November 1-30, 2009
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador

The 1st and 2nd of November are two of the most important holidays in Ecuador - Todos los Santos (All Saints Day) and Dia de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead).  It’s a particularly big event in Bahia, where a series of weeklong celebrations are kicked off in late October and the town fills up with people traveling from inland Ecuador.  Most come from the capitol, Quito.  The week is filled with daily parades of colourful floats, costumed dance troops, and marching bands, civic ceremonies, cultural events, dances, soccer games, and even a competition for swimming across the bay.

The grand finale event is November 3rd, a 3 hour long parade on the Malecon.  I was still bedridden, but Jodie ventured out to watch the parade with a few other cruisers.  We had listened to the local school bands practicing till late into the night for the past couple of weeks and this was their big event to show off their hard work.  The parade was mainly for the highschool kids, but the military marching band and a large group of prancing horses also highlighted the parade.

Ed and Cornelia from A Cappella had arrived in Bahia weeks ahead of us after leaving us and Sidewinder in Costa Rica.  When we arrived last month, they had already taken off to do some traveling in Peru.  Returning from their trip, we had an opportunity to catch up with them and they shared their experiences of Peru.  We are planning our own trip in December and their information is extremely helpful in our planning.  Other cruisers have done the same trip to Machu Picchu and everyone helps us out with the in and outs of traveling there.

Just as quickly as Ed and Cornelia arrive back in Bahia, they depart again, this time heading back to the States for the holidays.  We will stay in Bahia for Christmas this year.  Last year we were in La Paz, Mexico and had dinner with Mac and Catherine aboard Indigo.  We find ourselves missing our family more and more as time goes on, especially as the holidays approach.

A few miles up river is another marina, Saiananda.  We are considering keeping Savannah there while we take our trip to Peru so one day we head over to check it out.  A short bus ride out of town and we find a much more than a marina, it’s a mini-zoo and is absolutely incredible.  Alfredo runs the place and has 10 moorings out on the water.  Onshore, there are over a hundred peacocks that meander over the site.  Also, there are bird cages placed all around, housing dozen of species of birds.  The most unique creatures are a pair of two toed sloths that Alfredo has adopted.

On November 10th our friends Steven and Durusha on Scream arrived from Costa Rica and anchored nearby.   Several days later, Robert and Kelita on Freedom arrived, having followed our same path down from Costa Rica and through western Panama.  (Neither Steven or Robert had the guts to shave their heads after crossing the equator!  Wimps!)  We heard from Freedom that they were caught in a couple storms in Panama that lasted days.  One rainstorm lasted for four days while they were in Bahia Honda.  Seems we got out of Panama just in time to avoid the biggest rainfalls.  It was great catching up with Scream and Freedom and we spent the rest of November going out to dinner and playing games.

The nearest decent sized city is Manta, three hours away by bus.  One day we decided to take the trip with Scream and arrived in Manta around noon.  Because of the size of Manta it requires we take taxis to get around town at a cost of 1 dollar per ride.  After a nice lunch at a touristy beach restaurant, we head to the grocery store.  Wow.  It’s huge.  Almost as big as stores you would find in the States and the first real grocery store we have seen in a long time.  (Technically, Jodie took a trip with A Capella while I was sick, so she had already been to the store).

Five different types of apples for sale.  Seven different brands of ketchup.  An entire row devoted to cereal.  I know these are things we used to see every time we went to the store back home.  But when you’ve been away from it for a while, it can be overwhelming.  It is amazing the selection and availability of goods we used to take for granted while living in the States.

After the grocery store we head to the marine/hardware store in town.  Scream is having water pump issues and would like a replacement.  What they find is limited and they settle for a pump that is designed to wash down topside decks or serve a water well for fish.  It does have a pressure switch to turn on and off and will work for a house pump; it’s just overpriced and not as nice as a variable speed pump.  We picked up a few new fishing lures and looked at marine hardware while Steve and Durusha made up their minds about the pump.

