NEW DISCOVERIES SINCE MOVING TO CUENCA

Since we have come to Cuenca, we have been surrounded by changes and differences all around us so the title on this blog might not seem so startling. But I thought a few of the differences could be a bit fun to show. But I will start with things that are the same... if just in a different place... for one... Randy.
He has found a spot out front to smoke is cigars and enjoy the sun..

Randy is still cooking those wonderful soups. Here is one he is cooking up today, lentil, peas, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, onions and of course his "secret" spices... Secret because he just throws it in and never remembers what it was our how much he added!

 He does all this in his wonderful kitchen. He is so happy that its much bigger than the last rental.

 

And of course, we have had to investigate the wine situation here...coming from Washington wine country. As you can see we have not made a huge stab at the local offerings but we are working on it.

 

 One of the things that we have discovered is the packaging or lack thereof here in Ecuador. We are in a country that is big on recycling. If your local neighborhood does not have a recycling program then there are folks who go through your garbage and separate it for you and are paid for doing so. I bought a small milk at the store the other day because we dont drink much milk. Alot of folks by these by the case.

 

Just a little plastic bag, with a cute box holder, snip the top and you have your milk. We can buy some namebrand items such as Kraft Mayonaise, but why pay $5-6, when you can buy Maggi for alot less..

We have been told that the Axiom brand of dish soap is the way to go. We have been told that you just scrub with the soap, let sit and rinse... all in cold water... it will be fine. I dont subscribe to cold water, so we use hot but otherwise we are going with the local method.

 We were told that we are to wash our fruit and vegetables here with a antibactieral soap. Its found in the Fruit and Veggie section of the grocery store. 1 cap to 3 liters of water, soak 5 minutes, wahla... well the bottle says wahla... I rinse with water again... but this way we are avoiding anykind of amoeba, or other kind of critters as the process of getting our fruit and veggies is alittle less sanitary here.

We went grocery shopping the other day at the local Coopertiva... Co-op. Its all Organic and they even have a orange juicer! They just throw in the oranges and it separates the peels from the juice. Its real cute cause the people here are pretty short and the top is very tall... so they have to toss them up in the air to get them in! All prices are per kilo, so 1 kilo is about 2.2 lbs. Here is our shopping receipt.

Here is the total...

Here is the food laid out.

We got a 6+ lb chicken (head and feet included) for about 1.62 a lb. Thats rangefree, no hormones total organic..some Sandwich ham for .68 a kilo! You do the math... two avacados for .68, fresh peas, a ton of cabbage... mushrooms, chiramoya, and more. Do your spanish and translate the list!

Some of the other changes have been in a more of a change of conditions situation.. hot water, yes we have hot water, our hot water does not reside in a hot water tank. We have on demand hot water.

 Well almost demand... you let the water run in the sink until its hot, then turn it off and turn on the shower... adjust with cold as necessary. The amount of water coming though is not a ton, a fine spray, through these cool shower heads...

Speaking of washing, I want to say here and now that I appreciate my mother and all the mothers out there who did without washing machines and dryers and irons and all the modern conviences we take for granted... I have had a bit of a comeupance in this area..

As you can see we have a washing machine (thankgoodness) but 220 is usually only in the real "ritzy" condos. So we hang our clothes. What I am thankful for is that we have a space in the loft bedroom for drying as well, its nice an warm up there. I have been trying to figure out a way to keep my clothes from wrinkling so much, and fabric softner in the washing maching does not seem to be doing it..I guess I will just have to get better at ironing. Wrinkled clothes have never bothered Randy so he just wears his as they come out...

STREET MAPS AND BUS ROUTES IN CUENCA

I am sorry to say, this will be another blog without photos. I am very reluctant to wander with my camera, and also I am very forgetful to bring it... so between the two, I have no photos of the following events.

We have been struggling with trying to find out way around from our new apartment. We are just enough in the "burbs" and just enough off the beaten path that a bus stop is not right out the door like it is in the center of town. The other day we hiked up Premiro De Mayo to the Avenida De Las Americas and finally caught a bus heading we hoped in the direction of the Super Maxi that we were familliar with... well the bus did a pretty good job but then it turned off and started down a highway off  ramp. We leaped to our feet and smashed the little red button... the drivers are supposed to only stop at the designated stops but thankfully most will stop on a dime if they can, and he did, right at the entrance to the highway... I dont think the other bus behind him appreciated it, but we were all smiles and I am sure the other passengers were shaking their heads at us silly gringos.

We finally made it to the market and did some major shopping, but took a taxi back. We still dont know the correct bus to take to make it all the way up Avenidas Las Americas... I dont think it was that bus 17 or was it 22... see.. I never have a pen to write the information down, and between Randys memory and mine we are probably lucky we even can make it back home! Oh thats right, we have a card with our address on it, so we wont get lost!

Randy and his new BFF Clarke went on an motorcycle expedition. Both have the bug, but Randy has agreed that he will not get one until he is SURE that he does not have to have his CEDULA yet... We should have them soon, as our attorney has assured us she has submitted the paperwork and it is in "the works"..I will leave that to your imagination on a time frame.

When Randy and Clarke returned from their trip, Randy had a wonderful little city street map. It shows all the musuems, cathedrals and tells a bit about the city and its history... all in English... bonus! As a side bar here. I am totally trying to learn Spanish, I am determined to nail it down... but sometimes its so nice to catch a break.

Today we were determined to find a great bus that would take us to El Centro. We had seen a bus yesterday that stopped just up the street so we headed for that area, plopped ourselves on a concrete wall and proceded to wait... not long a bus #7 came by that said Fiera Libre and Mall Del Rio on it...those are two areas we are familliar with so we hopped on. We were happy to note during the rided that the bus also would stop right across the street from our Bank, and a easy walk to our friends house up on Luis Cordero.  As the bus continued we got the whole city tour. We were in the industrial part of town all the way up into the hills.  At one point the driver told us Final... or in English "the bus stops here..." He pointed to another bus and we got on it..another #7. The drivers were finishing up a snack at the local lunch (almuerza) stand but soon our driver arrived. It was very interesting that he would not let us swipe our cards until he got to his first stop, a short ways down the hill...(so we kinda got a free ride..?) We enjoyed the ride back down the way we came, but I think this one did less of the industrial area of town. I dont think all #7 buses are the same...When the bus got to Mall Del Rio we decided a quick lunch was in order so we hopped off, ate lunch and shopped a bit at the Corral. So now we know that if we cross the street going the other direction and pick up a #7 that says Mall Del Rio on it, we can get there much quicker than the two hour bus tour we took for .50.

