This and That

July 20, 2011

Having mojitos on "Bar Alley"
last week at "Mariana's"
one of our favorites

Forget the sorta political “coup” of President Correa last fall; forget the tsunami scare after the Japanese earthquake; forget that the power has a tendency to go off at the most inconvenient times, and internet connection can be incredibly slow with the thumb drive device we use at home – a REAL crisis has developed now…A 72 hour ban on alcohol sales was implemented country-wide in Ecuador this week because some home-made/small brewery methanol tainted hooch has killed around 24 people so far (mostly in the Los Rios province).

Close to Montanita
Cocktail Alley -- some
food being served.
(Fish casserole)

Not that that has actually stopped liquor being sold around here. Yes, most of the sugar cane based liquor has been pulled from the shelves, and it certainly has put a damper on the on-going party in Montanita, especially in the on-premise drinking locations (restaurants and bars). “Bar Alley”/”Cocktail Lane” is shut down until Friday.  We have been able to buy liquor “to go” (though we have to discreetly purchase and hide in plastic fundas/bags for now). And we’ve had no problem purchasing beer (to go).

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The other developing crisis is that my hairbrush (cepillo para el cabello) broke today (handle broke from the brush part). I scoured all the Montanita stores (tiendas) esta noche to replace, without success and have a sneaking suspicion that I will have to head to Libertad to replace.

One enterprising back-packer
brought along his own blender.

One of the greatest things about living in Olon/Montanita area is the opportunity we have to meet so many interesting, adventurous, international and local people.  Generally most visitors are here on vacation, or to look at property, and – the younger crowd, in particular – are just “traveling around South America”. The backpackers that come through here are some of my favorite folks to chat with (however briefly) as they pass this way.  Meeting new people is never uninteresting for me.

Recently we’ve had the pleasure of meeting a number of visiting gringos.

Bill and Colleen Baker from B.C. were here a couple of weeks ago and the four of us headed to Ayangue (“Lobster Village”) for a little sight-seeing and lunch one day. It was fun being “tourists” ourselves for a change.

Ladd and Marilyn (from New York) along with Ladd’s mom Dallas are here for a month, staying in Curia at the home of one of our friends (who lives in Iowa). Like the Bakers, they are here looking for property. We had dinner with them a few nights ago, and are looking forward to getting together later this week for happy hour. Ladd and Marilyn recently started a new blog called “Next Stop Ecuador” and some of Ladd’s observations on the blog had me laughing out loud.

Another gal, Tami and her family from Alabama are spending time along the coast and she and her son spent a day in Montanita.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet up with her, but she and I had a fun chat on the phone. She works for a wine and craft beer wholesaler (I worked for Orange County Budweiser for ten years), so we had a lot in common, and know we would have had a great time over a couple of mojitos in Montanita. She also has just started an entertaining Ecuador-themed blog called “Tamster’s Travels”.

Todd, Bill and Colleen

Not the geatest pic
Ladd, Marilyn and the back of
Dallas's head.

 Additionally, we’ve been spending quite a bit of time this week with Karl Neumann, a Peruvian of German decent who lives in Florida. He has done his homework, and is in the process of buying several properties in Olon (one of them is a lot in our Jardines de Olon neighborhood, next to Randy and Fonda’s house). Interestingly, his great, great grandfather Antonio Neumane composed the current Ecuadorian National Anthem (“Salve, Oh Patrio”).  The song premiered in August of 1870 in Independence Square in Quito with Neumane as director.  Karl himself has written 40 books in Spanish regarding small business start ups, mainly published in Mexico.

Our dog Daisy has been moping around since the boys (my brother Jack and Doug) left.  She hangs around their house waiting for them to return. But she has perked up recently because a wild beach stallion keeps managing to get into our compound lately through a gate frequently left open during the day. The horse likes to graze on our lot next door, which sends Daisy into a tizzy and we’ve had to chase him out of here 3 times in the last couple of days. On the other hand, Todd and I are starting to consider just letting him graze there for a few hours each day – easier than mowing it.

Last week I was up at our nearby Oloncito Market (the local owners, Antonio and Patricia Zamora are friends of ours). I was hanging around there the other day, waiting for a chicken bus to come along.



Patti and Tony have been diligently trying to learn Ingles and we regularly practice our Espanol/Ingles skills together whenever I am shopping at their store.

Patti was perusing through an Ecuadorian version of a Pier 1 catalog. She kept pointing to pictures of windows in the magazine, asking questions and using words that were not familiar to me.  We were both getting kind of frustrated, and then the funniest thing happened – she started talking LOUDER at me. That’s the first time I’ve had that experience. After awhile, I finally figured out that she was asking my opinion about what kind of curtains/window treatments I liked best…

A picture recently taken by my
daughter Kacie along
a Los Angelos freeway.