Living the Life Ecuador coast

Something Fishy 

Santa Rosa

Just a short bus ride away is a world which many of the visitors to Salinas never get to see. It is not considered the place to be or is it a place where expats would consider living.

More is the pity that it is not on the agenda for a visit because you are in the heart of the community that has served this area for a  very long time, and will continue to do so.

This area is predominantly occupied by men in the morning, men bringing home their bounty to sell so they can get drunk, feed their families, and go out again the next day and do it all over again. As I walked down the narrow street, loud music filled the air as did the smell of diesel. Men sat on a low wall on one side, and men drinking and falling down drunk on the other side. The street was filled with small trucks and taxis slowly making their way down towards the shore where boats have landed their catch. The sand is littered with birds, people, and fish and is tinted red with the blood from the fish. The noise level is high as the men are shouting out what they have and want to sell. Small fish, big fish, and fish that I have never seen before are on the sand, in the boats, and held up by the men for sale.

In some of the boats the fish are still alive. It was strange; as I walked around, the attention was momentarily diverted from the fish and I became the focus. Once the novelty wore off and the need to sell their bounty was their goal, life went back to its daily routine.

As I got off the bus and walked, this was the view from the street.

Small trucks, loading fish

This one is waiting to be weighed

The scramble to sell their catch

Head off and on to the scale

Men and boats with their catch

Just arrived

Mind your head

Dinner tonight 

They are looking for a quick meal

Everyone gets fed here.

While there, I was able to take well over 200 images, but I am not going to place all of them here. I have distilled it down to these few that I feel conveys what I saw and felt. It was breathtaking for me to feel that energy.


This month

If you have not read Thomas Carlyle, then you should. His acclaimed three volume publication named "The French Revolution", was a turning point in writing for its time. As he often wrote in the present tense, it was this style that attracted Charles Dickens to use this book as an influence in writing the novel, "The Tale of Two Cities".
Thomas Carlyle, a great Scottish author, born this month in 1795.