Cuenca Updates: Saturday July 7, 2012

Saturday July 7/12 update

Disappointment as another possible night photography tour participant has dropped out so we are down to 7 at the moment. I will try to drum up a couple more today at these functions we are attending as I really don’t want to have to post on GringoTree again.

Bella had some folks in for English lessons today and I had a few visits from Tom Thumb.

I left home about 3pm to get to the papeleria near the San Francisco Market to pick up a name & address stamp I had ordered. The stamp was there as promised but I noted they had misspelled our name as Bonrassa. I checked the order form and it was definitely their error so I have to return on Monday.

I then proceeded to the main cathedral with prepared receipts in anticipation of meeting several photographers to collect their payments for the night tour. 3 of them showed up, and the one couple was from Edmonton!

Bella met me at 4:15 to go to Charles & Rommie’s apartment close to the cathedral to wish them luck on their departure from Ecuador. Their 6 month visa is expiring and they must leave. Charles is an abstract painter and Rommie is into weaving and tie-dying, etc. They are headed for a month in Italy then back to Australia to liquidate their belongings before returning to Cuenca. There were many familiar faces there and a few were having fun with the funky hat that Rommie had designed.

Then we were off to have some delicious southern fried chicken at Joe’s Secret Garden. On the way we saw this family washing clothes in the river in 2 adjacent spots. We were wondering if they did this commercially or not. We met with Chris and Bettye, Tom and Sharon, Cindy and Brad and stuffed our faces with chicken and mashed potatoes followed by an apple-peach cobbler. They were having trouble frying the chicken quickly because they had extra large pieces this time so that delayed the supper a lot.

I collected from two more photo tour participants while there and also took more table group photos to add to the memory stick of the great photos I took on Wednesday so Joseph can post them on his Facebook site. Bella will deliver the stick tomorrow when she returns to play bridge.

Upon departure we went to Brad & Cindy’s apartment just up the street. They have a very nice place with a great view, guarded by a timid Papillon pup called Jedi. Brad also decided to join our photography tour on July 16 so we signed him up. Now there are only 2 spots open.

Next we went to the next street to see Chris and Bettye’s new place. They have finally moved in and got some furniture to fill this monstrous apartment. It has 3 enormous bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half-baths, a dishwasher, gorgeous kitchen, and 2 social areas. Their washer and dryer have all the bells and whistles and do everything except answer the door. It is nice to see them settling in now that Bettye is feeling so much better.

Our taxi driver on the way home played coy and didn’t let on that he spoke English until we were ½ way home, then he spoke very good English, claiming to have learned it all here.

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