NEW DISCOVERIES SINCE MOVING TO CUENCA

Since we have come to Cuenca, we have been surrounded by changes and differences all around us so the title on this blog might not seem so startling. But I thought a few of the differences could be a bit fun to show. But I will start with things that are the same... if just in a different place... for one... Randy.
He has found a spot out front to smoke is cigars and enjoy the sun..

Randy is still cooking those wonderful soups. Here is one he is cooking up today, lentil, peas, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, onions and of course his "secret" spices... Secret because he just throws it in and never remembers what it was our how much he added!

 He does all this in his wonderful kitchen. He is so happy that its much bigger than the last rental.

 

And of course, we have had to investigate the wine situation here...coming from Washington wine country. As you can see we have not made a huge stab at the local offerings but we are working on it.

 

 One of the things that we have discovered is the packaging or lack thereof here in Ecuador. We are in a country that is big on recycling. If your local neighborhood does not have a recycling program then there are folks who go through your garbage and separate it for you and are paid for doing so. I bought a small milk at the store the other day because we dont drink much milk. Alot of folks by these by the case.

 

Just a little plastic bag, with a cute box holder, snip the top and you have your milk. We can buy some namebrand items such as Kraft Mayonaise, but why pay $5-6, when you can buy Maggi for alot less..

We have been told that the Axiom brand of dish soap is the way to go. We have been told that you just scrub with the soap, let sit and rinse... all in cold water... it will be fine. I dont subscribe to cold water, so we use hot but otherwise we are going with the local method.

 We were told that we are to wash our fruit and vegetables here with a antibactieral soap. Its found in the Fruit and Veggie section of the grocery store. 1 cap to 3 liters of water, soak 5 minutes, wahla... well the bottle says wahla... I rinse with water again... but this way we are avoiding anykind of amoeba, or other kind of critters as the process of getting our fruit and veggies is alittle less sanitary here.

We went grocery shopping the other day at the local Coopertiva... Co-op. Its all Organic and they even have a orange juicer! They just throw in the oranges and it separates the peels from the juice. Its real cute cause the people here are pretty short and the top is very tall... so they have to toss them up in the air to get them in! All prices are per kilo, so 1 kilo is about 2.2 lbs. Here is our shopping receipt.

Here is the total...

Here is the food laid out.

We got a 6+ lb chicken (head and feet included) for about 1.62 a lb. Thats rangefree, no hormones total organic..some Sandwich ham for .68 a kilo! You do the math... two avacados for .68, fresh peas, a ton of cabbage... mushrooms, chiramoya, and more. Do your spanish and translate the list!

Some of the other changes have been in a more of a change of conditions situation.. hot water, yes we have hot water, our hot water does not reside in a hot water tank. We have on demand hot water.

 Well almost demand... you let the water run in the sink until its hot, then turn it off and turn on the shower... adjust with cold as necessary. The amount of water coming though is not a ton, a fine spray, through these cool shower heads...

Speaking of washing, I want to say here and now that I appreciate my mother and all the mothers out there who did without washing machines and dryers and irons and all the modern conviences we take for granted... I have had a bit of a comeupance in this area..

As you can see we have a washing machine (thankgoodness) but 220 is usually only in the real "ritzy" condos. So we hang our clothes. What I am thankful for is that we have a space in the loft bedroom for drying as well, its nice an warm up there. I have been trying to figure out a way to keep my clothes from wrinkling so much, and fabric softner in the washing maching does not seem to be doing it..I guess I will just have to get better at ironing. Wrinkled clothes have never bothered Randy so he just wears his as they come out...