Questions
We meet a lot of people that are coming here from Canada and the USA, and for the most part, they are quite nice. They have questions and many have preconceived ideas of what life and the people are like here.
When you travel around the world, you do need to take precautions, especially in a country where you do not speak the language. Keep a notebook with common questions written out in your language and the language of the country that you are visiting. Today, there are so many options open for you to do this. The most popular is Google Translate. If you have a smart phone and internet connection, you can type it out, press the speaker icon, and it will repeat the phrase in the language of the country that you are in. When you are staying in a different country, leave your passport and copies of the front and back of your credit cards locked in your hotel or hostel, and carry a copy of your passport with you. Use the people at the place where you are staying to help you. They can provide bus routes and what to pay when you take a taxi, direct you to places of interest and advise you on whether to tip or not. Should you see people you think are from your country, make contact and, for the most part, they are very willing to help.
The question that we are asked the most is " Do you have any regrets? " about living here. Well, if we did, we would not still be here. I do feel that, for the most part, the wrong questions are being asked. Here is one question that I think visitors should ask, and that is: "What are the frustrations of living in a country other than the one that you were born in?"
Good Food
Below are some images of the restaurant that we ate at the other day. We had a nice meal and a very beautiful view of the beach and the sea. At this time of year, it gets harder to find good places to eat at on the Malecon because so many of them close up for the low season. But here, we had good service, an ample menu and the food was very tasty. A little bit on the expensive side, but if we are feeling hungry and are close by,we would eat there again.
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| We had a nice meal here |
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| This is the view from the restaurant |
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| Clean, with a good menu |
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| Plenty of room for a large party
Day in Guayaquil
We spent a day in Guayaquil. We used the mini van service from the Ruta Del Sol taxi company. The vans are clean and modern. The journey went by very fast as we met some very nice people from Playas that own a video store in La Libertad, which we use. Small world!
We hope to keep in contact with them because we share some interests.
When we arrived, we had no agenda, so there was no pressure to get to a shop for this or that. We just came to have a look around and enjoy the day. As the day slipped by, we looked in the stores and bought a few things, then had lunch, and went trekking around some more stores. Before we knew it, it was time to make our way home. The day just flew by! Such a nice day, enjoyable company and conversation, and took a few pictures. Will do it again, soon.
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| View from the pedestrian overpass |
Can you guess who and where this couple is?
Answers on a post card please.
This month
April 12, 1861 - The American Civil War began as Confederate troops under the command of General Pierre Beauregard opened fire at 4:30 a.m. on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
April 12, 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been President since March 4, 1933, elected to four consecutive terms and had guided America out of the Great Depression and through World War II.
April 12, 1961 - Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. He traveled aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok I to an altitude of 187 miles (301 kilometers) above the earth and completed a single orbit in a flight lasting 108 minutes. The spectacular Russian success intensified the already ongoing Space Race between the Russians and Americans. Twenty-three days later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. This was followed in 1962 by President Kennedy’s open call to land an American on the moon before the decade’s end.
April 12, 1981 - The first space shuttle flight occurred with the launching of Columbia with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen aboard. Columbia spent 54 hours in space, making 36 orbits, then landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
April 13
Birthday - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was born in Albermarle County, Virginia. He was an author, inventor, lawyer, politician, architect, and one of the finest minds of the 1700's. He authored the American Declaration of Independence and later served as the 3rd U.S. President from 1801 to 1809. He died on July 4, 1826, the same day as his old friend and one-time political rival John Adams.
April 14
April 14, 1775 - In Philadelphia, the first abolitionist society in American was founded as the "Society for the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage."'
April 14, 1828 - The first dictionary of American-style English was published by Noah Webster as the American Dictionary of the English Language.
April 14, 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded while watching a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington. He was taken to a nearby house and died the following morning at 7:22 a.m.
April 14, 1986 - U.S. warplanes, on orders from President Ronald Reagan, bombed the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for the April 5th terrorist bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin in which two American soldiers were killed. Among the 37 person killed in the air raid was the infant daughter of Muammar Qaddafi, Libya's head of state.
April 15 Return to Top of Page
April 15, 1817 - The first American school for the deaf was founded by Thomas H. Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hartford, Connecticut.
April 15, 1912 - In the icy waters off Newfoundland, the luxury liner Titanic with 2,224 persons on board sank at 2:27 a.m. after striking an iceberg just before midnight. Over 1,500 persons drowned while 700 were rescued by the liner Carpathia which arrived about two hours after Titanic went down.
April 16
April 16, 1862 - Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and appropriated $1 million to compensate owners of freed slaves.
April 16, 1995 - Iqbal Masih, a young boy from Pakistan who spoke out against child labor, was shot to death. At age four, he had been sold into servitude as a carpet weaver and spent the next six years shackled to a loom. At age ten, he escaped and began speaking out, attracting worldwide attention as a featured speaker during an international labor conference in Sweden.
Birthday - American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) was born in Millville, Indiana. On December 17, 1903, along with his brother Orville, the Wright brothers made the first successful flight of a motor driven aircraft. It flew for 12 seconds and traveled 120 feet. By 1905, they had built a plane that could stay airborne for half an hour, performing figure eights and other aerial maneuvers. Wilbur died of Typhoid fever in May 1912.
Birthday - Film comedian Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was born in London. He began in vaudeville and was discovered by American film producer Mack Sennett. He then went to Hollywood to make silent movies, developing the funny 'Little Tramp' film character. Chaplin's classics include The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights and Modern Times. In 1940, he made The Great Dictator poking fun at Adolf Hitler, who bore a resemblance to Chaplin. In his later years, Chaplin had a falling out with Americans, but returned in 1972 to receive a special Academy Award. In 1975, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
April 17
April 17, 1961 - A U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba failed disastrously in what became known as the Bay of Pigs fiasco. About 1,400 anti-Castro exiles invaded the island's southern coast along the Bay of Pigs but were overrun by 20,000 Cuban soldiers and jailed. Trained and guided by the U.S., the exiles had expected support from U.S. military aircraft and help from anti-Castro insurgents on the island. Instead, due to a series of mishaps, they had fended for themselves with no support. The failed invasion heightened Cold War tensions between Cuba's political ally, Soviet Russia, and the fledgling administration of President John F. Kennedy. The following year, the Russians brazenly installed nuclear missiles in Cuba resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
April 17, 1989 - The Polish labor union Solidarity was granted legal status after nearly a decade of struggle, paving the way for the downfall of the Polish Communist Party. In the elections that followed, Solidarity candidates won 99 out of 100 parliamentary seats and eventually forced the acceptance of a Solidarity government led by Lech Walesa.
Birthday - American financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan (1837-1913) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He displayed extraordinary management skills, reorganizing and consolidating a number of failing companies to make them profitable. His extensive interests included banking, steel, railroads and art collecting. In 1895, he aided the failing U.S. Treasury by carrying out a private bond sale among fellow financiers to replenish the treasury.
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