We enjoyed coffee at our local "H Bar and Coffee" spot on our last morning. Met a couple from Kelowna who have been living in Ecuador full time for two years now. They too have purchased a lot on the same street as us at Las Olas. Norbert and Glenys are young retirees and totally love their life in Ecuador. The cost of living is fabulous. The pace of life is casual. The people are great - both locals and expats. Norbert has a passion for cooking (we were told he makes amazing home-made sausage) and Glenys makes beautiful hand crafted jewellery.
Dave and Victoria made us our last couple of cappuccino's in Ecuador from that farm direct, incredible high altitude mountain bean "Taza Dorada 2015" from Finca Pangko. Many of the people we associated with all week came wandering in for Sunday morning coffee and breakfast as well. That is just how it is in Ecuador ... Your next good friends are just around the corner in a local coffee bar!
After breakfast, Kim (who is an amazing goodwill ambassador of Los Olas and the developers wife) walked us through town and up to the farmers market that takes place each day from early hours to 1:00 pm. They have a fresh fruit and vegetable side and a meat and fish side. I certainly know where I will be buying my produce when living at Las Oals!
Sadly, it was time to get back to the apartment, pack up and wait for Dave to pick us up. We stopped at the property one last time to take pictures and enjoy the waves of the Pacific rolling to shore right in front of our future home. The sun was starting to set and the temperature was glorious ! Took a bunch of pictures once again of the property and the view from our home site.
Dave got us to the Manta airport on time only for us to find out the flight was delayed for 4 hours! It was a brand new A320 and had to have a 'brand new airplane service" in Quito. So, we people watched which is such a great past time in any airport - but especially in a foreign one. What was cute is a young Customer Service Agent for Avianca Air had been hiccuping for most of the 4 hours we were there. He told us it was from terrible acid reflux problems. I happened to mention Joe has some great medicine for it ... But it was in his suitcase. We said he was welcome to the 3 Nexium pills Joe had left . He jumped into action! Even though our luggage was checked, he hauled Joe out to the luggage gathering area and got Joe security clearance so they could go out and get those 3 precious pills out of the suitcase! There wasn't a customer/passenger in the terminal who would get his attention until he had those pills. He was trying to explain that one time he had been in New York and discovered Tums ! So he got our last few tums as well. I wrote down the name of the medicine which is over the counter here and he was a happy boy. By the time he was taking our boarding pass, his hiccups had gone away.
We finally were on our way in that beautiful new Airbus and 40 minutes later were pulling up to the gates in Quito. I was wishing we had more time there because it is a beautiful airport with some wonderful looking shoots! On our way down, it was all closed up. A quick walk and security check there, and we were on our way to Houston. Houston customs and security can take up to 90 minutes so give yourself at least that time if you are booking flights through Houston that require you to claim luggage, go through security, and re-check it. This morning we experienced something for a first time. We all had to walk single file by a drug sniffing dog after dropping the luggage off and let him sniff anything we were carrying. It was neat to watch the yellow lab at work. He did look old and tired though.
Back in Phoenix 16 hours after leaving Manta, we are tired but excited about our future in Ecuador. If you are reading this blog, you should plan on visiting this area. Ocean front condo's can be rented for around $600-$800 / month. Look at VRBO for Canoa area, Bahia area. You never know, you might fall in love with Ecuador as well and become one of our new neighbors at Las Olas !!
No comments:
Post a Comment