It's been a busy period for us.  We spent another couple of wonderful days with Adam, Zanell and Pieter in the greater Orlando area, and then Cassie and I took off for our reconnaissance mission to Ecuador.  Joe and Juliana kept themselves plenty busy while we were gone, with a little local help.  We continue to benefit from having wonderful friends greet us at our new anchorages, and from meeting new friends as we travel.

     In Port Canaveral, on a rare evening that we didn't spend with Adam, Zanell and Pieter, we went to a local pizza joint called Kelsey's.  We got to talking to our friendly waiter, Josh, and discovered that he was also a kiteboarder.  We swapped contact info in the hopes of joining him for a day of kiting.  The next thing we knew, we had an invite for lunch.  He made us an amazing swordfish meal.  Conversation was easy and we found we had plenty in common.  Josh has traveled for most of his life.  His parents, German and Belgian, are missionaries in Senegal.  His wife is French.  They wound up in Florida a few years ago.  Their kids, two young boys, had never been on a boat before so we invited them all out to Zia after lunch.  What a wonderful and surprising afternoon!  We are so lucky to find ourselves so often the beneficiaries of others' generosity and their curiosity about our lifestyle.

     For another special treat, Adam, Zanell and Pieter planned a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando on Friday.  We worked extra hard on school so we could take the day off to join them.  Cassie turned out to be a total roller coaster freak whereas Juliana opted for the less intense rides.  It worked out perfectly as Adam and Zanell weren't as keen on the wild thrill rides either.  We spent a full day playing from the opening of the park to the bitter end, finishing up with a fun meal at Jimmy Buffet's on-site restaurant, Margarita Ville.

     With the generous loan of Zanell's hot red Audi, we came up with a plan to get Cassie and me to the airport, a three and a half hour drive away, for our flight to Ecuador.  All four of us piled into the car for the long schlep.  Joe and Juliana made arrangements to stop in West Palm Beach and spend the night with Gregg and Rebecca.  Gregg had volunteered to bring the boat south with Joe in my absence.  Juliana elected to hang with Rebecca instead of participating in the night passage.  Unfortunately, the timing could have been better since there was a space shuttle launch scheduled for Monday afternoon, a day after they left the area.  Oh well, better to have the help on the passage and catch the launch on TV.

     Ecuador!  Two nights in Quito weren't nearly enough, but the point of the trip was to investigate Bahía de Caráquez, so we planned to spend the majority of our free time there.  We had one full day in Quito where we had arranged to meet the cousin of a friend who has lived in Ecuador with her family for eleven years.  Lidia and Alex were tremendously generous with their time, taking us out to dinner and introducing us to a group of their friends.  We met an Italian family who runs a spectacular restaurant in the hills of Quito, an Iranian guy who is partnering with Alex in one of his business endeavors, and an American family, connected to the US Embassy, who has been living in Quito for four years.  Although there were some complaints about the crime in the city and the current socialist president, everyone had lots of good things to say about living there.  The fact that they are all there by choice speaks well for the quality of life we can expect.

     One of the negatives about Ecuador is the road system.  Although Bahia is only 340 kilometers from Quito, it is a long and treacherous drive on pothole ridden roads.  We opted to fly a national airline to Manta, and then cab it the 120K up to Bahia - also on treacherous pothole ridden roads!  They are working on vast stretches of the road between the two cities, but it was pretty slow going most of the way.  An hour and twenty minutes later we arrived at our wonderful Casa Ceibo hotel in Bahia.  Although a little outside of town ($1.50 cab ride), and by far the most expensive hotel in the city at $150 a night, breakfast included, it was well worth it.  It was really important to me that Cassie have a good experience and as superficial as it is, the hotel played a big role in her impression of our time there.  I'm shameless, I know.

     After an afternoon of decadence on Monday, we made our way into town on Tuesday to check out Puerto Amistad. 

We had already met one cruiser, Phil, on the plane ride from Quito to Manta.  He had put me in touch with Kim and Pierre who have two ten year old boys who have been attending a parochial school in town for the last seven months.  As our luck would have it, they happened to be sitting in the restaurant area as we walked into the facility.  Kim and I immediately hit it off.  She is a wealth of information about Bahia, schools and living aboard there.  I asked to go along when she went to pick up her boys at the parochial school in town.  We hopped onto a "triciclo" and were peddled a dozen blocks through town to the school's entrance.

Some of the classes were out playing basketball in the courtyard. 

