OUR ECUADORIAN SALCHICHA

While we were in the states this last month attending our daughters wedding, our friend Manon, received a call.

"Manon, we rescued a black dachschund, and was wondering if you would like to give him a home"? Manon already has two mini long haired doxies, so she thought her house was full up, but knew I was pining for one.. Hold that dog, she said. My friends will be back from the states and I am sure they will want to consider him.

The culture in this country is very different from ours where dogs are concerned. There are many dogs wandering the streets, some are mangy and skinny, others look well fed. We found out that alot of dog owners let their dogs loose during the day.

All the houses here have gated yards with fences, and it is very normal to find that as you walk by some of these houses, a dog will charge and attack the fence like he is going eat you if could get through. At first this scared us and concerned us, but now it seems "normal".

There are a few organizations here that try to make a difference in the street dogs life. One, ARCA takes dogs in and trys to find homes for them. Happy Dogs, trys to vaccinate and neuter as many as they financially are able.

The custom here is to not neuter any pets. So going against this tradition is sometimes a very long road.

One friend said her vet just tied her females tubes.. She ended up going to another vet to get the hysterectomy that she asked for in the beginning.

So now to our little guy Frankie. We came home from the US on a Thursday and on Friday afternoon we went to visit him. I had told Randy whether we wanted him or not he was not coming home with us... today was just a look see.

From the minute I walked in I was a gonner. I have always had a dachschund, and to see this cute, black and tan guy wagging his tail was quite heart melting.

On Halloween day, Ken had been walking his dogs along the Yanuncay river, when his dogs ran up to a bag sitting on the grass. As he called his dogs back he noticed the bag wiggling.. Ken returned home and got Judy and they opened the sack. Frankie popped his head out, hopped out of the sack, walked over and peed on a tree and then came back to them. Judy says poor Frankie was a rack of bones, and so starved that he had no hair on his ears. They looked like black elephant skin.

Ken and Judy took him in and named him Franken Weenie (being halloween and all it seemed appropriate.) They fed him wonderful food, and had some immediate issues taken care of.. His teeth and had him neutered. Looking at him here, 3 months later, you would never know he had once almost been at the brink of death.

Bringing a dog into our home was a very big decision because Randy has allergies to both dogs and cats. He, being the sweet guy he is, wanted me to have a dog and was going to "deal" with any allergic issues. Amazingly enough those have been very minor. The greatest one was that Frankie cannot sleep with us.. way too much for Randys system.

Here is Frankie settling in..

Today, Valentines day, we took Frankie to the Vet around the corner. We wanted to get his teeth looked at and get his vaccinations up to date. As the Vet looked at Frankie, he inspected his ear (the one that has a hunk out of it) and asked me where he was found. I told him and then the Doctor sat down and began to write on his computer. He asked me to read.

Amazingly enough, he knew this dog. This little guy was his brother in laws dog. The brother in law moved and could not keep him any more so had given him away. Frankies first name was Brat. He is 8-10 yrs old and the chunk out of his ear was from a rat (?)

Dr. Juan was so happy that he had been rescued and was being well cared for. He said he would tell him family, as they all loved "Brat" and always wondered how he was. He  then took a bunch of pictures to send to his brother in law and family.

Frankie got all his shots and a new harness type collar. As he knows how to slip out of the other ones. Here is  Randy and Frankie having a little nap, recouping from the tramatic day at the vets.

THE WEDDING TRIP

After the excitement of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the fireworks of New Years here in Cuenca, we were all loaded up to travel back to the COLD NorthWest to celebrate the marriage of our daughter.

We had pleaded with her to hold off till summer.. we could come and stay a month and visit more.. not to be done. (insert smiley) I guess parents coming to visit for a month is not really up there with getting married when you want to get married.

