Meeting new friends....

We took a different route, again, for our walk yesterday. We were only going to the Magnolia Cafe for lunch, I woke with a bit of a hitch in my back due to too much standing at the mall on Friday. Here are a few photos I snapped with my phone while walking.

This is the back view of the apartments where we are staying.

We snapped a pic of our lunch - someday we'll remember to share a meal. I took half my hamburger home. LOL!

On our way back I tried to snap a picture of this pretty tree but the lighting wasn't the best. On the ground were some type of nut. Hoping someone will be able identify it for us.

Around 3pm we went out to the sidewalk and managed to fairly quickly hail for a taxi. He frowned a little at the address but took off. After a short round-about at the end, we finally found the right place. It's actually quite close to the area we liked around Mall del Rio.

This was our first meeting with Ron and Tamra who relocated from Oregon. Ron came first, found them a gorgeous apartment, Tamra followed soon afterwards. They have one of the two major rivers running behind their property (the other is behind where we are staying). We loved the setting and their spacious apartment. They are slowly buying their own furniture and other furnishing, replacing the ones there.

They had printed directions for their taxi driver and he managed to get us to the party in plenty of time. In fact, we were the first arrivals. Suzanne and Terry have rented on the outskirts of town, a HUGE palatial house with a wonderful view of the city (they are higher up - interesting road...giggle)

We met so many wonderful people, expats and Ecuadorians both. Great food, good music, wonderful conversation, ping-pong, pool(billiards) and dancing. Two friends were unable to contact their taxi driver and since they lived close to Ron & Tamra, we took new friends Mark & Sherry up on their invite for a ride home. They're brave - have a car here and drive all the time. Gulp! ;-)

Today is lunch with a new couple of online friends. We'll take the short walk to their house where we'll catch a taxi to a new to us spot for lunch. Tonight is chill time...tomorrow....who knows?