Cuenca Updates: Tuesday July 3, 2012

Tuesday July 3/12 update

Thank you to Jim Mola for giving me a plug on his blog http://cuencaperspectivesbyjim.blogspot.com/ and calling me a professional photographer. While I take a lot of pretty outstanding photographs as my own hobby, I could never make a living at it, mainly because I am not confident enough to market them properly and I do not know how to charge for my work. For those reasons I do not consider myself professional by any means.

Bella is off to the Book Exchange this morning and needs to exchange a few movies. We watched Blue Valentine last night with Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling which has great acting but a totally depressing ending. Why do they make such movies?

John Davila of JD’s picked me up at 10am to head to Cojitambo, one of the highest points just east of the city, 28 kms from here to the summit, about 10,000 feet high. This is a very distinctive pointy peak with a sheer cliff on the east side. There are signs of previous portions breaking away because the mountains here are often mostly gravel, and whole sections can just slide off. I would not want to live in the town below. The last portion of the road to the peak is a very narrow dirt road that could be slippery when wet.

Cojitambo has some fairly nice Inca ruins at the summit and the 360 degree view is breathtaking and we can easily see several towns in the distance. This is to be the starting point of our proposed night photography tour, leaving Cuenca around 4pm and stay there for sunset. Standing on the edge of the eastern cliff is scary if one has vertigo.

Then John took me to the ritzy eastern suburb of Challuabamba where he and James live. John bought a house there 2 years ago and property land values have doubled since then. James rents a huge home with small pasture for 2 horses for $800 a month.

Then the two of them took me to the highest peak surrounding Cuenca which has most of the communication towers. There is a nice view from Turi down below, but that is restricted with trees. On the top of this mountain we have an unobstructed view of the whole city, even to our home. It will be breathtaking to take night shots from there.

Then John bought us lunch and cervezas at Fogo’s Restaurant below Turi which again has a wonderful view. This is where we will stop for supper during the tour before going downtown to shoot the churches and buildings lit up at night. Then we’ll probably finish off further north to get views from the opposite direction.

We also discussed the possibility that I give them my help with their website and for organizing tours. They also invited me to come with their tour to Parque XTremo in Yunguilla on the 21^st and I can bring a friend.

I had them drop me off at my little indigenous barber as my shaggy mane needed shredding. She does such a great job for $2. Then I stopped at the video store close by and bought a few movies. The owner speaks a little English and offered his services for driving and interpreting.

Bella had called me that Joe and Joseph had invited us for their 4^th of July celebration tomorrow in payment for the photos I had taken for them. We accepted. They are having American-style burgers and hotdogs with decadent dessert. After that we head to another 4^th of July celebration in penthouse terrace which should be jammed with people.

As I got home I spotted Raoul’s truck so I wandered over and saw that all of his sister’s internet and phone business had been moved over to the new building so they were now in the process of demolishing the family’s building on the left with sledgehammers.

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