Friday Feb 24/12 update
Bella was heading out for bridge today so I decided to go
walking to again try to find a way to cover the piping in the dining room and
to put a wider shelf on the terrace for the boys.
I stopped so many places, eliminating many different ideas,
and probably coming up with the dining room solution at a drapery shop. This was at a store very near to our old
place but there were many more shops above that I kept walking and didn’t stop
until I was past the airport at the Kywi store.
At that point I felt like I had a charleyhorse and walking was not fun
so I caught a bus downtown near the Rotary Market. I poked around a bit, caught a bit of lunch
(BBQ pig) and toyed with the idea of hanging around for Bella but my legs said
no.
So I caught a bus home and, lo and behold, I got a call from
the Etapa internet technician. They were
at the house at 4:30 and fiddled for an hour, changed my router password and
figured they had it solved. So far, so
good.
Bella came home with the news that our immigration lawyer
from Quito, Gabriela, is saying we need to get a letter from the Immigration
Police Censo guys because we apparently have to apply for our Cedula papers (in
Quito) before March 6th or we may have to start the process over
again. Bella was livid that we may have
to spend another $40 changing our airline tickets again. We had been told by the Immigration Police
that we had an amnesty on dates because this was all their fault, not ours. Gabriela said she was going to the Minister’s
office today and would let us know the outcome, but hasn’t called yet.
Next week could be very busy as we try to deal with
finalizing our home purchase and dealing with Immigration.
Saturday Feb 25/12 update
We bused downtown to meet Jim and Cindy Wilkins for a chauffeured trip to the Caja
Mountains with a pleasant
driver named Juan. It was nice and sunny
as we left Cuenca
and we were hoping for a nice day but it got cooler and cloudier as we climbed
to 4,167 meters and the Tres Cruches viewpoint.
Tres Cruches (Three Crosses) is so named for the crosses
placed there to mark where they found three bodies a few years ago. At night it can get quite cold there so
people who get lost on mountain trails often do not survive.
The Cajas are one of the ranges of the Andes
Mountains that stretch through South America and it would have been better to have seen
them on a sunny day when we would have hiked to some of the many waterfalls. Also 3 of us have colds and my charleyhorse
was acting up so hiking was not on anyone’s agenda today anyway.
We were however treated to a couple of gaggles of llamas and
alpacas (the white ones) on the roadside.
But we did not see much else in the way of animals or birds until we
stopped for lunch at this lovely valley resort surrounded by the mountains and
waterfalls.
We came back home before 3. Juan lives just south of us, over the hill we
look at every day. Five years ago he
bought a large piece of land and a huge house for $40,000. He raises dogs, looks after several
properties, and has his tourist tour service.
At 5:30 we caught a bus to Joe’s Secret Garden
for a fried chicken supper that everyone had been raving about. The chicken was good, not spicy enough for me
(bring on the KFC), followed by a superb strawberry pie.
Oh, and the Internet hasn't dropped on us once yet today so, knock on wood (usually my head), we may have reliable service finally.
That was today’s excitement. Enjoy the pics. Hugs to all.
