Tuesday November 6, 2012

Tuesday November 6/12  update #277

Today the three of us caught a bus over to Joe’s Secret Garden for a special luncheon with the Bridge group put on by our good friend Bettye Petersen.   The meal was a shrimp pasta dish that was absolutely superb!!   Thank you Bettye for allowing us to come!   We ate outside in the BBQ area and the weather brightened up.

I was a seatmate with Chris Petersen and a lovely lady named Joanna, and we were occasionally joined by Manon Stephenson.   Joanna is the nice lady who is going to help us get the Poor Man’s Galapagos on Isla de La Plata in about 10 days.   Bella has the trip all planned.

We abandoned Bella to play bridge while I went to the Las Americas interchange to meet Jay Shink as well as Dan and Chona Pamenter.   I showed them where the Visa office was then took them for a quick tour of Joe’s. 

We were joined outside by Chris with his new responsibility, a cute Papillon dog named Jedi who actually belongs to Brad and Cindy.  

From there we went to Feria Libre for a quick tour.  Some of the female market sellers were having fun with us when we were taking their photos.  Mavis felt very sorry for all the animals for sale there, especially the puppies.

We then caught the #11 bus to Banos which unexpectedly stopped short of our destination at the church.   Luckily it was a short uphill walk.  We tried to find a banos (bathroom) but found that is pretty difficult in a spa town of the same name!   They kept giving us maps to the various hot springs.

We managed to get some nice photos of the church against some very dramatic skies that soon opened up into a ½ hour downpour.   Unfortunately Dan had a breakdown of his camera mirrors so he was unable to see what he was shooting through the lens.  It abated enough for us to begin our descent down the mountain. 

Time was running out on us so when we saw the #11 waiting at the stop we just hopped on and headed back.  Jay got off at Feria Libre while the rest of continued downtown.  We stopped at the Fuji store to get their recommendation for a repair shop.   Oddly enough they recommended another Fuji store 5.5 blocks away.  We left Dan & Chona at Parque Calderon and proceeded to Ristorante La Vina to meet Bella for supper.    I never get tired of their wonderful pizza!

That was today’s excitement.    Hugs to all.   Please see all photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/