I have to tell you that our shopping experience was rather interesting. We looked at TV's, DVD players, and food steamers. The steamers we have seen seem to be very expensive and hard to find, so we continue to hunt. As we came up to the cashier she rattled off something in Spanish, Randy smiled and says... No Entinendo... "I dont understand", she smiled and then asked for "numero" We determined that she wanted our passport number. I am not sure if you have to have this because of the taxes, but most of the time we have to show this when we purchase items. We carry color copies of the ID page of the passport with us and this is always sufficient. We ended up only buying two bottles of  pump hand soap, fabric softer for the washer, 2 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of rum and 2 test size packages of crackers. We decided we had eaten enough at lunch that a big shopping spree was not in order. We will wait for another day.  We decided a taxi ride home was in order, and 1.50 later we were at our door. Home Sweet Home.

CATCHING UP ON LIFE IN CUENCA

I have not been able to add photos of our journey to Cuenca due to my computer issues. I still have computer issues but Randy has relented and is letting me use his computer. Lets hope I don't mess his up too!

We arrived in Quito on the 1st of July, and after meeting with our attorney decided to pack up and head down to Cuenca... home. Here is our driver trying to get all the bags in and on the car, and still leave room for his two weary passengers

He was very determined to be somewhat of a tourguide as well so he made sure to stop at the oldest church in Ecuador. He took this as we were walking in. Its the only one that actually shows the church!

After arriving in Cuenca we spent the next 16 days in a hotel. Read previous blogs about this experience, but here are some photos. Being the spoiled Norte Americans that we are there were some adjustments to be made.

Closet space was at a minimum as well as the room size, but I did think they did a clever job with the painting on the ceiling., I had fond recollections of our time spent at the wonderful hotel McMennamins in Portland, Ore.

We were rescued by our good friend Chuck & Nancy and we moved into their Condo for 4 days before we moved to our apartment. We were wined and dined and introduced to a bunch of other expats.
One of our new friends invited us over for breakfast, This is a photo of Clarke and Brenda, Nancy and Randy.

 They have some wonderful views off their balcon as it is called here in Ecuador.  You can see major church steeples and the cool mountains all around.

We got a call from Charlie and Susi, our landlords on Friday that we could move in earlier than expected! Oh, we were so happy. Chuck and Nancy were great in giving a space, but we were sooo ready to be in our own! So at 5 pm we loaded up two taxis with 7 suitcases and two backpacks and in our best spanglish told the drivers where we were going. We were so happy to get to our place. Charlie helped us haul our bags upstairs and we agreed to get settled and then at 8  we would meet up to head out to dinner. Here are some photos of our moving in. We unpacked everything in two hours! Now that is downsizing!

 

The photo to the left is our bedroom as we started to unload, the one on the right is the suitcases lined up to be unloaded. Oh yes, that is a double bed..we are adjusting, but Randys feet hang off most of the time!

Randy's first task was to set up his music. He was disappointed to find out that when the security went through our luggage they did not repack his speakers as well as he did. So they survived, but they are not quite as handsome the speaker covers snapped off and their are now little chips on the edges in the back, but the sound is still very nice, so that was a big relief! He is now designing a stand for the new big screen TV and his stereo. The workmanship here is wonderful and we can get a great setup made to our specifications for a very resonable price. Randy has enjoyed his first day, so far he has moved furniture, drank a fifth of brandy and listened to music, hmmm I think he is having a great day!

We have been on some great walks around town, and we have met some very famous personalities.  Here is one you should all recognize! I stood out in traffic to get his photo! Poor Randy, all the drivers were just smiling at him.  We were also excited to see that you CAN get a Vespa Scooter in Ecuador!

We were treated to a wonderful breakfast this morning, then they hauled us to the grocery store so we could stock up. We managed to only forget sugar and butter so I think we did good. Monday we go Veggie and Fruit Shopping at the Organic Co-op. I will try to report on the prices, you will be so jealous!

WEATHER, WATER AND WELCOME WAGON

When we came to Cuenca in 2008 it was in February. The weather was warm and a sweater was only needed in the evening after dark. I have become very attached to my new purple windwall jacket by Northface. I am cold! Its not that is so cold here on a temperature scale, its that I am not climatized yet. Let me back up a bit. When we left Richland WA we had just started to get our nice "warm" temps. of 80-90 degrees F so coming her and it being 60 or less with rain tends to send me into a coat and socks and heavy shoes. I am remembering Randy shaking his head as I laid out my coats and tried to decide which to bring. We are both coat fanantics so this really was a big decision. I ended up with 4 coats. two rain type coast one heavy and hits mid thigh, one is just a rain jacket very light weight. The other two are my windwalls one has a hood, my purple one does not have a hood. So I am happy, I brought my coats, Randy has mumbled that he wishes he had brought warmer coats... I feel very santimonious that I dont poke fun and remind him about his attitude when I brought my coats.

Today was a very important day in our life here in Cuenca and our stay at the hotel. We had HOT water! Oh man, I was all ready to bail on the shower all together today and Randy stuck his head out with a huge smile and said, HURRY its HOT! And it was, I was so thrilled I was able to take some time and not just splash here and there. And to add to the delight we were not up at the crack of dawn either! Its was 9:30! So maybe they fixed whatever the problem was. I did see new propane tanks being delivered so maybe that is why we had nice hot water.. hmmm maybe I will go back and try for an afternoon shower!

Writing this blog and talking with folks on other social networks regarding our wishes to move to Ecuador has led us to 'meet' alot of people on line. Our friend Chuck who lives here in Cuenca had taken us on a trip to see motorcycles... So we were ending out trip by walking Chuck to his appointment upstairs above the California Kitchen when I hear... "KAREN!" So as I look to see who called my name I see this lady who I dont know waving and waving at me... Her name is Patty McNabb, she had written to me on FB I believe and she wanted to say hello!  We quickly exchanged our experiences as we had to move on to another appointment, but it was so nice to have someone reach out and say hi, like that! It felt like a Welcome Wagon of the old days!

