BIRTHDAY BOY

WEDNESDAY 15th JUNE

     Well there he is, the birthday boy all of 23 years old!  He is looking pretty good here, we had just strolled the length of the beach tipping our toes in the fairly warm water as went.  Alex collected whelks in a plastic bag with a view to cooking them but in the end they ended up in a bin.
   As before we indulged in the American breakfast, this time getting up about 9.30am.  We have established our spot on a second level balcony.  We walked down the beach and having reached the centre of town went into the appropriate shop to enquire about buses back to Quito.  The tickets were available from a local Pharmacyand we ascertained that there were plenty of seats available on both days and the bus left Canoa at around 11.00pm.

We decided we would leave on Saturday night but haven't yet purchased the tickets, albeit we have ascertained with our landlord Phil that we are OK to stay another day.  It was after our stroll through town that Alex decided to dispose of the whelks.  We strolled on to the end of the beach and there duly found the Bamboo.  It had a very nice restaurant garden and we ventured in.  Alex ordered a calamari starter to share between us - the prtion was enormous although absolutely delicious.  Then we had prawns again in chili sauce, a meal to last in the memory.  Every meal we have seems to surpass the previous one in excellence.  After this sumptuous meal we duly made

 use of the hammocks provided for customers' use, and quietly digested both our meals and the sea view.

  Alex had been told that there were some rocks accessible at low tide that the locals went on to fish.  Alex was quite keen to do some fishing at some point so we walked on along the beach to see if we could identify the point.

In the event we failed we failed to find it.  Alex went off to ask the local fishermen if it would be possible to go with them when they went fishing.  The answer was affirmative but it would mean any early start.  We walked back to the Baloo and passed last night's restaurant.

   We went back to the residence and had a siesta in preparation for the evening's drinking. We set off in the early evening and headed for our cocktail bar.  We asked if we could move a table and chairs to the beach side of the bar to watch the sun setting.

After we had had a couple,  I suddenly noticed I didn't have my credit cards in my pocket.  Panic stations!  We went back to Baloo and it turned out I had left the cards in my long trousers - as there are no ATM's in Canoa I obviously didn't think it was worth transferring the cards to my shorts.  We went to the bar at the Baloo where we found Phil and the English girl from last night in residence.  She managed to persuade Phil to give Alex a free drink for his birthday, and he in turn guessed Phil's age as 65, which he will be in 14 weeks time!  We had a beer, then followed up with a variety of potions that included Baileys, Zobrowka, a home made drink that apparently included marihuana, before setting off back to town.  We returned with the girl and her dog who went back to the cocktail bar, whilst we returned to last night's venue and had another superb meal washed down by a beer and a cane sugar spirit. 

  We adjourned back to the cocktail bar to finish off the evening.  It was at this stage that Alex started becoming slightly the worse for wear.  We eventually set off home with a bottle of beer in each of our hands, promising to return the bottles on the morrow.

Amen or should that be our men!