MANAGING LIFE IN CUENCA

We have mentioned before that we occasionally help some friends with their rental Penthouse Condo when they are traveling. Well lucky for us we get to manage the condo for a few months. This provides me with more of an outlet to "manage" other people and be sure that they have a good experience here in Cuenca.

Our current tenants are the nicest couple from Canada. They will be staying for a month, and because they have had so much travel experience they are very comfortable discovering the city and surrounding areas on their own. So before they got a chance to take off exploring, we met them at the San Sebas Cafe for a nice lunch and visit.

This cafe is in a remodeled part of the area surrounding the San Sebastian Plaza and Church. It is a very pretty square and lends itself nicely to the cafe, art gallery and high end specialty clothing store that are right next to the cafe.  Right across the street is the Museum of Modern art. So just going to one or the other gives you the opportunity to discover all the other places nearby!

I had to take a photo of my food.. it was called Mexican corn cakes with Pulled Pork

It was muy delicioso! Everyone else at the table said their food was just as good, but I may have to have a disclaimer on Randy's choice. It was some kind of hotdog.. I am sure he liked it, but my choice was by far the healthiest!

Because of the awful hail and water pouring into the house, Randy conceded to "look" at some other houses available for rent.  I do not have any photos because after looking at one I agreed that we need to stay here and try to see if our Landlord will fix a few things to keep the water from running back into the house. Here in Ecuador, when you rent a house it is not a done deal that the landlord will fix problems in the house. Alot of times if you do not have it written into the lease, you are out of luck.  Even then it may be a struggle. Our landlord is a very nice man and has tried to help out on several occasions, but in his mind this is not a big problem and a bit of kilz paint over the mold in the bathroom is all that is necessary; not finding the source of the problem. I am still trying to not take this personally, and just know that this is the way folks think here.

We have not had any significant rain in 3 days! So for me, and this house, that is a good thing. We went and bought a new hose, $12. Our old one burst. This one has odd couplings on each end, and we cannot figure out how it works. When we turn on the water the spray nozzel that came with the hose pops off! It is a compression fit, but our compression does not seem to be enough to keep it on the end of the hose! Very odd..

Our Tomate de Arbol tree is very happy, sad looking, but very happy! It has all kinds of fruit on it, we have been picking what we can reach to give to Monica, the house keeper. She loves the fruit. She makes juice and ahi with them; but its way too much work for us.

The hummingbird feeders are busy all day long, we are having to refill alot more often than normal. We are not sure if "the word" has gone out or if they are stocking up for their "winter" season.

Living up this high in the Andes, gives you a new appreciation for the Sunsets and the Moon. We have mountains all around us so our sunset is a quick dip behind the mountain, add to that, the almost ever present puffy clouds that meander through and you are most likely to miss the sunset. I have found that missing the sunset is ok, what I have missed seeing is the moon. The other night Randy casually walked in and said, "we got a full moon tonite", WHAT? You can see it?? I ran outside to see it and yes, it was there and very pretty. As I ran back in to get the camera, Randy laughed and said, I don't think you will be able to get a picture of it.. well I tried with every setting on the silly camera.. and I managed to get one!               Happy Moon beams every one!