CUENCA UPDATE

We are adapting to our new routine here in Cuenca. We sleep until we decide to wake up, or if we want a warmish shower we get up early.. I must say here before I am thought to be whining, that we have been offered a hot shower by Chuck and Nancy anytime we want, so the note here is only as a infomercial about the quality of the showers in our current residence. We have chosen to stay here as we are too lazy to move our 5 bags and look for other accomodations until the 14th when we move in with Nancy while Chuck is on travel for business.

Last night we were sitting in our lobby enjoying the rainstorm and thundershowers. The glass roof over the courtyard is wonderful to hear the rain, and feel the breeze that comes under the glass. This glass roof is not water tight over the tiled roof, so all around the inside roof line of the courtyard is a marvelous gutter system that catches the rain pouring off the roof . There was a massive flash and then boom, a huge clap of thunder immediately followed, with torrential downpour  and I lost my internet. So I am continuing this today, Saturday.

We had a nice walk this morning to the Fybecca for more medicine for Randy, Our favorite English speaking assistant was there. She has such a nice smile, and offered information about where the best pork could be found. She warned us that it would be a whole pig with the head and feet on a pole, all roasted and people cutting hunks off of it. We assured her we had seen that. She said we should try it because the meat was very very good. We have not ventured in that direction as yet.

After Fybecca we continued walking and because it is Saturday the stores open at a later time. So even though it was about 9:30 the streets were not too busy and stores had not all opened up. We sat on "our" bench at Parque Calderon, this park is in front of the famous church with the blue domes. While sitting there a very sweet old lady came up and asked us how we were doing ... in Spanish, shook our hands, and as I responded in my limited Spanish she began to talk very fast and smiled and smiled. I tried to tell her I could not understand, but she did not seem to mind. She continued and shook our hands, pleased that she had welcomed the "gringos".  This really touched me, she knew I did not know what she was saying but she really went out of her way with her smiles and tone to let me know she was saying something very welcoming, and I think it kind of made her day too, because she had a bigger smile as she walked away.

Our phone delimma has been fixed. My phone was somehow back to spanish and had a security code on it. We had arranged to meet with our landlord to have him go with us on Friday to be our translator. Between dead phones and phones not working we ended up just heading out to the Mall Del Rio to see if we could find a English speaking assistant at the Porta store. We were able to find one, and he helped us understand what code to put in and he had them set up the English for me. We also discovered that our charger was not working so that is why Randy's phone did not charge. After buying a new charger we were very happy to know we had our communcation issues finally fixed.

We grabbed a taxi and headed over to our bank for the final step in accessing our bank account. Omar was very helpful and took us down stairs to a machine like a cash machine. This one is inside and has an assistant standing by to help. Omar stayed with us to translate. Randy had to put in his passport number and then his debit card password, This went on through several screens and after about the 5th time there were smiles and he showed Randy how to access his account online. At this point Randy is looking over his should at me with a look that is saying ..."are you getting this?" Thankfully they wrote the website down, but the page is all in Spanish, so unless we can get Google Translor to turn it to English I think we may have to wait until our Spanish is abit better.

After the bank we decided to head up the stairs to Benigo Malo and Calle Larga and back to our hotel. We stopped at a furniture store that is known for being able to custom make furniture. I was more interested in the pictures and knic knacks.. being that I got rid of all the ones at home, I am looking forward to replenishing them! Randy paitiently waited by the door, and noted that now we were running from the rain... did I bring my raincoat or umbrella? Nope. So we did the Ecuadorian thing and slipped like theives along the edges of the buildings that have overhangs avoiding the downpour. We did real well, stopping to plan our route when there were gaps in the overhang. I had my birkenstocks on and Randy had his tennis shoes.  The sidewalks here are either concrete or beautiful tile. Unfortunately the tile is not textured. So when it rains us poor gringos have to really watch our step or we take off sliding when we are trying to hurry along dodging rain..So far neither of us has slid in the rain, but I did get caught gawking up in the air today. The sidwalk had a slope for a car to drive up, and it as tiled.... oops! Randy had my hand or I think I would have launched into the street! Yes, I did get the lecture about watching where I am going, but how can you look up and down at the same time? Isnt that why I was holding his hand so he could guide me along? Now that I think of it I think its his fault...

Later today we may take another walk and see if we can find the famous Carolina's Bookstore. We hear it is quite the Gringo hangout, and they have all kinds of new and used books there.

CUENCA-INCA REAL-PARQUE CALDERON

We left Quito on Saturday morning. I have photos of the car, but I cant load them onto this net book I am using so you will have to imagine it. A Tuscon, with two suitcases in the back and 3 tied, covered and netted for safety! Off we went across the country side. If you look at a map of Ecuador and measure from Quito to Cuenca you can see the miles are long, what you cant see is the extreme highs and lows, and round and round mountains you will go!

The variety of towns, people and homes was really interesting to me, as we were interesting to the people we saw. Our driver Luis was very nice, and patient, as he spoke NO english except OK! We did some incredible pantomime and arm waving, most of the time when we came through with good enough spanish he really seemed proud of us. Luis stopped at a town know for its Helado... Icecream.. Oh yeah, so we pulled up to a stalled he yelled through the window what he wanted and she handed it to us. Oh joy, hard fruta icecream on a stick.. .very good.

I was very proud that I remembered to take my tissues with me when we stopped at a gas station. There was a place for the TP but it was empty. So yeah for me, I am learning to be prepared. Also I have no forgotten to throw the tissues in the garbage and not the toilet yet... I know, that is one thing that is an adjustment, but not really an inconvinence!

We pulled into a town to eat almuerzo (lunch) and they were having a fiesta. Streets were closed and traffic was blocked, Luis was getting more and more tangled in the city as he asked people how to get out of town. Then a huge truck stopped in the middle of the one lane road..four cars piled up behind us, all honking their horns and Luis pleading with the driver to move, pointing to the cars behind us. When they finally did move they were all smiles and no one seemed upset. Randy says he loved this part. Neither of us got upset, we were just having fun! So finally we were off to the next town.

The almuerza was really good. $2.00 ~ Huge bowl of soup with potatoes, beef. Then a nice oblong plate filled to overflowing with rice, beans, cooked veggies and a chicken thigh and fresh juice. We each had the same. So $6 for it all.

