Lolligagging Around
We arrived beat up and exhausted back in Santa Marta after Ciudad Perdida. (Bill will be blogging on that experience). We showered the grime from under our toes and finger nails and hand washed the red mud from our clothes. Our new hiking boots look a hundred years old.
Then, refreshed from a shower, we caught the rickety collectivo over the hill to Rododero (10 minute ride). We had a dinner date there with Mark and Diane, a couple from Tacoma we had met in Zipaquiera at the Salt Cathedral. As fellow Norte Americano travellers, we had invited them to our little place for dinner in Santa Marta. They returned the favour by inviting us out to their rented apartmento in Rododero.
We all had a swim on the busy beach and then a feasted on a yummy supper they had prepapred for us. We had a good visit. They patiently listened as we processed our experiences in Ciudad Perdida and they amused us by telling us all about the antics at Carnival in Barrenquilla.
We left Santa Marta on Monday and flew to Equador: Guayaquill Ciudad. Esta muy benito ciudad with the longest and most beautiful malecon we have ever seen. Lovely plazas, statues and churches as well. We took in a Supercine and saw Hercules, mostly an excuse for popcorn as an alternative to rice and beans.
We left Guayaquill after a couple of days and headed south to Playas. The Rough Guide described Playas as a beach resort for middle class Equadorians. It is a beautiful beach with lovely gentle surf and warmish waters. However, it is so run down, so littered with garbage and it seems as if it had it's heyday in the 50's or something. It was puzzling to see it so let go and run down. Was there an economic crisis in Equador that saw it crumble away? Did people begin to go somewhere else and create a ghost town? We didn't know they story and weren't there long enough to figure it out.
In Puerto El Morro (near Playas), we visited a fascinating Frigate Bird Estuary. Frigates are as big as eagles and they nest in the top of mangrove trees, many of these trees are not more than about 4-5 feet high which allowed us a birds eye view into their nests. Hmmm, excuse the pun.
Their baby chicks look like ostrich babies, with jiggedy white downy feathers that stick out like grass from their heads. Pink Flamingos also nest there along with the 10 million Frigates. It was muy interesante and the birds did not mind us peering into their nests, which I was glad of as they have huge hooked beaks. We also visited a shrimp farm and watched wild dolphins with babies surface in the estuary.
Then today, we took off for the town of Salinas, touted in the Rough Guide as Miami Beach. We are in Salinas now and it is another lovely beach, older, less ritzy than I imagine Miami to be, but nice just the same. The waters are quite chilly, but the temperatures are hot. These are our first real beachy type places and the sun does feel good.
We purchased new sarong beach towels today and threw away the one towel that we had bought and ripped in half. Somehow, half a towel doesn't cut the mustard when you are trying to suntan in sand. We watched a young couple half bury their little puppy in the sand and he slept like a baby while they dipped in the ocean.
We watched a group of men play fotbol on the beach as the sun went down and wandered back to our hotel and had a hot shower: a luxury we decided to indulge in for the two days we are here in Salinas.
Travel like this is not always easy and I find that I am more cranky than usual. I am critical of the less than clean hotels and more noticing of the garbage on the beaches and even I, Queen of Eating Anything, am finding it harder and harder to muster enthusiasm for the constant rice and bean diet.
I think Sri Lanka may have been too long and too hard of a price to pay. I just want home: home family, home friends, home food, nice clean healthy kitty cats and doggies, clean clothes and Earls.
Just the same... would I have missed Ciudad Perdida? Not on your life! And, there is much more to come. We fly to the Galapagos on Sunday. This is the spot where Charles Darwin developed his evolutionary theory. Now, seeing that museum will be something to write home about, I'll bet!
Then, refreshed from a shower, we caught the rickety collectivo over the hill to Rododero (10 minute ride). We had a dinner date there with Mark and Diane, a couple from Tacoma we had met in Zipaquiera at the Salt Cathedral. As fellow Norte Americano travellers, we had invited them to our little place for dinner in Santa Marta. They returned the favour by inviting us out to their rented apartmento in Rododero.
We all had a swim on the busy beach and then a feasted on a yummy supper they had prepapred for us. We had a good visit. They patiently listened as we processed our experiences in Ciudad Perdida and they amused us by telling us all about the antics at Carnival in Barrenquilla.
We left Santa Marta on Monday and flew to Equador: Guayaquill Ciudad. Esta muy benito ciudad with the longest and most beautiful malecon we have ever seen. Lovely plazas, statues and churches as well. We took in a Supercine and saw Hercules, mostly an excuse for popcorn as an alternative to rice and beans.
We left Guayaquill after a couple of days and headed south to Playas. The Rough Guide described Playas as a beach resort for middle class Equadorians. It is a beautiful beach with lovely gentle surf and warmish waters. However, it is so run down, so littered with garbage and it seems as if it had it's heyday in the 50's or something. It was puzzling to see it so let go and run down. Was there an economic crisis in Equador that saw it crumble away? Did people begin to go somewhere else and create a ghost town? We didn't know they story and weren't there long enough to figure it out.
In Puerto El Morro (near Playas), we visited a fascinating Frigate Bird Estuary. Frigates are as big as eagles and they nest in the top of mangrove trees, many of these trees are not more than about 4-5 feet high which allowed us a birds eye view into their nests. Hmmm, excuse the pun.
Their baby chicks look like ostrich babies, with jiggedy white downy feathers that stick out like grass from their heads. Pink Flamingos also nest there along with the 10 million Frigates. It was muy interesante and the birds did not mind us peering into their nests, which I was glad of as they have huge hooked beaks. We also visited a shrimp farm and watched wild dolphins with babies surface in the estuary.
Then today, we took off for the town of Salinas, touted in the Rough Guide as Miami Beach. We are in Salinas now and it is another lovely beach, older, less ritzy than I imagine Miami to be, but nice just the same. The waters are quite chilly, but the temperatures are hot. These are our first real beachy type places and the sun does feel good.
We purchased new sarong beach towels today and threw away the one towel that we had bought and ripped in half. Somehow, half a towel doesn't cut the mustard when you are trying to suntan in sand. We watched a young couple half bury their little puppy in the sand and he slept like a baby while they dipped in the ocean.
We watched a group of men play fotbol on the beach as the sun went down and wandered back to our hotel and had a hot shower: a luxury we decided to indulge in for the two days we are here in Salinas.
Travel like this is not always easy and I find that I am more cranky than usual. I am critical of the less than clean hotels and more noticing of the garbage on the beaches and even I, Queen of Eating Anything, am finding it harder and harder to muster enthusiasm for the constant rice and bean diet.
I think Sri Lanka may have been too long and too hard of a price to pay. I just want home: home family, home friends, home food, nice clean healthy kitty cats and doggies, clean clothes and Earls.
Just the same... would I have missed Ciudad Perdida? Not on your life! And, there is much more to come. We fly to the Galapagos on Sunday. This is the spot where Charles Darwin developed his evolutionary theory. Now, seeing that museum will be something to write home about, I'll bet!
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