Planet Irony

Kitten in a Bag

2010-12-04T12:56:00.006-05:00

It always takes a little bit of prodding from one of us to the other to get off our butts and go to Parque Paraiso but in the end, it's always worth it. Brian's back has been bothering him the last few days (tall man syndrome); just something that happens from time to time and one has to live with. We lay on our bed in the morning, after chores and breakfast, and talked about what we should do on Wednesday. In the end, we decided on the park for several reasons: (1) walking on grass for some reason is much easier than walking on cement (2) it's a good outing that never fails to cheer us up (3) it's Fredi's most favourite place in the whole world!

Upon disembarking from the bus, Fredi knew immediately where we were at. It's one of 3 places in the city where we can get away with unleashing Fredi and letting her go. She wiggled in Shelley's arms, showing high excitement until we walked across the road and hit the park's grass. Off the leash she tore in 237 different directions all at once. Now shih tzu's dogs are not noted for their smiling face. They have no snout, like poodles & german shepards, and more often than not have a very serious, concerned look on their face. In the park however, Fredi is giantly and obviously overjoyed. There are people that could watch this unbounded happiness and not feel better themselves but Brian & Shelley are not part of that clan. In any case, we walked around the park, met up with several people and a dog or two, introduced ourselves and ventured on. We also sat on a rock & watched the sights and a little further on sat on a log watching the world go by. All in all and generally we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Time for another down day, we simply took a walk in the neighbourhood on Thursday, dropped into La Europa and had cappuccino, enjoyed the weather & kept our eye out for a place that sold small poinsettias. So far we haven't found one. (We go through this every year and every year we eventually find one.) Friday was going to be more of the same but some blog friends telephoned to let us know they were in town and had chili powder & currants for us. (By the way, we're all stocked up on chili powder & currants now!) We met them downtown for lunch, provided them with a city map, gave them some pointers, heard parts of their stories & in the end directed them to the indigenous sweater etc. market and crafts place in el centro. We're going to try and meet them for supper again before they leave.

Aside: While sitting in the restaurant, the woman beside Shelley started to look around a tiny bit anxiously like she'd lost something. When Shelley inquired, the woman said she was looking for her sweater. She asked her husband and he too was sweaterless. "You must have left it on the bench in the park" we told her. "Go look." Her immediate response was to say it'd be gone by then. Brian rose from his seat and peered out the window. "No, it's there" he said. The blue one, right?" She rushed from her seat, out the door and across the street to the park and picked up her sweater. Upon arriving back she was very pleased and it set an exceptionably good note for Cuenca. "Your cell phone would have been gone though" Shelley cautioned the woman and we all laughed.

Brian went down for his nap as soon as we got home because he was off to the opera that evening, the Barber of Seville. Again, this event was free, the only requirement being that you picked up your tickets ahead of time. He had arranged to have dinner with a couple of friends and then on to the opera. The theatre was completely full and apparently had been for all four days of performances. The Cuenca symphony, as usual was first class, and the principals in the opera came from Argentina & Ecuador and the quality of the performance was very good. So Brian arrived home all abuzz with news and fresh impressions of the theatre event, took Fredi for her much later than usual evening walk & then we all settled into bed.

It had come into Shelley's head that she wanted to get a Christmas centre piece for our dining room table. So, we locked Fredi in the bedroom and caught the bus up to Coral Centro & SuperStock. We stopped in at Coral Centro first and wandered around the store. While there were Christmas items dotted throughout the store, there didn't seem to be any central place where decorations & Christmas accessories were being sold. Off we went down the street to SuperStock and they did in fact have a good Christmas centre. We looked at faux trees & angels, cloth Santas, ceramic Santas & felt Santas. Shelley stood in front of a display of baskets and paper poinsettias, her hands on her hips, her head tilted for so long, Brian asked her if she was alright. We walked past creche scenes & baroque jesters, snowmen of all shapes & sizes and candle displays from modest to ostentatious. They had fine Christmas dinner sets & plastic serving plates, pillow covers & lights, garlands & tree skirts. In the end, Shelley got a headache and we ended up leaving the store without buying anything. It was a hot day and back on the bus going home we were both pretty quiet. Looking out the window at a stop, Shelley spotted a woman with a small kitten in a plastic bag, only its head sticking out. "Kitten in a bag, kitten in a bag" she said out loud. Upon arriving home, Fredi was of course overjoyed to see us. Brian took her out for a walk while Shelley stood in the dining room and looked at the table. After a while she shrugged and walked away.

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PLEASE NOTE: Kitten in a Bag is the last Posting for Planet Irony. "Planet Irony" speaks to all the machinations moving from Canada to Ecuador. It talks about the good, the bad & the ugly, and takes us through our day to day life for about 3 years (2008 - 2010).

"Those Not Complicated Need Not Apply" has articles & pictures about Ecuador, cartoons re-posted with permission from their creators as well as Bossy & Selfish cartoons, Infographics on a myriad of things ranging from aging & wellness to internet facts & the secrets behind creases in cowboy hats. It has videos that teach, music videos, videos that make you laugh & videos that are just crazy. As well, there are stories written by us on relationships, our day-to-day life & sometimes just ramblings that are meant to be entertaining and nothing else. If you look hard you'll find recipes we recommend, quotes that are worth pondering, an index to our pictures of Ecuador & British Columbia, Ecuadorian Graffiti & whatever else pops into our minds.

Then the Bus Drove Away

2010-12-01T15:10:00.001-05:00

"I miss my kids, I miss the boat, I miss the path alongside Granville Island, I miss Mr. Plineart, Gomer Grunt & Ivanovitch, I miss the Noon Signal, I miss cheap rotisserie chicken at Safeway, I miss FloCat, I miss being at anchor, I miss the Sally Ann clothing store, I miss the library, I miss blue mountains with snow on them off in the distance, I miss..." Shelley paused after her wail and looked up at Brian.

While Shelley experienced some gut wrenching home sickness at about the 6 month stage of being in Ecuador, these days it's a fleeting thing and then tucked into perspective. We've had some disappointments the last little while and it's easy to fantasize if only you were back home or somewhere else things would be better. They wouldn't be. Pandora follows you forever. Last year at this time we were worried about Brian and his bout with cancer. Everything turned out great and we were very relieved and pleased. When you're a kid, you think that all you need to do is grow up and then you'll control your world and all will be well. Then you do that and amid working & relationships & taking care, you have sneaky little retirement fantasies that involve freedom & security & a letting go of worries & pettiness. Guess what (?) people are people at any age, the world does what it does without consulting you & your health is a precarious thing, hinged on more than just taking care of yourself. (This, of course, excludes those magical people who slip through life protected by luck or ignorance (lots of people work hard) and in the end cease to be, quietly and in their sleep.)

Brian & Shelley have agreed that once Fredi & Brian have gone to their reward, then Shelley can travel the world, 6 months at a time in each country. Fredi & Shelley have agreed that Brian doesn't really need a Volkswagon and feel somewhat and semi-secure in their 2 votes against 1. (Brian pipes in: Fredi hasn't decided any such thing!) We're coming to the end of yet another year and as has been the standard for more years than can be remembered, we are grateful we have made it this far and are very happy we're in this place in time that we are now (for now).

A crazy elf dance was e-mailed to us from Shelley's youngest daughter. A Christmas elf earnestly boogied to music with the face of daughter number two superimposed on the graphic. A small thing but, it made us laugh and cheered us immensely. Monday we shopped. The store was filled with Christmas baskets & boxes and cakes & there was a special aisle with cartons of wine & rum & liqueurs. They wouldn't let us buy wine because the census embargo continued from Friday morning until Monday noon. Arriving home, Shelley made an appetizer and chocolate pot pudding because we were having company on Tuesday. While Shelley was pottering away in the kitchen, Brian went downtown to pick up tickets for the opera next Friday. He and a couple of other friends are going to see what it is all about.

The last day of the month was Tuesday and we did our rounds, paying our bills. We have out-of-country company coming mid-December and were sort of determined to go into hibernation for a couple of weeks before that happens. The problem is, we have company coming tonight, the opera on Friday, a soiree next week & two other outings tentatively in the works. Once the Christmas season is over and things have settled down again, it looks like it'll be time for another holiday out to Vilcabamba or the coast or maybe even some place new. It's nice to get away and not feel any obligation except to lie on a strange bed & read and to go for a long walk once a day. In this sense, and many others, retirement is the fantasy long thought of. In any case, after Brian's nap, he poached a seafood medley and Shelley set about making chowder. In due course our company arrived, lovely people, and we ate well, drank wine, talked about this and that and generally had a very nice evening.

It'd been awhile since we'd ventured to Parque Paraiso, so we hopped on the bus and headed there. The bus was very crowded and as we worked our way to the back a young man got up to give Shelley his seat. Shelley thanked him but demurred as it would have kept Brian standing in the middle aisle, not a great place for a big man to be. We finally made our way to the back of the bus and hung on around the curves and sudden stops. Eventually someone left and Shelley stepped over an indigenous woman's voluminous skirt and the packages she had on the floor and sat down in the seat next to the window. Fredi in her lap, she nodded to the indigenous woman and the woman with a stern face nodded back. We sat quietly for the rest of the ride, mostly looking out the window and when our stop came, once again Shelley stepped over the packages & skirt and followed Brian from the bus. Hitting the side walk, Shelley turned and looked up at the woman. She was looking back at Shelley through the window, again with her dour visage. Shelley picked up Fredi's little arm and waved it at the woman and the woman looked away quickly and then back at Shelley and then a small small smile broke out on her ancient face. Then the bus drove away.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2010-11-28T11:51:00.001-05:00

Too late for Shelley, Brian took off to a concert, the French Ambassador & baritone Jean-Baptiste de Boissiere together with Columbian pianist Jacqueline Gutierra at the Old Cathedral. This concert was 1 in a series that spread over a week and a half with concerts every night. It was the Festival Nacional e Internacional Guitarra, Piano, Canto. There was a strong Gringo contingent as usual and Brian raved about the technical excellence of both the pianist and the baritone. It's quite remarkable that in Cuenca events such as this are free!

Brian went off by himself to the Dentist early Thursday morning to get his filling checked. He put on a shirt and asked of Shelley:

"Is this too wrinkled to go to the dentist?"
Shelley replied in the negative.
"Ya but" Brian shot out "Your standards are lower than mine."
Shelley laughed.

Shelley & Fredi stayed home and did chores. The filling was fine and when Brian arrived home he took Fredi for a walk still in his wrinkled shirt.

We'd been invited to the California Kitchen for U.S. Thanksgiving starting at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Several other restaurants throughout Cuenca were also advertising a U.S. Thanksgiving meal. As Canadians coming to Ecuador, we not only had to acclimatize ourselves to Ecuadorian culture but also found ourselves immersed with U.S. citizens who comprise the greatest portion of the ExPat community. While we've generally found the States people friendly & kind, they are from a different country, different culture and different background which shows itself from time to time in the oddest ways. Shelley was talking about her daughter curling the other day with someone from the southern States. They were quite curious as they had never seen curling except during the winter olympics on television. In Canada we're still very much aligned with a British heritage, the Queen is also Queen of Canada and we have the same Parliamentary & legal systems. We have little knowledge of American football. Hockey not baseball is our National sport. We find ourselves being taken seriously quite often when we're making a dry Canadian-type joke. We need to defend the Canadian health system from time to time and are occasionally envied in that being the age we are, we understand both the metric and imperial systems. In any case, at our U.S. Thanksgiving there was great food & good companionship. We spent most of the time learning about yet another American relatively new to Ecuador, and enjoyed hearing his stories. Please note: Brian wore an ironed shirt.

There was an unwritten rule in Vancouver, B.C. that if you weren't sure, you took a coat or sweater. It was bound to rain or get coolish. In Cuenca it's the opposite. If you're not sure, you don't take a sweater. It's bound to get warmer. It was time for us to go down to the post office and check our PO Box and mail off our Christmas letters. We stood on our balcony and tested the weather. It was right in between needing a sweater and not. We walked downtown (sans sweaters) and Shelley window shopped for shoes, even trying on a pair (she didn't buy any). We stopped at the post office, dropped into a video place and picked up a couple of movies, walked across town and down the stairs and caught a bus home. It had warmed up quite nicely. That evening we went out to a friend's place for pizza. It was a nice evening and we genuinely enjoyed ourselves.

Inordinately pleased to have a couple of down days, we simply went for a walk around the neighbourhood on Saturday. Sat in a park in the sun, ran into an acquaintance and talked for awhile, took a few pictures and then came home to putter in the apartment the rest of the day. Sunday was to be Ecuador's census day and that meant you were required to stay in your home from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. They only do the census every 10 years and we just happened to be around for this one. We'd received a copy of the form via e-mail and had filled it out ourselves so that when the census takers came (teenagers from the various high schools) we'd be ready for them.

It was very quiet outside Sunday morning. No one walked the street, there were no buses, no traffic. It had an out of this world feel to it like the movie On the Beach. The only movement was a dog on the lawn in the park down the street. We did our morning chores, put on a load of laundry, watered the plants, swept the floor and then spent a little while in limbo wondering what to do with ourselves. (Normally, we'd then go out for our walk.) Brian sneaked Fredi down to the lawn below our building for a quick pee. We read & computered & watched CNN on TV and eventually 2 lovely young girls come to take our information. They wanted to know how many light bulbs we had in our apartment, how many living children Shelley had, whether we had a land-line phone or cell or nothing and if we cooked in our home. In the end, they put a sticker on our door that we wondered about getting off eventually. We couldn't figure out if we were allowed out after we'd taken the census so decided not to chance it and spent the day at home.

A Golden Roseate Glow

2010-11-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

There's snow on the ground in Vancouver, B.C. right now. This is very unusual. The kids and friends show pictures on FaceBook and we marvel at their weather. We talked about this as we were walking downtown on Sunday. It was a perfect day. Neither too hot nor too coolish. A slight breeze was in the air with benign clouds in the sky. We stopped at the market and got some roasting potatoes for supper that evening but didn't pick up roast pig. At Shelley's shocked inquiry, Brian's comment was we had too much food in the house and he was going to eat that first. We got to the park and found a free bench and watched the goings on: A 3 year old girl, playing a game by walking on the low cement wall and hanging onto the wrought iron fencing; her big brother, maybe 5 or 6, protecting her, making sure she didn't fall. Two teenage boys, one with a younger sister meet up on the path. They all shake hands quite formally, including the younger sister, chat for awhile and then part ways. A dog walks by on a leash and another dog sitting on the bench just down from us starts barking. Fredi, not to be left out, starts barking too. We ran into 2 couples and chatted for awhile and then meandered home.

It's 5:24 a.m. Shelley's had a bad-sleeping night, staying in twilight most of the time. The bed shakes. The dogs outside start barking. Brian speaks: "Did you feel that?" he asks.

It's 9:45 a.m. Brian & Shelley are resting on a bridge over the Rio Tomebamba watching the water roar over the rocks. Brian speaks again: "How come the earth quakes always seem to come at 5 in the morning?" With a very serious look on her face Shelley replies: "They're experimenting". Brian accepts that with no question and we continue on about our day.

Shopping, we spent the usual hundred dollars getting rum this time for our Christmas/Boxing Day Rum cake and several shampoos and soaps because they were all running out at the same time. Fredi got walked and Shelley made potato salad. The computer was fiddled with & several chapters were read. We even turned the TV on and watched The Event (just because). Late in the afternoon we sat down and translated the Census form and filled out our copy as best as we could in anticipation of the big day on November 28th. Apparently we'll be stuck inside until teenagers come to take our information.

There was a birthday party we'd been invited to on Tuesday evening, so we spent the day basically puttering around. Brian had had to take a ciprofloxicin pill in the morning and he didn't want to be too far away from the bathroom in any case. Yes, the water in Cuenca is safe to drink (be careful elsewhere in Ecuador though (!) including use of water to brush your teeth) but we do seem to suffer from gastric distress more often than we did in Canada. We are careful and wash our fruits & vegetables and don't suffer every week or even every month, but it certainly is a part of living here. By evening, Brian was much better and we attended the birthday party. Fun was had by all.

There's a myriad of things to do in Cuenca. Often we don't attend because we're early-to-bed people & pretty content with our small little life, but just to get a taste of what goes on here (besides regular fiestas), we'll list a few of the free events that have taken place in Cuenca the past couple of weeks: Third Annual Cuenca Puppet Festival, Creation vs Evolution Seminars, French Ambassdor & baritone Jean-Baptiste de Boissiere in concert with Columbian pianist Jacqueline Gutierra and the South American premier of the Movie "So Far". All these free events are posted straight to our e-mail address through Gringo Tree. Other Events are posted on-line at Cuenca's Cultual Agenda. Many people keep busy during their first while here taking Spanish lessons & there are endless volunteer opportunities to take up one's time, anywhere from once a month to 5 days a week. There are of course numerous good restaurants that serve anything from gourmet Ecuadorian food to French, Italian, German and of course North American. There are night clubs & bars for those so inclined, gyms & swimming pools, good hiking & museums, golf & tennis courts, the rodeo & ballet comes through from time to time, regular concerts are held in the coliseum, religious & other celebration parades are a common sight, art & craft festivals abound and there are several parks & green areas scattered around town lovely for a quiet walk.

All the above said, we chose to take a minor chore day on Wednesday and power down for most of the rest of the day. It was time for Fredi to go to the vet and have a parasite dose, so we did that and got her nails clipped. We then walked up the hill to Jo.Mar and picked up 2 packages of their seafood medley to make a chowder. It was quite warm out and even Fredi was panting by the time we got up to Jo.Mar's.

And now a few words exclusively from Brian about the sky & light in Cuenca:

It seems just about every evening at sunset that a unique golden roseate glow descends upon Cuenca. It's the kind of warm light that gives the entire landscape a coppery wash. The kind of light that you expect might create a Gainsborough or a Turner. It seems to infuse the buildings with an incandescence reflected in the puffy undersides of the clouds. It only lasts a couple of minutes and we've never been able to truly capture it with our little digicam but it nevertheless rouses the poet and the painter in us.

Is It Safe?

2010-11-20T13:21:00.001-05:00

Because we have been extraordinarily lucky, we have a spare room in our apartment. In this spare room is our computer and a rescued Norfolk Pine tree and books we haven't yet read and pictures of our children & grandchildren, a couch that magically turns into a bed if we need it as well as our collection of Dowager memorabilia. From time to time, when Brian's on the computer and Shelley's finished a chapter, she comes in and sits on the couch, feet up, with Fredi in her lap, and looks out the window. Just outside the widow is a hummingbird feeder and often there'll be one of 3 kinds of hummingbirds flitting around, making decisions about feeding and then flying away. Beyond the hummingbirds are buildings on a hill and a huge skyline, stretching past the window and up into beyond. There is always quiet for a while, sometimes a long while, with Brian computering and Shelley watching the sky, Fredi content between knees and warmth. After a time though and always, Brian will talk to Shelley, telling her of his adventures on the web, mostly seeking boats but sometimes looking beyond into other worlds. And then it's over. It's time for Fredi's walk, or time to make dinner, or time just to move on.

