It's the beach for me!

Hi there LAFitz.  I'm a early-retired former resident of Panama now living in central Florida & on about the same schedule as you for the "salt life" in Ecuador.    Do you speak espanol?   If you are interested in coordinating info & ideas, pls contact me privately at mikelove5010 at yahoo dot com

Another Beach Boy named Mike Love (b. 1941) sang:

"They're anglin' in Laguna in Cerro Asul
They're kickin' out in Doheny too
I tell ya surfin's mighty wild
It's gettin' bigger every day
From Hawaii to the shores of Peru."

('Surfin' Safari', 1962)

Got the name but not the fame ...... or the vocal talent,  darn it!

TomMoore wrote:

Looks like you may have to find this information on your own.  Not much help from these two.

It appears that Mr. Moore does not appreciate the Beach Boys' vibe -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

Actually, there have been many posts here on Expat.com Ecuador in the last couple of years about the Coastal venues.

Here are the names of some of those threads, any of which y'all can type into the Search Expat.com box at the top of this page -- and then click on the search icon:

Coastal Towns

Life on the Coast of Ecuador

Best Beach Areas to Live

Smallish Towns to Live in on the Coast

Car Rentals for Seeing the Coastal Areas

Beaches

Life on the Coast

----

Bonus beach song:

"Well, I'm goin' out west on the coast
Well, the California* girls are really the most....
Where they're out there havin' fun
In the warm California* sun."

  -- "California Sun": 60's tune sung by The Ramones, The Rivieras and Annette Funicello.

*Substitute your own venue for California.

The Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the west behind
Those Moscow girls make me scream and shout
That Jojo's always on my mind

Beatles "Back in the USSR", making fun of the Beach Boys
Not that there's anything right with that.

In a completely related topic, I heard that there is very little surf on the Ecuador coast, nothing like the north shore on Oahu in January and February.  Any truth to this rumor?  Does the Pacific really live up to its name like it does on the west coast of Luzon?

LAFitz wrote:

My desire is to find my future home on the Coast somewhere between Salinas to the south and Canoa to the north.

Top 10 reasons to consider Bahia de Caraques:

Climate: Surprisingly comfortable. The city lies in a dry tropical belt with relatively low humidity from May to November.  There's a constant ocean breese.

Networking:  This city of 30,000 year-round inhabitants now has an established Expat community, unlike the coast's sleepy fishing villages.

A bridge to the 21st century:  The longest bridge in Ecuador, the Bahia-San Vicente Bridge, was completed in 2010, making getting to and from Bahia far easier than before.

Eco-friendly:  Bahia has re-invented itself as an up-and-coming eco-city, since rebuilding following a quake and El Nino flooding about 15 years ago.   It is known throughout EC as the country's cleanest coastal city.

Cost of living:   Extremely affordable.  You could live a comfortable life on $1,000 a month.

Safe:  The lowest crime rate in Ecuador.

Shopping:  A new and modern supermarket.

Low honky-tonk factor:  Bahia is not overrun with tour buses or overpriced souvenir shops.

Welcome factor:  A reputation for being an incredibly friendly city.

Wildlife:  For example, Saiananda -- a local park that is home to deer, geese, ostriches and other wildlife.

Source:  vivatropical.com

mugtech wrote:

I heard that there is very little surf on the Ecuador coast, nothing like the north shore on Oahu in January and February.  Any truth to this rumor?

Due to significant beach erosion in recent decades, the south shore of the peninsula at Bahia de Caraques is now narrow and often crowded.  At high tide, it can become almost completely submerged.
(Source: vivatropical.com)

Beach erosion in other coastal areas may vary.

cccmedia wrote:

Beach erosion in other coastal areas may vary.

Ecuador has been experiencing the highest rate of coastal erosion in South America.

Not all beaches are eroding.  Some beaches have been stable for centuries.

Some places -- including Salinas, Atacames and Montanita -- have been suffering above-average erosion;  Montanita and Salinas have lost about 300 buildings over the past three decades.

A factor contributing to the erosion is the shifting of techtonic plates off  the coast of Ecuador.  This "subduction" produces more earthquakes as well as constant movement of the sea floor -- affecting the shoreline.

The above information was published online at the JourneymanJackinEcuador website, based on information from "the forthcoming GringoTree book, Ecuador Real Estate Buyer's Guide, by David Morrill and Deke Castleman."

cccmedia wrote:

mugtech wrote:

I heard that there is very little surf on the Ecuador coast, nothing like the north shore on Oahu in January and February.  Any truth to this rumor?

Due to significant beach erosion in recent decades, the south shore of the peninsula at Bahia de Caraques is now narrow and often crowded.  At high tide, it can become almost completely submerged.
(Source: vivatropical.com)

Beach erosion in other coastal areas may vary.