We chose to fly out of Quito, as we are comfortable with the accommodations and airport. Once they begin to use the new airport we will probably start using Guayaquil. Quito has moved their airport to the outer edges of town, and supposedly to get back into town will cost $35. ouch. Hopefully they will get the hotel infrastructure going so those of us who just overnight will be able to avoid those long taxi rides.

Knowing that the weather was going to bad in most of the airports, and that we did not like flying through Miami, we chose to fly COPA which also routes through Panama and Las Vegas. After that got on Alaska Air to go to Portland, so we could visit with my mom for a few days.

We loved the trip on COPA. The airline was on time, courteous, accommodating and helpful. The inside of the plane was comfortable, there were free movies, earphones, food and even free alcohol.

Randy does not have and issue anymore with flying but believes he should enjoy the flight as much as possible.. lets just say.. he got his wish with the COPA free alcohol policy.

Alaska air was very nice, but a typical airline that only serves you food or alcohol if you pay. There was a little screen on the back of each seat with pre programed movies in it that you could watch. These were free.

We visited with my mom for about 3 days, ran around and hit all the Goodwill's, shoe stores and yarn shops. (of course) My favorite was Tangled Purls in Salem, Oregon.http://tangledpurls.blogspot.com/

What a wonderful little store. Also they had the good sense to ooh and awww over my hand woven pinwheel scarf.

We left my moms and traveled to Eastern Washington (Tri-Cities) on the Empire Builder Amtrak. It was a wonderfully comfortable trip, with reclining seats and lots of leg room. On this train they have sleeper compartments as well as a nice dining car with swivel seats, hookups for charging your electrical devices, and huge windows that went over head so our view would be wonderful... if we were traveling during the day..

Oh and did I tell you that we left Cuenca and it was about 72 degrees? When we got to the Tri-Cities they were having a very cold spell (of course), it was 25 degrees. Oh burrrr. I was told that the weather warmed up right after we left!

When we left the Tri-Cities in 2010, we knew we would miss our friends. Even though we all were busy with work and our lives we always seemed to make time to get together at least once a week.

It was great to go back (first trip for Randy in almost 3 years) and find that they were still as wonderful as we remembered! They put us up and  even gave us a car to use. (with a full tank of gas!) then they wined and dined us pretty much the whole time we were in town.

Thank you guys, you know who you are. We love you so much and appreciate the warm hospitality.

OK, "The Wedding". Kelsey and Daniel have dated since they were 16, so this wedding was really not a surprise. We were just a bit aghast to have to come in the WINTER... ok.. 2 times is the limit of whining..

Kelsey is known for her indecisiveness..she is always teased about it, and takes it real well. I was so proud of her, she made a decision to have the wedding in 3 months .. and she did it. Working full time and living on the other side of the state from where the wedding was going to be held.

Fortunately for her, she has a wonderful support base in her new in-laws and extended friends through church and her years of school in this area.

I was so impressed at how they all came together to make this THE WEDDING.

 

 

 

 

We were so happy to have been able to be there to celebrate with Kelsey and Daniel. It was such a wonderful day and evening.

 

I was so impressed with Kelsey's photographer, I am putting a blurb here for her. The photos with the watermark are her photos. The rest are personal photos.

 

Check out her Facebook site, Megan Meyers Photography.  She was the most patient, easygoing and fun person to have taking pictures.

 

We ended our trip with a train ride back to Portland, long wait for the plane, a long layover in Las Vegas and then we slept (I slept) all the way back to Quito.

 

Once we got into our hotel at about 6:30 I crawled into bed and took a hour long nap!

 

We are now home and getting adjusted to our laid back lifestyle.. with what?.. We getting a dog.. Guess what the next blog is going to be about? Pets in Cuenca...



DASHING THROUGH DECEMBER, but its January!

Well once again I have managed to slide though another month without posting...

Lets see.. We had a great time waking my mom early in the morning to sing happy birthday to her (yeah, the same mom who had the 90th birthday last year) Lucky Me!

