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Showing posts from April, 2015

Life goes on....

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Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to blog about. Our daily life has fallen into a bit of a routine. We sleep till we wake up, Stu usually by 7am and me by 9am. Breakfast, check emails and Facebook, watch a few videos and then decide what to do the rest of the day. Meet new friends, meet old friends, eat out, take a walk, go shopping. See? Our day here isn't all that different from retirement in the US. Well, except we spend a LOT less on food. Here are two photos to give you an idea of our fruit and veggie costs when we buy at the mercados. $7 worth of fruit $12.55 worth of fruit, veggies, jar of honey and a bag of pasta (not shown) We are in the rainy season now and this means some amazing sunsets and rainbows. Here are a few of the shots we've taken recently. This past weekend we had a LOT of rain and the rivers were high and fast. This is a 20x zoom photo of the river 1/2 block from us, the Tomebamba. The Yanancuy was the same in two surrounding

Weekend in Cuenca

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Well, it actually started on Friday and Sunday I was in bed with a headache all day but a blog title of "Friday and Saturday in Cuenca" didn't sound as good. LOL! We grabbed a taxi and headed to the gathering spot for those going to the Newcomer Lunch at La Yunta. I had been to the first newcomer lunch at Don Colon's while Stu was in the US, so this was his first. We had eaten at La Yunta on other outings and the choices this time were roast beef with pasta or fish and chips. I had one and Stu had the other, both were delicious as well the two dessert choices. But the day was really for the families with kids...and there were a bunch! What fun to see them all playing together, riding the horses provided for the day and whacking the piñatas to get the candy. Here are a few photos, the rest are in our SmugMug album . We even had an adult Piñata! We had a blast, meeting friends old and new, barely making it home before the sky let loose. Great

Two Year Anniversary

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Two years ago today we arrived in Cuenca for our month long exploratory visit. What an adventure that was...you can read some of our early posts listed below. We're in Cuenca, Ecuador!!! Sleep is good! Has it been four days? Meeting new friends.... In honor of Earth Day - the gardens at Otorongo Ap... One week gone, three left to enjoy! Meeting & Greeting plus initial discoveries Adventures of the day.... Four days of sunshine - the river is running low What day is it? Interim Lists A few links of interest and where our plans are he... Oh no! It can't be time to leave already.... Feliz día de la madre Cuenca, Ecuador: Preconceptions, Misconceptions an... Ciao for now!

Sunday in El Centro

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Yesterday was the official day of celebration for Cuenca's 458th anniversary but we didn't expect much when we ventured into downtown (El Centro). But Surprisingly the craft tents and artists displays were packed and there were a lot of people in the downtown area, attending church, eating lunch and enjoying ice cream. Rather than my chatter on, here are some photos I took today. You can see the rest in our SmugMug album . When we visited on Friday, I saw a necklace that I really liked but wasn't willing to spend quite as much as the artist's wife wanted. Today the artist was back and the first price he quoted me was less than her discounted price and what I had determined I was willing to spend. It's a two-sided necklace with various stones and sterling silver. He sat down with his daughter and asked me to take their photo. Ciao for now!

Doce de Abril (April 12th)

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When we first were planning to visit Cuenca two years ago, Stu was looking over our various reservations (airlines, hotel, etc) and started to panic that I had booked the wrong date for our hotel. We were flying out on April 15th and the hotel paperwork showed April 12th. Well, not exactly. The hotel was located on the street named April 12th, our reservation was correct on April 15th. Once here we soon discovered that many streets are named after famous people (no surprise there) AND famous dates. Thus Doce de Abril.... 458 years ago today, the city of Cuenca was founded by Gil Ramírez Dávalos. The viceroy of Lima, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, had ordered that it be named after his hometown of Cuenca, Spain. Cuenca was once a Cañari settlement called Guapondeleg, meaning "land as big as heaven". After the Incas conquered the Cañari people, the area was renamed Tumibamba (Tomebamba in Spanish). It was controlled by the palace at Pumapungo (see drawing). During the war betwe

CAUTION! Handyman at work.

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Stu loves to play handyman and fortunately, he's very good at it. Recently, he had two major projects to tackle. The first was mounting the lamp we bought at Rotary Market last week. We needed more light over the kitchen sink and thought this would help. He got it hung, after testing how much it blinded me in various spots, ran wiremold for the cord, installed a small push-button on/off switch and voila! We now have a great over the sink light that is soft and yet works. I love it (and I love the color). The other was a little bigger. In their infinite wisdom, when they pre-wired the apartments for Directv and Etapa Internet, they used two different walls. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but since we use a Roku 3 for streaming most of our TV, this meant we were connecting the Roku wirelessly to the router. In our old apartment, they were direct connected. So in an effort to improve the speed of the service, Stu opted to use wiremold and a 50 ft telephone e