I was wondering how high are the waves, is surfing actually possible.

Muchas gracias for the shortlist of perks for living in Bahia.  You definitely caught my attention for almost everyone of them.  Now I'm wondering if anyone can offer a similar list for Salinas?

Happy 2015 to All,

Laurie

mugtech wrote:

how high are the waves, is surfing actually possible.

A surfwatcher and poster at vivatropical.com named Ed drove along the coastal road known as La Ruta del Sol during a trip this year.

"Canoa beach had awesome rough seas, the waves were huge for you surfers. 

"Montanitas is a surfers haven as well and is a huge tourist location, but at night you can witness drug activities....

"Playas is nice...decent waters with nice strong waves."

cccmedia wrote:

mugtech wrote:

how high are the waves, is surfing actually possible.

A surfwatcher and poster at vivatropical.com named Ed drove along the coastal road known as La Ruta del Sol during a trip this year.

"Canoa beach had awesome rough seas, the waves were huge for you surfers. 

"Montanitas is a surfers haven as well and is a huge tourist location, but at night you can witness drug activities....

"Playas is nice...decent waters with nice strong waves."

Thanks, good to know
Imagine that, surfers haven and drug activities.

LAFitz wrote:

Muchas gracias for the shortlist of perks for living in Bahia....I'm wondering if anyone can offer a similar list for Salinas?

Based on a survey of Expat posts published this year at vivatropical.com, the consensus seems to be that Salinas offers the pluses and minuses of a classic coastal tourist city. 

Here is a sampling:

"Salinas is noisy and busy over the New Years holiday and car alarms constantly go off....The weather is hot and sunny virtually every day....    I have been (there also) at low season and found it quite lovely and peaceful and the weather enjoyable." 
  -- Fanita

"Salinas is like any other beach town, crowded in vacation times and quiet during the off-season.  However, one thing where Salinas beats all other towns is the quality of food and prices.  Everything is fresh....you can eat great seafood dishes, fresh fruits and vegetables, and if you are tight with money, you can eat all day for $10 or less."   
  -- Guido

"I live here year-round....The place is not South Beach and anyone billing it that way, or expecting to find the same, is going to be disappointed....On the rare Tuesday of low-season you might find the place 'desolate,' but for the most part, you have tourists and year-round residents all the time.  It is not the insane hard-to-move-along-the-sidewalk packed of ultimate peak-season, but it is active.  Only a handful of businesses close down for the off-season."
  -- Hector G. Quintana

"We really liked Salinas because of the large number of Expats and English-speaking establishments.  Made many  friends -- Americans, Canadians and Ecuadorians....Salinas is the closest (of area beach towns) to the North American atmosphere."
  -- Tom Arbuckle

Some posters advocated places in the Salinas area that are not directly in the most touristy section.  Chipepe and San Lorenso were mentioned.

cccmedia wrote:

Salinas offers the pluses and minuses of a classic coastal tourist city.

In addition to Expat posts, the Vivatropical site offered up the following assessment of Salinas in sections labeled "The Good," "The Bad" and "The Ugly."  FYI, the site defines the high-season as "generally December through April."

The Good:

Best of all is the price tag.  Salinas offers some decent amenities at lower costs than you'll find almost anywhere.

You can get a hotel room for $30 per night and as much fish or shrimp as you can eat, prepared any way you like it, for $3 at the market.

Salinas offers lots of water sports and other activities.  During high-season, you can charter a boat for game fishing or whale watching.  Skydiving and parasailing are available.  You can surf or "wakeboard."


The Bad:

The weather is so great during high-season that tourists flock to Salinas and crowd the beaches so much that it seems every inch of possibly usable beach is covered.

The crowds make it incredibly noisy, and dirty.  Cars crawl along the crowded streets bringing in even more tourists.  Street vendors line the "malecon," hawking everything from souvenirs to shrimp on a stick.

Ads are everywhere.  Virtually every exposed surface in Salinas has someone's logo plastered on it.



The Ugly:

The rest of the year, the beach is virtually empty and the sky is overcast almost every day.

cccmedia wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

Salinas offers the pluses and minuses of a classic coastal tourist city.

In addition to Expat posts, the Vivatropical site offered up the following assessment of Salinas in sections labeled "The Good," "The Bad" and "The Ugly."  FYI, the site defines the high-season as "generally December through April.".

The Ugly:

The rest of the year, the beach is virtually empty and the sky is overcast almost every day.

Odd how opinions differ. Other than the sky being overcast, the ugly would be about ideal for me. Guess when am able to make it to Salinas I know the time of year to go.