We had a very full month in the Condo that we manage. Myrna and David, returned to the condo again for almost a month and decided that YEP, Cuena was their new home. So the mad dash ensued with everyone trying to help find them a rental.

We scored a free Christmas dinner at our friend, Nancy Hofmeisters house. I actually have some photos of that, but blogger has changed their settings and I cannot figure out how to add photos directly from my camera card...... hmmm whats up with that?

Oh, and we had some exciting news right before Thanksgiving... our daughter Kelsey is getting married.. in JANUARY! Yep. We are going to brave not only the snow, ice and freezing temps, but the major flu epidemic that is sweeping through Washington state, but...

We got flu shots.. OH, I expect all the disenters to chime in here and scold me on trusting those drugs that can maim or kill me.. but hey, The flu is KILLING people in Washington.. I choose to take my chances and go drugged to the epicenter of pukedom..
(that being my friends houses with reports of small children who are projectile vomiting..yeah fun)

ANYWAY.. Kelsey is getting married. She is my youngest, 21, and has been dating a very nice young man from a very nice family for 6 yrs. So I guess I should give in gracefully and be happy for her, but JANUARY? sheesh..When I talked with her about this she said.. "So I should change my wedding plans to accomodate you?" WELL YEAH!  As you can see that didn't happen.

We are flying out through Quito, into Panama, then Las Vegas on COPA  and then on Alaska to Portland. I chose this route trying to avoid nasty weather and the Miami Airport. Also, on the way back we have a 7 hr layover in Las Vegas! Late at night, so we have been told what off strip casino to go to so we can hang out and have the most fun. Fortunately for us we don't really like to gamble so it will just be a nice place to hang out other than the airport.

Shopping for "the dress" to wear to the wedding has been interesting. I found out that Macys does not like debit cards. I ordered and they waited until I placed the order to tell me it could not go through cause I had a debit card.. did I want to use a credit card or their Macys card? NOOOOOOOOOOO. So now I have this swirling pending charge on my debit card that I have to go and try to get canceled. Thank You Macys...

I did manage with the help of my mom.. again.. Picture this

 She is 91, about 5'2", driving 30 miles in a big old gas hog of a car, through the driving rain to get the dress I want at Macy's.  She is such a sweet heart!  So I got the dress.. now lets just hope I can find shoes!

We will be leaving Portland and taking the Amtrack up to the Tri Cites. We are really excited about this because  A. we dont have to drive up the Ice Rink called the Columbia Gorge and B. We get to see the scenery and enjoy the trip instead of the white knuckle trip in option A.

ECUADOR.. ok, here is whats happened here.
The flu is here too.. we hear its on the coast mainly, but we have the vaccine here..obviously since we got shots today. OH @20 each at the Dr. office. Free at the local clinics.
We are in the middle of upcoming elections. Rafael Correa our president is predicted to win. We hope he does. We are not sure we can vote yet. It was very confusing last year so we didn't . If given the option I will vote this year.

The Tram work will start next month, and hopefully will be finished by 2014. It will make a marvelous difference in the flow of people and traffic. Also one of the stops will be very near our house.

Weater finally got warm and we had a whole string of days of pure sunshine. Then it rained really really hard. Oh our landlord has agreed that the roof is not the problem with our leaks, but its the skylights. We have massive skylights and they both leak. So now the issue is the cost. But I will leave that for the next time...

4 DAYS IN A RENTAL CAR ~ DAY 4

Riobamba... nice town. Not as pretty as Cuenca, but it has a nice main drag that has some really nice stores in it..and restaurants.

After we woke up we all met up fo breakfast at a local place we had spotted the nite before. They advertized waffles, pancakes and crepes. We the waffles were much larger in the photo than the 4 inch across ones that were served. The bacon that we paid extra for was maybe one inch across.. Randy was pleased with his microscopic sausage. We all got a kick out of our breakfast as all of our waffles, pancakes and crepes were served with chocolate sauce on it as well.. sigh.. it was tough but we managed to eat our "dessert" for breakfast.

