Monigotes - New Year's Eve in Ecuador

Burn away the past year with paper mache Monigotes. The monigotes are paper mache images of political figures, cartoons, or random heads that get placed on what, I don't know. This year smurfs and Captain America seemed to be the most popular items sold on the street.

 The tradition in Guayaquil is to burn these at midnight on New Year's Eve, thus getting rid of 2011.

 The burning started early though and last night I may have seen the remains of a smurf on fire.

The workmanship on some of these is pretty impressive. I saw some of them getting hand painted on the street.

 Some are kind of creepy.

 But where else will you ever see a pile of heads?

Only in Ecuador

Drive from Salinas to Guayaquil

In case you were wondering how the drive looks in reverse - we have roadside eateries

 Fresh laundry out to dry

 Windswept homes

 Electronics

 A side street in Salinas

And the endless horizon

Dinner

2 scoops. Just what was needed to make it through the day.

Drive from Guayaquil to Salinas

90 minutes with no traffic is how long the drive takes from Guayaquil to the coastal town of Salinas. 90 minutes of dirt, fields, corn, banana trees and a few dwellings to break it up.

Driving by so quickly that I couldn't get the best of the. Picture laundry, dogs, and a few ponies and that's the view. Below, as you get closer to town there's added color.

 No A/C in this home. Actually, probably no A/C in any of these.

 Shops below, living quarters on top. Roadside stands like this appear every 15 minutes or so on the drive.

 And as we make our way into town, the homes get closer together.

View from the Room - Guayaquil, Ecuador

Here's 3 - I have a big window!

 

 

Ecuador Beer

Two choices! The one on the left - Pilsner. A lame lager beer. The one on the right - Club. Slightly better than lame and almost okay when no other beers are around.

Panama Canal part 2

The ship finally has clearance to begin and is boarded by two canal guides who give directions to the captain.

 The team watches what's going on. In this case nothing since they were waiting for the water to rise.

 

As the ship is raised 27 feet, the guides start up the ramp to create tension in the cables that help guide the ship.

 And up it goes! Repeat the process two more times during the 8 hour transit and you're done!

Panama Canal part 1

The first timers must do is the Panama Canal. I checked with the concierge and the ship schedule today was from 10 am to 11:45 am and that was it. Only a few ships were coming through on Christmas Day so off I went to catch the end of the transit. Miraflores Locks is the closest transit section to Panama City.

 

These little guides make sure the ship doesn't touch the sides of the canals. The ship that was about to enter was only going to have 2 feet of clearance on each side. Some ships are even wider.

 The above ship from Malta was almost at the end of the transit. And the ship below was just beginning. Payment has to be made 72 hours in advance. No credit is issued and your ship can't just show up and expect passage. The ship below had paid but never made a reservation so it was put on hold for two days until a team could be secured. The ship below was carrying new cars from the Toyota factory in Japan.

 

The gates hold the water in and slowly realease the water to raise the ships height level so they can transit. Enough water had to be released to allow the ship to raise 27 feet.

View from the Room - Panama City, Panama

 

Panama

Happy Christmas Eve from Panama! I've got a glass of Balboa Cerveza and a late flight out tomorrow! Cheers!

Merry Christmas Beer! (or beers!)

Season's greeting from the group that is us. Cedar, Sharon, Gretchen. Mondo, Ms. Kitty, Carson, Homer, me Karen, Jeff. From Rock Bottom La Jolla!

Packing

Unless something goes wrong tomorrow or even Friday, the odds are pretty good that I'll be traveling on Christmas Eve to Panama and then on to Ecuador on Christmas Day. New Years is looking like a flight day and then I go into back to backs - Belfast and return to Ecuador.  January is a loss for social life but a bonus for miles and points. Which brings me to packing.

This is a 3 suitcase strategy. First up, trip 1. I need 10 days of clothes so I won't have to deal with laundry. But I have to make room for work items which alone are taking up 25 lbs of suitcase weight. So it's time to toss out any extra shoes or clothes and carefully count underwear and socks. Success! First bag packed. Now from that sorting out, I've started bag #3.  Since trip #3 is 3 weeks, I still need 10 days of clothes so I should be able to come home, wash, repack and add in a few more for the long trip and done. Partially there.

