Cuenca Updates: Saturday February 18, 2012

Saturday Feb 18/12 update

Jorge, the satellite man, came by last night within two hours of contacting him. That is great service! He exchanged the satellite receiver and everything works fine, except I then had to spend 3 hours reprogramming everything. He showed me a spot where I could possibly change from Spanish to English on some channels so that is where I started. Once I was done with the TV channels then I had to repeat it for the music channels.

I got a note from Michael that Etapa won’t do anything until Wednesday, after the Carnival holiday. My internet has already dropped 3 times in the first hour. He also heard from Jorge the Architect and apparently Jorge is not going to be helpful with my wood projects, so it looks like I am on my own there. Maybe I should try Enrique for that?

I have been trying to arrange monthly payments for home insurance but the best they will do is 8 payments (why?) and they can’t start it until after Carnival…

Carnival ends Fat Tuesday, just before Lent and the whole city stops, apparently no buses or taxis either. Our plan is to join Jim & Cindy at Parque Calderon at 10 to see what happens there. Jim is ready to participate and get wet and foamed up. The rest of us want no part of the wet business. I just want to record the event and not get myself or my cameras wet. This may be a huge mistake?

Surprise, the buses and taxis were operating so we caught a #13 downtown, got off and started walking. Almost immediately a passing car sprayed us with the foam. It happened so fast I had no time to react, just laughed and rubbed the foam into my clothes.

Once we got to Parque Calderon we realized not much was happening there and the schedule Jim & Cindy also confirmed nothing much was on the agenda here. There was to be much more happening at SigSig, a town about two hours out of Cuenca, with Gualaceo about half way. We had never been to either place and we had heard how nice Gualaceo was (Segundo and family go there every Sunday) so we decided to hop a bus to Gualaceo, see the town quickly then grab a bus to SigSig in time for a 2pm parade to occur there. Leaving town I took a shot of a wheelbarrow load of strawberries being sold on the street. That must be the fruit of the week.

Upon reaching Gualaceo we had a quick lunch and dodged a few water balloons although Cindy got one smack in the back of her head. It was actually refreshing on a very warm day. We waited an hour for a bus to SigSig, and three did stop, but they were all standing room only, so we passed on those and decided on Plan B.

We dodged more of the water bombers and did a quick tour of the local market, church and town square. The people there love to have their photos taken, except for two little girls dressed in white who needed a nap.

The rain was approaching so we just hopped a bus back to Cuenca. By the way, these bus rides are an hour each way, and they cost a whole 60 cents.

At Jim & Cindy’s 4^th floor apartment, a block from Parque Calderon we watched the water bombers and foam sprayers at work down Presidente Cordova. It was cooling off quickly so nobody was too interested in getting soaked. The main targets are the young girls and there wasn’t a dry gal to be seen anywhere. We went to the Eucalyptus Café for supper and Jim & Cindy ordered the hamburger, as I did, because I recommended them as one of the best. Unfortunately all three burgers were overly salty and Jim and Cindy did not finish theirs. Jim got a free dessert of key lime pie though.

Leaving the Eucalyptus we took a right to go see if there was any action at Parque Calderon. It was very quiet, possibly because of an unprecedented legion of police and army that ringed the park all day. We don’t know what they were expecting but it sure didn’t happen! I did manage to get a couple of night shots of the new and old cathedrals.

Then we caught a cab home. Bella and Cindy are plotting a trip to the Caja mountains, possibly next Saturday?

That was today’s excitement. Enjoy the pics. Hugs to all.