Sunday May 12, 2013

Sunday May 12, 2013  update #450

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all you Mothers out there.   You know who you are, lol…

Bella had won a “breakfast” at the Bingo on Tuesday at the Oro Verde Hotel that they told us only opens at noon so we went there for a Mother’s Day brunch before she had to scoot off to her Bridge game.

Buses were slow coming and they were usually a 40 minute ride so we grabbed a cab.  Road closures for Mother’s day around the main cemetery caused delays and the ride ended up being 30 minutes.  We arrived at 10 to 12 and they started giving us funny looks saying the buffet closed at noon.   Typical Ecuador, always giving a person the wrong story…   Anyway they rushed us in and we hurriedly chose from the buffet, where all the burners had long since been turned off so our entire meal was cold but we had a good feed anyway.

I walked Bella down to the Rio Tomebamba where she crosses to go to Bridge, over the bridge, and I continued east, getting a few snaps of the river laundry folks, and a few shots of Mark and Karen’s new apartment from the outside.   I slipped into Joe’s Secret Garden to give Joseph the photos from last night and also all the photos from last week’s Derby Day.   He claimed DropBox only contained about 10 shots however my end showed they had all uploaded.   While waiting I got shots of their great devil masks in the living room and their awesome goldfish mural while I had great natural afternoon light.

I then passed through Feria Libre, quite surprised at the abundance of fruit sellers on the west side.  I toyed with the idea of getting a small stereo to play music but ended up spending $15 for an 8Gb Memory stick that is all metal, flexible, and will stay on my key ring.  It is very handy when traveling to have your information so close at hand.

Because there is a Deportive Cuenca soccer/futbol game today our bus got re-routed and it always amazes us that they do not have a set alternate route to use.  They get all sidetracked in narrow sidestreets, going many blocks out of the way, and this bozo had to back up an entire block to get back on “his” route.    In the process he missed at least 4 stops entirely.

I wanted to be home by early afternoon to try to get in a late bid on the camera lens that I want.   There is a fellow in Ontario selling it, starting at $450 on eBay, with a Buy-It-Now price of $675.   They go for $600 new so I don’t know why he put such silly pricing on it.   I had offered him $525 for it earlier but he refused me so I hope to get it for a lot less now.   I waited until the last minute to get my bids in but one fellow beat me by $10 and I didn’t have time to re-bid.  It went for $535.

I found another used one that allows offers so I offered $490 plus the $31 shipping.   I noted this same store had 2 the same posted so I am hoping they will grab my offer.

I think tonight calls for popcorn and a good movie.

That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al   Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/