It reminds us of many of the islands, with half-built construction but without the construction standards of some that have British influence like Turks and Caicos or Barbados. When you walk on the sidewalks you'd better keep your eye on the ground or you'll trip over things sticking out, foot-high drop-offs. Granite counters and sketchy cabinetry.
Some workmen came to fix an A/C unit and it struck me that in North America we'd simply have replaced the window unit, which is built with cheap labour and imported. Here in the land of cheap labour, it's less expensive to fix, the product itself more expensive. However, once it was fixed, it broke, couldn't hold the pressure, the ravages of salt water. Luck of the draw.
The beach is beautiful.
In this picture you're looking at the yacht club. In the foreground you can see all the tents/chairs on the beach -- $10 per day to rent a tent. At this time of day the beach wasn't crowded. Later on it was busy with boats, seadoos etc. running around.
Joining the yacht club, apparently, is a $50,000 investment. Here, unlike most of North America and Europe, you don't have to worry about "death of the middle class". There is no middle class. There are the rich and there are the poor. The poor work hard to extract money from the tourists, the only industry.
Jason was saying that Costa Rica was similar, in many ways, except that there is "industry". I put industry in quotation marks because there are banana plantations and sugar cane, and tourism.
The rich live well in these countries, well, they're often out of country and take their money with them.
Ecuador is civilized, stable, money apparently coming from oil extracted from the Amazon basin, oil tankers in the ocean out in front of us -- close but likely several miles out there. With the drop of the price of oil, they're likely just storing oil until it's worth more, as they're not moving.
Our property manager is also our tour guide. He ran us around to the fish market where we picked up shrimp for dinner and the everyday market, if you will, that's more fruit and veggies. Bundles of wires hang from the poles, an impossible tangle of electric, telephone and cable. Traffic is relatively calm, however, lanes and traffic lights are suggestions, as I mentioned before.
It's very safe. Police presence is huge. The protect the tourism industry very well.
Careful what you eat, as a tourist. Certain things are bagged and safe; others not so much. Cook your food; boil your water or bottled water.
We had lunch at a restaurant, very popular place. They have a fixed menu each day and when they run out, they turn people away. We were one of the last groups in. The price was $3 per person for a full meal -- soup starter plus plate of white rice, deep fried small shrimp and a pasta salad. They easily turned away a hundred people, small to medium sized family groups coming to the magnetically closed gate beside us, waved off.
Other prices are quite reasonable, in fact very reasonable, but they have to be to go along with the median income. If you pay the fisherman pennies for his fish, you then sell it for a few more pennies. The shrimp, for example, were $4 per pound. Eventually, as they build up this tourist enclave, there will be tourist prices and local prices. Right now it's a bargoon. That won't last.
There's a sizable expat population. It doesn't take much to become a resident. $25,000 on deposit or purchase property or show income, so we're told. Then what do you do with your time ? You can walk the beach; you could putter ... perhaps. For the so-inclined, there's no golf, no real other sports. Food is cheap; manufactured goods are expensive. The cars own the road; I saw that in Mexico as well. It's not a place to cycle or walk. Walking is for the beach. Heaven help you if you're disabled; you wouldn't get a hundred meters on the sidewalk.
We went swimming; yes, even me. Sandy found it cold but I think that the water was over 80F.
It's a great place to visit but a difficult place from which to tour. Google says that Quito is about 8 hours away by car; realistically it's more like 10; touring it's more like 12+. We struggled with how to get up to Quito and finally settled on flying from Salinas (here) on a small plane -- we'll see on Friday how small -- then returning the same way on Sunday (Jas, Lo and Kim), and to Guayaquil for us prior to our flight back to MIA on Sunday. That worked out to be the least time just dealing with logistics.
Unfortunately that plan misses the touring. We'll have to come back. A return trip would include diving in the Galapagos. There are so many places to go, things to see ...
As always, we're having a good time. It's always fascinating to see other parts of the world. The food stores are interesting, the markets are amazing, the people are gentle, polite.
No one speaks English. You'd have to learn some Spanish in a hurry if you were staying for any length of time. That wouldn't be a problem. It's an easier language than most to learn.
Random thoughts, I know.
Onward !
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