Suitcase #2 has to be separate. This will be the grab and go. Belfast in January won't be warm so layers of sweaters, snow socks, and mittens will make up that bag.  I'll keep one suitcase in the car and change bags at the parking garage between trips. Or the hotel garage. Haven't quite figured out where the car will be.

That's all for now. Time to ignore the suitcases and think about dinner!

Hugo

Hugo. Not my first choice of movie picks for the weekend but the process of elimination led here. Nominated for awards, directed by Martin Scorsese, some possibly fun robot stuff involved, it should be okay. The trailers made it look like a light-hearted kid's movie but I'm not sure why. Hugo centers more around lost lives, family, career, dreams before we get to hope. In the process, the movie is fairly stiff and at times dull.

The main story with the orphaned boy, living in a train station, and trying to reconnect with his father's dream leads us to the story of silent film maker Georges Melies, (Ben Kingsley did great in this) and we have a mini-history of silent film. The train station gives us the lighter moments as we watch the lives of the station guard, the flower girl, bakery lady, and lonely man connect, collide, and pleasantly come together.

The children in the audience (few) seemed restless and bored. If this is a kid's movie it is targeted to a narrow group. 8 - 10? There's no action, all story, but visually Hugo is beautiful with the train station, the clock, and Paris.

Hugo is an okay movie with thoughtful details but I don't think it will stay with me long. Sadly, at it's worst, Hugo is forgettable.

Movie Trailer Research

I finally got picked to participate in a study of intent to see a movie. Must have been the right time and place because I am never the demographic the researchers want to hear from. The study was to determine how effective movie trailers are in regards to reaching a viewer and their intent to see a movie or wait for DVD. I had to agree to non-disclosure but I can tell you the process involved watching a trailer followed by a series of questions, to watching the trailer again, and another series of questions.

The movie? I can't say. Will I go see it? I'm scheduled to be in Ecuador that weekend so probably not. Would I see it if I was in town? Sure, it would be a good outing even if it's probably not going to be a good movie. I'll let you know in 5 or 6 weeks.

Mistletoe - proof I've lost my mind

Mistletoe isn't the reason why holiday shopping is stressful. Not at all. Instead it's the gauntlet of tables, vendors, sellers, and Santas that you have to work your way through to enter any store that is a nightmare until itself. I avoid all big box, grocery, drug, etc... stores as much as possible during the holidays but this morning I really wanted water so off I went to Ralphs.

I spotted the table as soon as I parked. It's only 9:00 am and already a kid was stuck at a table outside the entrance to the store. Being only one table I decided to risk it and go inside. As I approached the boy scout asked the man in front of me, "want to buy some mistletoe?"  The man ducked and ran. The kid looked defeated. I'd be defeated too if that was how I was spending my Sunday. I got asked the same question but at least I told the kid "no" and looked at him instead of running. But then while buying my water I felt bad for the kid and the parents and scout troop that forced him into working a table by himself. Next thing I knew, $2 was in my hand I was going home with a bag of mistletoe.

Bah humbug indeed. Tiny Tim would be proud.

Pizza Port O.B. and Ms. Kitty's B-Day

Birthday time in San Diego means going for a good local beer or two and for us, that meant Pizza Port Ocean Beach for Ms. Kitty's birthday! Cheers from Carson and Ms. Kitty.

 The beer list looks impressive. I chose the Craftsman Holiday Ale. It may have been too cheerful for me!

 Mondo had a cherry cider so we were all in the adventure spirit!

 The Holiday Ale. Truly, it was too sweet and took forever to drink.

 Homer and Gretchen are seriously pondering the mystery of their beer choices.

It's true - a good moon photo is hard to get with a normal camera!  Sunday morning, Carlsbad.

Beach Today

My allergies don't like the dry weather but it sure is a beautiful day!