Hi La Fitz,
We are living now in San Clemente north of Manta about 30 km. It is a small fishing village with almost everything you need to live here. If one needs to shop in supermarkets, they are short drive  by bus or taxi, about 23 km either in Portoviejo or Bahia and great market on Sundays in nearby Charapoto.
We are Canadians, but also EU citizen and Swiss, late 50 and 60 retired from accounting practice just last year. You find different nationalities here, of course, lots of NA, but also people from France, Poland Argentina, Italy, Sweden. It is truly great community, very relaxed and happy, friendly and helpful.
At this time there is around 100 expats, but more arriving, lots of new construction going on and selling quickly.
The best part is beautiful unspoiled beach, the weather this summer is great, with cool breezes it really feels not hot at all, at least by the ocean.
If you are looking for intergrated community it is here, and of course local people are absolutely great, seems to be a place to do very little or a lot if you choose to.
If you want some more info about anything, send me PM

Thank you Eva.  Yours is exactly the kind of info I have been looking for!  And interestingly enough, San Clemente is on my top 5 list of communities to check out for my future home in Ecuador.  Your description fits perfectly with my preferences...that is an international integrated community on the beach.  So now I have it on my schedule to come to San Clemente on or about April 20.  Any chance of us meeting then?  I would love to meet you and get the lay of the land from somebody who knows and loves the place.

In the meantime, I have a question: Are there any organized activities for expats?  The expat group I belonged to in Buenos Aires held monthly meet & greets; dinners and/or happy hours; organized various outings and picnics; and even posted a blog for classified ads for such things as apartments for rent.  I found this to be so helpful in finding intriguing people of various nationalities including local Argentinos...although BA has 3 million people and I'm sure San Clemente is much smaller     In any event, as soon as I can figure out how to send a PM, I will pass on my contact info so we can chat a bit more.

Laurie

To send Eva a PM, click on her name above her icon, which takes you to the page where you can click on Send a Message.  It'll be second nature to you from there.

Well...I did that (clicked on her name) and was taken to a page listing her latest posts but no where I can see to send her a message ( https://www.expat.com/forum/profile.php … mp;lang=en ).  What am I missing?

Laurie

LAFitz wrote:

Well...I did that (clicked on her name) and was taken to a page listing her latest posts but no where I can see to send her a message ( https://www.expat.com/forum/profile.php … mp;lang=en ).  What am I missing?

Laurie

You're right -- but that used to be the way to do it. Did something change?

BobH wrote:

LAFitz wrote:

Well...I did that (clicked on her name) and was taken to a page listing her latest posts but no where I can see to send her a message ( https://www.expat.com/forum/profile.php … mp;lang=en ).  What am I missing?

Laurie

that used to be the way to do it. Did something change?

I don't think so, Bob.

If Laurie clicks on Eva's name, it takes her to a page listing Eva's posts, yes.  But the option to send a message should appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  It does on my PC.

If that still doesn't work, Laurie, there is an outside possibility that you somehow got caught up in the relatively new Expat.com Anti-Spam System.  There's more about that at the thread "anti-spam system & new rules" created by the blog's founder, Julien.  (This is an actual thread I visited today, but am having trouble getting back to it.  There could be some bugs in the system;  just sayin'.)

Please let us know whether you succeeded in reaching the message spot.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

I don't think so, Bob.

If Laurie clicks on Eva's name, it takes her to a page listing Eva's posts, yes.  But the option to send a message should appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  It does on my PC.

It didn't on mine, but that may have been because I tried Laurie's profile, not Eva's. Now, when I try Laurie's, I still don't get 'Send a Message' as an option, but for Eva, I do.

I wonder if Laurie might be limited by being a new member (only 6 posts)? Just speculating -- maybe an Admin can help her/us out.

BobH wrote:

I wonder if Laurie might be limited by being a new member (only 6 posts)? Just speculating -- maybe an Admin can help her/us out.

That's the way I remember it.

Still can't send a PM to EvaCanada.  If that's because I'm a new member and limited to 6 posts (per year? month? lifetime?) then I suppose the only thing to do is post publicly (which I did) and hope she sees it.  The problem with that however, is that I'm not so keen on publishing personal or contact information. And If it's due to the new anti-spam system, then I'm not interested in spending any more time trying to "qualify" as an authentic poster.  So how does one close their account on this blog?  I've already unsubscribed from numerous threads that I apparently opted in to when I first signed up but without success.  Notices keep rolling in. I have 7 in my inbox so far this morning.  Sheesh!

Laurie,
I tried to send you a message,  for all my contacts I can send no problem, it has to be your settings.
Anyhow, to answer your question lots of activities here such as ladies night, painting classes and more.
Usually Fridays there is gathering at great rest/bar ran by German and he also offers NA style breakfast on Sundays, Mondays there is another one at different restaurant and happy hours always, well not quite but often especially with friendly neighbors.
We are living in condo called Vistazul, you can google and find about rentals.
Also, excellent info on Living it up in Ecuador blog.
Regretfully, I won't be here after mid April as I am going back to Canada for a few months.