Ok, for the third time, we awoke in the morning, did our morning ablutions, all the while steeling ourselves, and then walked up the street to the dentist's office. Remember that Brian has a pathological fear of dentists. He's sure that he's a reincarnation of Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man. ("Is it safe?"). Everything was good in the office and the dentist took Brian in first. It's a shallow cavity, the reason for Brian's return, but it needs to be taken care of. Brian was as brave as he's capable of being and the dentist was very proud of him. Next Shelley's turn. With some poking and prodding and looking around, the dentist proclaimed Shelley's teeth were much better. They didn't even need to be cleaned. Shelley was overjoyed! She would have turned cartwheels if she was physically capable of it and had room. Brian has to return in a couple of days just to make sure the filling is OK and then we're scheduled once again in 3 months. (Old teeth take lots of care.) That afternoon Brian put together his Chinese fried rice (with shrimp) and chopped vegetables for stir frying and boiled chicken wings to later mix with oyster sauce because we were having company that evening. Shelley had made a pineapple upside down cake the day before as well as putting together some appetizers on Tuesday, so we were well prepared when our company arrived. The food was good, the company was great and we had a very nice evening.

"Let's have an 'in' day" Brian told Shelley on Wednesday morning while having a quick lie down on the bed after chores. We compromised and just went for a walk around the neighbourhood; Fredi needs it, you know? The rest of the day was spent reading & napping, computering & watching TV. Shelley put together her out-of-country Christmas cards as they'll have to be mailed soon and we ate left over fried rice and pineapple upside down cake. All things considered, we pretty much throughly enjoyed our day. More of the same was had on Thursday, except we met some friends at Tiesto's for dinner.

Once again it was time for a run to the CB Carolina Bookstore, so on Friday we packed up our read books and headed for the #14 bus. When we arrived, we could hear Lee upstairs conducting a Spanish class but Carol was nowhere to be found. We wandered around the store, picking out our supply for the next while and waiting for the counter girl to tote everything up. We then stopped in to Bananas next door and Brian picked up a turkey sandwich with all the trimmings. The mornings see to be pretty clear and warm these days but by late afternoon it usually starts to rain. This is good. The river looks the way it should, but it sure makes you want to be tucked into your home by then.

Several people have tried to get us interested in various volunteer projects. While we're quite willing to shoot the endless projects a bit of cash, we gently explain to them that we're pretty content with our cozy little routine (Shelley's ennui notwithstanding). We genuinely admire those who do give their time and understand how important it is (both of us have done a fair bit of volunteer work in our pasts). It's just the thought of meetings & schedules makes us both instantly and very tired.

A Canadian friend of ours, currently living in Manta, was in Cuenca for a couple of days, so we invited him over for breakfast. Shelley made french toast casserole and Brian fried up some hash browns with bacon & tiny green onions. Peach slices & yogurt filled out the menu. We had a marvelous time, catching up on about 2 years worth of news and learning about our friend's plans to build a business in Ecuador.

Please note, all the pictures on this blog were taken by our friend Holly. They are the last in a series of 15 fabulous pictures of insects she graciously let us post on the blog. Thanks Holly!

You Always Take the Weather with You

2010-11-15T12:51:00.001-05:00

Once again we got up Thursday morning and set about our normal routine, all the while steeling ourselves for a dentist appointment. The time came and we walked to the office and sat down, Brian wringing his hands and Shelley trying to take his mind off of everything. As it turned out, the Doctor was unexpectedly delayed and once again we had to re-schedule the appointment. Breathing cleansing sighs of relief, we arrived home to an overjoyed puppy. Brian then took Fredi out to check some potential accommodations for his friend Jan when we comes at Christmas. Late that afternoon, it got overcast and coolish out and started to rain. The river's quite low so the rain is welcome. Shelley never thought she'd say it, but she actually misses the Vancouver rain from time to time. It's the feeling it engenders. Cozy & warm in your home while it's dark & damp outside.

It was time for our coffee run so we walked downtown on Friday and picked up 6 pounds of coffee. The price has recently gone up to $2.80 a pound. We were wondering how much a pound of coffee costs in Canada these days? Since we were in El Centro, we checked on our picture being framed to see if it was ready. The frame was finished and they only had to fix the hanger part, so we waited a couple of minutes while they did that. Loaded with coffee & a large picture, we took a cab home. Our cab driver took a shine to Fredi and was especially pleased because his name happened to be Freddy too. Our internet had been out all morning, so we were happy it was back up and running when we got home. That afternoon it again started raining hard and long.

Nothing special planned for Saturday, we took off down Doce de Abril walking past the block of dogs (they all take turns barking at Fredi) and then walking further past the University. We then turned in and walked to Remigo Crespo after stopping in at a plant nursery in the neighbourhood. We didn't buy anything. Walking up Remigo Crespo we stopped at La Europa for one of their instant cappuccinos. They were having some sort of celebration at the school across the street and several food booths were set up doing a booming business. As well, they were having a cooking demonstration at La Europa, the cook's voice booming out through huge speakers. There was lots to see & hear. We drank our coffee, watched the goings on and then headed out. It started to rain, huge drops that Brian was afraid was going to turn into another deluge, so we caught a cab and came home.

In a couple of months Brian is going to reach the magic age of 70. When we were children, 70 was ancient. These days it doesn't feel the same way. Baby Boomers are categorized as people born between 1946 and 1964. There's intense concern about the Baby Boomers because we've always been a bubble in the statistics. The economy was always pretty much OK with all of us out there consuming & working and things grew despite adjustments from time to time. There were also plenty of us out there to support an older generation. Now, not only are there more of us than any other generation, but we're living longer too. A quick dive into the web suggests retirement ages are going to rise, medical costs are going to spiral and in the end, after we all finally pass away, there'll be a whole new and different world left behind. The only thing that is certain is change. So here we sit in our tiny corner of the World, plodding away at our daily routines, waiting for change to happen. The thing is, we've found our little corner of paradise. We look at the huge influx of North Americans coming here and keep our fingers crossed they won't change things, all the while knowing they must. Until now, the ancients have mostly faded away, missed by family (if lucky) but hidden for the most part during the last few years of their life. The Baby Boomers with unprecedented access because of our numbers are now chronicling their last years through the web & other media; demanding attention & opening new doors that our overwhelming demographics have empowered us with all our lives.

Walking downtown on Sunday, we noticed the traffic was much lighter than usual. There was a charity event at the Mall del Rio that afternoon but we could not think of any other reason for this oddity. We of course, got roast pig and chatted with our pig lady friend (who insists on giving Fredi multiple morsels of pork) for awhile before wandering up to the park. We sat down in the sun and listened to pan flute on the wind and watched the families strolling down the paths. We played "Gringo Alert" pointing out to each other the tourists gawking at the cathedrals and fended off men and young boys trying to polish our shoes. We had just decided no one was going to show up this Sunday and were going to walk home, when we we ran into some folks. One of the couples had recently purchased a second apartment and asked us if we were interested in seeing it. Several people we know have now become minor land barons in Ecuador, purchasing multiple apartments as an investment. Our friends' apartment was lovely with a huge terrace, great view & a large bright kitchen area. We were very happy for them. After duly admiring their purchase, we went for cappuccino & ice cream before we parted ways.

It was raining. We were walking up the street to go to SuperMaxi and do our shopping. We both had raincoats on and a hat. Brian carried an umbrella. It was deja vu to the hundreds of time we'd walked up to the Safeway in the rain in Vancouver. At the store, we met some people we know and chatted a bit and then caught a cab home. It was still raining. Brian put on Fredi's raincoat and took her out for her walk while Shelley put away the groceries and made various dishes. It continued to rain. The river is no longer low. This is a good thing. Shelley doesn't miss the rain anymore. She has however, become quite contemplative.

Plenitude

2010-11-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

On our Sunday walk down to Parque Calderon, we've taken to first stopping in at the market to pick up Brian's roast pig, as then it doesn't delay us on the other end when it's usually time for Brian's nap. The lady who sells Brian his roast pig has taken a real shine to Fredi and always has a chunk or three of meat for her that Fredi greatly appreciates! We got to the park and couldn't find an empty bench so ended up sharing it with an Ecuadorian man reading the newspaper. He didn't seem to mind, even when 8 or 10 other people eventually showed up. We met a brand new couple as well as friends that visit every few months or so. There were also some old friends and some new acquaintances, so we all talked and caught up with each other and it was a very nice visit. Shelley eventually had too much sun so broke Brian away from the intense conversation he was having. "But I haven't talked to everyone yet!" he explained. We caught a cab home and spent the rest of the day comfortable and quiet.

Contrary to anything that points to the opposite, neither Brian nor Shelley are good shoppers. We both just want to head for what we're looking for, pick it up with no searching and escape. Monday grocery shopping, however, seems to be the exception. We both enjoy the trip, never concern ourselves with the cost, picking up what we want with wild abandon. OK...Shelley picks up with wild abandon and Brian shakes his head. It should be noted that we don't shop together. Shelley heads off in one direction with the cart and Brian heads off in another looking for meat and vegetables. From time to time we meet at the cart and eye each other's purchases. We found shopping together tended to make us cranky. OK...Shelley got cranky because Brian would nag. After getting home with the groceries, Brian takes Fredi for a walk while Shelley puts the groceries away. Again, this routine was developed to alleviate chaos tension. Two minds equals two theories about the best way to unpack & stock. Two theories equals endless "discussion". Once the groceries are stored, then Shelley starts her cooking project if we're having company the next day. Note: Shelley's NOT a great cook. At a dinner party not too long ago, someone was talking about one of Shelley's confections. They'd forgotten it was hers. They just remembered the "strangeness" of it all and were regaling the party with a funny joke about its inadequacy. Awkward moment: Do you point out it's you or smile politely and let it pass.

Inadequacy, nagging & crankiness deftly avoided or simply ignored, Monday we went shopping & stood in the store for half an hour talking to a family from Hawaii thinking about moving to Cuenca. Upon arriving home Shelley made carrot cake and broccoli salad as we were having company for dinner on Tuesday. There is satisfaction in being all stocked up, having done a good deed, dishes cleaned from the cooking project and after being on your feet for several hours, finally it's time for a sit down.

Brian couldn't believe it, but it was time to go to the dentist again. We got up and Shelley made potato salad and we did our morning chores. Our appointment was for 10 o'clock, so at about 20 to, we headed off. On arriving, we found out the dentist's office was having trouble with their water supply. He took Brian into the examination room and semi-cleaned his teeth and advised him he had a cavity. Brian was devastated. It's a small cavity but still needs to be tended to. Then it was Shelley's turn. The dentist took her into his office and took a quick look at her teeth and then advised he'd have to re-schedule because of the water problem. Anyone who has read this blog for any time knows Brian is deathly afraid of the dentist. He gets crabby thinking about the dentist, breaks into a sweat going to the dentist and deep deep anxiety all the time he's at the dentist. Having to make another appointment so soon did not make his day.

We left the dentist's office and walked up to SuperMaxi to pick up a couple of things for our dinner party that evening that we'd forgotten the day before. We also got our phone recharged with minutes. Walking home, each carrying one bag, Shelley advised Brian he was crabby, would be for the next few days, and that he should be quiet. Brian looked at her wide-eyed, acknowledged he was not pleased about the dentist appointment and attempted to get himself in line. When we got home, Brian took Fredi out for a walk and Shelley made pasta salad. We're having shrimp appetizers, oven bar-b-qued ribs, 3 salads and carrot cake for dessert. It should be good. Our dinner was nice, everybody had plenty to eat, we talked about a myriad of things and we'll be eating left-over salad for 3 days.

Several weeks ago we'd arranged with a couple relatively new to Ecuador to take them through the Feria Libre market this Wednesday. We met them in front of the market, put Fredi into her carrying pack and set off into the depths. First off, past the fruit & vegetables, past the key place, past the knife sharpening place, past the tupperware and we reached the pet area. We pointed out the chicks & the baby ducks, the cuy & the various designer puppies, the roosters & the hens. We headed into the sea food and saw the big tubs of shrimp & crabs & muscles & fish and scooted past endless stalls of fruit & vegetables. We hit the potato department and explained these ones were good and those ones were tasteless. More stalls of tomatoes & avocados & garlic & papayas; more grapes & odd shaped fruits we know not what they were; more carrots & beets & cabbage & pineapple & cauliflower and apples. Finally we reached the small plant department and looked at cacti & orchids & various bedding plants. Pushing our way ahead, we entered the dry goods section. Stall after stall after stall of clothes & blankets & shoes & hats & jeans & trinkets & just plain junk. Finally we ducked into the main building and pointed out slabs of chocolate & bulk spices & walked through the meat department, chicken & beef & lamb hanging everywhere. We emerged from the building, crossed the street, found a cement step and all had a sit down for a little while, out in the sun, the frenzy of the market behind us. We remarked on the overwhelming plenitude represented in the market and conjectured that it's not likely that very many people in Ecuador go hungry. Having gathered a bit of energy we walked several blocks to the Good Affinity restaurant and sat in the cool inside and had a very nice vegetarian lunch. It was a good morning.

And So It Goes...

2010-11-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

The Military Parade for Cuenca's Independence Day started at 9 o'clock Wednesday morning this year, so we were up early, rushed through the chores and were out the door by 8:40. We walked down to Solano and followed the crowd until it thickened and then found a good spot on the sidewalk. Almost as soon as we got settled, the parade started. The Police had to work really hard to persuade people off the road so the parade could go to its terminus. First there was display of flag carrying soldiers (men & women), followed by troop after troop of marching men (some in deep camouflage). Bringing up the rear was a very impressive display of motorized vehicles and weapons. During gaps in the parade, a young man in white face, would come out and amusingly mock people in the crowd. He had everyone laughing quite uproariously. When the parade was over, we spied some people we know and crossed the street and chatted with for a bit, before we walked home again. The sun was shining, the crowds all had smiles on their faces and it was a good outing.

It's 1:30 in the afternoon. Brian & Fredi are napping. There's a load of laundry in the dryer. Shelley decides to try and make a new confection that involves crushed Oreo cookies, lots of melted chocolate and cream. (No wonder we can't lose weight!) She's up to her eyebrows in cookie crumbs and melted chocolate and the dryer buzzes indicating it's finished. Immediately thereafter the phone beeps indicating there's a text message. Shelley shrugs her shoulders at the commonness of mayhem, licks chocolate off her elbow and continues to plod through her day.

A fruitless search was made during the day for some items on Thursday. We came home exhausted just barely in time for Brian's nap. That evening, to make up for the annoyance during the day, we had dinner at a friend's place with several other people. The evening was pleasant, we all played nice and it was a good topper to the day. Friday dawned bright and gorgeous and we ended up walking both ways to downtown & back. El Centro was hectic with people going about the business that had been delayed because of the festivities. We took a fairly large picture into be framed ($22), stopped for a coffee and ran into some friends, picked up some coloured felt pens and got our bus cards charged up for another couple of months.

Brian's on a new kick to perhaps get a Volkswagon bug. They actually made them in South America until just a few years ago, so there's a fair amount around in pretty good shape. Shelley's not totally against the idea but wants to wait until the new year. Mind you, she's not saying which new year she's thinking of. Shelley's had a thing against owning a car for years and years. "They always let you down when you need them the most." She talked Brian into giving up his car when they first got together and has managed to live without one most of her life. We leased a car for a few years when Brian was required to have one because of work. Sure, it was nice when picking up the groceries & the odd Sunday drive, but... Isn't it nice that Brian & Shelley now have something else to "discuss" for awhile? Brian was tentatively encouraged when he detected a faint glimmer of positive response when he originally suggested a Volkswagon beetle. It probably sparked some distant nostalgic reaction in Shelley. If it has to be a car, then a vintage Volkswagon would appear to have the greatest chance of success. In our discussion, we even advanced to giving "it" a name: Hermman. Has Brian unerringly zeroed in on the one vehicle on the planet that Shelley could even countenance? After 16 years of living in very close quarters, we have become very intuitive with each other.

Shelley wants to point out that Brian has had the cash to buy his helicopter for several months now. He has chosen not to. She'd also like to point out that one of our friends who purchased a motor cycle has put the beast down on the ground twice now. His elbows and arms are shredded. The trip to Europe vs Fredi's welfare is still in "debate" mode. When we take a straw pole on the "discussions" Shelley & Brian have, almost invariably the consensus from friends & blog readers is on the side of Brian. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? Brian tells Shelley she's cheap. She doesn't disagree and it does nothing to change her mind. Shelley tells Brian he doesn't think of all the variables. He doesn't disagree either and the fact makes no difference to him. The latest argument goes to Shelley's ennui; a car would provide a new variable in our lives. And so it goes...

On our way out for our morning walk on Saturday it was spitting outside and there was much open-hand-up-to-the-sky gesturing & discussion between us before we decided it wasn't going to do anything more. In the end we were right and the day turned warm and gorgeous. We walked downtown and Shelley got a haircut (expensive at $5) and then we stopped for a couple of cappuccinos. After the coffee, we walked home but first stopped into a video store and picked up 3 DVDs to watch with the pizza we're planning on getting delivered this evening. Brian talked with his friend Jan on Skype and found out that Jan was planning on being in Cuenca for Christmas. We were surprised but pleased and look forward to seeing him and his Peruvian lady friend.

Expats in Ecuador

2010-11-02T12:58:00.002-04:00

There was a new display of artisan booths (set up for Cuenca's founding celebrations) that we'd spied across the street at Otorongo Plaza the day before, so on Saturday we set off to see what was happening. Most of the booths were same-old, same-old, with beaded jewelry, cloth aprons & dish towels, carved wooden kitchen utensils, sweaters & hats, etc. We did however, manage to pick up a fish weaving to use as a coffee table cover. Venturing our way home, we stopped at the stationery store to buy some red paper for our Christmas letters and Brian headed off to the new empanada place just down the street from where we live. (Just off Unidad Nacional on del Batan, a couple of blocks down from Doce de Abril.) Arriving home, Brian got on Skype and talked with his friend Jan for over an hour, setting to right all political systems & most things in the news. After that a quick heat in the microwave for his empanadas was in order. When asked how they were, he declared they were even better than the ones he'd been getting at the other place. Later on, around 5 o'clock in the evening they started to set up a band stand on Tres de Noviembre right across from the Latino Hospital. Around 6:30 there were fire works and the band started to play and then hundreds and hundreds of runners came down the street. Traffic was being re-routed and dogs were barking and it was all quite exciting!

Finally got up the wherewithal to check with the web and find out why, about once a year, you'd see bread shaped like people. What we found was: during the week before the commemoration of the deceased or dia de los muertos, the fruit beverage Colada Morada is typical, accompanied by Guaguas de Pan, which is stuffed bread shaped like children. When we first came here, there were only the most token of decorations and costumes for sale around Halloween. Each year though there seems to be more. Christmas decorations too, have been popping up for several weeks. The town itself didn't do as many Xmas lights last year as the year before. There was an austerity campaign going on set up by the then new mayor. We wonder what will happen this year?

The walk downtown on Sunday was punctuated by several stops so Shelley could adjust the bandages on her heels due to blisters caused by the new shoes. Brian couldn't understand why she'd worn them and Shelley's only explanation was that she was a girl. Brian continued not to understand. We stopped at a display by the Peruvians, who seem to come to town whenever there's a festival of any sort. We picked up roast pig and continued on to the park where eventually we met up with 3 other couples. The gab fest was on! As time meandered, one couple set off to see the fine arts & crafts display down by the river and eventually we all broke up. The 2 other couples also headed off to the arts & crafts exhibition and we returned home for Brian's nap. The weather was gorgeous, music was in the air everywhere and the company was great. Upon arriving home, Shelley dug out her sandals, which she rarely wears in Cuenca and declared them perfect, as the straps did not hit near any of her blisters.

