Cuenca Updates: Monday May 7, 2012

Monday May 7/12 update

Off to Spanish class again this morning with a stop at Etapa to pay our cable bill in person, then it will be monthly withdrawals from here on.

I had happened to catch the #16 almost immediately before 9, and the lineup at Etapa was only 5 people so I was done there by 9:15, so I walked to Parque De La Madre and the Tomebamba. I stopped by Michael Berger’s office but he wasn’t there so I took a couple of shots from the fifth floor windows. They have some great views from that building.

I saw two young ladies taking pictures of each other so I offered to take the photos of both of them together and they were happy with the offer. It turns out that both of them are from Quito and both speak pretty good English. The shorter gal actually lives in Boston now, and the two of them had been in Cuenca for 4 days already and loving it.

I could hear the hummingbirds along the river so I waited for a good ½ hour by some flute-shaped flowers but they never came down to feed.

We have an interesting assortment of people in our Spanish class, starting with Martha Mays, the teacher who has lived in Spain and still doesn’t consider herself fluent in Spanish. Ray, originally from Kentucky, but lived in Florida for 30 years, is single and moved here permanently. Paul, who does infomercials for a local restaurant also wants to branch out to other companies. Since he is in sales and advertising, and knows a video whiz, I have given him my amateur DVD of the kids of Cuenca to get their thoughts. Michael Keith, from Toronto, who wears a Tilley hat also, runs an online travel firm with his wife Susan Birkenshaw. For the last 3 years they have been snowbirding here for 6 months each year. He and Susan rents the whole floor of a building in El Centro, with 2 apartments for $400 a month. They have invited us to a party at their place on May 26 before they go back. I am not too familiar with the nice couple of Mike and Patty other than they just bought a car in the northern country town of Cotacachi and drove it back because the vehicle prices are so much better up there, Cars are very expensive here. Some small puddle jumper with 200k on it still will command $6000 here.

Outside the window of the class is the Parque De La Madre with the statue of Jeffersen Perez, the only Olympic gold medal winner from Ecuador, in speed-walking. Along the road in front it must be illegal to park because I saw this female meter maid taking photos of licence plates and also the serial number through the windshield.

Ray and Michael joined me at the Sabor latino for the almerzo lunch and they were properly impressed. After lunch I am walking down the escalinata (stairs) ands I see these guys on a scaffold at a 10 degree list, loosely supported on bricks and a beam. It seems to me we get a lot of emails with this type of danger photo.

I had heard that the Papeleria Mosalves near the soccer stadium was having a liquidation so I decided I would investigate. I got some photo paper, business card stock, 2 pads of stickies, a good set of scissors, and a good English-Spanish dictionary, all for $13.88, and most of that wasn’t part of the liquidation.

As I got home I broke down and stopped at the local video store. They have a lot of those triple feature compilations so I had to check. I came home with 8 more movies for $5. Our collection is now 125 movies.

My little buddy is being shy today only coming in twice so far but checking me out several times. Maybe it is because the window isn’t open far enough because it is pretty cool with the heavy cloud cover. I want him to adapt to the smaller opening. Then I relented and let him in. I got a video of him having a good feed then he went to the wire outside and chattered up a storm. See http://youtu.be/U-jvt3h4JJM

Bella says he yakked at her all morning because my window wasn’t open for his treats. After supper he stopped at the closed window and made a disgusted sound and took off again. It is getting dark so I doubt he’ll be back.

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