Back at the bus station, we tally up our expenditures regarding travel fees.  We could have rented a taxi for the day in Bahia for $35.  All told, we saved $5 dollars between us.  Not really worth the hassles of the bus and the extended travel time the bus entails.  Having to do the same trip again, we would pay the taxi fee.

There is also a decent sized grocery store in Portoviejo.  Round trip via the bus would cost us $8 and two hours time, each way.  Plus, the bus station is three blocks from the store.

Across the estuary and a few miles north of Bahia is the town of Canoa.  A sleepy beach town that, under the right conditions, is adecent surf spot.  On most days during this time of year however, the surf is too small.  But occasionally when a storm comes over from New Zealand through the Galapogos, the surf can pick up.

Greg is an ex-pat that has opened a hostel in Canoa and he will hold your board for you at his place so you don’t have to carry it back and forth from Bahia.  We head over one day with Freedom and the crew from Kamaya.  Kamaya has a family of four aboard, Tim, Ruth and their two kids, Maya (10) and Kai (8).  The trip over to Canoa entails a quick walk from Puerto Amistad to the water taxi dock, a 15 minute water taxi ride across the estuary to the town of San Vicente, and finally a 20 minute bus ride to Greg’s place in Canoa.

The surf is small but Robert, Tim and I head out to get wet.  We all catch a few before calling it quits and heading into shore.  We spend the next hour giving lessons to the kids inside the breakers.  Just before we leave the water, Robert gets stung by a stingray.  We had been warned and did our best to shuffle, but he got stung as he placed his feet down after body surfing a wave.

The stingrays had just appeared the previous week and people staying at Greg’s Place brought out boiling hot water to neutralize the toxins from the sting.  Robert, foot in a pot, was down for an hour and we grabbed some lunch in town while he recovered.  Canoa is reminiscent of a lot of beach towns that you find on Mexico’s Baja peninsula, with sandy streets and palapas.

When we returned to Greg’s, he was paragliding high overhead.  Greg offers tandem rides for $30, launching from the cliff that is located just behind his residence.  In addition to tandem paragliding, Greg is a certified instructor and will give solo lessons for $400.  That’s a big discount from instruction in the States.

For Thanksgiving, we head up to the restaurant for a potluck feast with 120 people, a combination of cruisers and locals.  We all bring a side dish and Puerto Amistad provides the turkeys.  There was tons of food and desserts, all different types of to chose from.  Kai and Maya, along with Patrick and Thomas (10 year old identical twins) from Victoria created two clipper style ships from pineapples and apples. 

Much of our time in Bahia this month has been spent planning our Peru trip.  It will be costly despite the fact we are so close.  To avoid a two day bus ride (each way), we’ve decided we will be flying there and back.  Not much competition with only three airlines to chose between and the prices are high for the distances traveled.  Also, the government of Peru has capitalized on Macho Picchu to the fullest extent and is charging exorbitant fees to reach the park by rail ($48 pp, each way) and charging an additional $46 pp entrance fee.   Add the hostel and additional transportation fees, and it will be around $350 just to visit Machu.  And that is not including the airfare which adds another $800+ to the total.  Ouch, but it will be worth it……

As Kamaya prepares to leave Bahia and leave for Panama, we take Kai and Maya to one of the local schools so they can say goodbye to Bahia's tortoise, Miguelito.  Migelito is believed to be around 100 years old.  Originally living in the central Mercado, people would feed him fruits and vegetables.  But occasionally he would be feed junk food by the less mature citizens.  Concerned for his well being, the city officials moved him into one of the school campuses where he could get a little more security.  Now the school mascot, he is also the icon of environmental education.  Mostly this consists of murals painted on the school walls showing the damage litter and trash can have on the environment.

We found Miguelito sleeping in the shade and he stood up as we offered him some water, which he drinks through his nostrils!  Though his skin looks scaly, it is actually soft to the touch.

We should all look this good at a hundered!.

Next month, we will head off on our trip to Peru to visit the site of famous Machu Picchu.