Cuenca Updates: Wednesday-Thursday April 18-19, 2012

Wednesday Apr 18/12 update

Bella was up before me to bake bread and prepare food for her bridge enthusiasts and also for supper. So I came down to a sinkful of dirty dishes as my first chore of the day. Bella mentioned that it is dark in the sink area and that we could use some good lighting. That gave me a purpose to vacate the premises.

I left just before Rosa was to arrive to clean house at 12:30 and walked up past Coral to see the seamstress to try to repair my backpack straps and zipper. She quoted me a whole $2 and said to return at 4.

I caught the #15 up to the Cemeterio and then walked past the airport to Kywi and MegaHierro. MegaHierro kinda had what I wanted but everything was too bulky or needed too much ancilliary stuff like wiring and plugins. The nearest plug to the sink is about 6’ away so I started off looking for something with that long of a cord.

At Kywi I found a 30 LED light, rechargeable, emergency light for $9.99. The cord was barely 2’ but I decided to get some good Velcro to keep it in place but also to make it removable for charging and for emergencies. It was such a great idea that I got a second one for my headboard to read by. It even has a low setting where it only uses 15 LED’s. It is positively scary that I am so clever.

Then I started the long trek home. About 10 blocks from home I hear a “Hello, how are you today?” and it is this fellow that owns a Ferreteria (hardware store) who likes to chat in English whenever he sees me passing. He was there with his cute little daughter and they agreed to pose for a couple of shots. It was good to hold me up a little because it was about 3:20 and I wanted to pick up my backpack in the next block.

Even though I was early it was fortunate that my backpack was ready. This is the same backpack that I had bought for $10 a couple of months ago and have now spent a total of $3.50 on repairs. I kinda like this cloth backpack because it is light, has 2 large compartments, is expandable, and has drink pockets and front bungies for securing more stuff. I usually wear it to carry my jacket, umbrella, Tilley hat, sunglasses, fanny pack, muti-tool, city map, plastic bags, my big camera, a bottle of water and napkins.

The bridge game was well underway upon my arrival home with Bettye and Chris Petersen and Manon Stephenson joining Bella for the afternoon. They are all such nice, intelligent people, and a joy to be around.

I installed the two LED lights and they are truly a Godsend. I don’t know how I did dishes before?? Maybe I’m too used to being a mushroom…. You all know that one, right??

We enjoyed a lovely supper with homemade Nanaimo bars for dessert. Bella had to make some ingredient substitutions but they turned out great. Mmmmmmmmm good.

After our company left I did the mound of dishes again and could actually see what I was doing. Did I mention I love the new LED lights??

We are having Etapa Internet issues again tonight and have lost our signal so this blog will be delayed.

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

120418 Proud Hardware Dad & daughter

120418 Let there be LIGHT above the sink

120418 Let there be LIGHT at my headboard

Thursday Apr 19/12 update

Still no Internet this morning so I have decided to take a trip to Etapa. As I got off the bus I saw a huge bicycle procession dumping onto the 12 De Avril and don’t know what it was all about.

I still didn’t quite have my bearing for the exact location of the Etapa office but it has all fallen into place now. It turns out that they haven’t taken any bank withdrawals the last two months so they cancelled our service! They needed an authorization letter from Banco Pichincha and $57.22 cash. Now why didn’t they tell us if there was a problem when we were ther signing up with Michael Berger?? Ugh!!

So off I go to Banco Pichincha and stand in line for over an hour for the 2 minutes worth of work, then hike back to Etapa, only to stand in line for another ½ hour to make the payment, before going back to talk to AnnaIsabel to get my Internet hooked back up. It is funny how Michael Berger just happened to show up right then and helped confirm my understanding of her Spanish and broken English. Now I have to go back again on May 5 to make the May payment in cash but the rest should clear the account, no problem.

We also arranged to have a technician come out tomorrow because our download speed had dropped off significantly in the last week again.

I left Etapa determined to get my directions intact. Etapa is near the Rio Yanuncay on the 10 De Augusto, near where it joins with 24 De Mayo and the 12 De Avril. I also happened on the Quinta Bolivar, a residence of the Liberator of Latin America, Simon Bolivar.

He was a fascinating fellow… http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/latinamericaindependence/a/simonbolivarbiography.htm

They were having a free art exhibit so I popped in while waiting for the #16 bus. There was one particular artwork that caught my eye because of its incredible attention to detail called “Patio” by Carlos Munoz. As I was exiting man stopped me to ask if I knew that they were for sale. He showed me a price list hidden behind a door. He was one of the artists and he was asking the highest price of $700 for a mediocre painting. Unfortunately there was no pricing on the “Patio”. The house has some beautiful grounds and has a good view of El Centro.

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