The following is going to shock you! Hang onto your hats now! We did not go shopping Monday morning! Instead we went to a friend's place for breakfast and had perhaps the best omelet we've ever eaten, plus an excellent brewed coffee, juice, fried potatoes, a fruit mixture and pretty good sausages considering it's Ecuador. There were 5 of us for breakfast and we talked about how we met our spouses, how we made our decision to come to Ecuador and how wonderful we all feel about both things. Finally, Shelley tapped Brian on the shoulder and explained to him if we were going to get the shopping done in time for him to have a reasonable nap, we had to leave. Shelley enjoyed the coffee so much she had 3 cups. Shelley hasn't had 3 cups of coffee in a row for perhaps 20 years or more. During the shopping exercise she felt a great need to explain to Brian that everything was so bright and shiny it was almost surreal. WARNING: DO NOT give Shelley 3 cups of coffee in a row ever again!

While idly surfing the web, Shelley asked Google to "define: expat" and came up with the following: (1) exile: a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country; (2) In computing, Expat is a stream-oriented XML 1.0 parser library, written in C. As one of the first available open-source XML parsers, Expat has found a place in many open-source projects. Such projects include the Apache HTTP Server, Mozilla, Perl, Python and PHP. ... (3) An expatriate; a person who lives outside his or her own country; The noun used (4) An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin term expatriātus from ' ("out of") and ' the ablative case of '''' ("country, fatherland"). (5) Short for expatriot - someone who lives in a country other than their own.

Although Monday was wet & a bit cool, Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day. We caught a bus to Calle Larga y Hermano Miguel and walked down the stairs to check out the paintings & crafts displayed in the park there. We ran into people we know & chatted for a bit, and took a few pictures and pointed to the paintings we liked but ended up not buying anything. At the place we're at now, putting much else on our walls would crowd them. We walked down to a Banco del Pacifico to see if they had any money as the machines near our home were out. That Bank was empty too. We suppose the Banks have been closed since Friday and they didn't fill them up enough for the long-long-long weekend. We caught a cab home as the buses are all being re-routed due to the festivities.

Fireworks, Frenzie & Fiesta

2010-10-30T10:14:00.003-04:00

It's difficult to explain this...to new comers. Those excited and wide eyed about everything around them. Busy buying furniture & a new life. Busy discovering new restaurants & shops & places to go. Busy organizing "new" events and telling friends & family about their discoveries. Busy renovating old adobes or planning new apartments. Busy meeting new friends & discovering ancient monuments.

On the Road to Paute

The thing is...eventually...it becomes everyday, normal, just a part of your life and then there's another adjustment. The one where you slow down and it becomes your regular life. What do you do beyond? Some continue to travel, some integrate into their new society, teach or take on a business or develop routines that satisfy. Some wait. Some leave.

The thing to remember is that life is dynamic not static. Never think your move to Ecuador is an ending. It must always remain a new beginning.

It was time to take Fredi to the vet to get her nails clipped so we headed off to Remigio Crespo. First we stopped at the spice store to see, if by chance, they had any oyster sauce without MSG. We'd managed to find some in SuperMaxi awhile ago and bought several bottles but now that we're getting low SuperMaxi only has the kind with MSG. The spice store only had the MSG kind as well. We stopped at Fybeca to buy a young friend (under 5) a toy Shelley had spied in the window. "Look!" she told Brian. "That's really cool!" Then we finally headed down the street to the vet's office. Our vet was in, happy to see Fredi, and we practiced English & Spanish on each other while Fredi got her nails clipped. We also bought some Advantage because we'd used up the last package when we took our trip to the coast. The fleas are relatively scarce in Cuenca but fleas & tics can easily be found at the beach. (PS:- A couple of days later we were walking down Simon Bolivar and spotted a grocery store flying an Ecuadorian and a Chinese flag. We thought they might have oyster sauce without MSG and they did. As well they had Chinese liquor, crockery & noodles.)

Most of Wednesday felt like it took place on the bus. We met some friends at the bus station and then travelled to Paute to have lunch at Corvel. The trip is really only about 45 minutes and the cost is $0.75. After lunch we wandered around the town a bit but mostly walked to the bus station and caught a bus back to Cuenca. In the morning when we started, Cuenca was quite cool and Paute seemed quite warm but by the time we arrived back in Cuenca it was warm there too. It was actually a nice day, looking out the window at the new scenery and watching all the goings on at the side of the road.

Shelley's shoes were beginning to wear out and all her looking in the Chinese clothing & shoe stores resulted in nothing she liked. Most of the fine Ecuadorian shoe stores supply high heels & pointed toes. Thus, on Thursday, we headed off to Payless Shoes and paid close to Canadian prices for a perfectly fine pair of shoes that fit her. We then walked down to the Post Office for our monthly check in. There was nothing there. It's an odd thing, this living with virtually no mail. We then walked across town, down the long stairs to the river and caught a bus home. We'd been invited out for dinner that evening with a couple we haven't seen for ages, so of course we needed to get home in a reasonable time for Brian to have a good nap. He'd missed his nap entirely the day before and fell asleep in his chair (Shelley prodding him awake) all evening. We ended up having an absolutely lovely evening, helped along by 2 vodka martinis! We also met a delightful couple relatively new to Cuenca who instantly fell in love with Fredi. Fredi sneaked cheese appetizer from the coffee table while we were eating dinner and our hosts were lovely and gracious about it! The food was great (ask Fredi), the company was wonderful and we really enjoyed ourselves although as usual, Brian & Shelley couldn't decide whose turn it was to talk.

Children in Traditional Costumes Dressed up for the Founding of Cuenca

Over the next week there will be a myriad of events commemorating Cuenca's founding, including music and dance concerts, firework shows, jewelry, crafts and food fairs. Brian is planning on seeing Cuenca's Symphony Orchestra play Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in the park Friday evening. We've been told they shoot off real cannons! As it's a bit too late for Shelley's comfort, she and Fredi will stay home and listen to the fireworks being shot off all over town. Friday during the day, we trudged around paying our bills and then went to Parque Calderon to await the appointed time to meet a couple of friends across the street for lunch. While waiting, some other friends came by and we chatted quite merrily for 15 minutes or so. Finally the people we'd arranged to meet for lunch arrived and we settled into sandwiches as well as catching up on all the gossip. It'd been awhile since we'd all been together so there was much to talk about. The fact was, we were "forced" to order a beer each after lunch just to give us an excuse to keep on keeping up. That evening, before Brian went out, there was a parade of probably just about all the emergency vehicles in Cuenca going down Doce de Abril with sirens blaring. Oblivious at first, we thought there must have been some terrible catastrophe before we realized it was just another display for Cuenca's birthday. Still later on in the evening, after Brian had returned home, he reported the Symphony was great, the fireworks stupendous and that he'd bumped into several people we know. By the way, the fireworks were set off right in the street in the heart of downtown Cuenca beside the Cathedral. Imagine any main intersection in North America where they set off a stupendous fireworks display! No doubt the Fire Marshall would shut it down immediately. Here, there seems to be an almost gleeful disregard for such regulations. It should be noted however, nothing untoward did happen because of the display.

Textures of Ecuador

2010-10-25T13:16:00.001-04:00

The Ecuadorians call the group of people over 65 Tercera Edad (Third Age). Presumably, there's childhood, then your practical and fun filled adulthood and then third age; the point in your life that you longed for during the "bad days" while working & dealing with children & accumulating assets & dispensing with debts & taking care of business & raising yourself & others above the mud. There's a respect here in Ecuador, shown in perks & courtesies, for those in third age; shorter line-ups at banks & bill paying places, 1/2 price tickets for the movie theaters, water parks, airlines & buses, etc. The perks don't extend to a comfortable retirement system (oh well). Just the other day Brian witnessed an unprecedented line-up of cars, waiting patiently (this is the unprecedented part), while a young man escorted an ancient old woman across the road, tiny-stepping, arm clutching arm, two strangers making their way through the traffic. You'll see young people help the oldsters bring bundles onto the bus and Shelley is always surprised when a teenager rises and gives her a seat. "It must be my gray hair" she explains to Brian. Those of us from North American & much of Europe have reached a stage where those in tercera edad are often still healthy and vigorous, and so we move to countries like Ecuador bringing our retirement dollars to help with an economy we'll take little from. Often we'll see bent over crones & wizened old men, ancient displays of a life of physically hard work & a lack of protein and realize these people aren't much older than we are. We were lucky. So, here we are in the middle of something very old and something quite new. Seems to us that the North American baby boomers have spent an awful lot of time in that in-between spot demarcating the old from the new.

It didn't take us long to get back into our Cuenca groove. We'd arranged to meet 3 people at California Kitchen for dinner, so we simply took a walk around the neighbourhood for our day time outing. We also stopped in at Jo.Mar and picked up some frozen sea food in memory of our trip to the coast. Brian had his nap, Shelley caught up on e-mails and eventually we wandered downtown to meet our friends. One of the people had to beg off, but another one showed up so things evened out. We had a nice evening, chatting about our trip and catching up with each other.

It turns out Saturday was a kind of chore day. Shelley washed the floors in the morning and Brian put together some meat balls and gravy for our dinner that evening. We took Fredi for a walk to the strip of grass near the river where she can free run and had her charging between the two of us, getting tons of exercise, when an acquaintance jogged by and stopped to catch up on the gossip. We then headed up to SuKasa because Shelley wanted to buy a mini vase to capture the stones & broken sea shells she'd picked up on the beach during our holiday. Brian & Fredi sat outside while Shelley went in and found just the right thing ($0.75). Nearing our apartment on our return home, we ran into another couple we know and chatted about boats & sealing wax until everyone's feet got tired and we parted ways. At home, Brian checked the slow cooker on his meat balls and Shelley put together a batch of Puppy Cookies as Fredi was almost out. Now it was well past nap time, so Brian & Fredi went down and Shelley computered & read her book while baking batches of liver cookies.

Not quite back to routine on Sunday, we did stop by the market and get roast pig for Brian & a tube of tomatoes for Shelley, but instead of going to the park, we ended up at a restaurant meeting 3 friends for lunch. It turned into a joke-fest, with everyone telling their favourite jokes. Afterward, we caught a cab home and Brian just barely got down to his nap on time. Monday we did our shopping, took Fredi for a couple of walks, but mostly lazed around the apartment. Coming home from the grocery store, some relatively new gringos living in our building offered to help us bring our bags up. We demurred and explained to them the building had a shopping cart for just that purpose. They were minorly thrilled (!) and requested we supply them with any other "building" hints we knew of. We, of course, couldn't think of anything.

Apparently, by mentioning Shelley's whimsical wish to perhaps move to India, we've taken a small straw poll. Everyone is against it! It's dirty, the crime is terrible, it's hot, it's the last country on anybody's list, etc. etc. etc. We're not serious (at this time) about making the move, but would point out to all detractors, that this is exactly what was said to us when (a) we moved onto the boat and (b) we moved to Ecuador. OK....they said other things when we moved onto the boat, but they were similar. Both Brian & Shelley have had "itchy feet" all of their lives. They've scratched them by multiple spouses, jobs & living locations. At this point, we seem to have eliminated spouses & jobs from the equation. "Good for you!" some say, but.... Ecuador is a wonderful country, the people are kind, the weather is kind and the cost-of-living is kind. What more can you ask? The thing is, just because one reaches Tercera Edad doesn't necessarily mean that one's wish to learn & progress is diminished. Brian & Fredi reach out beseechingly (not to move right now) to Shelley and she does as she's always done: taken care of business & family.

You may wish to check out our FaceBook Album Textures of Ecuador that we've recently downloaded. Ecuador abounds with textures and we certainly haven't captured them all, but we're on our way at this point.

Playa, Paella y Protesta

2010-10-21T19:01:00.001-04:00

For the second Sunday in a row, we did not go down to Parque Calderon and Brian did not get roast pig. Instead, we dropped by the hospital to visit a friend. That's it (!) No more of our friends are allowed to get sick! Upon arriving home, Fredi & Brian went for a walk and Shelley started packing as we planned on going to Salinas for a few days. The last holiday we had we went to Vilcabamba with friends. This time we just wanted to be alone, sit on the beach, soak up some sun and be quiet for a few days. Hopefully, that's what we'll get.

Up bright and early Monday morning, Brian took Fredi for a walk while Shelley made sandwiches and put together a package of welsh cakes to take on our road trip. We were on the bus and leaving the terminal by 7:10 a.m. Just for interest sake, we arrived in Guayaquil at 11:20, wandered around the mall there for a bit, caught the bus to Salinas and arrived in Salinas at 2:00 p.m. The trip itself goes through several ecosystems. You start on the streets of Cuenca and then progress to the suburbs. Gradually the houses get fewer, the cows get thicker and you're into verdant grass, cultivated fields and pasture land. After that you head up into the mountains and through Parque Nacional Cajas where the landscape turns into a duller green and the grass turns into scrub. Up through the mountains you go gasping at the breathtaking drops and winding your way through thick fog (or low clouds) and finally you hit the summit (almost 2 miles up) and then down you go into mountain jungle. After leaving the mountains you hit the coastal plains with mile after mile of banana plantations and rice fields and then you cross the bridge into Guayaquil. It's such a shock to step off the hot bus (the temperature rose from 17 C early morning in Cuenca to 29 C by the time we hit Guayaquil) and go into a modern mall, air conditioned, bright airy and busy. Back on another bus we went through the West Side of Guayaquil with mounds of garbage lining the road and unpainted hovels rising up into the hills. Once you leave the city though, you're into dry forest (bosque seco) and then coastal desert. Finally you reach the ocean and the beach (playa).

Just Before Parque Nacional Cajas

Banana Plantation

City Bus Terminal Guayaquil

We checked into Coco's on the Malecon and paid for 3 nights accommodation ($109). Fredi ran around sniffing the entire room making it hers and grumbling quietly under her breath. We went out and had a beer to celebrate arriving and then returned to the room and had a well needed nap. That evening we ate at Cevichelandia. Brian had arroz con ostras (oysters & rice) and Shelley had breaded fish. We walked the Malecon and right off the bat noticed the giant sand castle that they used to have there was missing. We suppose during the high tides a few months ago it went back to the ocean.

That evening when Brian took Fredi for her walk he came back to the room highly distraught! "I feel so bad!" he exclaimed to Shelley. He'd taken Fredi onto a small batch of scrub grass on the beach and she was loaded with burrs. We had to borrow scissors from the Hostal in order to get them all out. We had to cut her beautiful hair awfully close in a few places. Shelley teased Fredi, now she looked like a poodle.

Salinas

Up at 6 a.m. the next morning, Brian took Fredi for a walk down the hard beach near the water, far far away from scrub grass. In the fresh morning air, with only a few people around, Fredi was able to free run and had an absolute ball. Back at the room by 7 o'clock, he arranged to meet Shelley at a restaurant for coffee as soon as she could drag herself from the bed. She promptly fell back asleep and ran to the restaurant arriving at 8. Brian was all finished but indulgently waiting for her. We hit the beach at 10, rented two chairs and an umbrella for $3 and spent the next 2 1/2 hours enjoying the sights and sounds.

Close your eyes and you hear: a nursing mother in the next set of beach chairs, cooing at her baby, vendors selling their products (swinging chairs, lamps, coconuts, ice cream, jewelry, tattoos, boat rides, lamp shades, carved wood boats & cars & trucks) a group of children playing down the beach, screaming & laughing, an airplane flying in circles overhead, and the ever present wave action, back and forth, back and forth.

Then, of course, it was nap time. For dinner that evening Brian had an extravagant Seafood Paella with shrimp & lobster & scallops & clams & mussels & fish & rice in a red sauce, all served in a searing hot iron skillet. It was way too much for him to eat but incredibly delicious. Shelley had (guess) breaded fish.

More of the same on Wednesday, up early in the morning to take Fredi for a beach walk, breakfast, another walk up the Malecon, beach time (Brian went swimming) & lunch. It was cloudy but warm the whole time we were there. We've previously been to Salinas in February when its HOT (32+ C) so we quite enjoyed the temperature this time. In fact, we never turned on the air conditioner in our room. It was quiet on the beach with fewer vendors. We had several naps and attributed our sleepiness to the change in altitude. That evening we found a place that served burgers for dinner. It was a nice change.

Up once again at 6 o'clock on Thursday, Fredi got her walk and then we caught our bus at 7. Just outside Guayaquil there was a protest of some sort. There were tires stacked 3 deep and flaming (!) all across the highway. After a while, our bus driver made a couple of calls and then eventually advised us to walk until we saw bus # 6, well on the other side of the barricade, which would take us on to Guayaquil. We walked past the burning tires and down the middle of the highway, looking at the lined up cars for about 1 k. There we were, carrying our possessions, trudging in the hot sun and Shelley turned to Brian: "I feel like a refugee" she told him. He laughed.

We trooped onto our # 6 bus and headed into Guayaquil. At the mall once again, we stopped at McDonalds and had a McFiesta burger and fries since we'd missed breakfast. Shelley and Fredi, with our luggage, then settled down under an air conditioner, while Brian went in search of clothes big enough for him in the mall. Mall noises: the babble of Spanish thick in the background, the vendors from the bus kiosks shouting their destinations, salsa music and intense drumming, a young couple talking in Chinese (believe it or not) and a rooster crowing periodically. Brian came up empty in the large clothes department.

West Side of Guayaquil

Our trip between Guayaquil and Cuenca was longer going back as there were lots of delays for road construction. We missed most of them on the first trip. We wound our way past banana plantations and scrub grass, waited patiently at several places, passed a myriad of trucks & buses on blind corners in the fog, passed the breathtaking drops & llamas and finally hit the outskirts of Cuenca, pleased to be home but happy with our holiday.

More pictures of Salinas can be found here.

All's Well with our World

2010-10-16T21:52:00.000-04:00

On Monday when we went grocery shopping, we stopped at the Banco del Pacifico to try and get money. This time the machine told us our card was unserviceable. We then tried it at a Banco Austro machine and that machine gave us dollars. On Tuesday, we had several chores to take care of so off we went downtown to visit yet another bank, Banco de Guayaquil. We got the same message that our card was unserviceable. Again we tried Banco Austro and got money. Shelley's not happy. She doesn't like being thousands of miles away from her "home" branch and wondering each day if we'll be able to get money. No one we talk to seems to be having the same trouble and the card actually works some places, so we know it's not the magnetic strip that's worn out. Brian's convinced it'll all go away and be just fine in time. In any case, armed with a little cash we got our phone filled up and bought some flowers for a friend and then went to visit for an hour or so. That afternoon, Brian went to the Doctor for his regular check-up to make sure everything is still OK after his operation. He returned home in about an hour with a slip setting out all the tests he's suppose to get done the next day.

Brian bent down and gave Shelley a kiss. She was still snuggled in bed. He was off to the lab on Wednesday to get several tests done. Shelley got up, had her computer time, did a load of laundry, watered the plants and swept the floors. By that time Brian was back, so he held down the fort while Shelley & Fredi went out for a walk. Arriving home Shelley found Brian on the computer talking to his friend Jan in Saudi. Incidentally, while he was out Brian tried yet another Banco del Pacifico to see if our card would work and it did. So...now we really don't know what to think. We puttered around the house, Brian had a nap, Fredi was taken for yet another short walk and finally it was time for Brian to go back to the Doctor to get the results of his tests. His results were good and he's now on a 4 month recall instead of 3 months. All's well with our world.

