After Grandma Cassie and Jordan's visit, we'd pulled Sylvia out of school (with 1/4 to go) in order to further our travel education. But following a trip to the Amazon, we found ourselves restless and purposeless in Otavalo very quickly. So we decided to head to the beach for a month. Why not?
In the province of Manabí, in the town of Canoa, we found an apartment in the back of a hotel named País Libre. And we found warm and friendly hosts, met new friends both local and traveling extranjeros, some of whom were volunteering and working in a local school. In fact, we met a family of Andersons whose situation was similar to ours (teachers on a leave-of-absence with two kids), and we quickly hit it off. It took us a few days to slow down to the rhythms of life on the coast, but we managed.
Here's a little photo-journal of our time there. By little, I mean 100 photos or so. As always, they look better as a slide show, haz click para empezarlo y disfrutala!
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| Pacific lobstah washed up on the beach |
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| Oakes' sand angels |
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| Makena ripping a wave |
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| Oakes is fascinated by all creatures |
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| Charlie and a friend |
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| Our trip to Edgar and Rachel's farm to "help" with some tree planting |
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| Edgar getting water for the trees |
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| Banana cycles |
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| Using a post-hole digger to prepare places for trees |
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| Rachel and Sylvia planting a tree among the banana trees. Eventually, the new trees will take over for the bananas providing fruit, shade, and soil stability |
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| Fancy bathroom |
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| Sylvia's first tries on a board were successful! |
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| A walk to the end of the beach... |
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| ...and looking back toward town |
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| These little buggers hurt when you step on them. |
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| Living on a river, the mosqueras were necessary. |
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| Sylvia and I went to surf school with professor Manuel. He was awesome. |
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| Proud teacher in the background, proud parents on the beach |
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| The Andersons minus one |
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| Aguas malas, or baby jellyfish. The sting is immensely painful, but that didn't stop Oakes and Sylvia from collecting them on the beach one day after rough seas washed them ashore. |
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| The hats/bags guy at work, every day |
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| Canoa is a working fishing town. Here the boys are heading out. |
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| The fleet |
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| Sylvia with the catch |
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| Breakdance dudes on the beach. They inspired Oakes' following attempts... |
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| Nets bundled to go |
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| Heading out to get beat up... again |
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| This is our street. |
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| Ice cream lady |
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| Tricycle = beach truck |
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| Local boys using boat rollers in the surf. This is how the locals are so good. |
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| Looking dorky, but getting it... |
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| Our castle |
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| Looking over San Vicente with Bahia de Caraquez in the background (high rises for people of means from Quito) |
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| We took a trip up the Chone river to Isla Corazon, a community run/benefitted mangrove sanctuary |
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| Through the tunnel by canoe |
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| 20,000 frigatebirds call Isla Corazon their home |
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| Male frigate with a deflated balloon |
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| Don Francisco teaching the kids how to "plant" a mangrove seed |
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| Kids taking the mangrove pledge |
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| Zoe and Sylvia building a fort |
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| Isa and Oakes |
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| Xavier with the kids. They had a lot of fun with him |
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| Da Boyz (and a girl) of Pais Libre |
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| Oakes getting his "trensa" |
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| vacanisimo! |
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| Finally, riding some waves (nice tan line!) |
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| Don Giovanni. Kerry declined his many proposals, somehow resisting his charms. I did buy several beers from him though. |
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| Boogie master |
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| Mr. Favio, king of his castle, with the gringoes |
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| Gustavo, the night watchman who always knew where people were. To'bien! |
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