Well, Sugar My Fish

June 25, 2010

We've been back in our home for about 2 weeks  now. It’s great to be back in the ‘hood. Oswaldo and Yanina (our neighbors and caretakers) have done a good job maintaining our home during our absence (along with invaluable assistance from an American friend of ours who lives in Guayaquil and visits our coastal area often).  But still, I needed to clean every sheet, every curtain, and every towel in the house before I could relax. 


Thank God we have a washer/dryer now, (one of the first improvements we made after purchasing the house) because I used to wash by hand/line dry, and that was a pain in the ass. Not to mention I was lame at it, since every garment I ever washed that way smelled like fish and could stand up on its own like a cardboard cut-out on the back yard after I got done with it.

The house needed airing out. It gets a little tricky this time of year on the coast of Ecuador. We are headed into an overcast and drizzly season, and windows can neither be left opened nor closed full time or homes tend to smell musty. Thankfully, this hasn’t been too much of an issue for us during our absence because it’s been fairly occupied in the meantime.  

Todd organized the utility room and worked with Oswaldo on repairs and the yard work.  I washed every bed pillow in the house (we have 14 – I counted them -  and it was a tedious, 3-step process involving a sink full of a lot of bleach and near electrocution from our stackable unit when I tried to load a sopping wet pillow into the washer while the dryer above was running). I think I can be forgiven for rolling my eyes and giving Todd a ration of shit when he mildly suggested that I do the seven decorative couch pillows “while you’re at it…”

We’ve also taken a firm stance against the three stubborn bats who decided to hostel in a beam above our back patio. We have learned over the years that mothballs hung in front of potential nesting sites works  as a fairly effective deterrent (though bats are good to have around, since they love eating mosquitoes), but these 3 Musketeers weren’t budging.   Todd and I had some fairly humorous moments  spending a couple of mornings blaring loud music, shining flashlights  in their eyes, and poking at them with brooms until we got rid of them.

We have a few more days in the house before we hand the keys over to a young honeymooning couple arriving early in July.

Now that we’ve finally had a chance to relax, we’ve been enjoying wandering around Olon, seeing old friends again, eating at the cabanitas along the beach (“Lolita’s” is one of our favorites – great ceviche there – and always wonderful to see Pablo and Lolita again). We have several others we like as well.

Tonight we tried “Tito & Hannah’s”, which is relatively new and always crowded with locals. We both liked what we got; Todd ordered a shrimp dish, and I ordered fried fish (if you like malt vinegar on your fried fish, like I do, bring it to EC with you.  Other vinegars are readily available nearby, but I’ve yet to find malt vinegar). It was a great fish.

Except that I made the mistake of accidently sprinkling sugar on it (instead of salt, which is generally served in a Tupperware container and will always be clumpy) that I had grabbed off a nearby table.  I did my best to eat it anyway, because it was our first time there, and I think it’s fairly safe to say that the mamacitas cooking at the cabanitas keep an eye out for their customers’ satisfaction.  I tried to scrape most of it off, and drowned it with more malt vinegar, and that helped.

Several of our part-time neighbors are here now, and we’ve enjoyed hanging with them. We have a number of interesting and fun expat neighbors, and and we're having a good time together.