Friday, Jun 8, 2018

Sunshine On My Shoulders

I just walked in via the beach from Olon. What a cool gift I received. It rained last night and this morning. Late this morning I went to Montanita to pay my health insurance for the month, then hopped on the bus back to Olon. The tide was pulling out so I thought I would use the one hour walk home from Olon to get my exercise in and think what I might make for dinner.

Just as I started out on the beach the sun was beginning to break through the thick clouds. The temperature was fantastic. As I walked and looked ahead, the clouds were gray and thick. Where I was standing, however, the sun brightly shone down on me. It followed me all the way home.

This is what I saw ahead of me the whole walk home…

But this is what was above and behind me as I walked…

It is low season here on the coast so not many people around. I literally was the only one walking on this beach for a couple of miles. I can’t believe places like this still exist in our very populated world.

Looking out my windows now, the gray has returned, the sun is hidden. How awesome my favorite orb in the sky kept me company during the hour walk back to my place.

Remember Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom?

When I was a kid, Wild Kingdom came on Sunday evenings. It didn’t hold a candle to Star Trek or Batman, but in those days we only had 12 TV channels and many never had programming, so on Sunday nights I was stuck with Wild Kingdom. Each week I would endure a distracted zebra or slow water buffalo be ripped to shreds and eaten as dinner by a pride of lions. In the Wild Kingdom, you were always someone else’s dinner.

Well, here in Ecuador I haven’t seen a jaguar chomping on a monkey, or a giant anaconda squeezing the life out of a tapir (think pig with an elephant-like snout), but in my stretch of the Ecuadorian coast, Nature’s rule still applies: you’re dinner to something.

I work in the evenings at my dining table and the light attracts the moths to the screens on the windows. Of course the geckos know this. What you are about to see is a regular nightly event. I am beginning to feel like an accomplice to “mothocide”, but hey, the geckos have to eat dinner too.

https://youtu.be/kCAMa3Dbh2U

Follow Up Comments

During the last two weeks I went to an optometrist for new eye glasses. I also went to the Dermatologist.

I’m still getting used to my new eyeglass prescription, but here is the thing: they gave me plastic lenses. I’ve never had plastic lenses and I assume they will work out just fine, but I’m not sure if I’m still adjusting to where to hold my eye in the lens for optimal vision or if the plastic lens just annoys me. So heads up when see the optometrist here…ask if they are making glass or plastic lenses.

I saw the dermatologist at the Solca clinic in La Libertad. I asked the doctor her name, she told me, and by the time I was out of the exam room I forgot what she said. The good news is that she is the only dermatologist there, so you don’t need a name to make an appointment with her.

She did a more thorough exam than my last experience with the GP at the IESS hospital. Using some kind of round magnifying glass cylinder, with what looked like an LED light,  she checked out all my spots. She even ran it up and down areas that I have no spots. So I guess at least for now, no worries about skin cancer.

I do feel better having been examined. The sun is so intense here. I would be interested to know the relative difference in intensity of ultraviolet rays on the equator verses higher up in North America. Some days the sun does feel like my skin is literally cooking. Bring lots of block when you visit. 🙂

Random Pics

Here are some pics of the townspeople working together to pull a large net into shore and share in the bounty for their dinner. I think my favorite part in these scenes along the beach is the row of pelicans at the nets edge just waiting for someone to drop a fish. They need dinner too.

Feeding Frenzy

 

dinner

Where’s My Dinner?

Chau