This last weekend Betsy had a long weekend from school for Cuenca Day (that town’s independence day from the Spaniards) so she, Lucy, and myself loaded into our recently new vehicle and drove 325 kilometers to the small fishing town of Tonchigue on the west coast of Ecuador.  We’re still figuring out the best way to get out of Quito on a Friday afternoon.  It feels like hand to hand combat.

The drive to Tonchigue was similar to other driving experiences we found in Ecuador.  Once past Mindo it was more of the same; a twisting road that climbs and descends, people passing on double yellow, and brush and bamboo that creep and lean over the road.  I like to think I pass with caution.  Towards the middle of the drive we turned onto an honest to goodness two lane road (each way) with a speed limit of 100kph.  Based on the radar displays along the way I can tell you that our vehicle is somewhere between 6-8 kph faster than the speedometer.  It’s good to know our ride can roll at a descent rate.  We finally rendezvoused with our group at the beach house and finally felt like weekend set in.

Where we were was on a stretch of beach north of the pueblita of Tonchigue and south of the nearly-as-small pueblita of Same (pronounced Sah-may).  The beach consisted of swaths of sand and patches of crushed sea shells and rounded pebbles.  Though there wasn’t any surf to speak of, the water was warm and it ran up onto the beach nicely.  As a bonus, our condo was located adjacent to a cemetery (think above ground Louisiana-style tombs) and as luck would have it, Sunday was Dia de los Difuntos (all souls day), commonly knows as Dia de los muertos (day of the dead).  It was actually pretty neat to see families making the pilgrimage to the cemetery to clean the area around their family member’s tomb, place flowers, and celebrate all day.  We saw a few hammered guys wobbling away after “paying their respects”.  It’s as good of an excuse as any.

This was Lucy’s first time back to the beach since Betsy and I took her to California on our honeymoon.  She was only about 2 1/2 months old then.  It only took two or three waves crashing onto the beach for her to get the hang of things.  She played fetch with two other dogs on our trip until she was wiped out.

One of the neatest things I saw on the trip was the Sunday we were there.  Some kids who were part of the families at the cemetery were fascinated with Lucy as Betsy threw the Frisbee for her.  Remember that Lucy is somewhat of an anomaly in Ecuador.  Not a lot of people have dogs as pets and when they do they’re usually pretty small.  People are absolutely terrified of Lucy when they see her coming, often crossing the street to avoid her.  Anyway, the kids gathered around Betsy and it got to the point where they all took turns throwing the Frisbee.  Betsy got a kick out of connecting with the kids a bit.

It was a very nice weekend.  After some drinks, dinners, sun, and relaxation we rolled back to Quito.