Brass Band

Did I mention the brass band? Yep, they had a brass band play a few numbers. It was either a police brass band or a transit police band, don't remember which. Ecuadorians do like their ceremonies! This is the only swim meet with a live brass brand that I can recall in my entire life. The Ecuadorians certainly know how to make things special!

Pomp & Circumstances at the Swim Meet

The Ecuadorians like pomp & circumstance and they started the swim meet with a parade, unexpected by us since swim meets in the USA usually start with a blow of the whistle. But suddenly, we had to line up and then they got the officials in some sort of order (not understood by us, probably head official first, stroke & turn judges following, etc) and then this woman in high heels and a dress was put into the parade (see picture, the woman with the pink color in her dress). She was the only person wearing a dress at the pool. I asked who she was & what her function was, and one of the Ecuadorian swimmers explained, in broken English, that she didn't know who she was but it was customary to have a pretty woman at the head of a parade. I wondered if she was Miss Guayaquil (or maybe the reigning virgin of Guayaquil. . . . just a though I didn't utter). And then we and the Ecuadorian Team and the one swimmer from Brazil paraded around the pool (I am wearing my swim cap since I was in the first heat).

The Swim Meet

This trip to Ecuador was a Swim Team Trip (Davis Aquatic Masters), so naturally, at some point, we had to compete. In fact, we had two competitive swims on this trip, a pool meet in Guayaquil and an open water swim in the Galapagos! The first open water swim ever in the Galapagos!

Our host was an Ecuadorian swim team located in Guayaquil. Our swim coach was a peace corp volunteer in Ecuador back in the 1960s and his job was to coach young ecuadorians. The fruit of his labor, adult swimmers, hosted us and put on the swim meet.

We were not very wide awake when we arrived at the swimming pool. The lack of decent coffee (Ecuadorians, like many Latin Americans, love their instant Nescafe. Good, freshly brewed coffee was difficult to find in Ecuador) was taking its toll. All of us could have used a double shot expresso. As could the Ecuadorians since they were not moving very fast either. The meet was suppose to start at 9 a.m. but didn’t start until almost 11:00.

Beach at Salinas

Because it was not warm, most of us sat on the sand, under rented umbrellas ($5 a day), as the bathing beauties in the picture did. Only a few got in the water (except Ryan and Becky and their dad, pictured). Myself, I walked up and down the beach and took pictures of those sunning themselves and fended off trinket salsement. It wasn't quite the warm, sunny day at the beach that we had hoped for!

Lonely Beach

Because it was winter and a weekday, there were few people at the beach except for the swim team, and many things were not open. This didn't deter the ubiquitous sellers of trinkets. Their prices were low and I bought an anklet and a few other trinkets for gifts. They loved me, but then their affection was easy to come by! I was struck by the fact that many of their pendants were carved pictures of Che Guevera.

A day at the Beach

We spent an afternoon in the Beach resort town of Salinas, several hours south of Guayaquil. June is a winter month in Ecuador and the weather at the beach was overcast and not very warm. We had lunch first, before hitting the beach, at a Cerviche place, which was rather overwhelmed by the size our our group. While waiting for cerveza, we took pictures of each other. On the right is a picture of my lane mate Rick, me, my roommate Ulrike and swim pal Tony. This was taken by Tony’s wife Cathi. My hair was still wet from rinsing all the aloe vera out of it. The beer was good and our table of 5 finished off something like 7 quarts before the ceviche arrived, but then Ulrike is German and she does like her beer!

massage

After soaking the requisite 20 minutes we went back to the massage building to get our massages. The massage could be either mud or aloe vera. After seeing one of my roommates covered with mud (see picture left), I quickly changed my mind and chose an Aloe vera gel massage, as did everyone else! One person said she felt as if she was being massaged with snot. It was gelatinous but I still think it was better than the mud. For adult over the age of 60, the admission fee was waived and the cost for the medicinal massage was $4. Another advantage to aging!