We arrived in Cuenca about 4 oclock. Traffic was horrendous, and our driver much to our dismay asked us where to go! OH no! I had asked at the hotel if the driver knew of the hotel and he assured me that he did.
So we began using our memory, calls to our friends Chuck & Nancy Watson, locals info and the blue church to get us into the approxomate area. When we did finally find it we had to make 3 trips around the block so the hotel staff could run out and hold a space open for us to park. They were awesome, they hauled all those heavy suitcases up to our room on the second floor. wheew! Glad I didnt have to!. Our driver Luis was happy to say goodby as he had to turn around and drive back to Quito, Sunday he had a tour to Otovollo scheduled for his trusty Tucson.!

We took a taxi to Nancy & Chucks, and then after awhile we taxied back to our hotel for a late (by US standards..7:30) dinner. It was a successful Saturday.

This is Sunday, we walked to the Parque Calderdon and did some people watching. Randy found that his leg tattoos and Cigar smoking were too much of an oddity, and he did not like being watched, so out went the Cigar. I think they are just going to have to get used to his tattoos, he does like his shorts!

We had a pleasant surprise when several "gringos" came up and introduced themselves. I guess our friend has posted that we are here with our photos. So we now have met 3 couples, and a dutch gentleman.

We are so happy to be here, tomorrow is our banking day and hopefully with catch up with our future landlords, as they offered to give us a tour. I love the hospitality of this place!

WE HAVE LANDED!

We arrived in Quito on July 1st. Our flights were good, and we had great luck with our extra baggage. Our 5th bag was overweight besides being extra. The airline attendant was flustered and said he didnt think he could check a overweight bag to Quito. Well he called someone, slapped a ticket on it and when we questioned him he just shrugged, and said no charge, I already put it on the listing...cool. Our luck held and we were never questioned or charged in Quito either!

We were not inpressed with United, We flew from Pasco, Wa to Denver, then to LA. where we switched to COPA. United charged for everything other than juice and water. COPA fed us and free poured alcohol! As anyone knowing Randys flight phobia, he was please with that service!

When we landed in Panama we were slapped in the face with heat and humidity...ugh. both of which we were not happy about, luckily we only had to deal with it from the plane to the airport. Inside was nice AC, sitll a bit muggy though.

Our hotel in Quito is a very cute hotel and close to our attorneys office so thats a big help. We had lunch downtown today and I had a tamal. It was very yummy cooked two huge banana leaves! $2.25.

We found that our US phones that we bought, unlocked had too high of bandwidth so we had to have them worked on. The Porta people were very helpful and even got all of our phone issues resolved so we didnt have to try to figure out what button to push in spanish! My spanish was enough to let them know we appreciate their great service. A big smile assured me I was succesful.. I hope, unless I said something inappropriate!

We found a really fun restaurant called CafeLibro.  I believe the spanish by line was something about the essential bohemian. Randy had steak, 5.50. I had Nuggets Pollo. oh yum, Micky D's got nuthin on  this place... oh man they were good. We had a very nice bottle of wine and were on our way in an hour. The place was going to hop later, it was definately a dancing bar!

Tomorrow we leave for Cuenca, we thought we would stay longer in Quito, but have decided since out needs are met with the attorney we can go on home to Cuenca. We have decided to rent a van and drive this time. It will be a long drive but we hope to be able to see the countryside. Our driver does not speak alot of english... ugh well maybe none, but he knows where we are going and we will have our spanish cheat sheets ready for the trip.

Now to get on with all the new beginnings in Cuenca!

MIDDLE EARTH

We have made it out of our apartment here in Richland, WA. We are now hovering in a kind of no mans land I have dubbed Middle Earth. You know this place, it has all the oddities you forget about when you have your feet firmly planted in your Reality... we are now remembering uncomfortable beds, puffy pillows, intermittant internet connections, and tired to the bone.

We are staying in a hotel for the next few days as our rental here in Richland is all cleaned out and we dont fly out  for Ecuador until the 30th. In the mean time our brains are running through lists of things to do, we have given up writting it down, we just loose the paper. I have lost and found my room key, makeup bag, and various other items so instead of drving Randy nuts I am just subsisting on my intermitant brain power. Thank goodness for Barracuda Coffee shop! They have screaming free WIFI and great coffee and wonderful atmosphere! So I get to share all the gritty details with you!

I need to remember also that this is what we will be doing for the next month. Hotelling... A week in Quito, then the rest of the month in Cuenca until our apartment is ready for us.. hopefully on the 26th. At least that stress is off, no frantic apartment hunting!

I just realized that one of my perscriptions is about to run out so I 411'd the number called it in and discussed a larger amount. No problem, she would just do the 30 days that the insurance allowed and give me another 90 days worth for cash... wow who knew?This way we will have time to get settled and find a doctor for our onging perscriptions. Which I must say are pretty minor so we are very lucky!

We will close out the bank accounts today and then see about rearranging our 5 suitcases, to be sure we are within the limits.I may hang on to my cell phone until tomorrow. I only have 40 minutes on the "travel phone" that might be pushing it..

TRIFECTA

The last few days have been just a wonderment.  The weather here has finally decided to get with it and be warm with out the Seattle rain thrown in, we have noticed that we cant find a pen or other items that we usually had tons of becasue we are really narrowing down our stash in the house... also we had 3 things happen in the last two days that have really made us feel like the "stars are aligning".

Tuesday as we are driving up the road from something,... I cant even remember what we were doing, Randy says, "you know, I am going to stop at that Vintage Electronics place, I left some stuff there gosh, about a year ago...I will probably have to pay him money, but I should stop and see if he was able to sell that stuff".
I went into the antique store next door and putdz around, well he was not done so I went next door and he said... we are almost done here.. we walked out, Randy had this astonished look on his face..(he is the half empty part of the team remember)..he says look... I got $780..omg I almost didnt stop cause it had been so long! Windfall #1

While packing and parcelingout to family, I  went though all the jewelry in my case and weeded out stuff that was junk, broken chains, old gold crowns pieces of gold jewlry that was just not usable. I had this little bundle of "scrap", Randy thought  I was funny...(half empty remember). So I called and found a place in town that bought "scrap gold", (did you know that pure gold is going for over 1200 an ounce?) So as we waited I was hoping for maybe 8o dollars... the fellow said... well these are just not gold at all, and these. well I can give you $430 for... (ok, suck the air back into my lungs)... sure that will be just fine.. Randy is just stunned. We climbed back on our scooters and I treated him to a wondeful Mexican lunch.Windfall #2

I have been haunting this poor family in Cuenca, they have an apartment that I want. Well we were hoping and hoping that this one family would move out. I know its not nice to wish others to have issues with their Visas, or travel plans, but lets just say that we were hoping something would open up for us around July.
Tonite as I was on online, I saw that the people who own the apt were on line so I did the bop in and Chat thing. The owner responded and well one thing led to another and lets just say that the stars were aligned, and the people who were renting JUST gave notice, and we are IN yes, we got MY dream place in Cuenca.
3bd 2 1/2 bth,  2k+ sqft., totally furnished, internet and all utilities included less than 500 a month. So this makes our month a Trifecta, and its not even over yet...I wonder what other wonderful things will align for us on our journey?

