Saturday July 13, 2013

Saturday July 13, 2013  update #511

I met my little buddy Juan in El Centro before 11am and we managed to just squeeze in before they closed to get up to the top of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral to take a few shots.  There was another large group of Ecuadorians up there, born and raised in Ecuador, but now living in New York, and just here visiting.  Being up there with the new camera and lens was exhilarating.

It was also great to get some shots of the pan flute players and the mime buskers and the street artists.   Gotta love this town.

We then wound our way south then east to the Banco Central Museum where they don’t allow photographs.  Nothing much was new in there so we went down to the Pumapungo Inca ruins and the aviary.   It was very strange that there were no llamas in evidence anywhere.  The peacock male still hasn’t regained his tail feathers either.  We had a Belgian waffle lunch before heading over to El Vergel for a few shots before I had to head home.   Note that I will upload these photos tomorrow.

I had to get hurriedly cleaned up to try to make an appearance at Rommie & Charles’ place for a meet n greet for their friends Bob & Cathy who will be moving to Cuenca to live very soon.  It turns out that Bob is another photographer so we had quite a chat.   As I was leaving there was a hummingbird posing for me near the entrance so I caught a couple of shots of him.

Then, being Saturday, my next duty was to head to Joe’s Secret Garden and do my thing for Greek night.  Again we met some very nice new people and made some valuable contacts.  One of our tablemates at supper could turn out to be a valuable asset for Hearts Of Gold….

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

Friday July 12, 2013

Friday July 12, 2013  update #510

Happy 41st Birthday to my lovely daughter Jill!! 

I am beginning to get bored and need to explore further out to maintain my interest here.  Visiting most of downtown is getting old hat and general exploring without money is not much fun.

Bella was off to the Weaving Store, part of her Friday routine so I decided to take the #13 milk run to Mall De Rio, about an hour ride each way.   I hadn’t been there in months so I hoped something would be happening there to pique my interest.

The Mall is extremely modern and you would have trouble believing you weren’t in North America, especially staring at Burger King and KFC in the Food Court.  The new Lone Ranger movie is playing here, amongst others, and I was tempted until I saw that it was being shown in Spanish.   I am pretty sure they have English subtitles but I am sure I will be able to buy the DVD real soon for $1.50.

The stores carry just about anything a person could be looking for, except maybe lumber. There are even motorcycles, quads and vehicles for sale here.  They had 3 pretty ladies looking after the Ford store, not a male in sight…

I wanted to leave but a rainshower forced me back in for another ½ hour.

I suppose the most fun is watching kids partake in the bungee leaping.  The kids I watched today were too light to be doing their own liftoff from the lower trampolines so the fellow was helping them on every descent.  It is hard to resist the kids squeals of laughter.

After the 1 hour bus ride back we got a nice short downpour so everything smells nice and fresh again.

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

Thursday July 11, 2013

Thursday July 11, 2013  update #509

Bella was having one of her few rest days at home, kicking back and playing online bridge with friends and foes.

I again had a great sleep and got up late so hurriedly did my chores and uploads.   I was determined to check out a possible venue for the Hearts Of Gold December Gala, the Villa San Carlos.  I mentioned this to Bella and she reminded me that they were holding the Happy Dogs spay & neuter fundraiser there this evening.    I decided to head out anyway.

First, I walked right past it… several blocks then asked directions and came right back.  Good grief, it is the second building on Remigio Tamariz, just behind the Mormon Church, and down from the Primax gas station.  Of course there is nobody around during Ecuadorian lunchtime so I was told to come back at 3pm.

So I decided to wander over to Hearts Of Gold but again, nobody was around, nor expected to be around all day.  Okay, I decided to check in at the Banco Del Pacifico across the street to see what their requirements were to open an account.  Luckily one lady spoke about as much English as I did Spanish so we got along well.  Other than a minimum of $200 to open an account, they seem to want more paperwork than Banco Pichincha, and their interest rates on a $30,000 CD was only quoted at 5.5%.  They want 3 letters of reference and utility bills for the prior 2 months, amongst colour copies of Cedulas, etc.   They do provide International Visa cards but I don’t know how many hoops I need to jump through for that.   I also intend to check the Banco Del Austro near here as I am told the lady Manager speaks good English and is amenable to Gringos.

Then I just bought a new black marker at Papeleria Monsalves so that didn’t kill much time.  I headed back to Vila San Carlos and took some photos then settled down in the lobby to await the American owner and his Ecuadorian wife.

Lo and behold, the door opens and Gayle from Hearts Of Gold comes in!  She said she has already been checking out the place and had shown it off to the HoG brass too!   Great minds think alike.  So we put our heads together a bit and she will make an appointment with the owners for next week.  The owners did show up at 3pm as promised so we only spoke briefly because they had their hands full with the fundraiser starting at 5pm.   Other than some pretty sizeable load-bearing posts causing minor obstructions to sight lines, the place is awesome, well-situated, and has parking.  They can seat over 200 and easily accommodate a band and a dance floor. They also have separate rooms available for things like a silent auction, beautiful reception area and even outside space for those dreaded smokers.   I think it is a winner….

