APRIL FLEW BY

For not having a set schedule we sure lost most of our month of April! Where did it go?


Our job managing the condo is turning out to be so much fun! I suppose I said this all before, but it really is great to be able to meet all these new fresh faces who are so excited about Cuenca and their new life or possible new life in Ecuador.


The bookings this next month are shorter term so we will be having back to back guests on a weekly basis! That should be interesting. The condo employs a really sweet lady who worked in the Hamptons for 7 yrs. so her skills are superb and her English is wonderful! She has been so wonderful about getting a schedule from me for the month with partial days circled where she can get into the apartment and clean. She always says, thats no problem Miss Karen!


I have started back taking weaving. I had the loom at home, but found that I did not have the confidence to start a new project (something other than a scarf). So I took it all apart (Thanks Randy for your help) and hauled it up the hill to Las Americas (thanks again Randy) and amazingly a taxi was right there!  It is nice to see the ladies at the yarn store, and Patricia said immediately IN SPANISH.. how is your Spanish doing.. uhh.. well not so good. She scolded me good naturedly and said, We will get you back to speaking better in no time. And she is right. There are ladies there who love to talk with you and help you with your Spanish while you weave! 2 for 1 ! Lucky me!


I was reading on the Gringo Tree about a group who are working with the local needy children of the El Arenal (Feria Libre Market). There is an after school program there. So they were asking for food, money and knitted scarves, hats etc. And they would even come pick them up!  Well that was right up my alley so I am trying to whip out a few easy scaves. The kids are ages 4-14.  Here is there website if you are interested in checking them out. The kids are pretty cute. http://ecuazon.com/hearts-of-gold 


The weather has been a bit sunnier, with some amazing afternoon showers, some again with hail. This is when I become a wild banshee racing all over the house with towels to catch the water that pours down the walls and will come out through the skylight.. not knowing where I just lay every towel in the "drop zone" and hope I got it covered.  So far its worked out pretty good and we have not had any disasters like others I know!


Last nite, another one of those serendipitous nights where we are sitting eating leftovers and a friend calls.. Whatcha doin'? Nuthin, eating leftovers.. Want to come over and meet the OTHER Randy and Karen of Cuenca? REALLY ? We will be right over. Which was easily said as Manon's house is right around the corner.. and there we met our dopplegangers (in name only)

Today was another beautiful sunny day, so Randy rolled me out of bed at 10, to ride our scooters to California Kitchen to listen to our friend Pat play piano music.. he did a great job. He is kind of shy so I did not take a picture, but I did get one of my breakfast.. wow, they sure do a good job.. This is their Fritatta. YUM. And those are homemade french fried onions on the top..

This afternoon when we got home we did our puttering, moved some plants around, watered and took a walk along the river. There were so many families out playing soccer, volleyball and just enjoying the day. It was nice to feel a part of this community where folks smile, say hello and enjoy all this great nature, and it's right at our doorstep. How lucky is that!

PANAMA HAT BUYING FORAY

History lesson.. Panama hats are not made in Panama.. thats just where they got famous. They were imports from Ecuador. These hats were first made on the coast and then Cuenca in the early 1930's starting making them as a major export. (ok, so if I got it abit wrong...sue me.. I got the part about the hats not being made in Panama right!)

Our latest visitors to the condo, Susan and Rein, wanted to go hat shopping so we took them on a bus adventure. The first place we went, K.Dorfman. It was closed for the weekend, but they were nice enough to point us to another hat manufacturer just one block down the road..Homer Ortiz, Museum, Hats and Bags. We found out in the tour that this is still a family run business.. 4 generations later.

We squeezed between a bunch of buses (These stores are behind the bus terminal), that were crowded onto the sidewalk to make room for other buses trying to drive by. As we squeezed by this one bus, there was a driver saying Buenos Dias! from the door of the bus.. as I passed by I looked up into a smiling face filled with a toothbrush and toothpaste! I nodded and smiled and just cracked up after I passed him. I guess I am getting used to it, 'cause I immediately thought; glad that water on the ground was from him brushing his teeth and not going to the bathroom!

We were given a guided tour through the museum. Our guide explained about the way the palms were dried, and hand split. the finer the splitting, the better the quality of the weave. And the higher the price. She told us that the hats that are the least expensive only take about 3 days to make. The finer woven ones take up to 3 months to make. The feel of the weave is just like a fabric, so soft. It is very obvious how painstaking the process is.

These are hats that have been woven, bleached, washed and now air drying. Randy is my point of reference.. All of the hats are made by employees who work from their homes. Each week the ladies bring in the hats that they have made.