You may have read that in South America instant coffee is a treat to many. In smaller places, if you don't want instant, you should first make sure that they have brewed coffee. Nescafe seems to have a strong hold on Ecuador. The Nescafe cappuccinos are actually pretty good though (!) all things considered. (Or have we been too long away from Starbucks?) In some places there's a kind of coffee syrup that you get and then mix with hot milk. We have no idea what they do to make the syrup. In any case, nothing special planned for the morning of Thursday, we took a walk down Remigio Crespo and sat outside the La Europa and had a Nescafe cappuccino while watching the world go by. Brian had a cooking class (Hot & Spicy) that afternoon so we got back in plenty of time for him to have an early nap. When Brian got home after the class, he said that he really enjoyed the food because he really likes spicy food. The hit of the evening for him was Jamaican Jerk Chicken. There was also a soup dish called Harira to which you add a very spicy pesto type concoction that is blistering hot to the taste. There was also a dish from Peru called Papas a la Huancaina, which is basically potatoes with a cheesy hot sauce. The class was touted as Hot & Spicy and met all expectations. Ecuadorian food tends to be bland by North American standards, so these recipes provided a very nice counterpoint. As usual, wine was consumed, the company shared experiences and Fredi came out of her skin when Brian got home.

The phone rang bright and early Friday morning. Our plans for Friday were unavoidably cancelled. Oh well. We phoned up some friends and suggested we meet for lunch. The place we were going to eat at was about a 40 minute walk from home, so we left with lots of time to spare and wound our leisurely way there. Unfortunately, the restaurant we'd picked wasn't open until the late afternoon. We walked up the street to Pizza Hut and 4 of us had sandwiches while Shelley had something called a Spring Roll which was really a crepe wrapped around chicken & ham. Looks like we're having one of those Mice & Men days.

It was time to go to the Rotary market as Shelley wanted a fairly big basket for a project she's working on. We got the bus a bit early and walked around a little bit lost until finally we stumbled on the market. The Rotary market was certainly the place to buy a basket. Several shops were selling anything from a laundry basket to an Easter basket. We got a good deal on a fairly large basket, sat around the square in the market and watched the people go by, wandered a bit more down the streets checking out shops we don't normally see and then caught a bus home. Our internet has been down since the early morning. It's now early afternoon. Often it will go down on Saturday and/or Sunday but it usually isn't off for more than an hour or so. We've grown quite dependent on the internet and feel its loss. (Note: It finally came back around 2 o'clock in the afternoon.) We are meeting a friend at our favourite pasta restaurant for dinner this evening. Our friend is just back from Canada and we have a lot of catching up to do. As expected, we had a good gab fest and fun was had by all.

For those of you wondering, we just got the definitive information on what you have to go through when you renew your passport. This is to get the permanent visa re-stamped into your new passport:

There are two documents that you will need to send along with your two passports and the money. One is called the Movimiento Migratorio, a record of the dates of your entrances and exits in Quito and Guayaquil. You can get that for $5 at the migration office in Cuenca. You will need the old passport and a copy of it, too. The other thing you need depends on what kind of visas you have. You need to prove that your financial situation has not changed; i.e., if you had social security when you got the visas, you must prove that you still get it. Some are done by direct deposit each month in a U.S. or Canadian bank, and the lawyer said to simply print that off the computer screen. Gabriela Espinosa in Quito charges $80 plus the government fee of $20. You also need simple copies of your censo and cédula. To sum it up, you need the immigration form, proof of continued monthly income, old and new passports, copies of the censo and cédula, and payment.

A Canadian Thanksgiving in Ecuador

2010-10-11T12:58:00.001-04:00

Everything is a bit topsy turvy for us this week. Thursday, we put together 10 books and went down to the CB Carolina Bookstore to trade in same and find out from Lee what was happening with the Marcelo Lucero Mural to be dedicated in Gualaceo this weekend. Marcelo Lucero was murdered in New York in a racially motivated hate crime two years ago. Students from his Long Island high school created a Peace Mural in his memory. It's been a long haul for many people getting the Mural into the country, getting the various duties & charges against it paid and actually getting the materials ready for the whole thing to be mounted. We traded in our books and picked out 10 more and Brian & Lee discussed the agenda for Saturday and the dedication of the Mural. Afterward, we stopped in at Bananas next to the bookstore and Brian picked up one of their absolutely wonderful (!) turkey sandwiches to take home and eat for lunch. That evening we went out to a Birthday Bash at the California Kitchen. There was a lovely diverse group of people and 3 dogs. Everyone (including the dogs) was well behaved and had a good time! Brian had a double bacon cheese burger. When it arrived, we couldn't decide if he was suppose to eat it or climb it! The food was great, the company was gracious & interesting and we had a very good time.

The next day, Brian advised: "I don't want to go out! I just want to sit around and do nothing. I want a down day." We discussed whether he shouldn't have had that last glass of wine the night before and decided it wasn't that but the gargantuan amount of burger he'd eaten. "I was afraid to move in bed last night I was so full." As it turned out however, Brian ended up taking a trip to Mount Sinai to see if a friend was booked in. The friend had called us the day before asking us to recommend a Doctor and had advised they would let us know how things turned out. We heard nothing. We tried phoning but the phone instantly went to Spanish. We tried emailing with no success. So we figured a quick bus trip to the hospital to check their sign-in board wouldn't hurt...and then we'd know. Shortly after Brian left of course, Shelley got an email from our friend. Not in the hospital but afflicted with a horrible stomach ailment and on 4 different medications & a restricted diet. Our friend was laying low. We feel really bad; that really sucks! After an hour's outing, Brian off on his fruitless bus ride & Shelley taking Fredi for a walk, we spent the rest of the day laying low ourselves.

Bright & early Saturday morning Brian got up and set off to the bus station for his trip to Gualaceo for the dedication of the Marcelo Lucero mural. Shelley & Fredi, of course went for a walk, but spent most of the day making pecan pie & Christmas fruit cake. The pecan pie was for Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday and the Christmas fruit cake was for mellowing to be unveiled during the month of December after much coddling and pouring on of old Spanish sherry. Fredi kept a pretty tight vigil in the kitchen just in case something good to eat ended up on the floor. There was flour & candied fruit & nuts & dishes & pots & mixers spread throughout the kitchen and it probably was a very good thing Shelley did this while Brian was out of the house. Brian arrived home around 2 o'clock in the afternoon and reported that the dedication event went very well. He got to meet the family of the young man and said that the whole experience was very emotional and touching. It was televised and speakers included the Mayor of Gualaceo, the young man's sister & mother, and representing the gringo community, Lee from the Carolina bookstore. Lee was accompanied by the teacher from New York City whose students created the mural. It was made clear during the speeches that Canadians as well as U.S. Americans had contributed to the memorial. Brian & a friend had almuerzo in Gualaceo before catching the bus home. He told Shelley that he found the trip to be very rewarding and was happy that he was able to go.

Canadian Thanksgiving Sunday was a cooking day for us. We tried, for the first time last Christmas one of those turkey roasting bags and were amazed & pleased at how fast it cooked the turkey and how moist the turkey turned out, so of course we used one again for Thanksgiving. Brian had cut up the nice bread we'd purchased and dried it out in the oven the night before, so at 9:49 in the morning he was busy making stuffing. We'd invited our guests over for 3 o'clock and intended to eat at around 4. That way, one has all evening to digest. Fredi got her walk and a bath. Brian got his nap. The company arrived and fun was had by all. It's the big holidays where you miss your kids the most. Back in Canada one daughter cooked a turkey and sent pictures of their festive table and another daughter had 2 turkey dinners in a row, one bar-b-qued. All the U.S. Americans around us found it a slight oddity, our Canadian Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed the day.

As usual, Monday we went shopping but there was no cooking in the house that day as we had plenty of leftovers from the day before. Out of curiosity, Shelley looked up Thanksgiving on the web specifically with regards to the differences of Canada vs the U.S. Wikipedia supplied the following information: The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming; his safe return from the search for the Northwest Passage. In 1578 he held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The traditional origin point for Thanksgiving in the United States is the celebration that occurred at Plymouth Planation in 1621. Apparently Australia, Grenada and the Netherlands also have a Thanksgiving day. In Australia May 29th is dedicated to saying "thanks" to current and former Australian troops for serving. Funny, we call that Remembrance Day in Canada and we believe in the States they call it Veterans Day. We wonder if the Australians eat too much on their Thanksgiving day?

Two Steps Back

2010-10-06T16:20:00.000-04:00

It was time for another Magical Mystery Tour on Saturday so we caught a #12 bus headed East and eventually, through quite a meandering ride, ended up in the small town of Banos. We didn't go to the hot springs but wandered around the main square, took a mini-tour of the beautiful church that's there and Brian had lunch (chicken leg, rice, vegetables, potatoes, agua con gas). We walked up a set of stairs to a lookout and got a fantastic view of Cuenca down in the valley. On the way home the bus ended up downtown. We weren't sure how far out it would go in the opposite direction before it turned around and took us near our home, so we got off and caught another bus whose route we were familiar with. Total cost of several hours entertainment for 2 plus one lunch: $3.10.

The park was wonderful on Sunday as usual and we ran into 3 people and chatted before we set off to the market. On the way to the park we encountered a religious parade, several men in blue robes carrying a large statue of the Virgin of San Miguel on a platform, with people from the congregation in front & behind holding up pictures of the Saint and chanting. There were probably 40 - 60 people in the parade and the traffic, without benefit (it seemed) of police direction, just avoided it. Ah ha! This is how you get pedestrian right-of-way.

Canadian Thanksgiving is the weekend of October 9-11 and as we plan on buying a turkey, giving it time to thaw and cooking it for several people on Sunday, we did not go shopping on Monday. Our plan is to get the turkey and accessories on Wednesday, thus giving it a reasonable 4 days to thaw. Instead, on Monday we needed to go to the bank and also pay our internet bill, plus do a favour for a friend currently out of country. (We know everyone who reads this blog will be shocked. "They didn't shop on Monday!" you'll mumble to yourself. "What's the world coming to?" ---We're afraid you'll just have to cope.) Taking care of business was easier said than done. First we went to our usual bank to withdraw some money from the machine. Three times we tried and 3 times no money was spit out at us, instead the machines just whirred and gurgled and otherwise did nothing. On the third try we were told however, that we were over on our transactions for the day. "Oh Great!" We then trudged home to see if any money had come out of our account. Fortunately, none had. That at least was a relief. Having no idea what was going on, we decided to defer getting cash until the next day. (We're not sure we had any other choice.) Brian then headed out on his own to hopefully and finally pay our internet bill. Later, back at home, he announced his success and then we awaited a phone call to finish up our chores for the day. The call came in at 2:46 in the afternoon. Fortunately, Brian was just waking up from his nap and he was able to take care of business for our friends. Now...all we need is to be able to take money out of a bank machine tomorrow!

All Pictures: Banos (near Cuenca)

Well, we went back to the bank on Tuesday and tried the machine once again. Once again, nothing happened except the machine eventually asked us if we needed more time. We happened to notice another gringo seemed to be having the same problem, so he & Brian went into the bank and asked an English speaking teller what was going on. She had no idea. Upon arriving home, we checked the internet to see if there was any comment on Cirrus being down or ATM's on strike in South America or something....but the net was silent. The other fellow had contacted his bank in the United States the day before and had been advised there was nothing wrong with his card so we knew it wasn't just Canada and wasn't just us. Shelley sent a couple of e-mails out inquiring of other people if they were having the same problem and at this point, we have our fingers crossed that things will be back to normal tomorrow.

It was with a fluttery heart that we headed off on Wednesday to go to the bank and then on to do our shopping. Standing at the banking machine, having punched in all the right numbers, it seemed an eon went by....and then....money came out of the machine! Glorious, green, beautiful, money. We have no idea what went wrong. Other than the fellow we met at the bank yesterday, no one we knew had tried to get money. We were only thankful that today it worked.

Off we scampered to do our shopping for Canadian Thanksgiving. We bought a turkey. They didn't have any brussels sprouts; oh well. (This is not to say they don't have brussels sprouts in Ecuador; they do. Just not the day we want them.) We bought carrots & turnips to be mashed together with butter & brown sugar. We also got onion & bread for the homemade stuffing & potatoes to be mashed with sour cream & butter. (Not a diet meal this.) We were forced to buy a substitute for sour cream (the store didn't have any) and broccoli as a substitute for brussels sprouts. We plan to make pecan pie but already have all the fixings for that. We've been asked with curiosity by several U.S. Americans what the Canadian Thanksgiving meal was like. This is ours; exactly the same as our Christmas meal, except for Christmas we have rum cake instead of pecan pie. If you're of Italian descent, it may be lasagna; Ukrainian - perogies, etc. Between Brian and Shelley, there's English, Scottish, American Indian, Welsh & Norwegian. The above was our compromise between dried fish, pickled pigs feet, bannock & haggis. Oh...we also have buns (of course) and a baked sweet potato. In Ecuador the sweet potatoes are purple, so that should be colourful.

Arriving home, Shelley put away the groceries and made pesto (we just like it...on just about...everything) while Brian took Fredi for a walk and later he tried to get in touch with someone in Canada. The phone call just wouldn't go through. It's been a frustrating couple of days that way, with several spanners thrown into the works, but we are trying to get back on track and looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner.

Yesterday

2010-10-01T16:24:00.001-04:00

All Pictures of Parque Paraiso in Cuenca

It was time for Shelley to go back for her one month recall visit after her dental surgery. She'd been brushing & flossing & using special mouthwash & had purchased that little twirly tool to clean between gapped teeth. Her gums had stopped bleeding when she brushed them as she'd taken the advice of her dentist and when they bled brushed longer. It's counter intuitive but it worked! In any case, the periodontist told her her teeth & gums looked very good and that he was quite pleased. She has to go back every 3 months for a year to get her teeth cleaned and then should be able to go back on a 6 month recall again after that. Dental coverage is not part of the great Canadian medical system. Working people often have coverage through their employer, but into retirement this ends. We got an email from a friend of ours in Canada the other day and he talked about having to get extensive dental work done and joked about re-mortgaging his home. Between the two of us, we've had so much dental work done in the last 2 years it really would have been onerous in Canada; thank you Ecuador!

It's Wednesday in the late afternoon. Brian's on the computer. Shelley's lying on the couch, her feet up on the back, reading. Fredi's on the floor below Shelley, chewing on a chewy. The lightning cracks & the thunder booms just about at the same time. It's all quite spectacular. Fredi looks up. Shelley looks up. Brian shouts from the bedroom. There's biblical rain for about 20 minutes. Then it's all over. An hour later, the sky is blue & clear, the sun is shining and it's gorgeous out.

The end of the month brought our bill day on Thursday and we had also arranged to meet a friend for lunch. We managed to pay our water & electricity but when we tried to pay our internet the building was closed. Next we wandered down to our bank and found the front door locked up and people were being let in one at a time. We managed to get in and got our business done but while we were in there they stopped allowing anyone else access. We were a bit early to meet our friend, so we wandered to the park to sit on a bench and wait for awhile. There was a large demonstration going on with a couple of hundred people waving flags just across the street from the park. We often see demonstrations at this location and didn't think too much about it. On our way there, however, we noticed that most of the businesses had locked themselves up tight. While we were sitting, several soldiers wandered through the park and stopped just this side of the demonstration; not involving themselves but keeping an eye. People were standing in door ways peeking out at the demonstrators and excitedly talking to one another. We sat in the park oblivious and listened to speakers speaking in Spanish and wondered what was going on. When it was time to meet our friend we walked to the restaurant where they had a television and apparently there were protests all over Ecuador in that the President had recently cut back on some of the Police's benefits. We watched the President of Ecuador on TV, at one point pulling his tie out & ripping his shirt open in defiance, trying to get his point across. We suppose the businesses were closed because there were no Police available in case of trouble. Either that or they were worried about riots. It was hard to catch a taxi (not too many were on the street) but we did and we made it home just fine. Later on, we found out when the President tore his shirt open he was daring someone to shoot him. Apparently he was gassed & held hostage for a few hours. Ecuador eventually declared a State of Emergency. Meanwhile, Brian & Shelley walked around with their heads in the sky, annoyed because they couldn't pay their internet bill.

Our evening was peaceful and Friday dawned quietly. The news advised us that 2 people had been killed in Quito & something like 80 injured in riots. Banks & government offices & schools were closed by decree (so we still couldn't pay our internet bill) but when we went for a walk in our neighbourhood everything seemed tranquil. We fielded several inquiries about our safety from family & friends out of country and thought perhaps the international news coverage made the whole thing seem just a tad more spectacular than it was. We saw 3 motorcycle cops on patrol when we were on our walk so assume most if not all of the Police are back on duty. The head cop for Ecuador resigned and there are promises that other heads will roll. Apparently a couple of stores were gutted in Guayaquil but Cuenca seemed to handle the whole thing with a certain cautious yet resigned aplomb.

Yesterday our Ecuadorian neighbour scoffed at us when Brian said it was an exciting day. "It's nothing" he told us and politely hid his laugh at the easily alarmed gringos. Yesterday the President of the country was baring his chest & then was held captive for a few hours and today it's business as usual. There's a routine here like anywhere. Shelley's hay-fever starts to get bad and the green suited men with the weed wackers are sure to show up within a couple of days. Yesterday we wandered the town annoyed a Country's business was interfering with our own routine. Today, like most of it's citizens, we're enjoying the sun, content with our lot and wondering what all the fuss was about. Now if we could only get that stupid internet bill paid.

Is that Dog Years?

2010-09-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

The phone rang bright and early Saturday morning. It was some friends begging off the outing for the housewarming due to gastric distress and asking us to pay their share of the chartered bus trip. Brian was happy to oblige. He cooked a hearty breakfast, as he figured the food part of the party would probably be delayed later than his usual lunch and he shared it with Shelley. She doesn't usually eat eggs (the cholesterol you know), but his scrambled eggs & bacon on a bun looked so good she couldn't resist. We caught a bus together and Shelley & Fredi got out a couple of blocks before Brian with the intention of wandering home on foot. (Incidentally: Shelley found some marshmallows ($3.59) in a stationery store on the way home. Yet another great Ecuadorian find!) Brian continued on to the designated waiting point where a chartered bus had been arranged by a fearless leader type to take him and a couple of dozen other people out to Yungilla. We'd been duly warned that the ride out to Yungilla was a "heart in your throat" adventure with whirling roads and drivers. However, Brian said that the driver drove at "gringo speeds" so the trip was very pleasant. Our friends' home turned out to be truly spectacular, with several acres of lawn & fruit trees & flowers & a breathtaking view down the valley. There was a lot of food, a lot of socializing and Brian arrived home tired (because he had missed his nap) but said all in all it was a wonderfully entertaining adventure.

