Dolphins Passing By San Clemente

We take our coffee almost every morning down by the water and we have what I call “surf therapy”. That is my idea of starting the day off right. Some peaceful time to kick-start our days. Most mornings it is far from quiet with the surf, birds, fishermen and Joe and I gabbing away. This has been our routine for almost every day the past two years. In all that time we have never seen dolphin swimming by so this is very exciting.

Our first sighting was while we were staying at Hotel San Jacinto. Almost every morning for the week we stayed there we had our breakfast on the outdoor deck and saw these beautiful, graceful creatures come by. We thought this was an every day occurences but soon found out that was not so and have longed to see them once again. How lovely to be given this gift. I sure do appreciate their appearance after such a long absence.  Maybe this week they will visit again.

 

Puerto El Morro

Earlier this week I had lunch with my Ecuadorian friend Nancy, who has lived in Playas for quite some time. We explored a nearby town. Her husband Miguel Angel dropped us at the bus stop near the public mercado for a short 20 minute bus trip to the town of Morro.  The bus driver waited for around 15 minutes until the bus was full before departing. With all the rain we had the road to Morro is a mess with huge potholes. Some areas really don’t have any black top in entire sections but the bus driver was very experienced at traversing in a serpentine pattern and the trip actually was pretty smooth. The return trip was completely different. We traveled by taxi and it seemed that this man, no matter how hard he tried not to, hit every single pothole the entire trip.

Back to Morro. The town itself sits on the edge of a mangrove swamp and canal. The main business of the folks living here is boat tours to view the dolphins, catching crabs and shrimp and a few small restaurant/bars.  It was a quiet town with not a great deal of activity going on for a Thursday afternoon.

There is a new pier recently constructed out over the water where you board the small eight seat tour boats. I think the cost per person for this tour is $5 .

It is a very wide clean canal bordered on both sides by mangroves inhabited by the ibis birds as well as crabs. Lots of crabs.

Box upon box of these live crabs were already packed for shipment.

Several shrimp boats dock here when they are not out shrimping. The small boats with the canopies are the tour boats.

There is a second dock. It’s made of natural products and covered with a palm frond roof that makes it cool and very inviting as you walk towards the water.

Here’s Nancy and I posing for a photo-op.  We had a lovely lunch for $2/ea. including cheese soup, rice with beef cooked in seco seasoning and a glass of very sweet packaged juice drink.  The restaurant was clean and overlooked the water. A very pleasant lunch with a lovely friend.

Our trip back passed this beautiful church that Nancy said was the first Catholic Church build on the coast in the 1800’s. It is the first building you pass coming into town.

Nancy said this was the oldest building in the town. All wood and built to withstand the elements.

The town just completed this small amphitheater for community gatherings.

Morro, a very quiet peaceful town.

Dolphins and Eggs

While staying at the Hotel San Jacinto the waitress spotted these dolphins making a pass by the outdoor restaurant one morning. First I must tell you that the breakfast served at this hotel was excellent eggs, toast – yes I said toast with butter and jam, fresh fruit juice different each morning and coffee con leche or you could order any of the Ecuadorian breakfast specialties.  Back to the dolphins: How graceful and gentle these beautiful creatures were as they jumped and splashed by our breakfast table.  How great is this place?

Here are a few more pictures of the courtyard at the hotel.