in Banos at 5:00 pm, instead of 2:30 as I had figured...

Not too good, but Rox got out and went to our first choice hotel, and was told that no way did they accept pets.  She tried the next one and the lady said no pets, and added that nobody took pets, either. We were getting a little nervous now, when I told Rox that we had passed the Palace Hotel, and it was one of the hotels on our list.  She went in to see them and was told no pets, but she stressed that the manual that the Bank had given us stated that they took pets.  So the desk clerk talked to the owner, and he relented.  Rox, next asked for a suite--(90 bucks a night--way more than we want to spend), but we were in luck, the power was off and not due to go on for an hour, so the owner asked if we would be using the spa facilities, and Rox said no.  The he knocked the price down to $48/nite, including a breakfast...and this was for the Presidential Suite!  It is a grand room with a view of the waterfall, and we can hear it just fine!  We liked it so much that we ordered dinner in our room last night...just what we needed after a long day on the road.

This is the waterfall.  The painting of the virgin is about ten feet tall.  The pools at the bottom the painting are supposed to filled with water that heals one ailments...and we have been watching folks arrive and douse selected parts of their bodies with the healing water.  Lots of folks fill bottles, also.  In fact, we will fill up a 3 liter Coca Cola bottle for Agripina...religion is important to her, so, if anyone can make the water work, she can...

 As we approached Banos, we were near the 11,000 foot level, and could look at a couple of the famous volcanoes...

We were really lucky here, in that many tourists just have to look at postcards of these volcanoes, since they are often shrouded in clouds...

Got this shot driving out in the boonies...

We liked our suite so much that we ordered dinner served in our room...the perfect way for tired travelers to unwind.  Here I am sitting at the bar, earlier...

The next morning we took Coquita down to the dining room and had, an all you could eat, buffet breakfast...even all the coffee you could drink...a rarity...

Then we took a stroll around town...here is the obligatory shot of the church in the square...

We found that, contrary to vendors in Cuenca or Montanita, the people here are low keyed in their kiosks and even give you a little gift as you are looking.  We took this photo of a really nice lady and her daughter after we had bought tee shirts for five bucks, a new belt for me and a nice handmade bag for Rox.

Right down the street from the church is the "Street of Bars", all covered with original artwork...take a look...

Here are a couple of fun looking places...

Banos even has its own "SpaceNeedle" restaurant...

So...I wasn't sure what to expect when we had to drive to Guayaquil yesterday to get some documents notarized.  I guess I expected to see a lot of mahogany walls and furniture with some nice smiling Americans to interact with...boy, was that vision ever wrong!

Since Guayquil is a lot like LA with no readable street signs, it is almost a given that you will get lost, so as soon as we got to the middle of town, we found a cab and paid him five bucks to guide us to the Embassy...good thing, too...we never would have found it...It is right next to the Hotel Oro Verde, a hotel that is not anywhere near as good, as it is expensive...good for gringos, tho...

The embassy has two Ecuadorean State Policemen stationed at each corner...with more guarding the entrance.  We found the entrance kiosk, and began talking to a few really nice Ecuadorean guards and State Police, about whether we could bring in Coquita.  There is a sign with a huge number of prohibited items for entrance...nothing about cute little doggies...so...we pointed out that she was not prohibited...

This caused some head scratching, and they had to summon a really nice lady Foreign Service Officer, Nice...but no doggie, was her decision.  So we decided that I would go upstairs with the docs and sign my name to everything, and then come back down and send Rox back up.

First I had to empty all my pockets--no camera or cell phone allowed, then I was wand-ed thoroughly, and allowed to go to the first door on the left.  As soon as I turned into the doorway, another bunch of nice Ecuadorean guards told me to empty my pockets again...and I had to walk through a metal detector, which beeped, 'cause I forgot to take off my watch...no big deal...but this time the guard took my car keys and gave me number 37 as a receipt.  Strange, but it does have a remote alarm button for the car.

Finally, I was sent up a set of steel stairs to a waiting room that looked just like one in a Welfare Department.  There were a couple of posters on the wall donated by Continental Airlines, and that was good, but the good effect was sort of tarnished by three large posters, two of which showed Americans handcuffed in a jail cell.  The messages were "Don't tell lies on your Passport applications, and Don't move over $10,000 without telling the IRS --really friendly...

