DAILY GRIND IN CUENCA

We have great news! Our residency papers have been approved and we will be able to finalize the documents on Thursday.

As I related in an earlier post, we came to Ecuador with a 90 day tourist stamp in our passports. Our attorney Gabriella Espinoza assured us that she would have all of our paperwork done in time. We had done alot of leg work before hand to be sure that we would be able to meet every road block with the paperwork needed. So now we are planning a quick flight to Quito on Wednesday and meet with Gabriella on Thursday morning. We have been very pleased with our attorney and how quickly she has reassured us and did all the hand holding that we required. It has made this process alot easier.

On Monday our first stop will be to the travel agency to buy tickets to Quito, then off to the Digital photo shop to get the extra photos we need for our Cedulas. Thanks to our friends who have "gone before" we know which places have the best and easiest services. Sometimes it pays not to be the early bird!

Last Tuesday we had another Ecuadorian cooking class. We enjoyed learning some more ways to use the Tomate de Arbol (tree tomato). We made desserts, Batido and a salad. It was all great! For me the highlight was that Arturo brought Kesha down so we could all ooh and awww over her. She is so tiny. Up to 7lbs now. I didnt take a picture, but I did get one of her cute little sleeper..

My friend Brennie decided that we needed massages on Friday. She made the appointment and off we went. I was throughly impressed.  The massage was very good and it is the first time I have ever had the hot rocks used on me. I didnt ask, it was not special services, it was just included. My massage was for an hour, it cost $13. I have made appointments for the next 4 fridays...

And since I am talking about the services that you can get here, I should also say that getting a hair cut is also very affordable. There are hair stylists everywhere. Most do not speak English but taking a friend who speaks Spanish solves that, or put to use your best pantomine. $3 for a mans hair cut and womens start at $3 and go up depending on how fancy and how close you get to the Gringo type establishments.
Here is Clarke using his best pantomine to tell his barber how short to cut his hair.

As we were standing at the bus stop the other day I noticed that the trees had been clipped and all the clippings were piled up nicely along side of the road. The garbage service her comes at nite. We do not have bins here, set next to the road. It is plastic sacks or stacks of limbs. Some, like our landlord have made metal holders for the garbage so the dogs dont get into it. When the garbage trucks arrive, there are 3 people who hop off the garbage truck and shlep all the garbage into the truck; while we sleep.

As I was noticing all the clippings along side of the road, I also noticed a new method for keeping the droopy wires from hooking on the buses. I thought all my safety friends out there would enjoy this photo. Primitive but effective.

The last few days have been cloudy and chilly. Randy and I have been hanging out in the house watching the last of our Roswell series, studying Spanish and hoping for the warm weather to come back. We have decided that tomorrow we will throw off this babyish-ness and get back to business!