AGOSTO- LIVING THE LIFE

One Sunday we met up with our friend Nancy Hofmeister, and had Sunday brunch at the new California Kitchen location.. wow, what a spectacular setting. While we were there we saw our friend Paul Collins and asked him to join us. During this conversation he mentioned he has a Ecuadorian friend who lived in the states (TEXAS to be specific) since he was 7. He had come back to Ecuador about 20 yrs ago. This gentleman had a huge hacienda type home in Ricaurte (pronounced ree cow tay), and wanted to put on a Texas BBQ... would we be interested..? Fast forward  a week later to the trip to Ricaurte!

Our host provided transportation.. this is the little truck bus he has built. There were about 20 of us packed in the back.. We got alot of smiles and waves as we traveled the 12 miles to Ricaurte!

To the far right is our friend Paul Collins who organized this trip with the owner, who is standing next to him, sorry, I have totally forgotten his name.

Here are photos of the house when he first bought it 20 years ago.

Twenty years later and alot of love and hard work, this is the home that he restored for his family.

OH, and the food was wonderful... so much so that I only got a before picture! How silly am I ?

He was using an old boiler out of a ship as his smoker/BBQ.

Before we left he brought out his prized possesion... a baby Brahma bull. He found him on the coast. These type of bulls are not found very often here in Ecuador so this little guy is going to have a happy life smoozing the lady cows out in Ricaurte!

We had a great time, and met some very nice folks.. all because we happened to go out to breakfast! Yep, just living the life.. stay tuned more to come!



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!