Kim's boys Patrick and Thomas were busy running around the buildings being chased by a dozen kids.  The school is located right next to the Pacific Ocean and some of the classrooms have a wonderful view and refreshing breeze blowing through them.  Of course there is no heat or air conditioning.  The classrooms are very simple and the facilities basic.  There are about 250 Ecuadorian students and two foreigners.  I talked to one of the administrators who expressed delight at the prospect of having two more foreign students enroll in the school next year. 

     The school I had been in touch with prior to our visit, Unidad Educativa Interamericano, is located a little ways out of town.  Actually, it turned out to be walking distance from Casa Ceibo.  We had an appointment to visit on Wednesday.  The facility was a little nicer and the teachers and the children certainly speak better English there.  The cost, while still quite low at about $150 a month per kid, is about twice as much as the parochial school.  From what I heard from the other cruisers, the kids of the wealthy families in town tend to go to Interamericano whereas the more average families send their kids to the parochial school.  Of course, the public schools are totally free so all the students that attend private schools are of above average means in this poor country.  At any rate, either school would be perfect for our purposes.  Cassie was a little disappointed that neither school offered the feeling of being in Middle School in the States, rotating classrooms depending on the subject.  I'm glad that she came along and knows exactly what to expect now.  She says she doesn't really care which school they go to although the uniform at Interamericano (jeans and a polo shirt) is more desirable than the skirt and blouse at the other.  We'll reserve our final decision until we get back in March.

     During the rest of our stay in Bahia, we visited the local Galapagos turtle, Miguelito. 

We climbed to the top of the cross that overlooks the town for some great photos. 

We hung out and talked to as many cruisers as we could, learning about all the things to see and do while in Bahia.  There's a wonderful surfing beach just a short trip away in Canoa.  Up the river just past Casa Ceibo, there is another tourist facility, Saiananda, which is currently also a marina. 

Unfortunately, the construction of the bridge between San Vicente and Bahia is going to kill off that business for Alfredo.  He is building some new rooms and marketing vacation packages at his wildlife sanctuary/restaurant/hotel.  Although there is not a lot of cultural activity in Bahia, I was assured by all that there is plenty to do.  Knowing how busy life can be just by virtue of living on a boat, I'm not too worried about boredom. 

     So, the verdict is a definite thumbs up.  It is going to be a phenomenal cultural and linguistic experience for all of us.  We'll have some challenges getting our visa paperwork together so we can stay longer than the standard ninety days, but at least we are getting a head start on that.  We are also thrilled to hear that one can live quite comfortably in Ecuador for $1000 a month.  After Europe and the Caribbean, this is going to be a huge benefit.  We might just be able to get away with this for another couple of years!

     It was great to come back home to Zia in her new, prime location anchored off the piers in downtown West Palm Beach.  I think I spent more in two hours at the farmers' market on Saturday morning than I did our whole time in Ecuador, lodging expenses excluded!  It was quite the contrast. 

    Of course, our friends Gregg, who has done three passages on Zia to date, and his wife Rebecca had been entertaining Joe and Juliana in style; showing them their favorite restaurants, the library, and even inviting them to a local political event.  Juliana couldn't get over the library - all those books absolutely free! She checked out eight of them and read them all in a week.

     After reading my last update, the operator of  the WPB Tow Boat US franchise, Chris, emailed us. He has been following us on zialater for a few years.  He was thrilled to hear we were heading his way and offered up any assistance we might need.  He and his wife, Rimi, and their two daughters (4 and 6) are hoping to take off one day to cruise themselves.  I can't tell you how much I love to hear from people who follow along with our website.  It makes me feel like I'm not just talking to myself out here! 

     As an added bonus, on the evening I got back home, I had an email from Julie.  She works in downtown WPB and had seen Zia anchored out in Lake Worth on her lunch break.  She googled us up (sorry Alison and Francois!) and sent me an email. 

     So, we have Gregg and Rebecca, Chris, Rimi, Kiki and Mia, and Julie.  Throw in the four of us and do you know what that makes?  That's right: a taco party! Turns out our local guests even had mutual friends.  What a fun evening.

     West Palm Beach was a fun stop for our social lives but it was hell on the wallet.  Joe rented a car for four days so he could drive around to the chandleries and hardware stores.  We went shopping for bathing suits for the girls and wound up with tennis rackets, down duvets, shorts and swimming suits for me and Joe, a new frying pan, and several other items that were not on our list.  We never did find any bathing suits for the girls.  Turns out even Florida takes them off the shelves in the "winter" time.