Again we fired up the trusty Garmin and we were off to find our way out of town.. we did it! First try. Well, kind of. The road was being worked on so we were detoured.. The Garmin lady was not pleased.. "In 50 meters make a U turn".. oh shut up... We were all backed up on a dirt road with cars trying to get up a hill that was all muddy.. Mug bogs anyone? We decided that a local in front of us had the right idea as he took a sharp right and headed off in another direction. We followed and found our way around the steep muddy hill , boucing and bumping along the dirt road out to the main paved (thank goodness) road.

Our 4th day was pretty smooth, considering we hit MAJOR fog. So bad that we were creeping along at maybe 15 km. Then we hit some heavy rain, and one of the areas that we came to was awash in mud from the neighborhood next to the highway.. Randy had to come to a stop and slowly cross through the mud river. Once again... I was so taken over by what was happening I forgot to whip out the camera and take a picture.

Flooded road in a town we passed through..

We found a nice restaurant on our way back and had a lunch. (thought not as nice as the one in Puyo). The scenery was nice, the bath room was horrible.. Remember ALWAYS carry kleenex in Ecuador.

We had planned on staying the nite in Paute, as the rental car did not have to be back until noon on Friday.. but we were so tired. We drove staight through to Paute, dropped off one friend, then another in Cuenca and raced home. Off went our shoes. On when the REAL comfy clothes and back into our comfy chairs... ahhh. I love going on a vacation; cause then home feels twice as nice when you return.

4 DAYS IN A RENTAL CAR ~ DAY 3

GOOD MORNING BANOS!

We had a great sleep and a nice leisurely hang out while we waited for one of our group to get back from their mornging STEAMBATH in a box! Yep. They got those in Banos too.

We had decided on a restaurnt that had an attached hostal. It looked like it was just a few blocks from our location so we headed off on foot to find it. Once we arrived (with some directions from a local) we settled down to a huge breakfast of fruit, bread, juice, tea/coffee and omeltes, pancakes.  It was delicious and decadent!

Of course we needed to walk a bit more to get our food to settle before we clambered back into the car. On our route we found a beautiful Peacock sitting in a bush giving us the evil eye.

Then we came across a little weaving shop. Randy kept going, but I stopped with my friend..we were enchanted. The weaver (Carmela) had done all the rugs, wall hangings and table runners herself. Her loom was very old and she had a weaving on the loom. They were all wool and she used all natural dyes... well I was sunk..

Randy showed back up and I did my best to convince him that we needed a wall hanging... I am a real good convincer..

Carmela and my cool wall hanging!

Now we were off to Puyo. I have to say this is the prettiest drive. The land changes from very tropical to sandy and hot, then back to tropical. It was fabulous. There are alot of gondola type businesses as well as ziplining.. called Canopy. You are zooming out over a very wide and deep canyon.. empty your bladder before beginning the trip. We all passed on this experience.

One of 3 tunnels we passed through to get to Puyo

A real wide area of the river

Tried to get a picture of the huge ferns.. can you see that one compared to the truck?

We stopped in a little town of Mera and walked around. It was HOT! There was a sad shut down Gondola ride across from the main square, we all walked over and looked across the river as we tried to imagine having the nerve to actually ride in one.

We went through a town called Shell, named after the Oil company that was based there. It had some nice playground equipment and something like Disney Characters (picture was too blurred). It just seemed so out of place. The Oil company is now gone. The town is still there.

Once we got to Puyo, we were off to find the recommended Balsa store. Of course we forgot our directions that our friend Chuck had given us, so after getting directions from the Itur office and several folks on the sidewalk, I gave up and called Chuck. We all were grateful to pile back into the car with the air conditioning. Hot and Humid, we were not very appreciative of.

We found the Casa de Balsa. Its right on the main road as you come into Puyo, 3 story bldg, big sign.. sigh... we had driven right past it. We all supported the Balsa industry and piled back into the car to head back to Banos.

