CUENCA LIFESTYLE CHANGES

Randy and I have been doing well, but some of the folks in our family and our friends here in Cuenca have had some major health issues. Because of this and Randy's run in with a car; we had decided to take our health insurance.

I know that alot of folks say they will just pay as they go, but we realized if we had a major issue, if we could not pay we would not be let out of the hospital! Really... thats the way it works here. So the hunt began.

Luckily for us we play Texas Hold'em... and that is where we met Mario Miranda. He is a fellow card enthusiast as well as an agent for a local health plan through the Santa Inez Hospital.http://www.sisantaines.com/

Our coverage is good anywhere, even in the US (up to $15K), as well as in Europe and South America. Our monthly rate is $98.00 a month.. NOT per person.. thats for both of us. There is a 150.00 per person deductible.. but that is all. Oh and dental is 100% covered for everything. We have travel insurance so we can get assistance for our luggage and hotels while we recover on our trip. There is even legal assistance with that, and there is a small 30K life insurance policy included as well.

We had to face that we are getting older.. and somethings things just happen. Then we found out that there was Rental insurance too! We asked Mario to look into the costs and get a representative out to our house.

When we came to Cuenca, we came with suitcases and a "furniture" allowance. If we are robbed we would be hardpressed to replace our furniture and electronics. We are still working with the company to get the policy nailed down but it looks like it will be about 260.00 a yr. and cover us up to 25K. This makes me feel alot better. Even though we feel safe in our neighborhood, things happen..

We have also added another addtion to the corral.. a larger motorcycle. I do not enjoy driving in Cuenca on the scooter. I am not a real alert driver, so the idea that folks do not use blinkers, pass on the right when you are in the right hand lane.. and split traffic even when they are in cars, is really unnerving to me. Also, our scooters are just not big enough to get us out over those Andes! So instead of a car we bought this..

This little beauty is a Royal Enfield 500. http://www.royal-enfield.com/ They have been making them in India since the time when they nationalized the factory.. just recently they have been exported to the U.S  and now we have a new dealership in Cuenca! Oh and these also have side cars. So those of you who know Randy knows he loves side cars.. as soon as we get it I will post a photo. We already have visions of a trip over to the coast.. now can you imagine the sight we will be, tooling up the Ruta del Sol? I think the view might be right up there with Whale Watching!

Today we took a ride up toward Paute, but the roads were jammed with cars. There is some kind of road construction so we cut back to the autopista, stopped at the Mall del Rio and celebrated our first "two up" on the bike with burgers from the new Burger King in the food court.. yeah, they were good.