This piece of machinery is over 100 yrs old, and still being used to this day. I really liked the heavy ball weights on the end.

This is an actual Wedding Dress. You can have one made.. it is all done out of the same palm as the hats.. that is how fine they can make this weave. This picture does not do this justice. Even the flowers are woven. We asked the price. The guide thought it would be at least $1,500-$2000.

Susan and Rein found hats and other goodies for their families back home. I got so wrapped up in trying on hats .. I forgot to take pictures of what they finally decided on!

Here is a video  that I took of our guide explaining about the dying process.

 After all of that, we all agreed lunch was in order, then a nap!

BACK ON TRACK!

I am happy to report that I am well, not truly healthy but well. I still sound abit awful when I cough, but those times are being measured in hours not minutes! Also, the other good news is that Randy did not get sick!

Kelsey, will be graduating from Central Washington University in June. I was just back in the states in Nov.-Dec. for my Mom's 90th birthday, so we have stretched the budget once again and I am going back to Washington for her graduation. Can't miss your daughters graduation!

Last nite I went on the Matrix ITA software site and seached for tickets  from Cuenca to Quito (My main flight is out of Quito). I was very happy to find a reasonable ticket price. $66 RT. Due to the Government lifting the subsidy on airplane fuel the prices of tickets has risen. I printed out the flight details and today walked to a local travel agency nearby (SEITUR) they have a English speaking agent.  Malena was just on her way out the door. She interpreted for us that we wanted this exact flight, and for the agent to search those codes. She did, but their price was a bit more $73. Well I grabbed it, figured that was a $7 fee for the agency. Now I just have to find a good place in Quito to stay on my way to and from the US. Unfortunately the routes I take always leave at 6 am and arrive at 9:30 at nite! The planes here do not cooperate with redeye flights!

We have been out and about a tiny bit. Walking and trying to get back into our normal modes of getting around. While Randy had gout, then his ribs and then my cold... we have really lost our ability to walk like we used to!  I have some pictures too, so I have proof that we are out!

They had to do some removal of concrete that they put in on the new under/overpass construction. OOPS!

Then we noticed some new art work in El Centro. I thought it was very good.. the subject matter was a bit strange, but it was done very well.

Most of the houses in and around Ecuador are red tiled roofs. This is one of the very few I have seen that is not... and I love it. Nice and shiny blue!

today, after almost a year since purchasing them, we hung the wall hangings we bought in Otavalo, when Kelsey was here visiting! Wow, where did the time go? I think they look good! We used papyrus stalks for the "rod" at the top. On one I tied the little strings and the other I sewed the hanging to the "rod".. not bad for a guest room, huh?

Ecuador has been hammered with rain this year. There have been landslides up and down the country. In Cuenca we had a torrential rain and hail storm that over burdened a sewer system, and it collapsed. The neighborhoods affected were flooded up to the second story of their homes, with sewage. The local fire department came in boats to rescue folks off their roofs! I have read that up in the Esmereldas there is fear that the power poles for the main electrical grid may collapse due to land slides. Correa has declared many Cantons as disaster areas and aid is slowling coming. Our local Chamber of Commerce is appealing to the local community of Expats to donate at the Chamber or Red Cross.

 So now I have to say here, my little rant about the water leaking in our house seems inconsequential compared to all the folks who have lost their lives and homes due to this rain.

Hope you all are enjoying your spring weather, keep us soggy folks in Ecuador in your thoughts!

UNHEALTHY IN CUENCA

My title leads me into what has been happening since I last posted. To say I have been sick is kind of a bland statement to the fact that every time I coughed it sounded like I was moving my lungs out of my body. Surprisingly, my chest muscles are not sore!

 Since the 15th of March, I have been down and out with a "cold". Randy who is not one to go to the Dr. let me wallow for a few days. I was taking Sinutab and just trying to remember not to touch anything, lest Randy have a hissy about how he did not want to get sick, and to just back off. Side note: Randy HATES being sick, and is really down when he is, so he avoids all those who even hint at illness.

After 3 days of getting worse, and I still was not willing to go to the doctor, my philosopy was.. "Randy, there is no color.. that means no infection, it's just a cold. What could he do that the Farmacia cannot do"? So Randy being the great caretaker that he is, trotted off to Farmacia Economica and let them know my symptoms and what I was currently taking. They gave him some Comtrex and Codeine pills, along with a antibiotic in case infection started in.