Our guy, in his new home..

After a quick lunch at a local almuerzo restaurant (oh yum it was great, big and $2) We hit a huge storm. Thunder lighting right over head and RAIN!  Gully Washer rain! We had to pull off the road cause we could not see..

Yeah, time to take a breather...

We arrived back in Banos and decided that a bathroom stop and Ice Cream were required to continue on to Riobamba for another overnite stay.

I must say here that we all wanted to find the SHORTEST route to Riobamba.. That did not happen.. we drove up and down the road, asking folks where the shortcut was.. police, GPS and locals... nada.. we ended up going up and down one long stretch of road 3 times before Randy decided he was taking over and making the decision to go to Amabato (off the map) then Riobamba.. no shortcut in the dark for us.

We ended day 3 about 7 pm in Riobamba, tired, and wore out, back at the Shalom hotel. Thank Goodness they had a rooms for the 4 of us. We crossed the road wolfed down a half decent burger, watched Ecuador beat Barcelona in Soccer and then went back to our rooms to relax... it had been one hell of a day!

4 DAYS IN A RENTAL CAR ~ DAY 2

We had made it to Riobamba, found a great comfy hotel within our budgets, and woken up to a beautiful day. The only thing we could think of was breakfast!

Luckily the nite before we had scouted our neighborhood and saw a place that looked like a good spot. They were full of the locals and they served breakfast.

I decided since I was on vacation I should have a Amaretto Cappaccino

With our stomachs full and our spirits high we were off to find Guano. This town is known for its Rug makers. Old style looms that we had been told go up 3 stories..

Our handy GPS and a few roadsigns later we were off the beaten track and into some gorgeous farm country. We found Guano, but we were so early that most of the stores were not even open yet. We meandered around and found the central plaza for the requsite photo op.

We never did find the 3 story rug maker, and to be honest we couldnt buy one anyway. I did take a video of a lady making a rug.

Randy bought that brown hat he is wearing. All handmade wool.. $13. He did not bargain. We also saw a rug we liked that was more of a toursity rug, but we bargained and got that one too. $30.

As we left Guano we all had varying ideas of how to find the road we came in  on... and the GPS didn't agree with anyone... so we wandered around and around and finally found a road out of town. We were concerned as these roads were not paved, or very primitive, and again the locals gave us looks like we were definately on the road less traveled. We continued on and eventually found our way back to the main highway and into all the little towns preceding Banos.

Just a little hillside farming!

We arrived in Banos much to our relief a little after 1. Checked into Hostal Timaru. The rate was $10 a day, the nicest thing was the flowers and turtle in the courtyard.

We were off to find lunch and see a bit of the town. We had a nice Pizza at Pappardelles. YUM, and a liter of wine.. Oh my.. thank goodness there were four of us. Here are some pictures of the town.

Cool painting on the wall of a local bar.

1990 Piaggio Vespa and a old Ecuadorian hippe.

One of the vehicles you can rent to tour around town

We wandered around the rest of the afternoon, then went back and rested until dinner. We went to a recommended restaurant the Swiss Chalet for dinner. We were all still pretty full from the wonderful pizza so we all had appetizers. After dinner we meandered back to our room and crashed. Another big day ahead. We were going to go to Puyo... the gate way to the Amazon.

4 DAYS IN A RENTAL CAR, DAY 1

After living here in Cuenca for almost 2 1/2 years we decided we needed to take a car trip.

We found 2 other folks who wanted to take the dare and just head out on the road to Banos Ambato, about a 7 hr drive away. Well, that is if you dont get sidetracked. We planned to drive from Cuenca to Riobamba on the first day.

Just a word here about the rental car and our route. It was a newer, manual, Grand Vitara. It was very clean and ran great, unfortunately it was  2 cylinder motor.

