Octo-Tandem

March 11, 2011

Several of us headed to Montanita to do some grocery shopping this morning.  While there, I spied this contraption for the first time. I must not be very observant, because Todd and the other guys I was with told me this octo-tandem bike on steroids has been around for awhile.

At first I thought a driver drove around town with bar patrons in tow because of the steering wheel in front – but no…everyone peddles as they troll the village.

YABADABA –DOO! 
I’m definitely checking this out, and even though the drinks are over-priced, still thinkin’ I gotta do this one.

Our days are finally beginning to return to a more reasonable and tranquillo pace after the predictable December to February onslaught of vacationing visitors to our local beaches.

We are getting more settled into our new Olon long-term rental house (while we build on our nearby lot), and getting quite comfortable here. True, I get a little tingle in my hand every time I turn the faucet on in one of our suicide showers, and yes it took us a couple of weeks to get our new closet (a shower rod) to quit falling down, but all in all we’re getting pretty cozy in our new home (especially after we find some living room furniture).



How the neatly hanging clothes
should look (see back corner of room)



How they usually looked

What we did to fix it

We love our new neighborhood; it’s very much an Ecuadorian local neighborhood, and everyone’s been friendly and welcoming to us. Another great thing is the opportunity to speak and hear español, because most of our vecinos don’t speak English.

One of our favorite places to hang now is Johanita’s tienda, at first because it was conveniently close, but more so now because we enjoy the Ecuadorian camaraderie there. Always there is laughter and caring and everyone is welcome. There is a lot of joking, a lot of verbal and rapid “leg pulling”, inside jokes, trading of the latest news…Bring your Spanish, or your desire to learn it; lose any preconceived notions, and any arrogant attitudes, and you’ll fit right in.

Lamps via chicken bus

Because our new 2 bd/2ba rental house didn’t come with appliances or furniture, or a drawer or closet in sight (with the exception of a bunk bed in the room we are now using for an office), I’ve been scurrying around the coast from here to Libertad/Salinas/Guayaquil on buses for the last several weeks in search of a few things we’ve needed (lamps, furniture, hardware, etc).  There’s been a few glitches during the transition to the new house, but usually nothing that can’t be solved with a can of bug spray, a broom and a mop (a few leaks, at first. We have had a LOT of rain here, though not as dramatic as some of our bordering provinces).

File Cabinet in corner,
behind desk.
Plastic dresser via chicken bus.

We don’t have a car. We don’t really need it. You would be surprised how much one can single-handedly haul on a chicken bus (see the pics adjacent or below to see some of things I’ve lugged on those recently).  I am tickled that we are getting more organized and "nested"  (the file cabinet was truly a several-city scavenger hunt, and am thankful to my Guayaquil friend Dana for pointing me in the direction of, apparently, the only file cabinet available that didn’t require an airline flight to fetch).

I was able to locate it after a hard day’s trek into Guayaquil to shop, while waiting for my brother Jack’s incoming late night arrival.

Sure it was the floor model (no discounts here for that, though I tried). “The only one left”… (I really didn’t doubt that by this point). It is scratched, and  the keys to lock it don’t work at all, and its non-adustable pentaflex folder rods only fit legal-sized ones, which was another misson. But I got on my knees and hugged it and said “yes!”

Yep, chicken bus, and that

thing is heavy!

The great thing about riding the local Ruta buses as regularly as I do, most of the drivers, and “driver-helper-guys” know me by now, and know if I show up at the mini-bus terminal in Libertad, I am returning to Olon. 

Something about all the jiggly, back and forth swaying of the chicken buses, the drivers’ attitude of “take a running start before you hit those coastal town speed bumps”; the jolting stops and starts – for some perverse reason – relaxes me and I have developed a proclivity to either go sound asleep or become absorbed in a book.

Refer to “The Scream” for further emphasis on this point.

While returning home late one afternoon with one of my newly purchased plastic dressers safely stored in the bin below (5PM is about the latest you want to catch a local Ruta bus at the Libertad mini-terminal for the return trip back to Montanita/Olon), I became so engrossed with my book that I sailed right past my usual Olon drop off after dark.

For those who don't know
what a "suicide shower
looks like.

The familiar and friendly “driver-helper-person” thoughtfully came over to interrupt my read, and helpfully point out I had just missed my stop (AFTER Olon was nothing but a vision in the review mirror) because he noticed my plastic dresser in the bus bin when he dropped most everyone else there.  Fortunately, the bus line ends in La Entrada, about 15 minutes north of us, where my driver was turning around for the final return trip home for the night anyway (my luck that he lives in Olon and not further north).

One of my friends wise-cracked that I should just pin a note to my shirt when I go on these chicken bus expeditions that says “if found, please call husband Todd at such and such number”.

Daisy likes her new home (and the fact that we let her inside here at night when it’s raining), but pretty much hangs out most of the time in the old ‘hood, which is fine, because we are over in Jardines much of the time too.

Our friends, Doug and Pam’s son Scott recently arrived to stay for awhile, bringing with him a couple of great chocolate labs (older “Denali” and rambunctious young “Yost”), both males.

Yost and Daisy

Yost and Daisy did not hit it off at first, but now they are the best of buddies, along with Denali. These three really have a ball romping on the beach together, and Scott’s dogs have been able to coax Daisy further out in the water than she’s been before.

During Carnavale, when there were so many, many out-of-towners here, and fireworks (which terrify Daisy) we felt she would be safer and enjoy the time better if she spent a couple of nights up at Scott’s hillside place hanging out with “the boys” and glad that Scott agreed.

Slumber Party, doggy style
Photo courtesy of  Scott

Photo by Scott

According to Scott, the kids had a great 3-day doggy slumber party, and Daisy came home looking happy and relaxed.

Photo by Jack
February 2012