Olon, Ecuador - August 2018

Welcome to Olón, our home for the next month. It's a small town with a great beach. We walk daily to town and get our necessities for the day.

Our first full day, we came to town for breakfast. We had eggs and such and the boys played at the playground in town, which they loved. Van seems to attract a lot of attention from the spanish girls. Maybe because he's smiling and waving at them constantly.

We are slowly learning that it's best to eat out for the most part because it's super cheap, easier and much tastier than anything we whip up. We did cook up some langustines we bought off a local fisherman. We're pretty sure we got a little hosed for being white, but it was still only a dollar a shrimp. I sauteed them in butter with garlic, onion and lime juice. Simple, but when you have fresh ingredients, it doesn't take much.

Later we hit up the beach. The weather has been overcast everyday. While it means that everyone at home will likely be much darker than us, it also means that we don't have to fight the kids to put on sunscreen. It's typical tropics, everything feels moist, nothing fully dries. It's funny how quickly you get used to that.  If it were sunny and hot, I don't think we'd be accomplishing much.

Van really loved the ocean. He ran right in with Luke and they played in the waves. Arch was a different story.  He cried as the waves rolled in and ran from the water. He sticks to digging in the sand and tasting all the rocks and snails he finds.

The beach is lined with cabañas that serve mostly seafood and beers. Our first dinner was at one of these joints. Luke had sango de pescado ( a fish stew tickened with plantain), mom had fried shrimp and i had squid in fresh coconut sauce with fresh grated coconut.

That night Van was a disaster. He screamed off and on and ended up in bed with us, which ment we slept like crap. The next day he was a miserable bear. It was the first time on this trip that I questioned what we were doing....but like most people with kids know, Tylenol and a nap can cure just about anything. By the afternoon we were back to normal-ish.

We decided to check out Montañita, the next town over with a reputation for being a party town. It definately has much more going on. We explored and ate lunch at a Peruvian joint. I had ceviche and a stir fried pork dish. Mom had causa rellena, which was basically a variation of chicken salad layered in potatoes and a pesto rice filled with seafood. Lunch was 3.50$ each.

For dinner, we went out in our town. Things kick up around 6-7pm here and most places have a charcoal grill out front. We found our spot after carefully perusing all of the bbqs around town. Luke and I had pollo, mom had pork, all with rice and beans. All 3 of us ate for 11$.

The sauces were amazing. They had an avocado sauce and a spicy red sauce....the hot sauces here have so much flavor. The boys eat everything and then some.

We grabbed a few baked goods for the morning and some beers and headed home.

Cheers to the weekend!!!