The roadwork is now in full swing on both sides of Solano so we hope this is all completed long before our Gala is to take place.

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

Wednesday July 10, 2013

Wednesday July 10, 2013  update #508

Had a really good sleep and wanted to get out earlier today but the weather wasn’t cooperating, and it didn’t really get any warmer until after sundown.  Go figure.   It was really chilly all day, and a slight breeze didn’t help.  If it was this weather in the dead of winter in Canada we’d probably be outside in t-shirts, but once you get so acclimatized to the consistent warm weather, even a slight drop feels really cool.

Bella was off to her Bridge Club today and she said it was really frigid in there too.

I contented myself with doing many chores, working on more photos and uploading some for sale.

I got myself into two layers of clothing from head to foot before heading out to meet the gang for burgers at the Chill Grill. 

Our cab driver on the way back seemed almost surprised that we were Canadians and not Americans and he even demonstrated that he knew a few phrases in French, too funny.  He is dreaming of going to New York to work and to visit Canada.

I am posting a couple of shots today to show what a little backwater place we live in.

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

Tuesday July 9, 2013

Tuesday July 9, 2013  update #507

Bella was off to the Book Exchange and to do shopping chores while I just looked at the rain and stayed inside.

I have managed to kill just about every plant we have so I started work on reviving them.  We have been saving eggshells for this purpose plus I do have some plant fertilizer that I am probably using wrong.  Anyway I crushed the eggshells and mixed them into the top layer of the dirt along with dead leaves, etc.  They will get a watering tomorrow on their usual schedule.

The Internet had been really slow and bad today, unusually really bad, so I struggled to upload works for sale and finally gave up.  I finished my Tom Clancy book and gave it to Bella but she didn’t have another similar book for me to start, so I will have to wait.

After supper we watched, 42, the story of Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier in baseball.  This is a very well made movie, except for Harrison Ford’s make-up, so we highly recommend it.

I just finished uploading my final 2 photos to FAA for sale so I am thankful that it finally worked.

I did some more work on some photos from the Pase Del Nino on Christmas Eve so I hope you enjoy them.

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

Monday July 8, 2013

Monday July 8, 2013  update #506

Darn it, I was awake again before 2am and finally gave up and got to work on the previous day’s photos.  I was pleasantly shocked that I could salvage most of the hummingbird shots and make them somewhat presentable.  If it wasn’t for shooting in RAW format and using PhotoShop with techniques I have learned, almost all those shots would have been trashed.  I even managed to upload one for sale later.

About 7:30am my eyes were closing so I laid down for another couple of hours.  I guess that is one of the benefits of being retired, we can listen to our body clocks and not worry about other things not getting done by a certain time.

I will try to get out a little later for a short walk and maybe pick up a few more movies….

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

Sunday July 7, 2013

Sunday July 7, 2013  update #505

I wasn’t very energetic today as I struggle with sleep again.    I guess I get enough sleep per day but for now it is broken up in two or three segments.

Bella was off to Bridge Club today and was pleased to have 7 players, which bodes well if some of the regulars had also shown up.   She puts a lot of work into this so I hope it eventually becomes successful.

It was a good thing she reminded me to meet her afterwards for supper at Karen and Mark’s apartment because I probably would have forgotten in my sleepy state.

I took the #50 to downtown and got off to see almost deserted streets and most shops closed.  As this is the cooler season here apparently many of the locals head to lower elevations like the Yunguilla Valley to have warmer weekends.  I walked the rest of the way and was crossing a road and nearly got hit by a car that I never expected to veer in my direction.  Signal lights use is very uncommon here.

I arrived a few minutes early, just following Karen who had left the Bridge Club early.   I parked myself on their terrace with my camera to try to capture the hummingbirds they have coming to their feeder.  I had barely sat down when Bella also showed up early.   I managed to get several shots but wasn’t very hopeful of the outcome as most seemed more like silhouettes even as I tried to compensate with manual focus, etc.

We were joined by Nancy and Marv and Karen served us some delicious Moroccan dishes we had never heard of, and with ingredients we had probably never tried before.   Anyway, it was a culinary delight.

We got home quite late and I did not even bother with the photos but just crashed.   The photos and Blog could wait until tomorrow.

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

Saturday July 6, 2013

Saturday July 6, 2013  update #504

I slept most of the night on the couch since I just couldn’t get to sleep in a prone position on my bed.  Oh well, a nap in the afternoon cured everything.

We went early to visit with Mark & Karen for an hour and were pleased to hear that their proposed condo purchase is not dead, it will just take a while to clear all the Ecuadorian discrepancies, to put it euphemistically….

Then it was time to do our usual Saturday night fling at Joe’s Secret Garden and to gorge ourselves on Southern Fried Chicken, our favourite.  A very nice group of folks tonight and some newbies from Arkansas, Wisconsin and New York in attendance.

One of the guests mentioned they had heard of a runaway train derailment in Canada and a huge fire ensuing.   I checked it out when I got home and it doesn’t sound good.  Right now they are saying there are about 80 people missing in this small town in Quebec, consumed by a massive fireball.  Our prayers are with those folks tonight.

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