2 YEARS IN CUENCA, YEP WE LIKE IT

Two years? Wow, that went fast. We almost missed the big day, I remembered half way throught July 1st. "Hey Randy, remember what today is"?

We have not made too many changes in our lifestyle since we first moved here. We still walk alot but now we also have motorized transportation for each of us. Our daily schedule remains "fluid" and we enjoy meeting all the new folks that stay in the Penthouse rental or we meet out on our walks through town.

Changes in two years.. hmm. Well the busses are easier to navigate, now that the local Tourism office has a lot of bus maps out as well as city maps. We also now have cool electronic bus passes that we can refil, so no fumbling for change. Lots more "gringo type events", the Gringo tree has become a must have for those living here and those wanting to live here. More and more new blogs!

The roads in town are much safer now that the speed limits have been reduce for the taxis and busses. No more hari kari rides through traffic. That is a big bonus. I have to say though, I have only seen one accident while riding on a bus.. our bus scraped another car while trying to turn down a very narrow street. The driver pulled over and immediately gave his info the the other driver, hopped back in the bus and we were on our way. No police involved. Very easily taken care of.

We are happy that the construction (under/overpass) on the Las Americas and Gran Columbia is going to be completed in September instead of the projected November date! This has impacted alot of businesses as well as made it difficult for taxis and busses with all the re-routing of roads.

I love the hand painted murals on the walls of the new "under/over pass, I am hoping this will stay nice and pristine a long time. Most of the time the graffiti artists respect nicely done art. I like that there is  picture remembering the men and women who built the road too..

In the last 2 yrs I have learned how to knit and weave. Neither too well, but I do enjoy it. Because of these endeavors I have met the nicest ladies who are a mix of expats as well as local Cuencana ladies. The owner of the yarn/weaving shop knows we need to practice our Spanish so she is quite dilligent at speaking to us in Spanish and making sure we use as much to ask questions as we can. Its a great time, and a very laid back way to increase our Spanish vocabulary.

We have begun to knit bears at the yarn shop.. yeah thats what this is below.. not quite done, but fun. Hope the kids that get them will understand our attempts!

Randy has found a new gadget that he can download movies, tv shows and series to the computer, then to a flash drive or external hard drive. Then his gadget transfers it to the TV.. free.. no more buying 1.50 movies.. I know it does not sound like much but when you have no other TV it becomes a bit spendy. This is most of the movies and TV series that we have bought in the 2 yrs we have been here. Yeah, just a few...

AKA Kimblers Lending Library

On one of our walks a few days ago, I just had to take a picture of this manaquin. I said to Randy.. Oh look honey, maybe I should go over and get one of those.. I think he blushed.

I have talked about how folks drop in and visit... well today we had a drop in phone call.. "Hey I was cleaning out the bodega and ...", well look what we got!  And the mysterious donater even helped us put it up! Randy is very happy to have a cover for the scooters.

Yeah, we love it here. We might complain a tiny bit about this or that, but Randy said it wonderfully... it sure beats workin'!