Saturday December 29, 2012

Saturday December 29/12  update #326

I could have stayed in bed all morning with the best sleep I’ve had in weeks, but I needed to be up and ready since we were expecting the appliance repairman to stop by today.   He actually did show up around 10am and it took a lot of translator typing and a few phone calls to get it through this guy’s head that the stove doesn’t heat past 180C or 350 F, when the dial on the stove clearly indicates it should reach 250C or around 450F.  How this guy got to be a repairman is beyond me, he couldn’t even differentiate between C and F and started off by telling us that all ovens in Ecuador are calibrated not to heat higher than 280F.   After a call to his office, they confirmed it was 280C and I am sure he felt pretty stupid then.  We agreed they could take the stove in for repair or replacement on Monday and away he went.    He was back within the hour wanting to take the stove today and promising its return on Monday.

The next item of business was to consummate the sale of the bike to a couple from Seattle.   They claimed to be here for 5 more months and that they have bikes in Washington, Minnesota, Guatemala, and now Cuenca.   They live over by the Mall Del Rio and it took them 80 minutes to get here by bus.  They looked at the bike, rode it, agreed it was a great deal and went over to the Monay Mall to get money.  When they returned he talked about riding it home and I explained that it was a long way away, and mostly uphill, so they were better off to spend $3 and take a cab, with the bike in the trunk, up the Autopista to their home.   They finally saw the wisdom of my advice.   So now I have a few more dollars in the kitty for the purchase of my new camera.

I finished the initial cull of the Christmas Eve parade photos and I am down to 888 from 1145.  I am sure there will be more attrition as I now fine-tune the individual shots.  I managed to complete a whole 13 shots in a couple of hours before I headed out.

I had decided to go watch Jorge’s Ecuadorian group play volleyball and to bring them a New Year’s treat of some Zhumir and Coke.   I got there and nobody was around on their court.   I tried to phone Jorge but only got to leave a message.  

I had arranged for Bella to catch the #16 at 5pm, to call me when she embarked, and I would catch the same bus as it went by and we would go to La Vina for supper, and meet Bettye and Chris there.  At 5:15 Chris calls that La Vina is closed so he talked to Bella and decided we would meet them at El Carbon.  At 5:25 he calls again that El Carbon is also closed so we decide on the California Kitchen and we all backtrack.  As Bella and I rounded the corner we note that La Vina is now open so we call Chris and everyone is quite happy to go to La Vina.   The owners say they were closed because they had been to Chordeleg and the traffic back was a mess, so they got back very late.  The pizza at La Vina is our favourite in Cuenca by far  and Chris and Bettye enjoyed it, as we did the desserts too.

The streets are covered with people selling the effigies and with kids setting off fireworks.   Many kids were delighting in tossing them behind unsuspecting people and running away laughing.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.   

Playing Ecuadorian volleyball under dramatic Saturday afternoon skies.