Our Sunday walk down to the park has been going on now for well over 2 years. Sometimes we meet a couple or two in the park by design, sometimes there are hoards of people (20 or more, standing room only) and the park seems overwhelmed by gringos. Sometimes it's just us, just Brian & Shelley, sitting on our bench, watching the people, letting children and old ones and in-betweens pet Fredi; the only gringos in the park but well accepted as we're regulars. This Sunday it was like that until we were just about to go, and then an acquaintance stopped by our bench and we chattered for awhile. The day was glorious and there was a pretty impressive singer/guitar player in the gazebo. We stopped on the way home and, of course, picked up roast pig, 5 carrots, 7 tomatoes, a large purple sweet potato, 3 onions and a fillet of fried fish ($6).

We went shopping on Monday and Shelley made cheese cake & a cream cheese appetizer as we were having company on Tuesday. Tuesday, Brian set up the slow cooker to make his beef stew and we took a walk down Doce de Abril past the University, back to the Vega store to look at our potential cabinet again and then turned around and walked home. That evening we had 3 people over for dinner, enjoyed Brian's good stew, Shelley's dessert & everybody's pleasant company.

During our working life, which at this point took up most of our lives, our friends were mostly either from work, our neighbourhood or through our spouses. Shelley was surrounded by straight-laced "office" workers most of her life during the day and laid-back musicians & artists during the evening. Brian worked with high-powered sales people & high ego radio personalities, learning to manage both but never feeling at ease with either. At home he was surrounded by educators & chaotic children. Our neighbourhood on the boat consisted of salt of the earth fishermen or characters out of some not very good novel (Russian spies & Green Peace minions, wacked out artists & demolition experts). In Ecuador (where everybody initially wants to be your friend), most of the people we seem to be meeting are educated (either self taught or formally), fairly liberal & mostly better off than we are. (Being married more than several times between the two of us, didn't make for a conducive atmosphere to pile up assets.) That's not to say there aren't left/right-wing, wing-nuts & stuffoholic justifiers just down the street; there are, but they seem to steer clear from us and that seems fair. We have no particular agenda & don't wish to jump on a band wagon. With all these new characters in our lives, in the natural scheme of things we tend to gravitate to some and not to others. Some that we've been drawn to have proven to be disappointing. Oh well. It's really about developing history with folks; it's the history that gives a friendship roots. Our lives have been colourful with ups & downs, tragedy & subliminal glee. We came to Ecuador not because we had to, but because Ecuador (or some similar place) had always been "the plan" for Shelley at least, and Brian came because he saw the merit in it. Will we stay? Who knows: forever is a long time. Shelley talks to Brian about India & no stuff at all and Brian digs in his heels and points to Fredi...whereupon the discussion peters out. Maybe we'll leave when Fredi hits 18? Is that dog years?

In Praise of the Common Nap

2010-09-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

Nothing special planned for Tuesday, we set out across to, and then up Remigio Crespo to check the spice store and get some pecans. Our plan was to also wander down the street to the Comisariato and check it out for products we couldn't find in SuperMaxi. We picked up pecans, candied cherries & (glory be) chocolate chips at the spice store. Shelley's been using the chips from the chocolate fondu packages as a substitute lately. They're larger and flatter and have more oil in them, but are just about the only thing in town. Finding actual real chips was a red letter day thing. As we we were close, we also stopped at the Fybeca on Remigio Crespo and Shelley bought some slippers she'd been eyeing there. Can you believe it! The first pair she tried on were too big! Next, we wandered down the street to the Comisariato and Shelley went in while Brian & Fredi took a walk around the block. She bought some whole wheat flour, more candied fruit, Argentina Chorizo sausage (we'll see how it is) and something called Dristan caliente for the next time we have cold (reminiscent of NeoCitron which we liked in Canada). Next, Shelley & Fredi sat under a shade tree on the boulevard while Brian went in to check the store. He came out empty handed. "I almost bought a bottle of wine that looked good and that they don't have at SuperMaxi" he told Shelley "...but I didn't". We caught a cab home, and Brian just managed to catch his friend Jan (back in Holland on a holiday) on Skype. Shelley cleaned and re-arranged cupboards and suggested to Brian they needed to get made a small side board for extras. Brian wants a small freezer (which we haven't seen yet) and Shelley wanted to know why not get both? It became a tentative plan. And the day whirled and spun as it will.

It seems we're on a minor quest to maybe get a sideboard and a small freezer. We walked on Wednesday to a store, sort of in our neighbourhood, to look at side boards. Shelley found something she absolutely loved for $1,195. It was antique and was hand painted with delicate flowers. We didn't get it. That evening we all went out to enjoy a supper at a friend's place. We had a regional U.S. (North Carolina) specialty; hotdogs with mustard, chili & cold slaw and a side of baked beans. The food was great and the company was enjoyable!

It was a chore day on Thursday and we went downtown to check the Post Office for mail, fill up our phone for a month ($10) and price freezers & sideboards. All of the freezers we saw were too large for our needs. Prices were between $500 - $700 for the smallest ones, which was OK but even the smallest were too big. We saw a sideboard in a store that Shelley liked but it was too big as well. To get one custom made in the same style but slightly smaller would be about $400. We went home to chew on that information.

Shelley made a cracker/chocolate confection on Friday for Brian to take to a large house warming that he was going to on Saturday. Later on we took a walk down Doce de Abril and dropped into a stationery store to price oil paints & a canvas. To buy all the supplies, including paint, canvas, brushes, cleaners, etc. it worked out to be about $50. We then headed past the University and visited the Vega shop semi looking for a sideboard. We found a cabinet, in our fish motif no less, for about $200. We didn't pick it up as Shelley wanted to "eye" the apartment with this unusually shaped piece of furniture in mind first. Then we walked down to Tamariz street, stopped at a nursery there and picked up a new mini-tree for our balcony garden to replace a vine that had tried valiantly but just didn't succeed. The mini-tree cost $4.50 and we caught a cab home rather than carry it the many blocks back to our apartment. After eyeing the space next to our dining table, we decided we'd go back to the Vega shop next week and pick up the the unit. Shelley's going to think awhile about a project before investing any money in paint supplies.

Those of you who read the blog on a regular basis understand that an afternoon nap is something fairly important to Brian. We cut social obligations short, plan our days around it, have trained Fredi to nap at the same time and also be a watch dog for the nap, alerting Brian with droopy ears & eyelids that the time has come. Although Shelley doesn't nap, she uses nap time creatively working on the computer, trying out new recipes, reading, doing art projects, all those things that require alone time, sometimes hard to get. Brian's nap time has been a lifelong characteristic, getting a stronger hold when he worked the morning shift on radio for several years and had to get up at 3 a.m. Napping took on a whole new dimension when he worked 12 hour shifts, 4 days on 4 days off, rotating between the day & night shift. During this period in our lives we also developed a strong tie to a calendar, having no idea what day of the week it was without one. It also provides fodder for conversation in that Brian often remembers his dreams from nap time. Into retirement now, nap time has become a reward only reluctantly traded for a few very special obligations. We have to go now...because you guessed it, it's nap time.

Not Too Much Wrong with this Retirement Picture

2010-09-20T16:55:00.002-04:00

Shelley grew up in the highest city in Canada; Kimberley, British Columbia at 1,120 meters. Cuenca is 2,500 meters. A tad higher. Nonetheless, despite all the discussion and talk about high altitude cooking, Brian & Shelley seem to find few problems. You may not cook a cake as long as the recipe calls for, you instead cook it until it's done. The same holds true with rice. According to the web at altitudes above 1,000 meters, preparation of food may require changes in time, temperature or recipe. The reason is the lower atmospheric pressure due to a thinner blanket of air above. This decreased pressure affects food preparation in two ways: (1) Water and other liquids evaporate faster and boil at lower temperatures and (2) Leavening gases in breads and cakes expand more. Whatever the reason, we cooked on an old diesel stove on the boat and got used to adjusting times for it's crankiness. High altitude cooking for us seems to work pretty much the same way.

Well, the big day was upon us, and we set off downtown on Thursday to pick up Brian's new jacket & pants. The whole experience was a bit of a disappointment. While nothing was so wrong that we stormed out of the store refusing to make payment, the pants had to be re-hemmed as they were too long and Brian feels the jacket is just a tiny bit tight. Thus, we don't particularly recommend the shop where Brian had it made. We caught a cab home and Brian again tried on the outfit, pointing out in great detail to Shelley exactly everything that was wrong with it. What's the old saying: try, try, again? That evening, Brian had a dinner date at the home of a friend with another couple in attendance. They had Caesar salad with chicken & baked tree tomato with banana bread. There was good conversation, good food and it was generally a warm visit. Meanwhile, Shelley made cinnamon buns to keep herself busy & tried fruitlessly to get to talk to her daughter in Canada who was home after having surgery. Everything is OK. You know, she just wanted to talk to her baby.

Guitar Playing on City Bus

Our trip to Parque Paraiso took place on Friday. We've mentioned this before, but it could be the most funnest place as far as Fredi is concerned, in the whole wide world. We walked around the park, stopped and watched some sort of memorial service or ceremony, listened to a traditional Andes flute group play their instruments and watched Fredi have the time of her life tearing round the park, playing with other dogs and looking at absolutely everything. When we first came to Cuenca there were always vendors and one man bands on the buses plying their trade. About the same time they brought in the new pay system, they seemed to have banned most of the vendors. You can still see them on long-haul bus trips, but rarely on the buses around town. In any case, on our trip home there were not one but two guys (not at the same time) playing guitar. One accompanied himself with Andes flute and the other with pretty poor harmonica. All in all, it was a good outing.

Brian at 10 de Agosto Market getting Roast Pig

Coolish out and semi-threatening rain, we wandered downtown on Saturday and Shelley window-shopped for shoes (as usual) and we ended up buying 3 DVDs ($4.50) but nothing else. We walked home and it still hadn't started to rain, but Shelley was glad she was wearing her jean jacket. We'd passed an obviously tourist couple while we were downtown and the woman had on quite a warm looking quilted jacket zipped up to her chin and still looked chilly, hunching her shoulders. "She must be from Florida" Brian commented after they'd gone past us.

It was off to the park on Sunday and we met and chatted with several people and then stopped in at the 10 de Agosto market and picked up 7 small tomatoes, enough roast pig for 5 sandwiches & a fillet of deep fried corvina for $4.50. (Shelley figured she wanted a treat on Sundays too, and decided on deep fried corvina. Will this affect her cholesterol level?) We thought summer was here but it seems to have reverted to the coolish weather again. One needs a sweater inside & out. Monday we went shopping and Shelley made chili in the slow cooker, tossing in fried hamburger, chili seasoning (brought from Canada) hot pepper flakes and several cans of beans, vegetables, mushrooms & tomatoes. Note: anyone that wants to bring us something, can bring chili powder and/or currants; we'll reimburse you upon arrival.

Shelley's taken a peek out of her bi-sexual purdah (Brian doesn't like this sentence, but Shelley dug in her heels) and found it same old, same old. Coming up, we have a "dinner out" and a "social occasion". Shelley will by-pass the crowd (the "social occasion") but will enjoy some time with puppies and people who appreciate puppies (the "dinner out"). Meanwhile, Brian naps & takes Fredi for walks and is solid and true & generally happy. Not too much wrong with this retirement picture.

Mounted Police at Parque Paraiso

Then You're Left with Yourself Once Again

2010-09-15T17:23:00.000-04:00

Petra Taxi

There was some puff pastry left over from our last company, so on Sunday morning, Brian rolled it out and Shelley sprinkled apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins & pecans all over it. Rolling the whole mess up, we cut it into rounds, similar to cinnamon buns and cooked them in the oven for breakfast. They were absolutely wonderful! After the chores were done, we both got dressed and Shelley walked part way to town before splitting off and headed out on her own. Fredi was thoroughly confused, dragging on the leash as she & Brian headed to town, wondering what Shelley was up to. Shelley wandered through the neighbourhood, being quiet and contemplative and ended up back at home to read her book until Brian & Fredi showed up.

Brian reported that he hooked up with our new friends and some folks they were helping to adjust to Cuenca as they were also planning on eventually moving here. The park was vibrant & colourful and everything good that we enjoy about it. The young Ecuadorian man that we had introduced as a "helper" has now been recommended to several other people, so we're glad to see that he appears to be building himself a new business. The sun was shining and Brian & Fredi really enjoyed their outing. Fredi collapsed and slept right after the long walk, first of course, greeting Shelley effusively.

2nd Century Roman Amphitheater in Amman

There was hardly anything written on our list for shopping on Monday (2 pkgs hamburger ($4), laundry detergent ($9)) but we still managed to spend $110. We bought frozen shrimp (just because) ($7) and and a box of wine ($5) as Brian was going out to dinner on Thursday, so that bumped the cost up a bit. We ran into a relatively new friend and chatted in the grocery store for awhile and then as per usual, came home where Shelley put away the groceries and Brian took a very thankful and very happy to see us Fredi for a walk. That evening Brian went to La Terrace Bar & Grill for dinner to celebrate a birthday and Shelley & Fredi lay on the couch reading & watching TV. (Ok...Shelley played on the computer as well.)

Brian got home and naturally Fredi went nuts and as it was quite late she needed to go outside immediately. Brian said the party was great! At least 20 people attended and the birthday boy was overwhelmed! It is gratifying that when one of the expat community has a special occasional you realize how many acquaintances you make in a short time. All together a satisfying evening!

Bedouin Sheep & Goat Herd

The morning dawned dark and overcast on Tuesday. We had planned on taking Fredi to Parque Paraiso but decided against it, thinking it would probably rain. It never did. We spent the day mostly inside puttering and that was OK too! Up bright and early on Wednesday, Brian set off to Gualaceo & Chordaleg on the bus with another couple to see the sights and have a bit of a road trip. Shelley & Fredi stayed home, went for walks, played on the computer, read & watched TV.

The first thing Brian commented on upon arriving home, was the cost. "We spent $3.45 each on today's entertainment, which included all bus fares plus a hot lunch". Chordaleg is famous all over Ecuador for it's multitude of shops that sell gold filagree jewelry. Nobody bought anything but our friends were all agaga on their first visit to this village. The bus trip was colourful and entertaining with all kinds of village people & students & music & chatter both there and back.

Petra

The last few years of both Brian & Shelley's working careers, we diverged from our main path and worked at things that were different. In both our cases, it was an attempt to bring back a joy of work. The process seemed to succeed better for Brian than for Shelley. After 35 years in the radio business and a couple of years of retirement, Brian went back and became a security guard for 8 years. He quickly worked himself up from a concierge type security guard doing night shift, to a roving supervisor to an account manager. The company he worked for was open and concerned about their employees and he managed to make a couple of good friends & was on excellent terms with most of the people he ended up supervising. Shelley roved from job to job, working for the Federal government, the Post Office, a sales office and doing temp (scut) work in numerous other offices. This was after spending 20 years working for labour unions and before that as a paralegal. She was seeking "job satisfaction" and instead found the same-old, same-old.

Both of us enjoy our retirement. We never find ourselves bored with the life we've set up for ourselves and don't miss the stress & pressure of work. This isn't always the case for retirees. Some people fade away, unable to adjust to all that time on their hands. Others find controversy & intrigue in the newspaper & their private lives that isn't necessarily healthy. Some settle in front of the TV or behind a bottle and cease making the effort to live. In Canada, at least, a lot more legislation has been put in place so that people are not forced to retire, so it becomes an option rather than a requirement. As we continue to insist on being individuals, this seems a good thing.


Dead Sea

So, the thing is, does moving to Ecuador or some other exotic location alleviate any of the above negative symptoms? The answer is no. Ecuador had become our home after only 2 years. One adjusts to the strange and different and then you're left with yourself once again. Keep it in mind!

Our friend Jan, late of Canada, late of Holland and now living in Saudi Arabia (working on a high speed rail project) just took a holiday to Jordan. The pictures on this blog showcase only a few that he forwarded to us so we could get just a taste of another exotic locale.

Dealing

2010-09-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

The day dawned bright and sunny on Wednesday; we were somewhat thrilled! It was gorgeous outside and we decided we needed to do something. With nothing in particular planned, we leashed up Fredi and took a walk to the Feria Libre market, Wednesday being it's "largest" day. All was organized chaos as usual. We wandered around for 45 minutes or so, looking at the clothes & the fruit & the fish & seafood & the puppies & the rabbits & shoes & cooking utensils & rugs & hats & roast pig & chicken until the energy of the place thoroughly exhausted us, and then we walked home again, all the while reveling in the sunshine.

Brian had his fitting for his new outfit on Thursday, so we got up in the morning, did our chores & set off downtown. The tailor at "Gentleman" (Sucre 10-74) and Brian had a few discussions about cuffs on the pants (Shelley said no) and the fit of the jacket. In the end everybody was happy. He's to pick up the new jacket and pants in just a little over a week. Then we headed off to get Brian a haircut. Shelley & Fredi & the owner's husband sat and discussed Fredi's statistics in pigeon English & Spanish while Brian got his unruly mop taken care of. After that we stopped at an artisans' mall to wander about a bit. It didn't take much to find exactly what we were looking for. That evening we'd arranged to meet 2 couples at Mangiere's for dinner. We've now been to Mangiere's 3 times and all 3 times the pasta has been just wonderful. It was a nice evening with a diverse group of people, good stories & a couple of decent laughs.

Well, Fredi's gotten us into trouble again! Shelley noticed that a fellow Ecuadorian blog writer had taken us off their blog list. After pointing it out to Brian, Brian suggested she write and ask why. "It may just be a mistake" he told her. As the blog writer did not have an e-mail address displayed on their blog, Shelley had to go through some convolutions in order to contact them. Eventually she managed to do so through FaceBook. In any case, the bottom line was apparently we're too devoted and spend too much time writing about Fredi and taking her to events. They said that they were aware we'd take their comments personally, so there wasn't much room for misunderstanding. Best to know these things rather than to hide behind a patina of politeness and we actually appreciated the blunt honesty. We have consolation: Fredi likes & accepts us for what we are!

It was time once again to make an outing to the CB Carolina Bookstore. Lee was manning the desk as Carol was at home trying to get well and their staff was out at the bank trying to get some of that illusive Ecuadorian change. As usual, the door was opening every 4 minutes as new people came in to browse and old-timers came in to see what was happening, chat with Lee & pick up a few books as well. A group showed up for their Spanish classes & poor beleaguered Lee explained they would have to wait until the staff returned. Shelley perused the shelves and picked out our usual 10 books and Lee & Brian caught up on gossip and chattered with the folks going in and out. Before we left in the morning, we'd phoned a friend and suggested we'd drop over after leaving the book store. This we eventually did and had a good gab session & a nice glass of iced tea before we all set out for a local almuerzo (lunch). For $1.50 we had a lovely flavourful soup, a nothing special but wet juice, rice, boiled potatoes, gravy and sliced tongue. We learned that the term "seco" means "stew" on an almuerzo menu. Also "plancha" means the meat is grilled.

Coming on for awhile, the black dog finally descended and Shelley withdrew to deal with it for the time being. Brian is assuming our social obligations in the interim.

We'd made arrangements to meet a woman relatively new to Ecuador at the Good Affinity restaurant for lunch. She'd sent us an e-mail asking about Veterinarians & Dentists in Cuenca that spoke English and we'd provided what information we could. In the early morning on Saturday we did our chores & took Fredi for a walk and around noon Brian headed off to Good Affinity to have lunch. When he got home Brian said "I don't know why we haven't eaten there before!" We had heard good reviews about Good Affinity numerous times over the last couple of years, but for one reason and another had never actually gone there. Brian had a delicious vegetable soup and a spaghetti dish with tofu & egg in a red sauce which he declared to be excellent. All the ingredients tasted very very fresh and cost, including lemonade, was $3. We'll definitely be back. The woman seemed happy to share her experiences thus far in Ecuador and Brian was able to pass along some local tidbits.