I have to say, this is pretty nice, since the owners are the parents of our doctor whose office is right upstairs. But most pharmacies are like that here, they are able to give medications without a prescription, and in this case I was very happy, because the idea of walking or even riding the scooter up to the doctors was NOT on my todo list.

I double checked the antibiotic to be sure I could take it ( I am allergic to penicillin), no issues there. But like I said, there was no infection.. just a horrible cough, a wet rattling in my chest and head congestion. Randy had moved to the recliner after the first nite of horrible coughing and snoring, so the only one who really benefited from the codeine was me.. I slept all nite. Oh it was wonderful. I still was propped up on 4 pillows but I could sleep!

I meandered between the bed reading, computer cruzing, bed knitting, and bed sleeping. Day in, Day out. One nite I went down and tried to sit and watch TV with Randy, but I gave out after the 1st hour of watching Vampire Dairies. I love that show, so to give up after one show (we have the whole season 2) tells you how lame I have been.

Randy has stuck pretty close to home, making sure I took my medicine, drank water and generally stayed away from his "clean zone". But the following Thursday I was getting alot better and by Friday I was out for a quick  3 pm coffee at Mocha Cafe with a bunch of friends. Saturday, we taxied to San Sebas and were treated to Breakfast by our friend Paul. Then on Sunday, today, we rode the scooters over to Kookaburras for breakfast.  I managed to make it all the way without one coughing fit so I think I am "healed".

It has been nice being back out and about, the weather has been sunny and I get to see what all has changed in one week! There is even a new store at our Las Americas Mall where the Supermaxi is. It is a Indian type store with all kinds of beautiful wood bowls, and folding wood bowls, and ornate clocks. There are some beautiful Sari type shawls and scarves as well. I will have to start saving my pennies to buy something nice from this store, any of those items would go great in our eclectic themed house. (notice the reflection in the window.. thats our scooters)

I am hoping I have more to talk about next week. We are going to try to go to a Blues concert on Monday nite. Then we will see what else is going on for the rest of the week, I got lost time to make up for!

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!

PAUTE 152 YR CANTON CELEBRATION

Last week we took our friends Christine and Kim to Paute as they had never been, and we love the small town atmosphere, as well as the warmth of the place!

We wandered all over town trying to get around the massive parade taking place in this very small town. I think folks from far and wide came there. I have never seen so many people here before.  The driving question we all kept asking was, what is a Canton ?
 Here is the answer I found in Wikipedia:
"Cantons are the second-level subdivisions of Ecuador, below the provinces. There are 226 cantons in the country, of which three are not in any province. The cantons are further sub-divided into parishes, which are classified as either urban or rural..."

These are the pictures I took. We didn't realize we were at the end of the parade until we found the beginning... afew hours later!

Important Folks get the bleachers and shade!

Here comes the military!

This guy had to be sooo hot!

This poor guy.. he must have drawn the short straw.. walking in full hot camo and packing the SAMS!

 Pink camoflage?  I am just trying to figure out where in the world this would be used?

               Food Vendors were out in force, He is offering hard boiled quail eggs... peeled.

                         These folks were getting the Cuy ready and  Yep those are nakey guinea pigs!

Anyone need some camoflage bustier dresses? We got 'em here in little Paute!

The parade kept coming and coming so we decided we would dodge around it and head over to the Open market. Sundays are normally a big day, so add the celebration on top of that and these folks were inundated with new customers!

                                                                   Giant Cabbages!

                                                                       Giant Papayas!

Remind me to never complain about my shoes again.. this little lady was begging from the vendors.. quietly and sweetly asking for a little fruit or vegetable..She was very "anciano" and crippled.. a little birdy told me that our friends secretly donated some change into her basket when she was not looking..

We decided we needed to try to find our friend Jani, and go to lunch.  I talked everyone into hiking UP the hill towards her house. I think Kim was about to stroke out with the heat, so I left them in the shade on a nice bench.. As I headed off to Jani's house I found the beginning of the parade. These poor kids had been waiting HOURS to begin the parade.  I made sure to take pictures and smile ALOT.. they were already wore out!

                         She is hanging on for dear life..it is a long way to the end!

                                     These kids have yet to being the parade.. it is almost noon!

                                                   And this little piggy went home!

HAIL IT'S FUN IN CUENCA!

My posts have had a continous thread lately.. rain. We have found out that Cuenca has had 50% more rain than normal. Not that that relieves the sogginess around here, but at least it gives us hope that next year will be different.

