Saturday June 9, 2012

Saturday June 9/12 update

Believe it or not, I was up again at 3:30 and decided to use this time to do my Spanish class homework and try to retain some words in my tired old brain.   The homework is done but the retention is definitely iffy.

I tried to get Tom Thumb to come by while I had the morning sunlight on my windowsill but he wouldn’t cooperate.  I got a few videos of him on the wire at the end of the block and seemingly watched him crap about 30 times.   How something that small could crap so often is beyond me!  About 9am I gave up and caught some more shuteye until noon.

I had talked Bella into joining me to see a seven day festival downtown where Parque Calderon is ringed with booths and vendors, as well as along the side of Immaculate Conception.  They are all selling sweets to represent the sweet body of Christ.  We tried two huge sugar coated coconut cookies and yes, Virginia, they were very sweet.   On a beautiful sunny day such as this Immaculate Conception, and the Old Cathedral, and San Francisco church, just beg to be photographed and I cannot refuse.

We wandered the flower market as well and the roses are just so spectacular they defy description.  Bella found a lemon tree she had been dying to get.  At home a lemon tree is probably $50 - $70.  We got a lemon tree and 2 other plants for $10.  Now she has to get some pots and dirt for these acquisitions which will go up on the terrace to get air and sunshine.   She has a black thumb so it ends up my responsibility to keep them alive.

Around the corner we circled the San Francisco market too.  I have been trying to save some money to buy a tripod but it is a losing battle.  For many months I had been hankering to get a wool poncho to wear on the cool nights, rather than wrapping up in a blanket which drags on the floor and gets under the wheels of my chair.  I spotted this nice poncho but did not stop.  We went all the way around before I decided to have a closer look and to check the price.  The lady wanted $25 and was offering in different colors.  I himmed and hawwed for a bit and offered $15.  She accepted without question or further haggling.

The pan flute guy was entertaining at the flower market since his usual spot across the street was covered in food booths.  We could listen to him forever, his sound is just so pure.  They sell CD’s for $5 of his music but we don’t own a stereo.   http://youtu.be/AJHvbffHSEQ

We returned to get the plants, which were very heavy so we just caught a quick cab home.

As we were walking up to the door we saw Tom Thumb come to the wire in front of the house the fly up to my window and chatter for it to open.  I called up to him that I was on my way up and to just be patient.   As soon as I got upstairs and opened the window he was right there and had a good drink.

I have reviewed all the videos I have of Tom Thumb and they are no better than those I have already uploaded so I won’t bore you with those.

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

120609 Al's $15 poncho

120609 Flower market, Sweets market, Immaculate Conception

120609  Sweets market, Immaculate Conception   

120609 Domes in the sun

120609 Lovely blue domes

120609 Sun glinting off this dome

120609 The middle dome

120609 The morning fog is lifting as the sun rises

120609 Sweets market in front of the old cathedral

120609 Old cathedral bells

120609 Carriage rides at Parque Calderon

120609 A dozen of the most beautiful roses for under $2

120609 San Francisco church

120609 San Fran clothing market

120609 San Fran belfry

120609 Sweets market 1

120609 Sweets market 2

120609 Sweets market 3

Friday June 8, 2012 Apologies again

Our sincere apologies to all the readers of GringoTree!  This is embarrassing!


Please, the blog you should be looking at is

cuencaresidency.blogspot.com

This blog was not meant for the general populace and would be most boring to those folks that don't know us personally.
Cheers, Al & Bella

Friday June 8, 2012

Friday June 8/12 update

These crazy sleepless nights are going to be the death of me.  It is a good thing we are retired and have no morning appointments.  The only good thing about working on photos in the middle of the night is that the uploads are very fast.

I tried out my new $8 tripod with my big camera and broke the plastic attachment bolt right off the bat.  I guess we get what we pay for.   I’ll find another use for it eventually.

Bella made a trip to the Coopera Mercado and brought me back some celery for lunch.  They don’t have Cheez Whiz here, just some squeezy runny liquid cheese that is not quite satisfactory.

