Cuenca Updates: Friday May 4, 2012

Friday May 4/12 update

Well, I am truly addicted to the hummers. Last night I had two more long visits inside my room by my little friends so I got 2 more great videos.

http://youtu.be/_u-xxxxlQSA and http://youtu.be/nr_bZJ3WTNo

We went to Big Kabudas last night for supper. Mmmmmm good! It is only 1.5 blocks from the Inca ruins so I got a terrific shot of the warrior statue backlit by the sunset. Boy, the buses are packed between 5 and 7 with everyone trying to get home.

Today is a busy day, starting with meeting Chris and Bettye at California Kitchen for lunch. First Bella wanted to stop at Rotary Market to try to find a meat cleaver (so I better behave from now on) and we lucked out and found a wonderful specimen for only $10.

We had a wonderful lunch then Bella and Bettye went to play bridge at Linda’s, just a few blocks away. Chris and I wandered the small novelty shops and hardware stores where I completed my shopping for a multi-head ratchet screwdriver, and two folding mirror hair brushes. Chris then got all the wooden spoons he wanted at the Rotary Market then we wandered downtown El Centro. We got Chris a bus schedule at the iTur office and he wanted to find some paper products but we ran out of time as we had to get over to his place for an appointment. Then I helped Chris for a couple of hours with a few free downloadable programs to work with his pictures, PixResizer and Photoscape, and another user-friendly site called Fotoflexer. It didn’t take long before Chris was modifying his shots like a pro. Chris has a good eye for photography so he sure had some good shots to work with. He also showed me some photos of some of their previous homes and wowee, I’ll be keeping photos of our previous homes to ourselves.

Then, arrangements were made to meet the girls at a nearby large apartment on the river for 6pm. There was an art show going on in the lobby, some nice work too, and one of the artists was probably a shirt-tail relative, Jose San Martin (Joe St. Martin in Canada..). But our main reason was to check out some of the rental condos in the building, especially one occupied by a new couple Chris met, Jim & Frances. Brad & Cindy, who we had met a few times before would also be there. We got to look at another smaller condo in this 66 suiter and apparently no two suites are alike. Chris and Bettye had also been shown another one before lunch, about 2500 sq ft that they could rent for about $850, unfurnished, but it had no balcony and no view of the river. Jim & Frances’ condo is on the third floor corner with a killer view of the river. We were surprised at how tight the building was as there was very little traffic noise. Another lady showed us her condo on the same floor, no river view and it was shockingly tiny compared to these other huge floor plans.

Then the eight of us walked over to the restaurant across from Chris & Bettye’s place and most of us enjoyed the sea bass dinner again. Scrumptious! We allowed Jim and Frances to regale us with their travels, as they lived in Saudi Arabia for many years, and then they sailed the Atlantic twice, and then sailed the Mediterranean for four years. We discussed the politics of the Middle East in such a frank and fascinating fashion that even the women were willing participants. Good food, good beer, good conversation, what more could a person ask for, for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. It sure beats talking about cooking and recipes all night.

It is amazing how this little network of friends and acquaintances keeps growing in such a short time. There was a full moon tonight so all us crazies were running around.

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