The sun rises about 6:30 so we take nice long walks along the beach every morning. One day on the sidewalk we came upon a dog that was standing ahead of us watching us. We recognized the dog as one we had seen the night before when he was searching on the beach for something to eat. He could be a nice looking dog but is thin with a tangled coat. We walked past him and he followed us. We walked a block and he was still behind us, then we noticed that he had stopped to sniff something on the sidewalk and we left him behind. A minute later, he had caught up with us. This pattern was repeated and repeated as we walked up the Malecon. Even after we started meeting more people, he still kept up with us. As we crossed the street towards the Alamar, he was standing right where we left the sidewalk and he watched us climb the stairs. The next morning, we were walking on the beach and saw him standing above on the sidewalk watching us. No steps for him to walk down and too high for him to jump so he just stood there again as we walked away. (I might sneak him a treat the next time.)

Sunrise:

Our breakfasts consist of star fruit (which we learned should not be eaten by anyone who has kidney problems because it contains a toxin that will not be removed and then it can even be fatal), grapes, bananas, melon, sometimes eggs, sometimes yogurt with dried fruit and a roll that had course sugar sprinkled on top. ¡Very tasty!

Luis called and asked us to meet him at the Neptuno with two more subcontractors: windows and granite countertops. Our 5:00 meeting actually started about 5:30 – we’ve been told that’s typical Ecuadorian schedules. The estimates of the plumbing, electricity and general construction came in today and they seem pretty reasonable, but we would like to have at least one other estimate for comparison. We have received a referral to a North American, Mike, and we will meet with him tonight.

The Hipermart in El Paseo Shopping Mall stocks a wide variety of items besides groceries so we did some price and information gathering. There are some things that we should be able to buy there, but selection is very limited especially for things like tiles, counters, kitchen sinks. We will have to go to Guayaquil for things like that. We like going to the SuperMaxi for groceries, the baked goods and produce seem fresher.

The sun also sets at 6:30 so the night life lasts a long time here. Besides eating at Hostal Aqui and Big Ralphs’ we have also tried some local places like Sorgio on the main street who has lunch specials for $2.50, and The Luv n Oven on El Malecón http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g297539-d2649216-Reviews-Luv_N_Oven-Salinas_Santa_Elena_Province.html . They are well known for their good food and good prices. We ordered a Fettucine Camarón and Camarónes Apanado. There was way too much food but we ate it all because it tasted so good.

Sin http://sinsalinasecuador.com is another North American hangout and on Saturday night there was a couple that cooked Cajun food. There were some people we had already met, but some new people too. The owners are nice and friendly. On our walk back to the Alamar, we saw fireworks over the Yacht Club. They were nice to watch even though we didn’t know what the event was.

Sunday is more of a day off than in the U.S. so it seems like a good day to relax. We spend some time in the pool that is heated overnight, then the jacuzi, and then just sit at a table in the sun. Reading the Kindle isn’t impossible but not exactly easy and the internet doesn’t work outside. We’ve found that the internet became hard to use about Thursday night and didn’t work better until Monday morning, but everyone said their internet had some problems. The weekends are the busiest times at the beach so we don’t go far before there are too many people to walk around and we return to the sidewalk for our walk.

Groceries are different here. A block of cheese “Queso” isn’t really a block because all the cheese here is pretty soft. We also found that yogurt is more liquid than ours at home, but we did find one brand that was similar in strawberry or peach. Milk comes in boxes and is sold on the shelf, juice also comes in boxes unless you want to spend more for what is bottled. Tuesday is dairy day at the SuperMaxi so we bought some Helado (ice cream) in chocolate and fresa. Soft and tasty!

We take our laundry to the Lavandaria and they wash, dry and fold for 50¢ per pound. Laundry has been averaging 10-12 pounds per week for the two of us.

The Alamar cleaned the water tank one day so water was reduced until there was just a trickle coming from the kitchen faucet when we turned it on. About 2:30 the water started running into the toilet tank again and that alerted us that the water tank must be clean and soon the hot water was back too. There was no warning prior to the cleaning and it stayed off longer than we were told. This made us wonder if they ever clean the water tank at the Neptuno.

There are also two phones in our unit at the Alamar that we found were used for the Administration to contact us. Our condo in the Neptuno also has a phone on a wall, but nothing happened when we picked it up to check it. Staying at the Alamar has been a good learning lesson for us.