Cuenca Updates: Tuesday-Wednesday May 22-23, 2012

Tuesday May 22/12 update

What a disappointment! Those two photo-editing CD’s I bought yesterday were absolutely useless without the product codes and so I tried to return them today. I was so looking forward to using some of the features they were supposed to provide. I found the store again and the fellow put in the CD’s and showed me where to find the codes to do the registrations.

I tried to catch up with Bella at the Windhorse Café Book Exchange but I just missed her. She wasn’t at the Carolina Bookstore either but I did see Bettye and Chris there who were just finished a Spanish class and were then headed to a raw food cooking class. There really is no reason to be bored in this city. Then I missed the #3 bus so I walked over to San Blas and caught it from there after I did some window shopping.

Bella was home and we had lunch before she headed off for groceries.

I reloaded the two CD’s and registered everything before trying out a few samples. One CD is almost like PhotoShop but it had a neat warp feature. I’ll have to play with it a lot more to get the hang of it.

The other CD contains a lot of plug-ins (extra features) for PhotoShop and most of them work with my computer setup. I was expecting more power from these extra enhancements but didn’t find too much on my initial go-round. There is a Fractals feature for enlarging photos without losing resolution and that seemed to work nicely. I’ll have to try more on that scene.

Tom Thumb wasn’t around early this morning but did show up this afternoon and zoomed right in to me. I made the mistake of leaving the door open to my room and Pancho jumped up on the window sill beside me so I hope that didn’t scare my little friend away for good. He did come back a little later, so all is well.

We went downtown to a different Pizza joint, Fabiano’s, and they had a special, medium pizza, 3 toppings for $8 and it was at least 14”. Too bad they used tasteless cardboard for a crust, though the beer was good.

The only other couple there was from Atlanta, Georgia and they were checking out our city and we chatted for a long time, giving them our impressions, and passing on information. He has had quadruple bypass surgery so medical issues are high on their list to check out.

Segundo came by tonight for a consult with Bella since his final exam is tomorrow and he should do well in spite of the awful school teacher and curriculum he was forced to follow. It is Bella that will send him through with honours.

Another travesty during the finals of Dancing With The Stars with a football player again being triumphant. Americans love their athletes and it always shows at the end of these competitions. I believe they have had at least 4 football players, 1 gymnast, and an ice skater win in the 14 seasons. The sweet Katherine Jenkins from England had this competition in her pocket from day 1, but she couldn’t overcome the sports phenomenon.

That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.

Wednesday May 23/12 update

It still amazes me how they still do so much labour by hand here. They are still carrying buckets of cement 20 feet up to pour the second floor columns on the house across the road.

Bella and I had decided to ride a new bus route today so we caught the #16 to below Todos Santos and went for lunch at the Aroma Café close to Millenium Mall. The cooked corn starter was much better than normal, with salt, but needed butter the way we like it at home. The soup was delicious and filling, as good as Sabor Latino’s, as was the main course of rice, beans and chicken. Completing the meal was fresh pineapple juice and a fruit pudding for dessert. For $2.50, we will go back there again. It is very popular with Ecuadorians, so that is a good sign.

We then caught the #24 bus going north to Miraflores, going up Todos Santos hill and going right past the Rotary Market. The little church at Miraflores looked very well maintained, with fresh white paint and a gleaming blue tile dome. The bus then came back on virtually the same path and headed south of Cuenca to El Valle, but on a different route than our #15. It came not too far from our home actually because its turnaround was just above that huge 90 unit townhouse complex where the #15 travels on the other side, and that is a nice walk from our house. The complex looks like it had grand expectations, 90 units renting at $380 per month, according to the sign, with lots of amenities that don’t seem to have come to fruition.

We saw a lot of schoolkids, a donkey, lots of cows, and even a police checkstop, but not much else too interesting. The kids are always enjoyable because they love to be on camera. I think the #15 route has better views. I even stood on the bus with my camera out the window most of the trip.

We got off at the Veinte Y Quatro De Mayo and caught our #16 back home. Tom Thumb was chirping away when he saw me and came right away for a feeding.

I came home to an email from our friend Chris asking us if we would help out a Grad student with a thesis of why expats are flocking to Cuenca. Apparently he will ask questions for about 1.5 hours so we figured we would give it a try and responded positively. Both of us later admitted thinking that this may be a sneaky way to case our homes so we will be a little wary if it happens.

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