From Quito to Guayaquil Ecuador

So much has happened, sorry it has been some time since my last blog.


Lisa and I are now in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In June, after months of fits and starts, we left Quito for Guayaquil. We stayed at a temporary place in the Kennedy Vieja barrio of Guayaquil (Old Kennedy) for two weeks before moving into our semi-permanent digs in Urdessa a few blocks away, but across the bridge and the Solario Estuary.

Classes for the Air Traffic Controllers started on July 3rd and away we went.

So our days have been spent teaching English to the Guayaquil Air Traffic Controllers at the Departmento de Aviation Civil. This is an intense course, with two sessions in the morning and afternoon so each of the Air Traffic Controllers can get into one of the classes each day.

At night, Monday through Thursday, I write. I'm currently working on a series of travel guides for a publisher in Miami. The miracle of the Internet! Work in Guayaquil, Ecuador, teach English to Ecuadorian Air Traffic Controllers, and write for a company in Miami! So far I've done one each for Los Angeles and San Diego, rewrote one for Boston, and now working on a travel guide for New York City. All the research is over the Internet.

Last weekend we rented a car and headed up the ¨Ruta del Sol¨ (Sun Road) up the coast. I wanted to change the name to Ruta del Pothole, driving was wild! But the weather was great and it is off season so there were few crowds to worry about. We spent one night in Montanita, Ecuador, about half-way up the coast towards Manta. This is a serious surfer town, with bars called Wipe Out and the like.

Then we headed south to Salinas, which is where everybody who has money goes in Ecuador. Lots of condominium projects and resorts. Lots of nice beaches too, but crowded, even in the off season. Here in Ecuador, they have a lot of coops that practice their trade the old way, carpenters, weavers and the like. In Salinas they had artesenal fishermen. These guys worked in wooden boats, paddling out to maybe fifty yards off the beach, then laying a catch net in a half- circle. Then they haul lines to the beach, and a bunch of them start hauling the nets and any fish they catch up onto the beach. The same way they've been doing it for hundreds of years. Amazing.

Then it was back to Guayaquil and another week of teaching. Justin, our jefe in Quito, is busy teaching a Tesol course, plus overseeing the English classes for the Quito institute, plus overseeing the English classes for the Quito Air Traffic Controllers, plus overseeing us in Guayaquil by long distance. They need to pay him more.

Hope you are well. Here in Guayaquil, Ecuador the weather is great, the water fine, and the teaching and writing just great!