We were going over the Andes. This translates to alot of long steep climbs up... then down. The ups we were mostly down into 2nd gear going maybe 20 km an hour. The road we took is a wonderful road, but only two lanes with lots of curves, and ups and downs. To add to the mix there is rain, fog, cows, speed bumps (honest!), people walking on the side of the road, very very slow moving trucks and people passing on blind curves.

We made it to Alausi and drove down into the town to walk around. We decided that we did not want to constrain ourselves with trying to get tickets to ride the Devils Nose Train, and that we would just check out the town.

The road we took into Alausi.

St. Peter statue in Alausi

We got lost in the hills following our odd sense of direction and the GPS.  Little did we know this was going to be a continuing theme throughout our trip. We finally got back down to town and headed out towards Riobamba.

This part of the trip was relatively smooth and the drive was beautiful..we arrived in Riobamba around 5:30 and found a nice hotel. (Hotel Shalom 12.50 per person w/o bkfst. 16.50 with, and secure parking!) 

We took the hotels suggestion and found our way to a restaurant way off the main part of town. We had a Parradilla type dinner. I picked chicken and pork.. it was very good. It also came with blood sausage.. I did not try that.

We were pretty wore out so we all said good nite and headed off to our rooms.

Day one went real well, the weather was good, the scenery was beautiful, the car did pretty well for a 2 Cylinder, and all passengers were still smiling and laughing at the end of the day.

THE SAGA OF THE ROYAL ENFIELD

"Isn't that the most gorgeous bike you have every seen?" These were the words out of Randys mouth, as we stood in front of the new Royal Enfield shop, waiting for them to open so he could go in and get a REAL good look at the bike. I knew it was over before it had begun..

When Randy and I were first married (10 yrs ago this month!), we each had our own salaries and split the bills according to our separate incomes, Randy's being a larger part of the whole. Worked great for me! No one telling me how to spend the extra money, and no guilt when I spent every extra dime on something I really really wanted or thought the kids really really wanted. Fast forward to now.

Essentially, I am now living off of Randy's good sense to have a pretax account all those working years, so we could drop out of the rat race "early" and "retire" to a country where our money goes further and the lifestyle is one we really enjoy. So, does Randy "get" to buy the bike.. well of course he does.

In Ecuador the saying Buyer Beware is a very real statement, and one that we as expats are just now coming to understand.

There are no Lemon Laws here. If you use the services provided and under the warranty there is nothing else they can do to "fix" the problem, well, its just your problem.

Randy loves this motorcycle. It ran well for about a week. Then he started noticing that is did not run well. After some major time in a shop it started to work well again. The weather was bad, so it sat around until one day "The boys" wanted to go up to the CAJAS  to try out  one of their new motorcycles at high altitude (13K ft elevation).  That is when it all went wrong very fast.

As they were returning the bike started to surge..not good when you are trying to go downhill around sharp curves. The only way it would not surge is in neutral. Randy managed to wrangle it down the hill without killing himself or others in the process.

Of course I am not emotionally attached to the bike.. my first thought was, well if we cannot go over the Cajas or Andes what use is it to us. We wanted to buy a side car and go traveling... lets take it to Guayaquil (sea level). Get it running properly.. and SELL IT! Vehicles and motorcycles do not loose their vaule here. So it was the fix I saw as perfect. Randy had other thoughts.

Randy has a great relationship with the shop owners and they have been trying to help him as much as they can. Whats odd is that the thought that they needed a Royal Enfield trained shop was not in the plan. They just sub'ed out the warranty work to a Yamaha dealer here in Cuenca.

Due to not having trained RE folks here, both Randy and Sebastian have researched the issues and found out that this model (which comes from India) is also having problems in India when they try to take it up into the Himilayas. So a "work around" is in the works. But we do not know how long it will be before those technicians can find the fix. Our guy Sebastian at the Royal Enfield is hoping soon, so his business does not plummet.