Honest! We do More than Just Eat

2010-09-07T14:49:00.000-04:00

It's Wednesday evening. Brian is out at his vegetable cooking class. Shelley & Fredi cozy on the couch watching a Keanu Reeves movie Shelley's never seen before. Fredi hasn't seen it either but in this instance she doesn't much count for anything. It's raining outside. For the last 2 days it's rained from about 4:30 to 6:00 pm and then stopped but it's not cold. The cold has virtually gone. Shelley no longer wraps herself in a blanket while watching TV in the evening and Brian no longer wears his sweater. Ecuador winter is ending and the long long summer is about to begin.

Several months before we left Vancouver Canada, they changed the telephone system to include the area code. Thus numbers were 604-555-5555 instead of just 555-5555. Dialing long distance within Canada one would add a 1 before the number and then all was well: 1-604-555-5555. Ecuador doesn't seem to have a grouping system. Numbers are sometimes listed as 075 555 555 and sometimes 085555555 and sometimes 09 5555 555. Land line to land line numbers are 5555555 but if you're calling cell phone to land line it's 07 5555555 and they don't always list the 07. Dialing into Ecuador with the country code adds even more mystery. The first number (zero) is dropped, the country code is added and then numbers become 593 95 555 555 or several other permutations. Dialing to the United States or Canada from Ecuador adds even more mystery where suddenly zeros become important again 001 604 555 5555. Get it?

Spoke too soon: woke up Thursday morning and it was raining and chilly out. We had planned on going downtown and getting Brian all measured up for his new clothes, but just couldn't bring ourselves to splash through the weather. One couldn't live in Vancouver Canada if one didn't go out in the rain. All coats had hoods and most people routinely carried an umbrella with them. Here we have the luxury of deferring an outing for another day if the weather's bad. In any case, we took Fredi for quick walks outside, read & napped and generally had a nice locked-in day. We'd previously been invited out for dinner that evening so had something to look forward to as well. Our evening out was fun. Fredi had a friend to play with and we had interesting folks to discover. Dinner was bean soup, toasted cheese sandwiches & banana pudding for dessert and it was all quite delicious.

Well, once we got down to the nitty gritty on Friday, measuring and picking out material, it turns out Brian's sport coat & dress pants are now going to cost $190. He goes back for a fitting in 5 days and picks up the outfit a week after that. They'd originally told us it took 3 days to have the suit ready. It's not that we're in any kind of a hurry. In fact, we prefer the longer time line, in that things are more likely be ready on time. We'll of course, let you know how it turns out.

Speaking of suits, friends of ours brought a couple of outfits for Fredi and we'd previously bought her jammies & a rain coat. Shelley realized Fredi now had 5 outfits. For a dog that hardly wears clothes this seems like a lot. Brian is mildly appalled at being the owner of a designer lap dog with a closet full of clothes. He drew the line at booties, however. In any case, we're showcasing pictures of Fredi's outfits on this blog. Fredi doesn't mind getting into her sweater or jammies when it's cold in the apartment, but she got kind of cranky when Shelley changed her outfit 5 times in a row. By the way, these same friends brought us a copy of the Time-Life Christmas CDs. Our daughter mailed 2 CD's of various Christmas music and Shelley made up a CD from the web. Thus, we now have plenty of North American style Christmas music and thank everyone who contributed to our Christmas well being!

Saturday we walked around the neighbourhood, dropped into Jo.Mar and picked up some frozen white fish and generally had a quiet day. Sunday we went down to the 10th of August market and picked up roast pig, a rib roast, 6 tomatoes & a bunch of green onions ($8). Later we went to the park, met several people, gabbed for 2 hours and then caught a cab home in time for Brian's nap. Monday we went shopping and Shelley made Peanut butter squares Alternative # 1. Next a team effort was required to try a pesto recipe Brian picked up at one of his cooking classes. (In a food processor crush 3/4 cup walnuts, mix in 1 - 2 cup Basil &/or Parsley, add olive oil until mixture thickens, add & mix 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, add & mix garlic to taste (6 cloves) and pepper.) We'll use the pesto on Tuesday to make appetizers for the people we've invited over for dinner. (Rolled puffed pastry cut into squares with a dab of crab pate, pesto, sun dried tomato, emmental cheese & a fresh shrimp, then wrapped in a bundle and cooked for 20 - 30 minutes.) Brian also made a pot of rice as he was planning on making shrimp fried rice the next day as well.

Although we didn't spend the whole day on Tuesday cooking, great portions of it were taken up making our menu for the evening: appetizers, fried rice, sauteed vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini & asparagus) & fried white fish with Hollandaise sauce on the fish & vegetables. We were also planning on having a bowl of vanilla ice cream & a peanut butter bar for dessert. Our guests arrived at 5:30ish in the evening and we gabbled and ate and drank wine and ate some more and gabbled some more and a good time was had by all.

The Demented School Master is Back!

2010-09-01T20:40:00.000-04:00

All 3 of us woke up Saturday morning a bit logy from our evening before. Shelley had woken up at 5 o'clock in the morning and Brian was reading. It was one of those nights. Poor Fredi played hard with her new friend Nick all the previous evening so she too could hardly bring herself to move from the bed to the couch for another nap. We spent the day resting up because we were going to a Birthday Party/Dance Show/Dinner at the California Kitchen that evening. There were lots of people there that we knew and we all ended up singing happy birthday to the lady who had invited us. A dance school put on a demonstration at the end of the evening and the young people in the troupe really gave it their all. We ended up walking a friend home in the cool night air and twice in a row went to bed way after bed time.

It was hard to tell if we needed a sweater or not for our walk downtown Sunday morning. Ultimately we went without the sweater and all was well. First off, we picked up Brian's roast pig because we were expecting to meet someone in the park and Brian was concerned if we had to double back to the market it would cut into his nap time. At the park we met the couple, plus another couple, plus another couple plus six other people, so it turned out to be a bit of a crowd. We caught a cab home because the #7 bus wasn't running as they were having yet another protest parade down Doce de Abril. Once again however, we managed to have a nice Sunday outing.

Monday we went shopping. Tuesday we did the rounds, paid the bills & picked up 5 pounds of coffee. The other day when we'd gone to the California Kitchen, Brian had tried on the suit he had brought with him from Canada. It didn't fit anymore. Apparently, although he's actually lost weight since leaving Canada, the weight left behind had re-distributed itself. In any case, while dropping in at the various places to pay our bills, we also stopped to see how much it would cost to have a blazer and a pair of dress pants custom made for him. The tailor sized Brian up and advised it would be around $160 for both items. We didn't order anything yet, but the price sure seems right. When we got home Shelley made Seafood Chowder using a seafood medley package we'd purchased at Jo.Mar's.

The other day we were talking to a couple fairly new to Ecuador and they commented that they might get a puppy because they missed their children so much. Shelley cautioned the woman about realities such as a dog would restrict their travelling and also require several walks a day. The woman turned to Shelley and quipped, "What? You want me to think more about getting a dog than I did when I got pregnant?" She was joking of course and we all laughed. Shelley explained to the woman that she really missed her children too for the first year and then that particular homesickness began to fade. She went on to explain the home sickness started to abate when she realized she was missing her "perfect" children. Don't misunderstand. We love our kids more than life itself but they get mad at us & ignore us & are less than complimentary from time to time. Our "perfect" children are always sweet, loving & gentle with our feelings and these are the kids we keep precious in our minds. We'll have to see if these people ultimately get a dog. We know we sure enjoy Fredi in our lives and compromise & dote for the sake of that furry little beast without hardly a thought. Come to think of it, we did exactly the same when our children were little and compliant also. Two other mothers we met recently had their adult children visiting. "She looks radiant!" Brian said, commenting on one of them, and she did; happy to be the centre of her kids' lives if only for a few days. One doesn't forget their "perfect" children and we revel & live for the moments when they come.

SuperMaxi couldn't supply Sherry for our Christmas fruit cake so on Wednesday we went on a bit of search for it. We ultimately got a bottle at the Taxi liquor store not too far away from where we live. We now have all the ingredients to make our Christmas cake and only have to wait until mid-October to make it. Wednesday afternoon while Brian was having his nap, Shelley sat down at the computer and she realized the demented school master was back practicing his rant for the first day of school. She hadn't even noticed he was away for 2 months. That afternoon/evening Brian went to yet another cooking class; this time vegetables. Shelley & Fredi saw him off and Shelley went to the computer to fuss with this and that and Fredi went to the couch top to lay her little chin on the sofa and mourn for the return of Brian. At the class it was all about vegetables with terrific recipes involving portobello mushrooms, asparagus salad, spinach with raisins & pine nuts and believe it or not a garlic custard. As unlikely as it sounds the garlic custard would go well with steak or sea food or lamb or a variety of other dishes. The favourite was potatoe latkes which seemed to touch a responsive cord in everyone. As usual a little too much wine led to a healthy camaraderie and fun was had by all.

Life's an Adventure

2010-08-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

Brian spent the morning on Wednesday prepping chicken cacciatore for our company that evening. Fredi had to go to the Vet, so we accompanied her there for the last in a series of 3 anti-parasite doses. We also got her nails clipped, bought another package of vitamins (she's so thin) and a flea treatment: total cost $21. In the late afternoon Brian & Shelley put together a team effort and made appetizers using canned salmon pate, frozen shrimp, pesto, cheese and a pre-made puffed pastry. Now does that sound tasty or not? Our guests were from the United States, but one couple originated in Russia. We talked about strangers in strange lands, the wonders of Ecuador and got to know each other a little better.

Food we don't really miss but...sort of miss from time to time. TV dinners including meat pies, frozen pie crusts & tart shells, whole berry cranberry sauce, biscuit dough etc. in a tube & a myriad of chocolate bars. Don't get this list mixed up with the things we really miss: cheddar cheese, currants, MSG-less chicken bullion, Miracle Whip. We substitute and do without and make ourselves and "glory be to the heavens" actually find it on the shelves from time to time and once in awhile, absolutely wondrous people bring us products from the United States and Canada when they vacation down here. We're not complaining; just stating facts. One of our blog friends asked us if they had loafs of bread down here. They'd been vacationing at the coast and saw only buns and sweet breads in the bakeries, not loafs, and were somewhat worried. We responded that white bread was easy to find and whole wheat and multi-grain findable with a little effort. They were somewhat relieved, having a horror of living without toast for the rest of their life. We wonder what Ecuadorians miss (food wise) when they emigrate to Canada and the U.S. Not much cuy for sale there.

It turned out to be one of our chore days on Thursday. We walked downtown and got a new $10 phone card to charge up the phone for another 30 days. Then, since we were downtown, we felt obligated to sit in Parque Calderon and people watch for a bit. Later we walked over to the post office as one of kids had advised there was a "surprise" there for us. Turns out it was 2 Christmas CDs! We were thrilled! As we were leaving the Post Office we ran into a couple we've been trying to meet for several weeks now. With them getting settled and having a quick trip back to the States, they haven't been able to find the time yet. Standing on the stairs of the Post Office we chatted and made arrangements to meet in the park again on Sunday. We then walked across town, down the stairs and caught a #7 bus home. Shelley put together a batch of peanut butter squares (Alternative #2) because hopefully on Friday we're having a pizza night with another couple just arriving back permanently from the States. We say hopefully, because at this point we had expected to hear from them but haven't yet. Likely all's well, it's just that it's Ecuador and one never knows.

As it turned out, the couple just coming into Ecuador did make it on time, all 11 pieces of their luggage arriving intact, and were just so incredibly busy getting things together they didn't get around to calling us until the evening. We set back pizza night 2 hours in order to give them more time to get settled and spent the day taking Fredi for a walk and giving her a bath (she too was having company that evening) [PS: Fredi loves her new blow dryer], reading, fielding telephone calls from visitors and friends and of course, Brian had a nap. At 5 o'clock Brian rolled out some more puffed pastry, cut it into squares and this time we added crab pate, shrimp, emmental cheese & pesto (Brian's cooking classes are really paying off) before twisting it into a cute little package and baking it for 30 minutes. Then he headed off to the Pizza Shop just down the street to pick up 3 meat lovers & 1 vegetarian (no onions) pizzas. Fredi had a lovely visit with her new friend and we did too!

Worth Repeating: All those thinking of immigrating to Ecuador, here's our advice: come down for at least a two or three month visit. Check out the various areas and if towards the end of your visit you're still excited, make an appointment with a local lawyer to find out the current immigration laws, i.e. investor, pensioner, working, volunteering etc. visas. Go back and think some more. You can't come down here unless you're willing to compromise, e.g. the sidewalks make you trip, your favourites foods are not necessarily in the grocery store, people speak Spanish (!), tomorrow means maybe. If you're from Florida, Cuenca may seem cold; if you're from Canada, the coast may be too hot. What about your stuff? What about Aunt Emma's plates and your kid's bronzed booties. Do you ship it down or divest yourself of years of memories. Shipping is always difficult (it happens but it always costs extra & takes longer than they say). Can you live without the miniature ceramic clown display you've taken 40 years to build up? Can you live if you ship it down and the display gets broken? There are thousands of reasons to come and not to come. List them if necessary, to find out which side you're really on. Ecuador welcomes your contribution if you decide to come and stay and if not, well that's OK too. Life's an adventure. Live it!

The Power of Advertising

2010-08-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

An invitation to a house warming party had been given to us for Friday evening. Shelley begged off because of her teeth (Friday she was still eating only soup) but Brian accepted the invitation. Thus, in the morning we set off to find a small gift for our friend. Ultimately we chose a garden gnome for her balcony. "A lot of people don't know they need a garden gnome" Shelley explained to Brian.

Shelley's teeth were doing really well. She's not taking any pain medication and figures she'll be able to eat a soft bread sandwich by Saturday. "It's not the eating part" she told Brian. "It's the cleaning my teeth around the stitches part afterward. I'd sure hate to pull a stitch!"

Upon arriving home after the party Brian reported, "I have a snoot full!"

Actually, he had a wonderful time and saw our friend's new apartment in the downtown centro area. He raved about the layout and it's roof top patio that he knew Shelley would absolutely love. Wine was drunk, foot was eaten and good times were definitely had. Brian advised that our friend really appreciated her house warming gift. He got home quite late and Fredi was somewhat frantic for her walk. The walk lasted a little longer than normal because Brian felt the need to get some fresh air. Shelley was indulgent.

After a couple of days of sun, Saturday was back to coolish damp weather. We walked up to SuperMaxi and Brian & Fredi sat outside while Shelley went inside and bought some yogurt for her soft food diet. We wore sweaters and the sidewalk was wet but it wasn't raining and it really was a refreshing walk about out in the cool air.

Some new blog friends had brought us currants from the United States and we arranged to meet them in the park on Sunday. Also there was a friend of ours plus another couple we've been trying to meet for a couple of weeks now. Five of us ended up going to lunch at Raymipampa and we got to know each other a bit better, told some stories about ourselves and most of us ended up having a hearty fish plate for lunch. It was late enough in the afternoon by the time we were finished that Brian was somewhat anxious about having time for his afternoon nap; thus we didn't go and get roast pig but instead caught a cab straight home.

Monday we went shopping and although it's a month and a half too early, Shelley managed to buy everything she needed (with only a few subtle substitutes) to make Christmas fruit cake in October. She decided mora jam (black berry) would substitute for black currant. Brian made a face and groaned. After the cake is made, we wrap it up tight, unwrapping it from time to time to soak it in sherry and then bundle it up again to be stored in a dark dry place. By Christmas it's a thing of wonderment! We shopped early in case we couldn't get everything we needed and would have to search high & low for various products. Fortunately, this isn't going to be necessary. (Note: Our currants came from the U.S.).

Tuesday Shelley went to the dentist and got her stitches removed. All's well. She has to go back in a month for a check up. After that for a year, she has to get her teeth cleaned every 3 months and then after that back to the 6 month schedule. Later in the day she made a pineapple upside down cake as we're having company for dinner on Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon Brian went to yet another cooking class; this time Tex Mex. Growing up in British Columbia, Canada and the nearest Mexican, or Texan for that matter, being 2000 miles away, this was cuisine that was new to Brian. He came home raving about the shrimp with margarita mayonnaise and also said that the stuffed jalapenos and the chicken enchiladas were absolutely delicious! When he was a child there was a corner store in his small town on Vancouver Island that had, of all things...tamales. So, he was delighted when Leslie prepared tamale pie. The social part of the evening included a lot of discussion about adjustments to living in a new country and all were agreed that Ecuador has exceeded their expectations.

For the first several years living on the boat we didn't have television. When finally we got a satellite dish, Shelley found she had this irresistible urge to go out and buy a Swiffer; the power of advertising. These days all the commercials we see are in Spanish and we usually mute the television when commercials come on in any case. Despite the fact of the muting & Spanish, we still seem to be affected by the visions crossing in front of our eyes. Shelley was quite excited when SuperMaxi finally got a wonder cleaning product as advertised on TV. We do find, however, there are more fantasy products advertised than we used to see in Canada. A formula that will cure baldness, impotence, depression, help with weight loss and give more energy. Shoes that will carve your figure into enviable proportions. Various machines to trim your body with little or no effort. We see lots of banking institution & credit card ads. Coca Cola and Pepsi seem to be absent. After not watching TV for several years on the boat, when we did get our satellite dish we were somewhat shocked by the blatancy of some of the commercials and TV shows then produced. It didn't take us long then to get accustomed to our new advertising reality and the same has now happened to us here in Ecuador.

Of Good Deeds & Gentle Dentists

2010-08-19T12:37:00.001-04:00

Just to demonstrate the vagaries of Sunday at the park, there were only 3 other people that showed up this week. The week before it had been a mob scene. The few days before Sunday had been damp and miserable and we suspect others thought Sunday would be the same. It was coolish (requiring a sweater) but it didn't rain and we enjoyed our walk. In the end, we chatted and reveled at the outing and ultimately we showed one of the newcomers where Brian gets his roast pig every week.

As usual on Monday we went shopping. Upon arriving home Brian picked up Fredi & took her to the park whilst Shelley put away the groceries one handed. It looks like it'll be several days before her wrist is without pain. A bright note is that we walked up to the grocery store without sweaters! The sun was shining, there was a cool breeze in the air, but essentially it was nice out. We put our faces to that bright orb in the sky and enjoyed it's warmth.

Departing from our routine, we went to a soiree at the CB Carolina Bookstore. There's always a good invited crowd at these events, and as it's pot luck there's always lots to eat and from a wide variety of sweet, savory, snacks & salads. We saw a few people we haven't seen for awhile, talked with friends and newcomers and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. A highlight of the gathering was a passing of the cup to raise funds to get a mural out of the clutches of customs in Guayaquil. This mural was created by some students in New York City paying homage to an Ecuadorian student who had been swarmed there and died from his injuries. The student was from Gualaceo, which is a village near Cuenca. The CB Carolina Bookstore has taken a lead roll, as well as a visiting New York City teacher, in organizing the transport of the mural to Gualaceo. It has been held up by customs for some time now but we were assured that the expat community had contributed enough money to free it from the bureaucratic clutches and get it to its new home. There has been National TV coverage in Ecuador regarding this saga. We will likely join a group of expats for a visit to Gualaceo for the presentation ceremony.

