New Friends in Cuenca

I have mentioned several times before that our life right now consists of finding our way to and from where ever we have decided to go. We have patted our selves on the back several times for our prowess with the bus system, even though we are still amatures at calling a cab. We are determined to make ourselves understood and cause less stress at the local cab company when we call. I think our friends who visit us will be happy too, because if their Spanish is any better than ours we dump that burden on them.

Yesterday was a great day, we never needed a taxi and we had a full day. We started our by meeting our housekeeper Monica at our friends house in downtown Cuenca. This was a 8 am. A big deal for us who like to sleep in (me). Our friends Clarke & Brenda took pity on us and invited us to breakfast. Afterwards we met our new friends Rebecca & Arturo at the California Kitchen. Rebecca is going to have a baby next month and curiously enough they had just been in Ellensburg, Wa! We had a great time visiting them and hopefully we will meet again soon.

We were off to meet Chuck after that to go with him motorcycle hunting again. They say that women are hard to shop with because they have to see every store to be sure that there isn't something better in the next. Well I think I have found 3 men here in Cuenca who personafy that sterotype. We have been to more shops than I can count, and if we have missed one, Clarke or Chuck have found another that they all must investigate to be sure that this one is not priced better or have a better deal. So far, most are exactly the same in price and colors.  Clarke and Randy are holding firm to wait for their Cedulas, but Chuck is not held back by that problem and he is forging ahead and buying a Moto1 200cc classic. I am sure they will post it in their blog when he does get it.

After the indepth motorcycle study we rode the bus back to Clarke and Brendas to solve Clarkes open bottle of wine problem. The guys smoked cigars and Brenda and I enjoyed our "girl time". While we were out on the deck, Fluffy came to watch us talk. I couldn't resist this face... could you?

Fluffy is a Pekinese, she has a little buddy, Corky, but he was hiding when the camera came out.

While on the way home I took this picture of some local renovations down by the river. I think they are very brave to be pounding on the rocks that are right under their feet. Its a long way down. And no they are not tied off anywhere.

We saw them today and they are almost all done chopping all the rocks off. There is a metal bracing that runs up the middle so they did have something to hold onto after they got that top part broken off.

We had a earthquake this morning. It was located over 100 miles away, and very deep, so we only had a bit of a rolling wake up this morning.  We are in a very solid contructed home so we feel very safe here.
Our landlord called us right after it happened to check on us and reassure us. He lives downstairs and he designed the contructions, so I feel pretty safe, he wouldnt want us landing on them!