It was just too nice to sit inside and snooze the day away so I talked Bella into taking a walk through the neighborhood.  Unfortunately Bella’s idea of walking and mine are like the tortoise and the hare.  It just kills me to have to walk so slow.

We sauntered over to a place to make some copies of a knitted bear pattern that Bella is converting to a crochet pattern.  This is some kind of arrangement with her weaving class lady….   Then the people at this tienda kept asking us to translate simple things like the time, the days of the week, etc.  And then the next thing we know Bella has volunteered to teach the son English for nothing on the weekends……

Then we stopped to see Raoul and to see the progress of their new building owned by 6 family members.  He hopes to have this completed by July so his sister can move her Internet Café over from next door so they can rip down and rebuild that home as well.  Then the family will have 3 communicating buildings rounding that corner.  Raoul won’t live in it because he has his parent’s house in the country (the folks are in Minneapolis). 

One of the features of this new house that I found exceedingly strange is the third floor ceiling is a patchwork so I asked him to explain.  The ceiling is essentially made of concrete blocks held by rebar!  It makes no sense to me but it is apparently cheaper than just doing cement.

Raoul also wants to visit our home and practice English etc.  He is very much into fitness, but likes his cervezas (beer) too.  He is thinking of putting in a small gym, but with good machines, into the building to the right.  Since there isn’t a gym in the area I would certainly welcome that.

We went a little further in the neighborhood and finally found the pizza place open, but nobody came out to introduce themselves so we continued on.  Like most businesses it is attached to a private home so they were probably on the can or something.

Bella had never seen the little park that is only 1/2 block south of us and she was impressed.  We are so fortunate to have a park within 1.5 blocks in all 4 directions.

Our house is a little more visible from across the street now with the falling of the leaves as we go through our fall season but it is an impressive structure and we are proud of it.  We count our blessings that we bought when we did.   We are also very happy to see many neighbours renovating their homes so that will bode well for our property values in the long run, as long as everybody tries to keep up with their neighbours.

This morning Tom was not being cooperative so I had to change the nectar again.  I did get two short videos of Tom this evening but I am not happy with the lighting so I’ll have to try again in the morning.

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

120608 Neighbourhood Street south of us

120608 Neighbourhood Park 1/2 block south

120608 Cheap pizza we will have to sample

120608 This dance studio a block away has us interested

120608 Fall is decimating the leaves

120608 Literally hanging up the cleats for good

120608 We love our house here

120608 Raoul's concrete block ceiling - weird.

120608 Raoul and the new place

Thursday June 7, 2012

Thursday June 7/12 update

I spent about 6 hours on emails and uploading photos to 3 different sites since 5:30am.  

I also did some research on 911 emergency history and requirements.  The reason for this is that Bella volunteered us to join up to 20 expats selected by Joe Spotts, of Joe’s Secret Garden, to have a discussion at 3pm at a Government office about 911 service for expats.

We got there on time and joined seven other expats (lots of late cancellations) for this meeting.  The topic of discussion was very different than we had been led to believe.  

The meeting was chaired by Ana Lucia Serrano Lopez, the Regional Coordinator for the Exterior Relations Ministry.  She grew up in the same neighborhood as the Minister and also is personal friends from college with the country’s President, Rafael Correa.   She learned her English (and French?) in Vancouver so she is very Canada-friendly.

The Guest Speaker was Matt Scranton, Chief of American Citizen Services at the US Consulate in Guayaquil, who was with the Peace Corps in China at one time.   If he isn’t CIA, I’ll eat my shirt.

The stated purpose of the meeting was to organize the US expat community in case of disaster, for disseminating important information, and to reduce any load on 911 operators in the event of said disaster.  This could be in the event of a natural disaster, like an earthquake, or maybe civil unrest.   The simple fact stated by Matt is that it would take at least 3 days to get aid to Cuenca purely because of geography and logistics.

