Farewell Ecuador

We continued with boat projects while we had the resources available—the major one being Joe who was an electrical engineer with the US navy who had been working on submarines for many years. He was able to resolve many of our ongoing problems and each day seemed to start with an emergency call to Joe with something else which was not working—boats are ongoing projects and if it is working today it probably won’t be tomorrow!! Ken was anxious to keep working on the boat to ready it to leave so I went to Otovalo with another cruiser wife—April, from the US.
It involved a 9 hour bus ride to Quito where I managed to get another haircut without disastrous results and celebrate another fiesta for Quito’s anniversary.
The next morning was a 21/2 hour bus ride to Otovalo. It is in a beautiful agricultural valley and is a prosperous and attractive town. It has been a trading crossroad for centuries and is now home to the largest market in South America. The local women still wear their traditional costumes with beautifully embroidered blouses (this is not only for the market, Ecuadorian Andean people all do).
We arrived there on Friday and scoped out the market which is permanently on a huge square and on Saturday expands to take in the nearby streets. The bargains are unreal with kid’s sweaters from $6 and beautiful woven bags and hammocks for not a lot more.
I also caught a bus up to a small town nearby which specializes in leather goods. Kristen had fallen in love with my jacket I had bought in another leather town previously and wanted me to find a similar one for her. After much searching I found the same jacket in a darker brown and as long as she regains her pre pregnancy weight in March it will be great for her next spring.
After two days April and I having “shopped till we dropped”---reminiscent of my gift show days—returned fully laden with lots of goodies. It had been fun having a “girls shopping trip” and we had enjoyed the restaurants and great pie available ($1 a slice).
Upon returning there were more boat projects and immigration formalities to leave Ecuador. It involved a 2 hour taxi ride to Manta to get our passports stamped where we stocked up on lots of goodies at the supermarket—turkey pieces and cranberry sauce so we are ready for Xmas—we will not be near civilization for 3-4 weeks or so. We stocked up at the local market for big shrimp--$2 a pound and if you tip them 25 cents they will clean and shell them for you!!! I only just found this out after having cleaned many myself!!! Lots of fruit and vegs but unfortunately in this climate you have to eat them all like crazy as they all ripen at once.
We had several social visits with other cruisers from the marina to say farewell, most have had their boats here for sometime and are heading to travel more in South America or cross the Pacific later—when we will. It is a really friendly community and it is the stopover for many boats as they travel. We enjoyed the facilities offered and it was a great choice for us to see this part of the world. It was sad to leave as we loved the people and travel in Ecuador.
Finally after resolving many last minute problems we headed out to make our way for the 520 nautical mile trip to Las Perlas Islands in Panama. We are buddy boating with “Migration” a trimaran. We will spend Xmas with them and meet up with “Qayaq” a boat we had been with in Mexico and El Salvador who are coming south from Costa Rica to meet up with us.
We had the first half with great sailing and made good time but the second night out we ran into squalls which made for a rough night. The next morning it was very calm and we were adopted by a couple of gulls who had become exhausted in the weather. One in particular thought he would make himself at home and ended up in the bedroom where Ken had to catch him with gloves and put him outside. He was not phased and still is living on the outside of our boat. Bruce on Migration caught a 4 foot long Dorado (mahi mahi) so Ken being very envious has several rods and different lures hoping to catch his mate.
I am writing this as we sail on our third day—we have now lost almost all wind so are motoring as we want to get in before dark tomorrow—the 21st December.
It is now the 4th day and we have land in sight—no night watch tonight we will be at anchor. Ken caught his Dorado—4 feet long and about 20lb.—Mike, Dave, Aaron and Kyle—eat your heart out!!! He is very happy and we will have sashimi for lunch. Our gull left us this morning to catch a ride on a fishing boat nearby—he should have waited half an hour as Ken caught his fish then and we would have shared. Mind you we were getting fed up with him pooping all over the deck and he didn’t seem interested in being house trained so it was just as well.
Our family continues to have life changes—
Dave has accepted a job with Nike which involves developing more hi tech stuff to promote their running stuff. They have agreed to let him stay in Hong Kong for 18 months (he still has 6 month to finish his MBA and they have just bought a house) and then they want him to relocate to Portland Oregon. It will lead to a more managerial position which is what he wants—we are hoping they will be there when we are back in Salt Spring—so much closer.
Kristen has been offered a job she can’t refuse with her company in Kanata (Ottawa) and as Kyle’s head office is there they are going to go in July. She hopes to do her masters at some stage in Ottawa and still has visions of joining the Foreign Service. Luckily for her Kyle is a supportive partner for all of her dreams—he probably realizes that she will change her mind 10 times and have a new plan before they come to fruition anyway!!
Aaron proposed to Ashley who accepted and they will be married on August 2nd in Ontario, she is a nice girl.
We are happy for them all.
We do hope you have (by now had) a great Xmas and New Year—do not forget we have lots of room for visitors and would love to see any or all of you.