The bike has been back to the shop and the surging was solved with some minor tweaking, but the backfiring and inability to really ride in stop and go traffic is still an issue.

Our man Sebastian says a technician from India is coming in November, and Randys motorcycle will be one of those presented to the technician to find out why his runs so badly.

Until then, It sits. Randy still rides the scooter, and enjoys that. I have decided that I really do not like riding my scooter, as I am not a totally vigilant rider, and in this country you have to have your head on a swivel constantly. So until we get the motorcycle fixed, Randy rides alone.

CLUE~LESS IN CUENCA

I have no clue what to call this blog. I keep thinking I should find something very clever to say. But alas.. nothing is coming to mind.

I don't really even have a topic. Do you want to hear about my weaving or knitting.. nope. Randy's current passion of watching every episode of Wagon Train with a little Rawhide mixed in? No? Should I go on and on about my daughter's upcoming nupitals?  Hmm.. OK, well let me tell you of the..No, I already told you about that.

OK, let me be honest. Where ever you live you have day to day things that you do. That's about all we have done!

Sometimes I feel like a blog resolves itself into one of those crazy Christmas letters that you get that tells you all about someones job, their kids education achievements and on and on about the grandchildren. I'll try not to do that.

We have met a ton of new folks coming to Cuenca. I never can remember their names because I only see them for a few scant seconds.. then months later its .. oh hi, I am sorry, I have forgotten your name. A lady here always introduces herself. I was very happy the first 7 times. Now I remember her! She says she always does that to let anyone off the hook.  Great idea.

Our weather is good, getting warmer. We are looking forward to maybe a trip to Banos Ambato with friends... hmmm. what else..

We are happy, healthy and enjoying our life here. We are safe and somewhat sound. We are not being taken over by drug runners, nor engulfed in a tsunami or a lava flow from a volcano. We are not even getting any rumblings of earthquakes.

I will catch you up on all the continuing excitement next month; I bet you can't wait!

RIVER WALK WITH THE EL NOMAD CREW

A funny thing happened on the way to Ecuador..in 2010. I met a lady (on line), who lived only 90 miles away from us in Washington. She was young, pregnant, and going to drive all the way from Washington to Ecuador (with a small portage of the car). Her husband is Cuencano and they wanted to live a life that included alot of hands on with their daughter as well as their International Immersion business, El Nomad.http://elnomad.com/
Cuenca was it.

Since that time, I like to think we have become good friends, and occasionally we get to join in events they sponsor, like this river walk to a grand opening of a new coffe shop.

Randy likened it to a death march... Becca sets a brisk pace!

The new place is called La Jaleria, it is located on Ricardo Darquea Granda 3-65 y Jose Austudillo (esquina). So if you walk all the way along down river towards the broken bridge and keep going, it is right there by that next bridge (the unbroken one) Very nice place, very modern, and "hip". Here is the pictures I took.

Outdoor sitting area. Notice the chalk people "holding" up the plants.

Free snak'ems on the counter...

Everyone getting settled.

Not sure what these are... but added a neat look to the bathroom mirror

Loved the "Ear" handles..

Becca and Kesha.. Kesha scooping up her espresso

Close up view from across the river.

We had a nice time. The gallery in the back is full of great art, clothing, jewelry and purses. To top it off the food was good, and the ambience was fun. Oh and I hear that there are 3 apts above it.. the penthouse is currently available to rent! If you like walking up 4 flights of stairs that is.

VARIOUS PHOTOS IN CUENCA

I am getting so many pictures on my camera that I need to clean out the ones that are just.. stuff. Some I have put on my FB page already, and some are in these blog posts. But some are just so random that I never put them in anywhere.. so before they are no more I thought some should just have the chance to be viewed.

My favorite tree in Parque Calderon, they trimmed it all back but it will come back all green.



Cool pots and statue



My plants in the green room are doing well..

An old patrimonial home we got to look at

And just in case you missed it in the photo above.. Randy with his new "do"