There were about 7 people waiting ahead of me, and I was about 10 minutes early for my appointment, so I was content to wait, and was thankful that I was able to get the three hour drive, and the screening done before I was due to be at the Notary.  After waiting about 10 minutes, with nobody being helped, I went behind a door to this room which had two windows with bullet proof glass--you needed a speaker to talk, and asked what was the procedure, since the number system was not in use.

Maybe the rudest person that I had met in Ecuador told me "Just take a seat, your name will be called when we want you."  He was an American.

So I waited past 10:00, past 10:15, and past 10:25, and all this time, Rox was standing outside wondering how long it was going to take.  The next time I went to the window, I was getting pissed, as I was the only one left waiting.  Another guy came to the window this time, and he looked down at the appointment sheet to discover that I was listed on the second page!  Nobody had bothered to look at page two!!!

So...this time they take a look at my docs, and the guy writes up a tag and tells me to go down and pay the cashier.  Now we have been doing Real Estate since 1969, and have never paid one cent to have our signatures notarized about 500 times.  The charge at the friendly US Embassy--90 bucks!

I bring that receipt back, the guy takes it, our passports, and the docs, and tells me to go back and sit down.  

Ten minutes later, he calls me over and I signed all the docs in about 2 minutes...then I went down to get Rox.

Since she had been standing with the guards for about an hour, she was now their buddy, so they gave her a cursory once over with the wand, and passed her through the metal detector without even telling her.  She was in and out in 10 minutes. 
And...when we all saw her coming back out, everyone cheered!!!  All Ecuadoreans, mind you...

I was going to make some comments about this experience, but I will let you all figure them out for yourselves...you might start with "when hell freezes over"...

This is the attack dog that they were afraid of...

I finished up the actual Driving and classwork about three weeks ago, but getting all of my new documents gathered together, and then sent to Quito for examination and approval, took a lot more time.  Like 15 business days...

And...don't forget that they also experience rotating power shut offs, so no computers, when needed.  The whole country is linked by computers headquartered in Quito, so down computer time means more waiting.

Well, yesterday, I finally got my last "Clean Police Record" document printed out (it took four days to get--although it is a one minute operation)

I had to take another written exam in Spanish, before I could receive the license--and I actually got a better score this time than when I took it before in school--different questions, of course...

Here I am posing with the ladies who entered and approved the last bit of data in the State Computer system, and who took my picture and laminated my new Driver's License--

yippee!!!!

So...when Isidro had a birthday, naturally we wanted to remember it...especially when our little celebration might be the only one he gets!

When we first started giving them wrapped gifts for Christmas and birthdays, it really appeared to us that these might have been the first ones in their experience (wrapped, I mean).  At first, they would just take the gift and set it aside to open later.  Of course, Rox would have none of that, she and I wanted to see them open stuff right away...

Now, Isidro knows to open them immediately, and what's more he "carefully saves the wrapping"...before, he might have left the wrapping strewn about, but as he noticed that Rox would gather it up for disposal, he now carefully folds wrapping and bows, and keeps it all out of her reach.

Here he is with his new slacks, and his new watch which Rox is handing over...

The new Casio watch is waterproof pretty deep in water, and has a daily alarm.   Isidro gets up almost every morning at 5:00 am, grabs a bus to head south to Palmar to buy a large box full of fish.  He then peddles his bike all over Manglaralto selling that night's catch to families for that evening meal.  He was joking that many times he oversleeps, but now his alarm gets him up right on time...

The tall glasses in front of them are Jack Daniels and Coca Cola...a rare treat.

Rox also gave Agripina two shell decorated candle holders--a vital gift in these times of scheduled electrical shut downs...

 You really sharp eyed folks will notice that Agripina is wearing the necklace that Nancy gave her on their last visit (Rich and Nancy)...

Just as we were winding down on this little shindig, the lights went out promptly at 6:00 pm.  So...good timing all around...and good fun, to boot!

The weekend began slowly with some folks attempting to create a "Halloween" type of holiday on the 31st, but that is not catching on too fast.  Then we fast forward to the "Day of the Dead", which is a Memorial Day, but not for soldiers exclusively, it's to remember all the departed family members.