As we had nothing planned for Tuesday, we seized the opportunity and walked downtown to get our bus passes filled up. We do this about every 2 months and it costs us $10 each. The place we go to is a drug store just behind the 10th of August market just off Tarqui. It was a glorious day. Warm but not too hot. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. After doing our chore we sat in Parque Calderon for half an hour soaking up the rays, fending off shoe shine boys and watching other people watching people.

Shelley starts taking antibiotics on Wednesday and she gets her dental surgery on Thursday. It is a complete understatement to say she's not looking forward to the experience. She's been diligently brushing her teeth with the special brushes for gapped teeth and swirling salt water and mouth wash every 4 hours as prescribed. She has a minor fantasy that if she's particularly careful with all this pre-surgery stuff the periodontist will look in her mouth and exclaim a miracle has happened and she doesn't need the surgery. She knows it's her ever-twirling mind playing games with itself but she's hopeful just the same. Between her wrist hurting and her anxiety about her teeth, Brian's been a trooper. Attentive, sympathetic but not overly so, willing to listen when required and quietly supportive. Of course, now he wants a motorcycle like "everybody else is getting". Do you read the other blogs? Peer pressure is enormous! In any case, Shelley's reserving her admiration for Brian's ability to empathize until she's sure of his motivation. Do you think he'd trade a motorcycle for a helicopter? (Brian just jumped in and shouted: "Absolutely! And how could you possibly doubt my sincerity.")

As Brian had yet another cooking class on Wednesday, we did our morning chores and then took a walk through the neighbourhood (running into a friend). We ended up at Jo-Mar to pick up some salmon burgers and a seafood medley for chowder. Brian had tried to set up a cooking class on Tuesday as well. That one for roast lamb but they couldn't find enough people to take the class. If anyone's interested in taking a lamb class, contact us and we'll gather names until there are 6 and then contact Leslie letting her know she has a class. In any case, his class on Wednesday was for picnic food and once again there were half a dozen recipes from Swiss Chard Dolmas to strawberry salad. Any one of them would be a hit at any picnic and Brian remarked that it was a far cry from potato salad & fried chicken which seems to standard picnic fare in North America. We won't mention again that Fredi came out of her skin when Brian got home. Brian's class consisted of himself and 6 ladies. Do you think he had fun?

Aside: The other day Shelley was sitting on the balcony, reading her book, soaking up the sun which has been hiding the last few weeks...and a hummingbird pooped on her hand. Is that good luck?

Although the periodontist had told Shelley there were 4 spots that needed surgery, he only did work on 2 of them. She didn't remind him about the other 2, figuring they'd come up in the future if need be. Work was done on the lower right side and on the upper left side, so it wasn't as if he had left her with a chewing section. She was instructed to eat ice cream, soup, white bread & eggs, to ice the area for a day and to rinse with salt water lots. She was thoroughly frozen for all the work and it hurt less than getting her teeth cleaned. The periodontist gave her a prescription for some ibuprofen 600 mg but there really wasn't much pain associated with the whole thing. The total cost for the initial consultation, plus procedure, plus another appointment to get the stitches removed will be $198. While working on her teeth, the dentist assured Shelley that women were stronger than men. He explained he used to work for the army and hardened soldiers, killers of men, would cry in the chair. He also told Shelley she was young and beautiful, so the man was a total flatterer. Hard to believe these things when you're drooling down your chin, blood is spurting out of your mouth and your lips are cracking because they're so dry.

Ouch...and Again

2010-08-14T14:03:00.000-04:00

Half of us had a good day on Wednesday. Brian went to yet another cooking glass with 2 of our friends and enjoyed a bottle of wine and various appetizers. Shelley went to the periodontist. Her appointment was for 5:30 in the afternoon. The day seemed to go on forever. The periodontist was a very nice man with a pretty good grasp of English and he explained to Shelley that she had gum disease bad enough in 4 different spots that he should split the gum, clean under the gum and then stitch the gum back together. Doesn't that sound like fun!? Brian had this done several years ago and in the end it didn't do him any good as he had all but 3 of his teeth eventually removed. However, Shelley's willing to give it a try in the hopes of keeping all her own teeth. Brian meanwhile was sloshing back wine & good food. In Brian's class they had prepared 6 different hors d'oevres, all of which were delicious but Brian particularly liked a shrimp mixture on toast. Because Brian was concerned about Shelley and knew that she was upset about problems with her teeth, he left his cooking class as soon as possible and came home to offer empathy and support. Fredi, as usual, came out of her skin when both Shelley & Brian arrived home from their respective appointments.

At about 7 o'clock Thursday morning we all woke up to the bed shaking because we were experiencing an earthquake! Usually the shaking only lasts a couple of seconds, but this one went on for apparently 15 or 50 seconds according to 2 different reports; it felt like quite a long time. Various sites call it between a 6.9 and 7.2 quake. Cuenca was about 262 km from the epicentre. Nothing fell over in our apartment, Fredi was alert but not anxious and afterwards Shelley had a few more minutes of snoozing. Later Shelley thinks she found a couple more cracks in our walls (nothing serious).

We were planning on having dinner out at the La Mar Seafood Restaurant (Remigio Crespo 15-35 & Unidad Nacional) with another couple that evening, so we spent the day computering, reading and of course taking Fredi for a visit to the park. Fredi's made several friends at the park and it is nice in that she always introduces us to their owners as well. We've almost decided that the best people to practice our Spanish with are 5 year olds, although their parents, when they speak a little English, often join in the conversation. The La Mar Restaurant turned out to be a delightful surprise. Another couple we know had said that it was very good and also Brian asked the family he met in the park about the place and they said it was good, so we sat down and had a meal that completely exceeded our expectations. The seafood was beautifully prepared, the helpings were just the right size and the flavours were scrumptious. It's always fun to visit with friends and we had a terrific conversation to accompany the meal.

Since Brian's been taking the cooking classes, he's been campaigning for a food processor. We had looked in several stores but hadn't taken the plunge yet. Friday, being another coolish day, we decided to take a trip up to Coral Centro and see what they had in stock. Shelley went inside and looked around while Fredi & Brian sat outside. She came out and reported there was a nice Oster machine whereupon Brian went inside, looked around and eventually came back out with the Oster in hand. It's sort of got a blade like a helicopter don't you think?

Saturday dawned rainy, cold & miserable. Nevertheless, we had planned on taking a bit of a walk so Fredi could get her outing and we could just get out of the apartment. Shelley had washed the floors in the morning and managed to slip on the wet floor and sprain her wrist. It was quite painful but there was still mobility in the wrist so she took a couple of aspirin, put a tensor bandage on it and called it a day. A few days before she'd tripped in a pot hole on the sidewalk and small "s" sprained her ankle. "I keep hurting myself" she whined to Brian. "It's because of my stupid teeth!" Brian didn't see the correlation.

For our entertainment that afternoon we gave Fredi a bath and blow dry and then later on made a cheese roll. Shelley instructed on both jobs and Brian did the dirty work. Brian actually commented at one point: "This is fun!"

Brian's globe trotting friend Jan (formerly from Holland then Canada then Holland) is now living in Saudi Arabia, working on a high-speed rail project as one of their top engineers. From time to time, Jan'll send us pictures and we'll post some of them on the blog for interests sake. Jan tells us that quite often traffic circles will have "art" in the middle of them, as often do the traffic circles in Ecuador. Displayed on this blog is some of Saudi's art.

Trials, Tribulations & Joys

2010-08-10T17:53:00.000-04:00

And now for some general information about Ecuador as mined from the Web: What is now Ecuador formed part of the northern Inca Empire until the Spanish conquest in 1533. It gained its independence from Spain in 1822. In 1999/2000 Ecuador suffered a severe economic crisis which came to an end in March 2000 when Congress approved a series of structural reforms that also provided for the adoption of the US dollar as legal tender. Ecuador is substantially dependent on its petroleum resources and is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. Located on the northwestern side of South America it is bordered by Colombia to the north, by Peru to the south and east, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. The Andes mountain range crosses Ecuador smack down the middle dividing Ecuador into three regions: The Sierra (mountains), the Oriente (tropical rain forest) and the Pacific Coast. In addition, mainland Ecuador's natural diversity is complemented by the Galapagos Islands. Ecuador boasts one of the highest levels of bio-diversity in the world. For example one hectare of lowland rain forest can contain as many frog species as in all of North America; one tree can contain more ant species than in all of the British Isles combined; and of the world's known bird species (about 9,000), pint-sized Ecuador is home to over 1,500. As a result of its small size (Ecuador is only 283,560 square kilometers), all these regions can be readily visited in a short time. It's population of approximately 13.9 million is divided into ethnic divisions of something like 65% Mestizo (mixed Indigenous & White), Indigenous 25% (there are over 40 different indigenous Nations), Spanish & other European 7% and Black 3%. Every year, more and more people are discovering Ecuador, its diversity, it's near perfect climate, the low cost of living, the incredible depth of its culture and the abiding warmth and good nature of its people. It is up to the people coming in to see that Ecuador maintains its charm and be good citizens of this wonderful piece of the Earth.

There was something of a convention going on at the park on Sunday with maybe 8 or 9 ExPat couples showing up for the morning gab fest. We'd got up and put on long pants & long sleeve shirts before we left the apartment, in preparation for the weather we've been having lately, and then on our walk downtown were almost too warm. Coming back it cooled off and we even took a taxi thinking it looked like it was going to rain, but it didn't. Don't worry, we of course first stopped at the 10th of August market and picked up Brian's weekly roast pig. There was quite the line up at the booth that Brian usually goes to but he waited just the same. A couple of times back, Brian asked the lady how long it took to sell a whole pig, and he was advised that she goes through a pig a day.

Guess what we did on Monday?

One of "those days" happened on Tuesday again. That's 2 in 2 weeks. Tuesday morning we had a dentist appointment (both of us) to get our teeth cleaned. Neither of us particularly looks forward to this necessity but are at least grateful that in Ecuador we can afford the trip (today it was $20 for Brian & $89 for Shelley; Shelley has 13 times more teeth & also had x-rays). It turned out that this time it's Shelley's turn to suffer. The dentist felt she had gum disease around one tooth to the point where she needed to see a periodontist and might actually lose the tooth. That appointment was made for the next day. (Yipee!) At 1:30 in the afternoon Brian had scheduled a video interview with a fellow called Michael Karsh, who's the Producer and Host of something called SkyTree Productions. Michael had got in touch with us via the blog. During the interview with Alex Williams, they talked about the trials, tribulations & joys of being an expat in Ecuador. (Shelley & Fredi were too shy to be on video). At 2:30 we went to some friends of ours for an afternoon cracker and cheese party. We met several people that are visiting Cuenca in expectation to moving here permanently, and they were unanimous in the view that Cuenca would be a great place to retire. One couple had actually bought an apartment to come back to later. Nearly all of the new folks we met already knew us, in part, via the blog. Our friends got to show off their newly renovated apartment in the downtown historic district. They've done a lovely job of redecorating and Fredi got to meet their 2 small dogs. Fun was had by all.

We've exhausted television (all but a few shows are in repeat right now) and are reading like fiends (Stieg Larsson's trilogy has capture us). We go for our daily walk (somewhere) and follow our routine of shopping on Monday & park on Sunday but had tentatively come to the conclusion that we're stagnating a bit...and then...we have one of "those days". (Note: We're well aware our "those days" day was nothing compared to those endured during our 30's, 40's & 50's. But we're retired now and it takes less to fill that cup of angst.)

They've stopped selling baking soda in the SuperMaxi! They've stopped selling baking soda in SuperMaxi apparently because "drug dealers" (the bad guys) have been using it as part of their refining process! We're incensed! Now the bad guys have taken away our ability to make soda biscuits! This is a huge case of the out-of-control minority ruling the self-controlled majority. Can't they just stop people from buying 18 or 23 or 321 packages of baking soda? Do they have to prevent the entire population from making cookies & biscuits? True; they still sell baking powder, and many of our recipes can be converted, but still.... Do they continue to sell baking soda in North America? Is Ecuador particularly sensitive because they're living next to Columbia? OK...OK...we can live without baking soda but...

Looking Forward to the End of Winter

2010-08-07T13:18:00.000-04:00

Recently one of our blog readers sent us an e-mail asking us what we would have done differently when moving to Ecuador. Brian wrote back telling them we would have brought fewer clothes (as we ended up not wearing quite a few of them) and less books because we discovered the CB Caroline Bookstore. Shelley (of course) disagrees with what he wrote. If there is any size to you whatsoever, bring LOTS of clothes. The Ecuadorians are a tiny people and get a lot of their clothes from China (also a tiny people). It is difficult for Brian to find pants, shirts & shoes. Guayaquil provided pants for him and he's getting his shirts custom made. Shelley, a straight medium in North America, now picks out clothes called L and XL (which is a terrible burn to her ego). As she has pretty small feet, she can manage to find shoes but for jeans she's looking in the men's department.

We brought one suitcase full of books when we originally came, not knowing if we'd be able to purchase English language novels. The CB Carolina bookstore provides an excellent selection here in Cuenca and several of our friends have recently come down with a Kindle or iPad which seem to be wonderful devices. There are certain food products that one may also wish to bring: Miracle Whip, Chili Powder, MSG-less chicken bouillon, good cheddar cheese, etc. but these things are hard to determine before you really land here. (Ask your friends to bring some later when they come to visit.) We bought all our furniture within 3 weeks and given hind sight would probably have spent a couple of weeks longer doing this chore. We got Fredi after about 6 months and have no regrets whatsoever despite the problem of leaving her somewhere if we decide to take a trip to Europe etc. In a large sense we have few regrets, which Brian also said in his e-mail, so in the end Brian & Shelley agree. Don't move if you're running away, don't move if your relationship is suffering, don't move if it seems a last ditch effort; we only allow "happy" gringo's in Ecuador.

It continued to spit rain on Wednesday and we ended up putting Fredi in her pack sack to take her to the vet so she wouldn't get too wet & dirty travelling there. She had the 2nd in a series of 3 preventative parasite medications and goes back at the end of the month for her last one. We let her walk home and as predicted she was wet up to her stomach by the time we arrived. PS:- While at the vet's office, Brian relented and we bought Fredi a jammy top to wear when it's cold in the apartment. It's pink & fuzzy and she looks darling in it! Brian goes "harrumph".

It has been somewhat of an effort lately to manage our daily outing before the rain starts. We've been leaving earlier in the day and seem to make it home just before it begins to really pour. Thursday we went downtown. Shelley only brought 1 pair of jeans from Canada and, what with the bad weather lately, she decided she needed 2 pairs in order to rotate them. We went to a store she'd noticed before and managed to get a pair of women's jeans that fit her for $25. Pretty good deal! Afterwards we stopped at Tutto Freddo for a cup of hot tea with lime and later we managed to run into 2 couples we know and chattered for just a bit on the street. One of the couples, fairly new to Cuenca, demanded to know where the weather had gone. We could only shrug.

Friday turned out to be one of those days. Our internet wasn't working when Brian got up in the morning and it still wasn't working when Shelley got up. Brian had promised to Skype his friend Jan in the A.M. but that (of course) didn't happen. Half the channels on our TV weren't coming in and it was cold in the apartment. There was no hot water. It's not that the water wasn't hot, it's that no water was coming out of the hot water taps. When eventually the net did come up we discovered one of the kids had a piece of bone lodged in her ankle tendon from an accident several years before that had heretofore been undiscovered. Her ankle was locking & she's been put on a waiting list to have surgery. Brian got hold of Jan just as he was going out to dinner.

We had decided the day before to take one of our mystery bus tours and got on the #23 bus going west. It wound its way into a fairly nice neighbourhood but there was nothing special about the destination. On the bus were 5 young boys and 4 young girls who had decided to open up all the windows and gaily hang out of them. Fredi thought it was great; Brian was somewhat disgruntled. It's cold outside too. When we disembarked at the terminus the next bus we got onto wouldn't start. The driver put it in gear and coasted just a bit down the street and it finally kick started. About 5 minutes later, the driver pulled over to the side of the road because sparks and smoke were coming from the engine compartment. Some tinkering by the driver seemed to be all it needed and we continued on our way. Brian figured that it was a loose battery connection. At Feria Libre we got out and walked the rest of the way home; Shelley thought our nerves needed the exercise. The TV was all on (albeit there was nothing worth watching), the internet was working (albeit intermittently for the rest of the day), the hot water was back (albeit somewhat discoloured), the daughter was still on a wait list for surgery (albeit 4-5 months she was advised). Brian Skyped with Jan, we ate lunch and then pretty much decided to call it a day; Brian had a nap & Shelley read. It seemed like the right thing to do.

It was hard to get motivated on Saturday to get up and out of our warm jammies to go for our daily walk with Fredi but once we did it, it turned out to be a fabulous day; much warmer than it has been lately. We only did an hour walk around the neighbourhood but managed to run into 2 couples we knew and chatted for awhile. Although the weather here is never truly bad, we have to confess that we are looking forward to the end of the Ecuadorian winter.

A Little of This and That

2010-08-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

It's Monday evening at 6 pm and the power just went out. Brian yells from the front room "The power went out!" Shelley, in the computer room, yells back, "OK....I see that".

We don't know why.

"What are we going to do?" Brian asks.
"Play crib?" Shelley replies.

We didn't have time to decide before the power came back on.

More shoe shopping on Tuesday produced 1 pair of shoes for Shelley for $13. She bargained them down from $14. Brian was disgusted. He says Shelley doesn't bargain hard enough. Shelley explains she was hard put to find a pair of shoes under $100 in Canada. Brian asks "What's your point?"

We stopped discussing the matter.

Plans had been made to meet up with some "blog people" on Wednesday but it turned out one of them got sick and they decided to truncate their vacation...thus they didn't come to Cuenca. With things up in the air about what we should do, we decided to head off to Feria Libre and buy some chicken livers to make Fredi her treats. The weather has turned again. After several glorious days it's now rainy and cool out. Even poor Fredi shivers in the apartment. Shelley tried to talk Brian into getting Fredi a sweater for these types of days but Brian just wouldn't go for it. As it was, we barely made it to Feria Libre and back before the rains started and continued for most of the day.

Yet another blog couple had e-mailed us and we decided to meet them for lunch at Raymipampa on Thursday. We both put on our rain coats & took Fredi for a quick pee before we caught a cab downtown. The folks turned out to be really great people and we had a very nice lunch together. As they were from Edmonton, Alberta Canada they appreciated the fact that Cuenca was in the middle of its winter and it didn't take much convincing to let them know most of Cuenca's days were a lot better than what they had yet seen. They told us about their various adventures travelling around Ecuador and we gave them some tips & insights into the moving process and paperwork that is required should they decide to come back full time. After lunch we sat in the park and gabbed some more until it was time to part ways.