The rest of the group were friends of Joe's and Joseph's:  Spencer who lives in Cotacachi, Tom and Jayne, John and Barbie (Ken was busy I guess).  All of these folks have at least 2 years experience in Ecuador so they bring a lot of experience to the table.

Way too much time was spent by the panel citing the general expat distrust of anything done by the US government to keep tabs on them.  Then more time was needlessly spent by Matt continuously stating that he doesn’t have the time or inclination to chase people down.

There was already an attempt to set up a warden system (supposedly even Canada has this) to help expats keep in touch with each other in emergencies.  One of the fellows at the meeting was Tom Golden who was a warden (and is also the fellow starting up the local soccer team fan club).  These things usually die a slow death because of ignorance and apathy, and the distrust mentioned above.

Joe Spotts says one of his best friends is Dennis Mileti, the world’s leading disaster specialist and had already spoken to him about advising them correctly.   That sure sounded like a no-brainer and matt was quick to agree to talk to Dennis.

Honestly, the change in subject matter from 911 to disaster planning was out of left field so we were not well prepared for this discussion, nor for the fact that this was all geared to US citizens only.  Regardless, we have made some valuable contacts since Ana Lucia and her assistants, Stefania and Carolina, are the Cuenca experts for immigration matters, which will soon be able to be handled locally, and without lawyers gouging people.  We actually have the personal phone number for Ana Lucia in case we ever have problems, 24 hours.

After the meeting we went and had supper at that second-floor restaurant across from the Palermo where Bettye and Chris live.  Betty is still very sick  unfortunately so we did not get to see them today.

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

120607 USA Disaster Preparedness Meeting

120607 Matt Scranton, Ana Lucia Serrano Lopez

120607 All the intelligent people including Bella

Wednesday June 6, 2012

Wednesday June 6/12 update

I was awake at 3:30, and up at 5 to upload some photos to my sale sites, then back to bed about 6:30 until 9, then I had to get up for a quick coffee before heading to Spanish class.   I did not have time to get any sun-drenched video of Tom, maybe tomorrow. 

Upon entering the Chamber of Commerce building I saw a white face and introduced myself.  He turned out to be Andrew Cocker, Honorary Consul in Cuenca for the British Embassy.  He was very nice and I was surprised at his fluent Spanish to the concierge.  I then ran into him on the street later again. 

The Madrigal Spanish class is very informative and, for the first time, I feel like it is helpful.  I can actually string some simple sentences together and they might make sense enough to a listener….

Bella was off to play bridge with Joe and Joseph at Joe’s Secret Garden (they won’t play anywhere else).  Joe has played for a while, but Joseph is just a beginner.  She was fortunate to play with another Life Master named North (first name) and she found that refreshing.   This might be the nucleus of a good club they would all like to start.  Joe and Joseph made shrimp for lunch so they had to open all the windows and doors due to Bella’s fatal allergy.

Joe has also been asked by the American consul to round up 20 intelligent expats to come to a meeting tomorrow to make suggestions for their new 911 service so it can also benefit expats.  I guess we are both going, I’ll just try to look intelligent….

After Spanish class I stopped to take a few shots of some of the local colour and was hoping to get the jet that usually passes overhead about 12:30 but they must be coming in northeast to southwest today, or I missed him, I’m not sure.  On the north side of the Tomebamba they have ripped up the old road and are preparing to lay new cobblestone.  You will see the work progressing in some of the photos.  Two fellows in costume on the Parque De La Madre steps let me take their photos and one gave me his email to send them to him, which I will do shortly.   His name is Jaime Silvestrez (pronounced Hi Me) from Otavalo and he spoke a few words of English.

I was just going to do a quick tour of the camera shops but I saw one of my classmates, Diane, (they are all from the US), laboring at the top of the escalinata.  She is newly here and feeling poorly, probably still adjusting to the altitude.  She lives somewhere nearby so I asked her if she had been to Sabor Latino yet?  She said no so then I felt obligated to go for lunch.  Another Gringo lady was studying the menu and I told her it was the best lunch in town so she joined us too.  Her name was Carolyn but it was like having lunch with Sandra Bullock, but with the New York twang of Fran Dresschler, The Nanny.  It was totally unnerving as she even laughed like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality.  Diane has only been here a few days but Carolyn has been for two years but done nothing to learn about the town!  She hadn’t heard of GringoTree or Joe’s Secret Garden!  Both of them got my card with my other Cuenca blog for expats.     The food was excellent as usual.

