The first week (and this week) have been heavy with meet and greets with other expats. We've met some really nice folks and will be meeting up with more. We attended a great party and have another (a pizza party) on May 4th. We had lunch with new folks today that took us around the the biggest market in the area. Stu got some delicious strawberries and we also FINALLY got our passports copied in color. (Our originals are now tucked away safely).We have both late breakfast/early lunch and late lunch/early dinner meet and greets tomorrow and another on Thursday.
We've met authors, retired doctors/chiropractors, young couples with children (homeschooling), retirees and more. What an interesting blend. We continue to meet and chat with locals, even the taxi drivers enjoy trying to teach us more Spanish. The waiter at one of our favorite restaurants, Magnolia Caffee, is especially good at that.
Last night we tried to move outside the box a little and find a different place to eat. Everyone gave us suggestions and Stu thought he located a good Italian restaurant on the map. Well - we missed it. But I did grab a few photos with my iPhone (which I am now carrying instead of the US phone). As you can see, the clouds were rolling in and the rain soon started. We ended up back at Magnolia Caffee.
We managed to get my iPhone activated with Claro, the biggest cell phone provider in the area, and bought $10 worth of minutes. Each call is .20 so I don't expect we'll use it all up before we leave. It's nice to be able to call the new friends we are meeting as well as taxi drivers and the most important, Mr. Wash. Got two large laundry bags (10+ days of clothes & towels), picked up, washed, dried, folded and delivered for $13. :-)
Oh, and the best news of all? Stu pulled his belt in a notch this morning and I put on jeans without having to lay on the bed to zip them (which I haven't been able to do with this pair for probably a year). Yup, eating good and walking lots at high altitude agrees with us.