The Day of the Dead is interesting here at the Coast, in that each house buys or cooks special "pan" or bread baked in various shapes, ie, fish, people, etc.  Then, the families all cook the favorite meals that were enjoyed by the people who have died.  It gets more interesting as there is also a tradition whereby the locals wander from home to home, where they are given some of the special bread and a shot of rum.  My kind of Trick or Treating...

Then the next day is the celebration of the independence of Cuenca (Nov 3rd marked the 189th anniversary of Cuenca's independence from Spain in 1830).   This is not such a big deal to the locals except that they get the day off from work, and that is a huge deal!

So...here it is, off season, and a four day holiday hits right at the end of the month (payday), so it seems that everyone in Ecuador decides to take a trip to Montanita...Now this is great for Montanita, but it is a small town that has no ability to handle humongous crowds.

It was just another little village on the Coast a few years ago, until Surfers sort of put in on the map (for other surfers).  Surfing is still pretty big, but it has been eclipsed by plain old non-surfing tourism.  By far, the vast majority of visitors now come for the atmosphere, to see and be seen, to see if "sex, drugs and rock and roll" still live, and to see all the other stuff that never happens in their home towns.

Now, all of this notoriety is coming in a very helter skelter manner--certainly it was not planned by the city fathers, and, in fact, they are completely out of their element in dealing with the skyrocketing popularity of the town.  These guys are just officials in a small town comuna and completely baffled by city planning, zoning, engineering, and infrastructure improvement.

For example...if you look back about 12 months ago, we featured a piece extolling the fact that the town was putting in colored pavers on all the muddy streets--well and good...but then, they tore them all out to put in sewer and water pipes.  So, for a year the pavers have been stacked up on the side streets, and they sort of "walk away" to be used in other home projects like bookcases, etc.

But, that isn't all...they discovered recently that the new sewer pipes are not deep enough for gravity flow of sewage from the houses and restaurants and hotels.  So...everything is on hold...I presume until the high season ends sometime in May 2010.

So, right now, when it rains, the streets are pretty darn muddy.

Also, there has been a frenzy of building new hostels or little hotels and a zillion new restaurants...all with no overall plan.  Plus a disco on every corner...

I have always regarded the Planning Department in any town in the US as a necessary evil, and one that might be circumvented if possible, but this kind of friendly anarchy is resulting in gridlock in a little town totally unprepared to be the the number one tourist attraction in Ecuador.

Last weekend, we had the "perfect storm" of tourism and gridlock...I would say that a minimum of 20,000 extra people streamed into Montanita each day.  A whole bunch of them drove cars...and did you hear me mention anything about building Parking lots?  No...so the total town was a parking lot...and muddy, and full of vendors, and full of people, and most could not get lodging...so a bunch slept on the beach...not bad...but...

So...finally the government is getting interested in this little tax paying goldmine, and the first thing they are doing is trying to cope with gridlock.  They are sending in platoons of police on each big weekend just to get a handle on traffic.

Guayaquil is rearing its ugly head, in that it is sending some petty crooks along to prey on tourists, so the police are also watching for these guys, and even inspecting buses, and some cars, to check for weapons and for bad guys...all good...

In addition, our friend Alfonso, who is a bank guard right next to the Casa Blanca and the Montanita Hotel, tells us that much of the police presence is now going undercover to stop too much drug dealing.  It used to be that a little dope smoking was tolerated, if nobody flaunted it...sort of like nudity...

The undercover guys are masquerading as waiters, street vendors, and tourists...so leave your dope at home folks--if you are so dumb as to travel with it at all...

So what's the upshot of all of this?  Well, Rox and I love the place, and are going to be there at our Head Table, as usual, at 6:00 at the Casa Blanca--where else???

And, as a fitting conclusion to this entry, I took this photo of a new billboard greeting you as you make your way to Montanita...

it says: 

"We will find you"   If you take part in the traffic of drugs, arms, and drug making stuff (like ingredients for meth, ice and the like), you will be procecuted.

Also...If you know of anybody doing this bad stuff, call us, and your identity will be protected.

Ecuador is serious about getting out of the "Third World Country" status, and also eliminating corruption and drug dealing...not a bad goal...