I checked camera shops downtown and the nicer tripods are $48 - $56, so I would have to save up for a few weeks out of my meager allowance.  I decided to stop at Coral on the off-chance of finding a bargain.  They did have a decent one for $42 but I ended up buying a cheap plastic that looks like it has extendable legs, but doesn’t.  The center pillar does extend upwards, and it was under $8 so I thought it would tide me over for a while.   I also got a microwave splatter cover that we dearly needed.

Tom Thumb is coming to the window regularly and doesn’t hesitate as soon as I open it.  I wish he could be friends with Peso & Pancho but that couldn’t happen.

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

120606 Expensive $8 tripod

120606 4 of the 6 bags of cat litter!

120606 Same stairway/escalinata

120606 Footbridge* & stairway/escalinata and roadwork

120606 Great indigenous costume

120606 Closer crop

120606 Jaime Silvestrez

120606 Cloesr crop

120606 Back-lit Santo Domingo

120606 Alien grabbing child

120606 Another view of Todos Santos (All Saints)

120606 Tomebamba and road construction 1

120606 Tomebamba and road construction 2

120606 Looking toward footbridge*

Tuesday June 5, 2012

Tuesday June 5/12 update

Tom Thumb was kind enough to allow me a few more good shots this morning when the sun can highlight his colours.  He is so very pretty up close, and so skinny.   Can you believe they weigh under half an ounce?!  Maybe I’ll try a video tomorrow in the morning sun as well.

Bella was off to the movie and book exchange and to do a few chores.   When she returned I went walkabout for 90 minutes on the north side of the Tomebamba with the big camera.  That is a very peaceful walking path. 

I also stopped by Raoul’s place up the street.  Bella had spoken to him yesterday and he was asking about me.  He owns the house behind the corner house he is building and it has two unfurnished apartments.  He also owns the house beside it, so he intends to rebuild on that site as well.  He claims this is his business, to rebuild, but we don’t see the economics of it.  Renting a small unfurnished apartment for $125 a month doesn’t generate much income.

When I returned Bella was waiting for Miguel to bring her 10 huge, and I mean huge, bags of rice husks that she is now using for litter for the boys.  It is very light and not as destructive as sand would be.  The commercial litter available here is expensive and it is not great.  This should last us until Bella comes back from Canada in November.   We stacked six bags under the stairs and four next to the new freezer in the lavanderia.  Now the boys will be able to crap to their heart’s content.

Miguel is to return tomorrow with big three water bottles to go with the countertop jug dispenser that she bought yesterday.  She won’t drink tap water no matter how clean it is.

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

120605 Strange construction=bricks before columns?

120605 Our favourite tree

120605 Extremely tall gums

120605 Peach Hibiscus

120605 Pink Hibiscus

120605 Red Hibiscus

120605 Juggling on ears, hands, feet

120605 Monay Mall and Coral

120605 Sunlit Palm

120605 Sunlit Pampas Grass 1

120605 Sunlit Pampas Grass 2

120605 Sunlit Pampas Grass 3

120605 Raoul's corner house

120605 Welcome to my lair said the spider to the fly

120605 Rope swing

120605 Tom Thumb 1

120605 Tom Thumb 2 puttin' on the brakes

120605 Tom Thumb 3, doin' the Goonybird thing

120605 Tom Thumb 4 visiting the Sheep River

120605 Tom Thumb 5 more Goonybird action

120605 Tom Thumb 6 closing in on the target

120605 Tom Thumb 7 knows it is in there

120605 Tom Thumb 8 extend the tongue now

120605 Tom Thumb 9 Aaaah, sustenance

120605 Tomebamba west of our bridge