Laurie: I think the PM function is activated after you have 10 posts (or something like that). I imagine the idea is to prevent somebody from signing up and spamming all the members.

You're at 7 now, so just do a few 'quickie' posts, and the problem should be solved.

My picks on the coast for retired expats: Olon, Bahia, Salinas. My picks on the coast for adventure and party life: Montanita, Canoa, Playas. And for nature lovers: Las Peñas, Puerto Engabao, Ayampe

Hi Eva,

Thanks for trying but I have not received your (personal) message...and I have no idea why not!  My settings seem to allow 10-20 notifications of posts to various threads (e.g. firearms in Ecuador) telling me that I've subscribed to them when I haven't.  And I also don't have a clue as to how to stop them.  I've even tried unsubscribing but they keep rolling in.

In any event, thank you for the info on social activities in Salinas.  Sorry I'll miss you when I'm there in April scouting for a place to eventually call home.  If Salinas is my choice, I'll look you up!

Laurie

Please ignore this.  I'm trying to get to 10 posts so I can send PMs.

Please ignore this.  I'm trying to get to 10 posts so I can send PMs. This is my 11th or 12th post including my new member introduction.

LAFitz wrote:

I'm trying to get to 10 posts so I can send PMs. This is my 11th or 12th post including my new member introduction.

This may be too late for Laurie, who is clearly trying to "game the system", but may be worth pointing out to other posters.

Julien, the founder of Expat.com, is specifically on record that to qualify for blog privileges, the minimum number of blogs cannot be reached by spamming the system with quickie blogs intended solely for that purpose.

Julien and Priscilla and the other staffers at the home office in Mauritius will be annoyed when they see this "gaming" (they're in a different time zone so that may not be for a few hours).

Posters, please do not pollute Expat.com in this manner or try to game the system with quickie blogs.

Note that Laurie may have encountered problems because she had previously polluted the New Members thread with a rant complaining about how no one had correctly answered her question about events on the Coast, and how bloggers supposedly have too much time on their hands and shouldn't blog so much.

Ironic, then, that she's now inappropriately over-posting to try to get back her privileges.

Do you think the Home Office will accommodate her under these circumstances...

cccmedia in Quito

I plead guilty, ccc. I suggested that Laurie do a few 'quickie' posts to get up to ten (when she was at seven). I don't recall Julien ever having said anything on the subject.

Julien's statement is on the page "Anti-Spam System and New Rules" to which I referred in Report #24 of this thread.

I know you meant well, Bob.

cccmedia in Quito

Oh, I'm sure Julien will understand. I can't imagine he'd value enforcing rules over the usability of his site.

jessekimmerling wrote:

Oh, I'm sure Julien will understand. I can't imagine he'd value enforcing rules over the usability of his site.

Jesse had a brilliant post this week on the thread "All You Need to Know About Firearms in Ecuador."  But he and I are not seeing eye-to-eye on THIS matter.

If he was trying to post tongue-in-cheek, he might have used a smiley like this one

Meanwhile, we have meandered away from the original purpose of this thread, which is discussing Ecuador's beaches.

To put it in visual terms, we are now officially

In an attempt to restore order before we cause irreparable disruptions in Mauritius, I am now asking all concerned parties that if there's more to post about the blog rules and recovering Personal Messaging privileges, please visit this new thread:  "How to Annoy Folks in the Mascarene Islands Without Leaving Home."

To reach this thread, type the first words of the new thread into the Search Expat.com box which normally appears at the top of this page, and then click on the search icon to the right of said box.

cccmedia in Quito

I was able to send Laurie a PM, so everything she did is working properly at last.
Another beuatiful day on Manabi coast, so cute today to see about 40 local kids participating in English class ran by several gringos. Another great volunteering opportunities can be found around here as well

rick4321 wrote:

the thing to do, is to go and snoop around for a week...

This won't affect you at the beach, but if you go to Quito or Cuenca:

No matter how fit you are, it takes almost everyone a minimum of a few days to adjust to the altitude.  Folks need to take it easy during the adjustment period.

Quito is as 9,300 feet, more than 1.7 miles high.

If you can only come for a week, visiting the beach is probably best.  You can fly into Guayaquil, and it's about 90 minutes by ground transportation from there.

Would like to share information on this with each other.  After a year inland in Ecuador, am starting my trip south from Pedernales to Salinas, moving next to Canoa later this week.   Can keep you informed about what I learn in the process. And am thinking that there are other expat groups online that may help in the process, though connection here on the beach has been very poor (Internet).
Am looking for connections who may want to share larger intentional community housing, conversation in a place close to but not in a town, like walking distance.
Lets share notes if you like.
-
Carlo