The weather in Paute last week was marvelous, and when we got home we had HUGE puddles of water all over the house. It had rained here. What we did not know was that it had Hailed as well. Monday the hail returned with a vengence, and those of us here on the West side of town got about a 10 min. show of what mother nature can do!

Unfortunately when it hails like this we get almost as much water in the house as out. We had  every towel, washcloth and even afew pillowcases spread all over to sop up the water.

I have a longer video of the hail if you are interested. I cannot get it to load on this site. Let me know I can email it to you if you would like to see it, or look on Facebook, I have it loaded there.

We have not let the soggy weather deter us from having some fun in between storms. We headed out on Wednesday to Nectar, a Vegan/Raw restaurant here in Cuenca. It has good reviews on Trip Advisor, and a variety of reviews from those we know who live here.. so we were off to check it out.

The photo above is just the first soup course of the Almuerzo or Menu del dia that is offered daily.  This menu consists of fresh juice, soup, main dish (ours was a bean and rice dish with a greensalad) and then dessert, for $2.75. We returned on Friday with other friends and had another delightful meal. I hear they are beginning Brunch on Sundays and that will be a larger menu for 6.95. We will definately return, both times the food was good, and the atmosphere is fun and welcoming!
Friday nite California Kitchen had a Jazz group playing for the dinner crowd, and it was crowded! We met up with our friend Nancy Hofmeister and enjoyed the music and seeing other friends from around town.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it had the wonderful "Jazz" atmosphere.. sans the smokey haze!

Just want to say what a great job the crew of California Kitchen does when they have these events. They weave and wend their way in between the packed crowd, trying their best to make everyone happy and move the food to their tables as fast as possible.. all with a smile and good nature. Thanks guys ya' did good...once again!

Despite the rain and hail, the new under/over pass continues to move right along.. rumor has it that at this point they are a bit ahead. We are hoping that it continues to progress on this early path!

I just had to add this photo of the clouds the other day.. they are so pretty.. how funny.. now that I see clouds all the time I think they are pretty.. when I lived where there were brown hillsides I thought they were pretty.. I guess I am very adaptable!

NO GREAT NEWS HERE.. JUST DAY TO DAY

Neither Randy or I feel like we have accomplished alot these last few weeks. He has been trying to recover from his run in with the car.. Oh, I did not tell you about that did I ? Well Randy rode the scooter over to the Condo that we help manage.  http://www.cuencapenthouse.com/, and decided at a red light, that from the left lane he would cross over in front of the guy in the right lane, to go to the right.... Unfortunately.. that fellow decided to run the red light.. can you say INTERSECTED.

Randy is better, of course he would not go to the doctor and beside a few scrapes on his legs and some very very sore ribs he is managing quite well. The scooter? Nothing that a bit of black duct tape couldn't handle. He and scooter now have "war wounds", not to be repeated!

Since Randy has been house bound our new friends Kim & Christine have introduced us to a new card game.. we were assured we would catch on quickly and that is was alot of fun..well I beg to differ. Everyone but me caught on, and did well.. I just fussed and groused alot.. I was actually a bit childish.. felt good.. but I am over that now. I have discovered it on my computer, so I have been practicing and feel a bit better about my showing the next time we play.

The weather here has been very unpredictable. We had our version of Mardi Gras and the highlight is to throw water and spray foam.. Our town was dead quiet because most go to the beach where its real warm and you dont mind getting wet there. Here it was not conducive to getting wet.

Our flowers are going great guns, and the new chopped up piece of cactus is really happy. It put forth a flower! This was just a little stump we put into the ground a few months ago.. I think its happy, don't you?

We have been struggling with our hot water situation for a few weeks now. It will come and go. We thought it was the tanks, being old and beat up.. We called our handy man Hugo to come and see if he could tell what the problem was. It turned out that the Califone ( hot water gadget)  needed a through cleaning and some new spark thingys.. I don't know the technical term, but it works now. It was so funny, I was about to ask Hugo if he needed a ladder.. oh no, he just stood back and took a running leap up onto the wash sink out doors.. Of course I was handy with my camera.

Today we "got out of dodge" and headed to Paute for the 152 yr celebration of Paute becoming a Canton.. what that is exactly, I don't know, but there was a BIG party in Paute today. A beautiful warm day..I was actually sweating at one point, I was thrilled. The bus was crammed coming and going. I could do a whole blog on the parade alone but I will save that for later.. now I just want to show you the great shot of Kim trying to get a autograph of a well known celebrity, who just happened to be in Paute that day..

" I love you, You love me, We're a happy family, with a great big hug from me to you, Won't you say you Love me too?"