PARTY, PARTY, REST, PARTY

Ugh, am I too old for this or what? It seems we have all these events to go to, and people dropping by and then there is the "rat child" who is still moving stuff out of the house. Maybe I better explain, well this really says it all... we are running out of time.

Today according to the calendar is Fathers Day, Happy Fathers day! Kelsey our daughter stopped by to give Randy two father's day cards. Both were so perfect and sweet, I think I detected a tear in his eye, or was that me blubbering over there..?

Also according to the calendar we only have two days that something or someone is not written in for us not to forget about doing or seeing. Last Thursday we had our friends little boy over for a visit. He is Randys buddy.

As you can see he is not camera shy at all!

Also on this day we had a great time with the kids. We hadn't seen Adam for quite awhile so it was a wonderful opportunity to get a quick family photo taken. Thank goodness our friend Don had come by to take his purchases of yard furniture, so we got a great picture of us together!

Friday we got to listen to Felicia sing at Casa Vino, Kelsey went with us and took pictures. Unfortunately it was artistic photos and not one of people! I am hoping someday to be living off her avant garde photos...Keep up the good work Kelsey we love your bubbly water photos!

Saturday we had our "Going Away Party" at the Leslie Groves Park. That is something I think I will also miss is the park system that following along the whole of the river, it really is a nice feature of this area!

But I digress, the party, OMG how fun, and how sweet, and well I am speechless. Our friend Jennifer and Dori put out the word, and everyone came together to get a license so we could have live electric music and alcohol in the park! How fun, and what a hoot when the guy came over and PEEEEERRRRRRed at our permit, then sulked off.. Hey lots of people came by and stopped to listen, and applaude, JD Kindle and  the Eastern Oregon Playboys are great!

We topped off the night by going over to Tammy & Rob Hastings house to continue on as it was not even dark yet... ugh. I gave out about 9pm. I was so happy to lay my head down.  Randy was up by 5am I slept until 9. I am thinking I am getting the hang of this party stuff!

I will take more pictures and try to update as we go, there is a BBQ pizza later today, now those are incredible. So after we pick up Glenda at the airport we will zip over and partake of those! Monday and Tues are open so we will probably go around and start closing out our internet (thank goodness for the wifi across the street), telephones and closing out our other utilities. Then its back to Party, Party, Rest, Party!

THE LAST DAYS OF OUR LIVES IN RICHLAND WASHINGTON

We have managed to get our last days pretty planned out, or is that our friends have planned out our last days here in Richland.?

Besides the normal refrain of "Why Ecaudor?" or "But what will you DO there?" we are now hearing... I can't believe its already time for you to go! It went so fast! It always makes my heart warm when someone calls and says, what do you have scheduled for this date...? Our days are filling up, and it means so much to us that our friends are squeezing in time to hang out with us before we leave.

I thought I would share some of our fun times with friends that we have had this last few days.
I think I have mentioned that Randy rides his scooter (Vespa ET4) to a local coffee hotspot called Barracudas. They have a designated smoking spot way back on their deck and you can find Randy there each morning enjoying his coffee and cigars.

The story behind this place is that the original owner sold his "baby" Cuda to start the business, He later  sold it to a young couple with the stipulation that he gets free coffee for life.  Here is Jake & Michelle the cute owners!

Some other things we enjoy is going to Yard Sales... well we do usually go to buy but now days we go to commiserate with those having the sale and generally reflect on how glad we are that we aren't doing it ourselves. This is our "scooter trash" friends Jennifer, John and Hattie Jane.

My officemates and supervisor had a nice going away dinner for me on Wednesday. We had a nice time at
 3 Margaritas. I was surprised with a beautiful arrangement of longstemed roses and daisies.

Kelsey came to move her things out and I just have to show you her idea of helping to pack. Its pretty indicative of things to come dont you think?

Later in the week she came back and packed up her car again with even more things. I am still waiting to see pictures of where she is putting all this in her little apartment.

Our friends Robin and Jim just bought a Party Barge. Well I guess the real name is a Pontoon Boat, but its really going to be a party barge!

 The weather had turned really warm, and the day on the Columbia River was a real nice way to relax after work.

We followed up with a South American Wine tasting in Prosser on Thursday. There is our friend Glenda, she and Randy were terrorizing me with bad wine tasting etiquette, knowing that I am a total rule follower!

This Saturday my friend Tawnee who had moved to Seattle about 10 years ago came down to visit before we leave. She brought a friend and of course, girls just want to have fun so we went wine tasting!                              

Monday is my last real day at work. So check in later this week and see what new last minute excitement we can get up to! 

PACKING FOR THREE

We are starting to wind up... most people wind down...I am a last minute person, and Randy is a lets get it done and just cruise to the end... well we cant because of weight contraints and really not having that many clothes... honest I dont...so I cant prepack like Randy did. He is recycling his clothes because he has already sent most down in previous trips made by our friends who already live there.

We are taking the speakers to Cuenca. Each speaker weights 39 lbs.... not much math to be done on that one...

Our friend Eddie, noted in the photo above was going to keep them for us for a later trip, but you seen he is using his good lowering technique to return them to us.

We are packing within each item that has a hole.. the shoes are filled with socks and tshirts, all the crevices around the shoes are packed with other tshirts... I wear alot of tshirts.

 I was getting some excellent advice from Randy, he has appointed himself the Manager of Packing, and it making sure that I get all my stuff that I want to take in the suitcase, if it weights in under 50lbs.

 I thought I did good.. there were somethings that I figured I didnt really need, and it seems that no one else wants them either because I tried to sell them.. Here are the "Left Behind Shoes"

We have ripped up our house and its pretty trashed, but I feel like we really started to dig in and become serious about getting ready... its starting to become more real when I see the things that are going to others or to Good Will.

