Sunday, Oct 30, 2016

Dave and Victoria met us for breakfast at Saiananda. It was great spending some time with them. Since the earthquake they turned in their cappuccino machine and aprons for laptops, and they now work for Las Olas. Victoria is training for an Ironman next summer, and Dave is doing his own Ironman of sorts. He is sailing solo on a month long trip to Mexico.

We met up with Doug later in the early afternoon and went to San Clemente. This is the small town south of Bahia where I thought we would originally be living when we moved to Ecuador. It is smaller than Bahia in number of people and available services, but the beach is much better.

South end San Clemente outside the Cottages by the Sea.

South end San Clemente outside the Cottages by the Sea.

We are looking for a place called The Cottages by the Sea. Our friend Miriam (and Dave), who live in San Clemente now, told us about these. We are planning a trip back here in late Nov or Dec and when we come we need a place to stay. We drove away from the center of town along a dirt road with houses and buildings on one side and the beach and ocean on the other. Eventually we were in front of The Cottages by the Sea.

We met the owner, Kimberly, who is from Canada. She is a very friendly and outgoing person who greeted us with enthusiasm. She shared pictures with us of what this place was before she bought it. Looking at the before and after pictures this place was definitely a labor of love. The guests who we talked to here seem to love it. The cottage room we looked at had two bedrooms as well as a living room area, dining area and small kitchen. It was all new, modern, and well finished. Perfect for our upcoming stay.

The single story building borders around and looks into the large courtyard. This area has a nice pool in its center and plenty of lounge areas all around it. Doug’s young daughter was with us and she was able to go swimming in the pool while we visited.  The large double gated entrance was open and from inside the courtyard there is a nice view of the ocean only 20 feet from the gate.

When we got back to Saiananda we said goodbye to Doug. It has been great hanging out with him the last couple of days. He also helped Chase today from the ill effects of a major hangover from last night’s party.

Chase was in bed all morning, only getting up when he needed to puke. Doug brought some much-needed Excedrin and Vitamin B6 tablets, along with his own anti-hangover elixir. It seemed to work! Good friends are important to have, especially in times like these. 😉

Something has happened to my phone today. My computer does not recognize it to download its contents. This is how I get my pictures to my blog. I tried using different cords and that didn’t help. I also realized my phone was not charging when I had it plugged in.

After doing some research on the charging problem and trying all the available suggestions, I ended up doing a hard factory reset and that still hasn’t fixed the problem. Because of the factory reset I have lost all my pictures from the last three days. Basically my phone is not recognizing its port and it is almost dead.

Uugh. I’m not going to be able to address this until I get back to Cuenca. Looks like I’m going to have to bum pics off my family of our trip until then.

Chau.