Cuenca Updates: Friday May 18, 2012

Friday May 18/12 update

Tom Thumb was almost waiting at my window this morning for a meal and he didn’t care if I was less than a foot away. I got a couple of decent shots and played again with one of them…. Hope you like it.

Bella went off to do some banking then I met her and Bettye & Chris for lunch at the Ital Deli on Avenida Solano. I really enjoy Avenida Solano because of its wide center boulevard of trees and its direct view south to Turi and north to Immaculate Conception.

Then the girls were off to bridge around the corner while Chris and I wandered over to Parque De La Madre. I had noted on the way by on the bus that they had painted over all the grafitti on the plywood surrounding wall and were a new grafitti competition. When we walked by it was obvious there would be a party later with music because the stage and speakers were setting up. Many of the artists were already busy at work using many mediums of paint to perform their destructive magic. Some of the works were quite incredible and many just plain weird. The art ranged from one plywood panel to eleven panels. I will see the completed works on Monday before Spanish class so we didn’t hang around long. I was disappointed that they had painted over an amazing work of art along the front wall so I am glad that I got a good shot of it about 3 weeks before.

Chris told me he had met a judge in a beautiful building at the corner of Parque Calderon so he took me in to show off the magnificent open-air courtyard in the center. What a gorgeous sight!

Then we went to the iTur information office to see if the May events booklet was available yet. The nice lady there says they only publish those in April and November when they have big city celebrations. Darn it! I sure enjoyed being able to see, at a glance, where everything was happening. She said we could check online so I asked her to show me. She went to the same city site that I check and the May calendar still has not been updated to show a single event.

Chris and Bettye are pricing out appliances and furniture so we checked out a large appliance store for comparisons on five items with a prior quote from a competitor. When all is done, they appear to be a whole $5 less. Chris will go back tomorrow with an interpreter, try for a Sony TV in the mix and grind them for a better price and a gift. Good luck Chris.

We didn’t want to wander around all afternoon so we caught a bus to their apartment and we caught the end of an old movie, Solomon and Sheba, with Yul Brynner (with hair and a beard, no less). While we were watching this I received a call from Katie McNally saying that they would probably not show up for supper tonight as planned. They were having internet problems, but more seriously, her husband Layne had lost his false teeth!! This is the couple from California that only arrived yesterday to check out our fair city for a couple of weeks.

Well we showed up at the California Kitchen shortly before Bella and Bettye showed up. We waited until 6:15 before ordering as Katie and Layne did not show up. The food was wonderful as usual and the dessert absolutely scrumptious!

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