Valley Farm Butchers in Paute, EC

On Saturday we took an outing to Paute, a neighboring town about 45 minutes from Cuenca. The sponsor was Valley Farm Butchers, a local, well, butcher. ;)

Alicia and Julian are an Ecuadorian / English couple who came over to Ecuador together for the first time in 2004 on honeymoon. Now living and working in and around Cuenca, Ecuador we aim to supply the best quality butchered cuts of meat we know is in demand from our clients not offered anywhere else.

When we arrived at our meeting spot, Parque de Calderon in El Centro, the little van was already full and there were a couple dozen folks still on the sidewalk. We chatted with folks as we waiting for the BIG bus to come get the rest of us. Soon we were loaded and on our way...

We enjoyed a comfortable ride and enjoyed the scenery. Since we are new to the area, we had no idea what towns we were riding through but we did catch a glimpse of a polo game in progress! Wow!! Couldn't get the camera out fast enough to snap a shot though.

Once in Paute we were dropped off at the gate to Valley Farm Butchers. We were stunned at the size and beauty of the property. Here are a few photos, I loved all the flowers and trees! {remember to click to see a larger image}

Two lines quickly formed - one for the bathrooms (banõs) and one for the drinks (cerveza, aqua, vino, etc). We quickly took care of both needs and found chairs in a shady spot where we had a prime view of the corn-hole games. Oh, we did have a nosh of meat and cheese - I really liked the meatballs but also tried the sausage and cheese. Stu liked it all...LOL! Alicia also brought around some local made 'hooch' from sugar cane for us to try. Wooh!!

The afternoon went quickly and after the games and a cooking demonstration we were served a delicious meal of potatoes, vegetables, beef and lamb. We finished up the afternoon with the finals of the corn-hole game before piling back on to the bus and van for the ride back to Cuenca.

We headed over to Don Colon for a cup of coffee and a small nosh for dinner before grabbing a taxi for home. Great day! We look forward to visiting again.

A week? No, it can't have been a week...

Yes, it has been a week since I last blogged and I'm not sure where it went. I'm no longer sick, I did get in some reading and that I REALLY enjoyed, we didn't go out much other than for groceries and a few lunches with friends (old and new), we got our bathroom mirrors hung (thank you to Emilio) and we went to an outing in a neighboring town (more below).

Blog? Who has time to blog? LOL! But I do have a few photos to share. We continue to be amazed with the beautiful views. All day long, the sun and clouds provide us with a kaleidoscope of ever changing views.

Our bathrooms had inexpensive, plastic framed mirrors and before we moved in our landlord told us we could change them out. We found nice mirrors for around $20-25 each at Coral. Since we have tile walls in our bathroom, we knew that Stu's cordless drill was going to struggle with mounting them. We put a call out to our friend, Emilio, who has all the right tools. In a little over an hour, the three new mirrors were hung. What a difference! We love them. The two in our main bathrooms have a glass shelf that helps us get stuff off the counter - a good thing.

[click any image for larger photo]

Here are some fun views from our windows - I managed to snap a fuzzy shot of Stu heading out on his first bicycle ride.

And here are some of the kids playing at the day care center next door as well as some of the adults playing volleyball. The final shot is fuzzy but it is one of the buses with the newly added bike rack on the front!

July 27th: Sunday Sundry Photo

Our favorite spot to buy coffee beans.

A Few Apartment Photos

Everything is unpacked, the boxes and packing material have been returned to our expat friends, ready for someone else to borrow and thinks are settling in. Today we hung a few more wall decorations and I snagged a few photos.

Still a lot to do but we need to buy a few more things for the walls first. At least the walls aren't completely bare in all the rooms. LOL! The dining room table still has the little baskets that I've bought for decoration, the bookcase is stuffed and needs to be spread out a bit, we want a wall hanging to put above the television and we want to put up a family wall behind my chair (oops, forgot to take a photo of that corner).

We plan to put sheers in all the windows except the master where we already have a Roman shade, purchased from the previous occupant. But no rush, it's not like we have folks peeking in our 6th floor windows.

Living - Office - Dining - Kitchen areas


Master Bedroom - Master Bath


Guest Rooms - Guest Bath

So that's a little peek into our new place...enjoy!