New Life in Ecuador

Monday January 23, 2017

This morning we returned to Blanche restaurant for breakfast. This was the cafe we started out with on Saturday morning. The owner, Nicolas, is from France. We were chatting with him and an older gentleman, also from France, about life in Ecuador. The older gentleman lived in Africa for many years, and met his future wife there. He married her and moved with her to Montreal, which is his current home. His wife was with him until recently, but she returned to Canada for her job, while he is staying longer in Puerto Lopez to enjoy some fishing outings. During breakfast we also met two different couples from Montreal. One young man was born in Ecuador, but moved to Canada when he was young. He is married to a young woman in Ukraine who was a student in Montreal when they met.
For breakfast we shared a fruit bowl with yogurt and granola, followed by a crepe with ham and egg. Nicolas serves Ecuadorian coffee at the cafe, which is one of the best coffees in the world. For some reason, all of the high quality coffee is exported, and the locals drink horrible instant coffee. Mike had three cups of coffee!
We returned to our hostel to finish packing and to say goodbye to the new friends we met there. We will be keeping in touch with Estani by e-mail. We took a taxi to the bus station and grabbed a bus to Manta that was following the coast line. There were many spectacular views of the sea along the way. Manta gave the impression of a working class city, with industrialization, traffic and other western traits. We did not enjoy the trip through the city. Atthe bus station we had empanadas for a snack. We changed buses and headed to Crucita.
Crucita is a beach town, with a malecón running the length of the town. There are no structures on the beach side of the road, unlike other towns we have visited. There are many restaurants on the street side of the boardwalk. We got off the bus and asked a couple of different people for directions. After a few false starts we located the "Cabañas Rusticas del Sol".
This is a basic hostel setting with individual rooms and bathrooms, and a nice courtyard in the centre. Our host, Angelo, is from France. He speaks French and Spanish, but very little English. His army buddy Eric, who is staying here at the moment, is from Montreal. He speaks French, English and some Spanish. When the earthquake occurred, Angelo was living in a house separate from the cabana property. However, his house fell in the quake, so now he lives at the hostel in a room connected to the kitchen. Our host was quick to offer the use of the fridge and kitchen as needed.
Our host also told us about the Moringa tree, which is grown here in Ecuador. He uses the leaves from the tree, dries them and grinds them into a powder. This is sold as a supplement with multiple health benefits, including assisting with joint pain. He has a side business where he sells this supplement.
Mike and I went out to explore the town. We had a very good lunch on the malecón, then walked around looking for a grocery store. We found a larger store and got some eggs, cheese and shrimp to take back to the hostel for breakfast the next day. We stayed at the hostel, visiting with Angelo and Eric for awhile, then headed to the beach for a swim and a sunset.
We saw, by far, the most beautiful sunset we have seen on this trip, with beautiful colours and thin clouds to increase the overall colour in the sky. In addition, as it got darker, we could see the coast of Manta light up in the distance. The beach here has coarser sand, and the water goes from shallow to deep several times as you walk out into the waves, The surf is very active here and high tide comes up almost to the road. We walked along the malecón, and stopped for a frozen yogurt treat along the way. When we returned to the hostel, we chatted with our host till almost 11 pm, then slept.