Cuenca Updates: 2012-05-20

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday May 26, 2012

Saturday May 26/12 update

Most of the day is spent preparing to go to Michael and Susan’s party tonight across from Santo Domingo. They live on a floor above the Konica photo store where I got all my photos printed yesterday. They have a 3 bedroom apartment plus a 2 bedroom guest apartment for $300 a month on a long-term lease. Those kind of deals are getting very hard to come by now. Michael and Susan are from Toronto and spend 6 months here and six months in the summer back home.

I spent part of the morning putting double-faced stickies on about half of the 90 photos I had printed. This was just an assortment of some photos I was proud of, and a few Grandpa Charles’ old family photos. Then I started to stick these on my bedroom wall as my own off-beat decorating touch. My small angled orange wall must be a different paint texture, or have more moisture, because the photos are falling off that portion one after the other. I’ll have to stay with the white walls or come up with another plan….

We got to Michael and Susan’s party shortly after 6:30 and there was already quite a crowd there and we recognized many faces. They had gone on a 4 day volcano tour and Susan had many great photographs adorning the walls. She certainly has a good eye. Since they own a travel company she had photos from many continents and I was mesmerized by some of them. There were 3 or 4 shots that seemed almost identical to shots I have.

Their apartment is 200 years old with high ceilings with two sections of glass blocks to allow light from the clear roof in the apartment above to come through. It has about 6 tiny balconies where they leave the windows open most of the day. They are Gran Columbia, directly across from Santo Domingo church so they get to see a lot of action daily. The floors are wood and creak heavily (no burglar could sneak up on them).

The crowd ebbed and flowed and everyone got along well. My only problem was a woman who insisted on smoking on the corner balcony and all the smoke came inside causing me to instantly leave the room every time I saw her go out there. Thankfully I think she was the only idiot in the crowd that still smokes.

The buffet was endless as everyone brought a plate of something. I did my usual grazing and had my share of devilled eggs, cheese, crackers, almonds, Thai chicken, and brownies. Bella stayed pretty much in one spot all night and got by OK but we left after 2 hours.

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

120526 Apartment Kitchen 1 with glass block ceiling

120526 Apartment Living Room 1

120526 Apartment Living Room 2

120526 Apartment Kitchen 2 with glass block ceiling

120526 Apartment Third bedroom

120526 Apartment outside

120526 Cute family on the walking path

120526 Gran Columbia East

120526 Gran Columbia West

120526 Santo Domingo

120526 The beginning of my photo wall

120526 Susan's photos 1 (volcanoes)

120526 Susan's photos 2

120526 Susan's photos 3

120526 Susan's photos 4

120526 Susan's photos 5

120526 Tom Thumb 1

120526 Tom Thumb 2

Friday, May 25, 2012

Friday May 25, 2012

Friday May 25/12 update

Bella was off to do chores and then headed for her bridge game at Bettye’s. She was still really stuffed up so the bridge game must be really important to her, not to let the other ladies down.

I caught the #15, went past the Pumapongo inca ruins and hurriedly got off the bus when it veered off the normal route within a block of my destination. I was not aware they had closed the road to do some digging at Parque De La Madre.

I met Chris downtown for lunch and we had opted for a donair meal at the Persia Pipa but it wasn’t open so we went to the Taj Mahal. They had the same thing they called Sharma, I think, and it was excellent.

Then we went to San Francisco market and picked up a $4.50 switchblade, then went to Almacenes Espana. Chris put down some extra deposit for all the appliances they had bought there and got the agreement of the owner that the balance would only be paid after delivery and installation. Smart man, that Chris.

We wandered through a few shops and Chris stopped at a health food store run by gringos. I saw a tiny bag of unshelled sunflower seeds for $1.50. I thought everything was way overpriced so I just told Chris I was headed to the camera store across the street and across from Santo Domingo.

While Chris was getting a healthy $3.50 ugly green drink, I was getting 90 photos printed for $22.50…. More on that tomorrow.

Chris had to do something at the Vega Pottery studio so we hopped the #28 only to find it closed. Today is a holiday celebrating the independence day of Ecuador so a few places were closed and the rest of the population was outside enjoying the sunshine.

We walked part way back and stopped at the small park that has that beautiful metal dragon to take a few shots. Even Chris had his camera out getting different angles. Just as we were about to leave this brother and sister came in and started feeding popcorn to the minnows so we stayed and took a few more shots.

We then grabbed a cab to Chris’ place as the ladies were finishing up their bridge game, Bella was apparently having a good bridge day but it was reported that she made her first error of this decade. Everyone mark their calendars please.

We stayed for a wonderful chili supper with salad followed by homemade ice cream. I was having trouble focusing, courtesy of the tequila that Chris had poured me, but we all survived and a good time was had by all.

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

120525 BRIDGE - Yoshi, Bettye, Linda, Bella

120525 Idiot breaking off the Bus Stop sign

120525 Menacing Dragon

120525 He's a big dragon surrounded by amphibians

120525 Beware of the nasty tail

120525 He's just dripping venom

120525 Brother and Sister feeding popcorn to minnows

120525 Watching the minnows

120525 Disturbing the calm water

120525 That looks like us?

120525 Tunnelling into Parque De La Madre

120525 Pigeon has best view in Parque Calderon

120525 Inca ruins taken thru bus window

120525 One steeple of Santo Domingo

120525 Taj Mahal Restaurant with staff in Indian dress

120525 Our meat on the spit (and Chris)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Thursday May 24, 2012

Thursday May 24/12 update

Both of had a bad night, Bella with a returning cold, and with just plain insomnia. I got up at 4am and uploaded photos until about 8am and tried to get a couple of more nap hours without much luck.

At 11am this graduate student, Alex, came by our house and asked us about our experience as expats for his thesis. We were asked about many things, likes, dislikes, the immigration process, etc. He was a very nice young man and needs 9 more people to complete his survey so I have asked at least 3 more expats to help him out.

Bella couldn’t get away because of her cold so I went to try to collect the money owed from the Alpaca Store lady for a dozen of our Eleggant Hooks. “Try” is the operative word here as she again put us off until Tuesday now. Bella is not a happy camper. Our experience with extending credit to Ecuadorians is batting zero.

Almost next door on Calle Larga the Kookaburra Café was holding a Garage Sale so naturally I had that marked on my calendar. I bought a nice pullover for $5 and 3 movies for $2. I had a chat with Rommie and Charles while there and she wants to see my experiences with Tom Thumb. I sent her 2 videos and 5 photos when I got home.

It is getting chilly in the morning when I am working so I decided to get another cheap fleece blanket for $6. The lady and her little girl in that store posed for me. The little girl has a killer coquettish smile.

Then I searched for a metal popcorn bowl that I could spin and found that for $3.

My friend Chris had been looking for switchblades and I found those too on the fringe of the San Francisco market. There were 3 models, $4, $6.50 and $12 so we’ll check them out together tomorrow while the ladies play bridge.
I walked over to Gaspar Sanguarima and caught the #50 home. We even got serenaded by this trio on this trip!
See http://youtu.be/35agqDnEKgw

KFC for supper, yummy.

I don't know why this darn blog wants to do its own formatting in contravention of my wishes.

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

120524 Mom +Daughter at blanket store

120524 Parque Calderon + Fountain

120524 Very Arabic-style building?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

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.