Also we are not only getting our stuff ready, but our daughter Kelsey is coming this Monday to pack up her things, as well as our household items to take to her new apartment.. so we have her boxes and "things" we are giving to her.

There is more to do, and luckily we have time, but our pile of things to leave behind is gettin larger and larger, and I think our friends will be sweet if they do take alot of our "finds" and "treasures", but if not, we are totally ok that someone else will be enjoying those items.

We have our reservations for our tickets, our hotel in Quito, our appointment with our attorney Gabriella, and our reservation at the Inca Real in Cuenca. The only thing left to do is in Ecuador, and we are good with leaving that till we get there.

RANDYS RESPONSE.

Well after reading this Randy has told me that I do not have two full suitcases to fill will odds and ends. He had determined that because we have two suitases already in Cuenca, he is taking his Sterio equipment. This will take up 1 1/2 suitcases... operative word here is HIS stereo equipment. I believe he will have 1/2 of a suitcase for his clothes.

Oh, and now he informs me that he has purchased 3 more boxes of cigars. This makes a total of 8. His response to the why??? was that he will need to be a good host when he begins his "Dinner at the Kimblers" get togethers in Cuenca. These cigars he believes will be our "entre" into Cuenca life. I have yet to remind him that very few folks smoke cigars, I think its pretty useless at this point. But again.. these are his cigars. So I guess he better hope the two suitcases down in Cuenca have some of his clothes in them!

TRAVEL, SELLING AND SUMMER

We have been so wound up in our progress, that we did not realize that we were running our of time to hang out at our favorite place. We call it "Disney Land for drinkers" the actual name is McMenamins Edgefield. Edgefield is in Troutdale Oregon. It used to be a Poorfarm and then a Restirement home, and I think at one time also a "insane asylum"... or is that only when we visit??? This place has a working distillery, winery and brewery on site. Over 7 bars, a spa, massuse, 18 hole golf course, a movie theatre, and 2 4 star restaurants. May 5th & 6th we took off in the middle of the week because the weekends were booked solid. So we invited some friends and WAHLAH... we had a weekday get away with friends.

The only things that we had left to sell were our wine fridge and my car. The wine fridge was pretty empty anyway.. we aren't big white wine drinkers and we have drank all our good wine long ago... so I put it up for sale in my local work newspaper. Its a great way to reach 2000 immediately each Tuesday and Thursday... and you know that they all have security clearances! Also, the ad cost $1 a day, no word limit, and all the money is donated to March of Dimes . A great deal for all concerned. We sold the wine fridge several times over while we were out of town, due to my forgetfulness to not place the ad before we went on our weekday get away. Then we got down to brass tacks and decided to put the car in.. my baby. I have never ever had a brand new off the show floor car.. this was it for me..(Thank you Randy, you are about the sweetest man I know) a cute 2007 Toyota Yaris. Well we sold it in one day as well... so today we said goodbye to it and pocketed our "cash for traveling to Ecuador".

We are really happy to laze away today on our scooters, and enjoy the 80 degree weather. It has been so rainy here that we  thought maybe we were confused with Seattle... nope, our nice sunny weather showed up with a vengence. This was my Friday off, so while we knew that we had the car deal later in the day, we zipped out on our scooters (150cc Vespas) to our local private coffee place, Barracudas. It has a nice east facing wall that is perfect for Mr. Kimblers cigar habit, and I can find a spot somewhat out of the smoke zone to sip my Chai Tea, and read the paper. Today we had lots of company, folks that are regulars at the coffe shop who over the years have become "nodding aquaintances" Today they were talking aquaintances.. We chat to all who will listen about our Ecuador adventure, so they are well aware that we are leaving. It was quite touching to hear them say they would miss us.

Today after the coffee klatch, I headed for some serious "tossing". I was serious, I was strong, I was sad... yep... sad. I found my daughters little tooth that I have saved all this time... I threw it out. I found notes that the kids wrote to me when I was sick. Encouraging me to get well so I could play with them.. My son wrote specially as "spcllcly"... ah I did not throw that out... its just some  bits of paper, but the memories and love attached are so wonderful. I think I might give them back to the kids..maybe. All these things escaped the major cleanout, so now I am down to the real serious stuff. Its getting harder. But I do know that we have two suitcases already in Cuenca, so I have two whole suitcases to fill... I may not have any clothes to wear. I might only have scraps of paper, oddly shaped ceramic pieces, and photos of children with missing teeth..

LONG WEEKENDS, PACKING AND DRIVING

This weekend was my "Long Weekend". I work what is know here in this town as 8/9's. I work 9 hour days with every other Friday off, those Fridays that I do work are "short" days.. I only work 8 hours. My day starts at 6 and I get off work at 3:30.. so its really not a bad schedule. That said, I really do look forward to my Long Weekends. This Friday we went to Ellensburg, WA to visit with a friend I have met online who has returned home from teaching in Loja, Ecuador. We had a very nice visit over breakfast, and my daughter who is attending Central Washington University, also joined us. Kids, they will never pass up a free meal!

After we picked our new freinds brain for two hours we let her go and promised to get together with her again before we left for Cuenca, she smiled and said she would like that, but as she hurried across the street.... I really wondered if she really was as excited about getting together  as we were... :-)

We had hung out long enough in the restaurant, that in the interim my daughter had left, attended a class and was now ready to be picked up so we could go see her apartment that she and her current dorm roommate were going to move into in June. The apartment was very cute, small and newly repainted and carpeted so it was going to be a perfect place for them. My daughter is "inheriting" all of our furniture that we have not sold to others.. which is still alot. So she wanted us to see the place and determine if it would fit...I am thinking its all going to fit like a size 7 shoe on a size 9 foot... but what do I care, she will have the fun of making it work.. I'm getting it out of my house and I dont have to move it!

