Day 39: Ecuador – 13/02/10

We have arranged to meet Irene and Dick from Tucanon to share a taxi to go to the supermarket in Las Salinas.  This is meant to be bigger and better than the one here in the local mall.  Since we are not meeting until 10.00 am it gives me some time to sit and ‘play’ on the computer.

Mike has a look at the linkage for the rudders to see if he can work out why they are rattling when we motor.  He hasn’t finished working it all out when it is time to leave for the shops and he leaves it with Jim to sort out.

The taxi into Las Salinas costs $2.  This seems an unbelievable price and extremely good value.  We are so used to paying BVI prices (where a distance of less than 3 miles back from the hair dressers cost me $15 – I still haven’t got over the shock of that) and we automatically think that it is $2 per person, but it is for all of us.  Even better value.

Not so the supermarket.  We had left all our major provisioning until we got to Ecuador because we had been told that it was far cheaper than Panama but we are disappointed to find that the opposite is true.  The wine that I had grown so fond of is double the price here, so I can’t bring myself to buy it.  Nearly everything else is a lot more expensive and we are not even in a tourist area (judging by the look of the place on the way here).  We fill two trolleys anyway because we need the stuff – just beer, wine, tinned goods and dried goods.  As we are going away tomorrow we don’t want to fill the freezer with frozen goods in case it decides to turn itself off while we are not there, so we will go again when we get back from Cuenca.

Irene and Dick get the same amount as we do so we each get our own taxi back.  Amazingly, with less people the journey back is an extra dollar!

Back on the boat Jim has fixed the rattling rudder problem for now, but thinks it won’t last forever.  As far as I am concerned, nothing lasts forever on a boat.  It either shears off, rots away, rips, breaks or gives up the will to live, so this is not news to me.

Suzanna, from WCC, has recommended a hotel in Cuenca, and eventually I find a telephone number for them but there is no one who speaks English on the other end.  In frustration I give up and go in search of Jared from Brown Eyed Girl.  He comes back to the boat, I tell him what to ask and he calls the hotel for me and books two rooms.  It’s more expensive than what we were led to believe it would be, but then, what hasn’t been so far!?

We finish off our beautiful garlic bread for lunch then in the late afternoon Jim and I do another supermarket run, this time to the one at the local mall.  We walk there, disagreeing over the map as we go.  Modesty prevents me from saying who was right!!  There are no pavements as we walk, and the road is dusty with shanty town type buildings, strewn rubbish and stray dogs some of which look remarkably like they are part dog and part hyena.  We steer a wide berth then dice with death as we cross the road.  The drivers here change lanes without indicating and without any clear reason for doing so, and there is a lot of horn tooting to accompany any manoeuvre they make.  Out of all the dust, dirt and mess, just down the road, rises a modern shopping mall, and it’s not bad.  As it is the start of carnival, there are loads of people milling around and lots of security personnel.  The whole time I am there, I don’t see one other non-local looking person.

An enormous trolley full later, we leave the supermarket in search of a taxi.  Eventually one is found for us and back at the marina we start the laborious process of trying to put everything into the cupboards.

While we have been gone, Mike has been changing the primary fuel filter for the port engine then bleeding the fuel system.  It runs better but still winds down of its own accord before restoring itself again, never actually cutting out, but definitely not completely right.

We have some more mahi mahi for dinner but I am dismayed to discover that I have overcooked it slightly.  Although it is still moist, the consistency has changed and it is a bit tough.  Oh well, it was free (if you don’t count the huge cost of the rod etc).  Apparently we inherited the lure.  Thanks, Chris!

I try in vain to find a map of the route to Cuenca on the internet.  Goodness knows how we are going to find our way there tomorrow!  Hopefully it will all be part of the fun.  We try to have an early night as Mike announced that he wanted to be away by 7 am but by the time the boat is cleaned up, the washing up done and the blog finished, it’s late.