Randy and I have polar opposite feelings about transportation once we get to Cuenca. Randy is a two wheel guy. He loves any type of two wheel motorized mode of transportation. That said, he convinced me that I too could love them. I tried, honest I did. I took the motorcycle safety endorsement classes, I barely passed. Then I bought a scooter because the little 250 motorcycle he bought me was too scary. I did learn to love the scooter and have happily gone on many long trips on it, and I would never have met Chuck and Nancy if we had not been out riding our scooters, saw them and ended up pulling over to organize an impromtu coffee meet and greet. So yes, two wheels have led to many friendships and good memories. But when I get to Cuenca, I am not driving... two, four or 20 wheels...nope. I am really looking forward to letting someone else worry about getting me there, and also I will not be reminded that I am not in the proper lane, or my speed is not considered fast, or slow enough... yes, he is a bit of a micromanager where that is concerned. I do love the man but jeeeeez.. drive the car if you dont like how I do it.. so THIS is my one wonderful thing that I am looking forward to! I am sure that he will have to file a disclaimer somewhere here to support his managment style (he WAS a manager in his professional life), but believe you me, this will open up a whole new relationship for us.

TICK TOCK.. VIST, CELEBRATE AND PACK

As our time here diminishes, we each have our agendas. Mine seems to be a wait and see attitude, Randys is more, slow and steady... he has dedicated part of his days of leisure to picking at the bits we have left an determining what to pack. It looks like he has one suitcase somewhat full. Of what I do not know. Hopefully its not all cigars and stereo parts.

Every day at work is such a fun time... honest, people stop by and say "how many days Karen?" Today the answer was "22 working days.."  really its pretty cool at this point, I am the oddity, that they all stop to talk to, and comment about, the one who is breaking out of the mold, giving hope to those who are still just "wishing" they could do the same.

We have really been trying to ramp up our visiting with friends, and get in these last few times with them. I am constantly amazed at the spectrum of ages and types of friends we have. We have such a nice network here, that I am sorry to leave them, but have hopes that we can develop a new one in our new home, and welcome our Norte Americano friends to our new home in Ecuador.

Randy has determined that we still need some apostiling of our Birth Certificates. So he has sent off our Birth Certificates to Seattle to get apostle'd. Then we will get some more passport size pictures for other items we might need. Other than that, I think we are are set for the paperwork needs.

We are so excited about tomorrow. We get to meet a lady who has been on one of our Expat sites. She has volunteered for the last school year in Loja Ecuador, and has come home for the summer. She lives just two hours away, so we are going over to have breakfast with her. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet her in person and hopefully make a new friend!

Randy and been celebrating since he retired, wisely using his days to laze away and practice for his new future..but now his mood has moved to jealousy. Yes, the dreaded sin.. he is jealous of our friends who have gone before in Cuenca. The Watson's... he is jealous of Puff Puff, the pretty red dragon car that is chauffeuring them around Ecuador!   I tell him to be patient, that when we get to Ecuador we will get our own Puff Puff... but I am sure it will be more of a Ruff Ruff...

HOOKEY, SUNSHINE AND FRIENDS

Today I played hookey... it was fun. Well of course I did the responsible thing and got permission so I guess it wasn't really hookey..but it felt like it. Randy, our friend Glenda and I took the Columbia Sternwheeler up the Columbia River and into the Snake. It was a 6 hour ride, the ticket price included a great buffet breakfast and lunch. There was even a nice bar on each level so those who wanted could imbibe in the spirit of choice
Here are Randy and Glenda, relaxing on the deck as we cruise upriver.

This next picture is our destination.. Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River

Now here is the inside of the locks!

The Captain was excellent. We never bumped the side. It was fun to see how they flung the rope onto the floats on the side of the walls so we would stay put as the water level was raised so we could get out.
This next photo is of the gate locking us in so they could fill it up like a bath tub!

to give you a feeling of how much of a change in elevation we were going to undertake, here is a photo of the locked gate from the bow of the sternwheeler.

Now we are all filled up and ready to go out...

And here is the great Captain who maneuvered us up and down the river safely all the while keeping up a wonderful commentary on Lewis & Clark, Wheat, Gold and Fur trade.

I have never been on a Sternwheeler before, so I think this is a wonderful start to our adventures in Cuenca, Ecuador!

MY TURN

Karen has been after me to enter a blog update so here goes.
I am doing my part to get ready for our departure on June 30th. I have purchased our Ecuador phones, a new netbook, new camera and a bunch of other stuff. I am on my second week of retirement and still liking it. It is true, I do not miss going to work every day or getting middle of the night phone calls.

 I have also been getting together my essentials for travel; 120 gigabyte Zune with over a 1000 CD's loaded into it. new Grado headphones, new Benchmade folding knife (I'm a guy, it is essential), new pair of Birkenstocks, new cargo shorts (our Ecuador friends tell me no one wears shorts in Cuenca), and most important is my travel bag. I have had  many changes made to it by our local seamstress and it is ready for the ultimate survival conditions. It will hold cigars, flask of rum, my Zune and Kindle ebook reader. I think it will insure my survival in the harshest conditions. Also ordered several boxes of cigars, new cigar cutter and lighter.

 I had the lasik thing done to my eyes so I went crazy and bought three pairs of Ray Ban sunglasses, they are so cool. What more could we possibly need?

I am leaving it up to Karen to find us a place to live, travel arrangements, documents needed for residency, etc. When I was younger I was in the Peace Corps in the Phillipines. What I learned most during that experience is that less plans means less to go wrong. Living in the moment day to day created the most happiness. I am fortunate to have Karen in my life. She is more responsible than me and she loves me enough to put up with all my quirks. I am very excited to have her as my travel partner. It is going to be a fun adventure!!!! 

WELCOME TO THE COMPUTER ERA

Today I thought was going to be just another Monday... get up at 4:30 a.m., be at work by 6:00 a.m. That all worked out ok for me, but it went down hill soon afterwards.

It started at 6:30 when I was in a coworkers office and she received a outside call (noted by the double ring), It was a mutual friend calling to find out what was going on with me... she had just received an email stating that I was in London, and had been mugged..etc.. she was so happy to know it was all a ruse, but very upset.

I went back to my office and checked my bank accounts, and they seemed ok, so I changed my paswords and then the phone rang... my friend/coworker (who works in internet security) called .. I said, No John, I am not in London, and I was not mugged... he says, yes, I am on with them right now! OMG... I said can you track them down? He was not sure, but did get into accounts I couldnt access from work and changed up my passwords hoping to slow the crooks down.

I ended up going home, and changing my bank accounts, and contacting the internet banking fraud numbers, calling relatives and friends who knew that we are going to Ecuador... it was a very stressful day..

But you know what really stood out? The love...the concern and the caring of all my friends who are close by, who are far away and even the concern of banking officials to help me end run this low life. I realize that I have tons of people who care about me, and even though we dont talk that often they really come through when they think I am having "issues".

So today did not go as planned but I did learn a few lessons, Keep your passwords difficult, keep your security updated and manually run scans ALOT... dont open links in messages, and remember your friends and family got your back when you need them.

Oh and Randy says... dont forget he only has 2 days left of work!!!!!!!!

BITTERSWEET, GOLD and BUBBLE WRAP

Today we made a quick trip to Ellensburg, Wa. This is a nice OLD community, lots of brick and old places with placards stating that they have been there since 1892. We appreciate it very much since the Tri-Cities was built by the government to house all the Hanford workers back in the 40's. Not too much brick and cool architechture here.

Our trip was to attend a baby shower for a family friend. She was a good friend of our daughter's, and we could not miss this special event.The shower was very nice and she is beautiful in her pregnancy. The bittersweet part was seeing all these friends of our daughters all grown up, without Roseann being there too, she would have loved it. We miss her very much.

We got to hang out with our other daughter Kelsey, she is attending Central Washington University. She was dissapointed I think that we did not fall for the poor college student scam and take her shopping, but let us off with "oh well I guess I could spend my own money..." UH, yeah... that would be a nice idea!

As we were eating lunch in an old historic building that had been there since 1892, I was reflecting on covered wagons... and how our moving to Ecuador is kind of like those settlers. They were traveling by covered wagon, to find their promised land, or gold, and a better life.
We have our planes this time. We dont seek actual gold, but do look for the richness of a better way of life and a new way of life, or one with out the 9-5 grind that has defined us for so many years.

I waxed so philosophical I fell asleep while Randy drove.......

We called off our normal Sunday nite feed, we were just too wore out. So what did we do? We ripped the house apart looking for my Digital Camera battery Charger... Lost.. gremlins, or just plain left it somewhere.. darn...got to get another one soon.

Randy decided that he would pack his stereo speakers. He has an idea that if he bubblewraps them they will be ok. I hope so. I just see the baggage handlers flinging those bags from aiplane to terminal and we open up the luggage to black boxes that rattle... alot.. I must say at this point that our reconnisance mission to Ecuador included indepth searches of local stores for stereo equipment. Randys music is like breath. He has to have it, and it has to sound good. So hopefully this will work. He is determined not to ship anything; he may find he needs a respirator when we get to Cuenca...

FIRST CONTACT

We are thrilled to report that we have an attorney.. who would have ever guessed we would be excited about that? Ms. Espinoza has directed us to contact the Ecuadorian Consulate in DC, to tie up some details, and a contact at a local bank in Quito so we can set up an account even before we get there! How wonderful.
We also had a great talk with a fellow from Cuenca who's apartment we may rent if the timing works out right.  So now thats two contacts we have that "might" work out. We just love Skype. Its amazing to me how  technology has made keeping in touch with people so easy, even across thousands of miles.  Soon after that call we heard from our friends in Cuenca. We made sure they were hale and hearty after the storm and flooding. Sounds like they are great, and their damage was limited to blossoms knocked off their patio plants. Blossoms... wow, I WISH I had blossoms to get knocked off! Just hearing their voices just energized us to make this move happen faster and faster and faster.

We were pleased that payday coincided with great sales in our local JC Pennys. We were able to stock up on our most comfortable undergarments and some other items that we think are "necessities". I just hope the customs agents dont  tear into our suitcase with all the garments wrapped around the vitamix and other breakables... It makes me giggle just thinking about it! This is the suit case that is going with our friends so hopefully they will not have to explain the strange combination of items in there!

Randys count down is getting exciting. He has only a this month and then he will be footloose and fancy free. I think when I get up at 4:30 each morning I will nudge him and see if he wants to get up and keep me company until I leave for work.. do you think he will?

SUITCASES CHECK, POTS AND PANS CHECK...

Pay day...... or is that Pay dirt.. Costco, yippee, we found awesome suitcases, perfect size, twin comparments, one for your wetstuff and expandable, only $40. So we were thrilled. As we went by the kitchen isle we noticed that the huge box set of stainless steel, thriple clad pots and pans were gone.. oh well we waited too long..wasn't sure we wanted those anyway. Side story to this saga is that Randy is the cook in this family. We have bought very nice cook ware for him to use, along with knives and accutrements. Unfortunately his wife (me) has this knack for whipping up a little something now and then... and in the process I have ruined almost everyone of his pans. Who would guess, there is a HI setting, why shouldn't I use it? I have even snapped a henkel knife in a block of chocolate. So you can see he has every right to replace all these items and then ban me from the kitchen.

Randy did find a great sale on pots and pans so off to Macys we went. It was nice to see that he found something he could be happy with and that if I did sneak into the kitchen I would probably be able to save them with some heavy scrubbing of the burn parts...

We have been talking about test packing up our suitcase for our friends to haul back when they come in April. So while Randy was busy prepping for our Sunday nite dinner party I ventured into the packing world. We are taking our vitamix so it went in the bottom, underware and socks stuffed in the areas open and pillowcases, then the pots and pans. I hate puzzles so stacking and restacking to find the best fit was not fun for me but I did feel a great sense of accomplishment when I figured I could layer my tshirts inbetween the pans, and we have lots more room...ugh.. its heavy. Randy weighed it. Not bad! 40.5 lbs and we have tons of room left! Maybe we will repack it all into a smaller suitcase, and save this one for "the big move"...we shall see.

NO WIND IN OUR SAILS

We are in a lull, somewhat like a sailor experiences when the wind quits.. they just float along until the next bit of wind moves them along on their journey. We are in a lull... there is nothing urgent that needs to be done, we have more time than we have issues, or so it seems.

We walk the mall and stores looking at cooking supplies, comparing prices, trying to determine if we only need a few pieces is it wise to buy a whole set because its cheaper? Or is it really cheaper? Is it a good deal if you really dont need all those pieces? Randy was excited at one store because we could get 4 pieces of luggage for $99. I pointed out that we only needed one big piece, oh yeah... not a good deal.. We actually need two big suitcases because we will be sending one with our friends in April when they return to Cuenca. So the search continues. We find one at the Liquidation store here locally, $30... Randy thinks its too cheap. What? For one trip? I think its fine. We are just looking anyway, neither of us has any money... we are on a budget..