What kind of people move to Ecuador? Are they out of their tree? Were they world travellers? Are their finances so poor they didn't have a choice? Do they speak Spanish? Well...no one is really poor; although it certainly is cheaper to live in Ecuador than most of North America, they have residency requirements that preclude the really poor. There's blue collar, white collar & professionals. It is not a requirement that you have done a lot of travelling or speak Spanish but...you must be willing to adjust & actively live with new things surrounding you. You must have patience. A sense of humour is highly desirable as is a willingness to learn new things. You must be willing to "let go" of stuff & people & places. When we lived on the boat we'd always be carefull to tell people "it's not for everyone" and Ecuador is the same. To be absolutely honest, at this point we'd like to slam the door and advise that Ecuador is now full. We don't want to see it become "spoiled" and changed too much via rampant immigration...but change is inevitable and should be embraced and doesn't always mean the end of something good. Our advice is always to come down for several months and see how it suits you. If while you're down here you decide to come back to stay, contact a local lawyer regarding the current immigration rules. What kind of people move to Ecuador? The answer is all kinds.

That time of month seems to come so quickly but off we went again on another round of paying the bills. First to the Pago place to pay our cold water & electricity, next hop on a #28 bus to the ETAPA place downtown and pay our internet bill, next to the bank to pay our rent and lastly to a phone place to pick up a new pay-as-you-go card for the phone. Sometimes the line-up was short and easy and sometimes the line-up was long and interminable but we managed to make it through the whole procedure in a couple of hours and were home in plenty of time for Brian to have his nap.

With nothing special planned for Saturday, we headed down town just for the walk. We window shopped and managed to buy yet another blouse for Shelley plus a spoon holder for the kitchen counter. We stopped in at the CB Carolina bookstore and chatted with Carol & Lee for a bit. We ended up walking down to the broken bridge and decided at that point, since we were so close to the place, we'd stop in and get Brian a bunch of empanadas; which we did. After we picked up a dozen, which they packaged in a small box, we caught the bus and wafted the good smell of fresh baking throughout on our ride home.

Sunday we went down to the park, gabbed with people, picked up roast pig...you know, the usual. Monday we went shopping (more of the usual) and gabbed with a another couple we met in the store. At home again, Shelley made microwave cheesecake and a new cheese puff appetizer she's trying out as we're having company for dinner on Tuesday. PS: - We don't particularly recommend the cheese puffs (oh well). Tuesday we took Fredi for a couple of walks and mostly puttered around the house. Brian prepped vegetables for our dinner guests and we generally had a quiet day. That evening we had 3 people over for dinner (all 3 new to Ecuador). Brian cooked lomo fino (tenderloin steak) and roasted potatoes. We got to know each other a little better, ate too much and generally had a good time.

These Days We're Grateful

2010-07-26T18:49:00.000-04:00

In the morning on Thursday we walked downtown and hit several shoe stores shopping for shoes for Shelley. She found a couple of pair she likes for $50 but not any of the wonderful shoes she found before for $8. She bought 3 pairs of those $8 shoes and the last pair is wearing out as we speak. "For fifty bucks" she told Brian, "I can shop any day and get a pair." Thus, in the end, we didn't pick up any shoes for her. We had arranged to meet a new "blog person" at Raymipampa for lunch. We all got there at relatively the same time and sat down to enjoy potato soap, breaded fish & a shrimp crepe. Everybody seemed to enjoy their choice. Raymipampa was very busy and towards the end we could hardly hear each other talking. After we finished our meal and paid the bill we went to the park and chattered for a while longer in the relative peace of the outdoors. Our blog friend was having some trouble with his computer so Brian suggested he bring it over to our house in the late afternoon and Shelley would have a go at it. Shelley was somewhat taken aback and not sure she could help but went along with the situation anyway. In any case, we split up for a couple of hours and headed home. On the way, just because, Shelley managed to get herself a new blouse. Funny how that happened!

OK....here's one...somebody please explain spice cupboards. On the boat we had a fairly large hanging basket that we kept our spices in. Whatever spice we needed was invariably on the bottom of the basket, so we'd have to labouriously pull out all the spices and put them on the counter to find the one we wanted. Now...we're in an apartment with mucho many cupboards in the kitchen. Our spice cupboard is the lower half of a one door set-up. We have a plastic shelf in that cupboard to split it into 2 (sweet & savory). Now...whenever we want a spice, we have to labouriously pull out bottles & jars and put them on the counter until we find the one we want. Why do we suspect if our cupboard was twice the size the same thing would happen?

It was a glorious day on Friday. The sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze in the air and we decided to take the bus to Parque Paraiso. Half way there, Brian commented that since the kids were out of school the park might be quite crowded. That was an understatement. There were hundreds and hundreds of kids from pre-schoolers to teens in various groups, some flying kites, some playing games standing in a circle, some playing soccer, others playing line games and still others partaking in sing-alongs. We were at first trepidatious about letting Fredi off her leash but after a bit did so and watched her gleefully running back in forth in the park. She was very polite and didn't bother anyone except a poodle dog also off the leash; they had a energetic play time together running around and tumbling after each other. We walked around the park and sat from time to time and watched the kids and Fredi play. It was a glorious morning. On the way home on the bus, Fredi fell asleep in Shelley's arms a completely tired out little blond girl dog.

On Saturday morning we did household chores, took Fredi for a walk, Brian talked with his friend Jan on Skype and Shelley managed to find more Christmas songs to download. (We eventually got up to 3 hours worth of music on 58 songs. We figure that's enough!) That evening we met friends at Tiestos which incidentally has now gotten so popular you should have a reservation for Friday or Saturday evening. We've been to Tiestos 3 or 4 times and every visit has been an experience! We had a wonderful time with good friends, much camaraderie & way too much excellent food (and maybe a little too much wine).

Sunday we went down to Parque Calderon and met up with several people. As it started to rain, we ducked into Tutto Freddo, the ice cream place, and had a cappuccino, 2 teas, agua con gas, a delicious looking chicken salad sandwich & an ice cream drink. Eventually, of course, we ventured onward to buy Brian's roast pig. Monday we went shopping and Shelley made a variation of Greek Salad (1 skin removed, cubed cucumber; 3 or 4 cubed tomatoes, half a can of pitless black olives; a layer of cubed feta cheese (usually), we used brie this time instead of feta because feta couldn't be found and it turned out just fine; Italian salad dressing).

Just recently we passed our (wheels down in Quito) 2 year anniversary in Ecuador. The flurry of the first few months here is a distant memory, we've adjusted to just about anything that took adjustment, Shelley's homesickness seems to have abated, we've made and lost friends, made more friends, our hearts have been stolen by a tiny shih tzu puppy, we've coped with visitors & holes in our ceiling & uneven sidewalks, we've gone on vacation & returned to Canada & suffered loss & ill health. Simply put, we've lived our lives here for 2 years now and have managed to survive and have come to call Ecuador home. Will we stay forever? Who knows? Forever is such a long time, but we're happy & content where we are now and pleased with our decision. Our lives may seem routine but we're always discovering new things and continue to take delight in the old. We're not bored, tense or frenzied, we're content, pleased & relaxed...for the most part. Both of us, both Brian & Shelley, continue to be more than just a bit amazed we managed to find this place in our lives. You never know for sure and that's a blessing & a curse but it's the way life is. These days we're grateful and look forward to new experiences, new friends & all things good.

13 Songs

2010-07-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

Knowing this sounds ridiculous considering we're retired, we decided to take Saturday as a down day. We took Fredi for her mid-day walk and dropped into Jo Mar for some salmon burgers & oysters but other than that pottered around the house, reading, watching TV, talking with the kids et al on Skype and generally being unproductive. It was a lovely day.

Six couples showed up at the park on Sunday and we all had a wonderful gab fest, learning new things and catching up with each other. Later, we of course, dropped in at the public market and bought tomatoes & roast pig. We ended up walking both down town and home again as they were having yet another race on Doce de Abril and our bus wasn't running. This time the race seemed to be a runner combined with another person on a bike?

Fredi & Shelley are lying on the couch watching TV. Well...Shelley is watching TV and Fredi's lying on her back snoozing. They're both covered by a blanket and their heads are sticking out. Shelley goes to give Fredi a kiss on her little furry face and Fredi squirms like a small child to avoid the kiss. Shelley turned to Brian and says: "You know what's funny? Fredi doesn't like to have her face licked."

Brian laughed and replied: "It's ironic that's for sure."

Guess what we did on Monday? We shopped and Shelley made a baguette appetizer and a lemon surprise as we were having company on Tuesday. After shopping and putting together 2 fussy dishes, Shelley blew the wind out of her cheeks while slamming her body onto the couch.

"Tired?" asked Brian in what Shelley figured wasn't a sympathetic enough voice.

She gave him a look and didn't deign to answer.

We ventured to a stationery store on Tuesday and bought some pens. Again, like scotch tape, pens are an item you can buy just about anywhere in North America; at the grocery store, at a corner store, at the 7-11, in a hardware store, in the drug store, etc. etc. Here we make a special point of going to the stationery store and picking up a stock of several. Earlier in the morning Brian had put together his Lowe Family Beef stew in the slow cooker. That evening we had 5 people over for dinner. Four of them were relatively new to Ecuador and we had a wonderful evening talking about our various adventures not to mention some minor individual philosophy.

Out the door at 10 in the morning on Wednesday, we caught the bus down to the CB Carolina bookstore to trade in our 10 books. Carol was there for a change and she and Brian had a good gab fest catching up on all the news while Shelley perused the bookshelves picking out books suitable for the both of us. It was another glorious day and we're wondering if winter is now over?

Last Christmas we missed the traditional Christmas music we grew up with along with snow & sleet & rain & cold weather & tension & hyper salesmanship on the TV etc. etc. Now...some of those things we can live quite nicely without (thank you very much) but the Christmas music thing is becoming a bit of a challenge. We spent time last year, haunting the various CD places that offered plenty of music but not the kind we're familiar with. We went to a Christmas concert put on by Cuenca's symphony and they offered both Spanish/Ecuador Christmas music and North American/English/German songs so we know Silent Night & Jingle Bells et al are not completely unknown in South America, however...we couldn't find any CD's. Just recently, we went on line to look for the Time Life Christmas collection which we had foolishly given to the children before we came to Ecuador. Amazon will only deliver within the United States (we wonder how we managed to get the collection in the first place living in Canada?) and don't offer a download option. We also went on line looking for those elusive songs as a free download. They couldn't be found. Now we understand and agree with the rights of people to make money from their songs. Bing Crosby's Estate should continue to profit their 1 cent from White Christmas however, this doesn't help us in our quest. We did manage to download some familiar songs by unfamiliar artists, some of which are wonderful and some of which Brian vetoed with very little argument from Shelley (bad...bad...bad). This process took Shelley something like 2 1/2 hours and she ended up with 13 songs. How many songs does one play in an evening? In any case, the whole point of this paragraph is to say that some things you'll always miss when you leave your home Country. Others you'll find substitutes for and others will fade away. With diligent searching and more haunting of the CD stores when Christmas comes upon us, we may be able to satisfy our Christmas songs longing. Right now we're 13 songs on our way.

Food, More Food and Yet...More Food

2010-07-16T16:23:00.000-04:00

We had our usual day on Monday, except more cooking. We shopped and then Shelley made Manicotti and after that was done, Brian cooked a complete chicken dinner. We TV dinnered up the chicken etc. and froze the manicotti in one person not on a diet and one person on a diet sizes. This should keep us going for a week or more. Shelley knew she was going to gain weight eating 3 meals a day while on holiday but she did it anyway - what the heck!

Travelling through the Andes mountains on the bus during our vacation, Shelley pondered to Brian that the Andes were older than the Rocky mountains because they're rounded on the peaks and not pointed (erosion). Brian thought the difference was probably to do with the Rockies being more northern and nothing grows above a certain height because of the cold, whereas the Andes where we are, are covered with growth. According to Wikipedia the Rockies were formed about 76 million years ago in the Cretaceous period whereas geology.com tells us the Andes were formed only 25 million years ago. Go figure! That put to bed Shelley's theory.

Back to the "old grind" we ventured downtown on Tuesday to go to the Post Office to mail some cards and pick up some roast pig for Brian as we'd been unable to do that on Sunday. The weather was beautiful, which we greatly appreciated after being in Vilcabamba. There have been a couple of giant thunder storms since we got back but always in the late afternoon. That evening we went to Bertuchis with some friends and enjoyed Italian food and good company. Three of us shared a vegetarian pizza and Brian had a seafood pasta. The other couple shared a combination brownie, ice cream and tiramisu dessert; it looked delicious! We caught up with each others news and all in all had a very good night.

Fredi had an appointment with the Vet on Wednesday for a booster of parasite medicine. Fredi says "Yuck!" We got her nails clipped at the same time and bought vitamins, flea & tic medicine & dog toothpaste. The entire bill including vet services & bought items was $20. We had made arrangements to meet some people at the Las Monj as Resta urant downtown for dinner, so spent the rest of the day talking with friends on Skype and reading. As it turned out, the time we had arranged to meet at the restaurant was half an hour before it was open (6:30). In the end we went to the Meditarraneo and once again enjoyed pasta & pizza and good company.

For those that have been reading the blog for a long time, you may remember that we've had a hole in our kitchen ceiling since we moved in. This hole was finally repaired several months ago but the finish work on it was never done. On Wednesday, out of the blue, the contractor for the building knocked on our door with a worker in tow and they proceeded to put a spackle on the repaired hole and promised that they'd show up at 9 or 10 in the morning the next day to do the final painting. Brian had his 6 month recall Doctor's appointment on Thursday, so he left the house at 9:30 with his fingers crossed that the worker would ultimately show up. Shelley & Fredi left the house at 10:30 for Fredi's morning walk. We've learned over time not to wait fruitlessly for too long. No more was heard from anyone. The work is ultimately getting done but we've been living in the apartment for 2 years now and still it's not quite finished. It's a system that takes some getting used to. It's almost worth a song: The Saga of the Kitchen Ceiling Hole. Would it be a folk song or country & western or blues?

Brian went back for the results of his blood tests on Friday and was pleased that his PSA was down even more than the last time. The Doctor told him that he was having spectacular results and was very pleased with his progress. At lunch time we met a friend at Raymipampa and caught up with each other and had a very pleasant couple of hours. All in all it's been a very nice week and we hardly miss our holiday mode at all.

Please note: Once again we're showcasing insect pictures taken by our friend Holly.

Vilcabamba or Bust

2010-07-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

As Shelley was continuing to feel snuffly, Brian and Fredi ventured downtown on Sunday without her and picked up Brian's roast pig. This was the first time Brian was actually holding Fredi when he bought his pork. The woman who normally sells pork to Brian was enchanted by Fredi and gave her 2 large pieces to snack on. Later on in the afternoon we attended a pizza party celebration of the U.S.'s 4th of July. It was a wonderful afternoon with camaraderie, good natured ribbing, lots of stories and yummy food.

We've been planning a holiday for what seems like months now. First we were going to go out to the coast and next we thought we'd visit the big Banos. We finally centred our thoughts on Vilcabamba and then couldn't manage to get there. With 5 different blog people arriving in Cuenca during June, we thought it would be churlish of us to leave then. Eventually we booked a room at the Izhcayluma Hostal for July 7th through 10th and then Shelley got her cold. She's been babying herself trying to get over the darned thing and it just keeps keeping on. We're planning the trip with another couple and again it seems churlish to cancel due to sniffles. We bought something called Dayflu and Nyflu (ask at a pharmacy counter) for the trip and hopefully Shelley will be drugged up enough to enjoy herself. Brian did our Monday chores with Fredi in tow but left Shelley behind. Upon arriving back home, Fredi was given a bath and dried off and then given a flea treatment. Cuenca has virtually no fleas (expect a couple of weeks here and there) but when we leave Cuenca we always make sure that Fredi has had a flea & tick treatment.

Previously when we've been to Vilcabamba we've always stayed at Jardin Escondido because unlike Izhcayluma which is a couple of miles out of town; Jardin Escondido is right smack dab in the middle of Vilcabamba. We chose Izhcayluma this time however, because they have some separate cabins and we thought Fredi might enjoy this more. Tuesday we ventured downtown and got haircuts. There's nothing like a good hair cut just before an adventure. Shelley printed out her packing lists for us and Fredi and we packed 2 small back packs to take with us plus Shelley's travel purse. Vilcabamba is a few degrees warmer than Cuenca and we're kind of hoping it'll prove true for our trip.

Bright and early we got up Wednesday morning, ate a snack and ventured to the bus stop where we had arranged to meet the other couple (Barbara & Howard). We wanted to leave town somewhere around 8 o'clock in the morning but as it turned out our bus didn't leave until 9. We arrived in Loja at 3:15 and almost immediately caught the bus to Vilcabamba. As always, the countryside out the bus window was vast and beautiful. Our cabana at Izhcayluma had a queen size bed and it's own balcony complete with hammock and picnic table. That evening we ate at Izhcayluma. Most dishes are around $5.00 and a veggie burger was $2.50. They have a big menu including Bavarian & Italian. Fredi was quite suspicious of everything and low growled the whole evening. Shelley slipped off from everyone at 7 pm and went to the room to rest and read. Fredi came with her and proceeded to stalk the room until Brian showed up.

Fredi woke Brian up at 7 am the next morning whereupon Brian announced he'd caught Shelley's cold. Breakfast is included in the room price at Izhcayluma and was tea, coffee, sliced pineapple, watermelon, ham, 3 kinds of bread and eggs. We did our first walk downtown and it took us about an hour to walk the close to 2 Km downhill excursion. We always tell people that the main entertainment is to sit in the middle of the park downtown and watch other people in the park and that's exactly what we did. Shelley checked out a few stores looking for "hippy pants" but didn't find any and then we went to a restaurant for some water & beer. We were going to go to Jardin Escondido for lunch and have their famous tortilla soup but the owner was concerned her 2 large german shepherd type dogs would be aggressive to Fredi. We wandered around a bit more and found a restaurant that served home made soup and sandwiches and then we caught a truck cab (mixto) back to Izhcayluma. Everyone went down for a nap and read for a couple of hours before dinner. Once again dinner was at the Izhcayluma restaurant. We'd like to recommend their pizza (!) Shelley says it may be the best she's had in Ecuador.

Shelley asked Barbara & Howard is they could stand 2 more days of this virtual nothingness and they both agreed they could.

The valley Vilcabamba is in is absolutely beautiful. There are flowers & fruit & corn growing everywhere and every compass point provides a great picture. The weather is also warmer than Cuenca so what with Cuenca's rain & coolish weather lately, we really enjoyed the sun. It's warm but not too hot there. One of the things that strikes you first when you arrive at Izhcayluma is the awesome quiet. Even though Cuenca isn't that large, it still has it's share of traffic noise and the white noise that accompanies any city. The big noises we heard at Vilcabamba were donkey's braying and roosters crowing. Also Brian & Howard noted that the sky was crystal clear at night and the stars felt so close, you could reach out and touch them.

After a breakfast of fruit salad, eggs, crepes & coffee we again walked to town. This time we discovered muscles unknown to us previously. Walking downhill for close to 2 Km exercises your calf muscles and the large muscle that one sits on. We walk every day in Cuenca and are convinced it was the down hill slope that brought these new muscles into play. Upon arriving in town we engaged a Mixto for 2 hours to take us up to the Hacienda San Joachin complex and provide us with a mini tour of the valley. The complex was stunning but quite a distance away from Vilcabamba. Our mini tour took us through some of the back roads in the Valley and into the back side of Podocarpus Park. Later, Brian, Howard & Barbara ate at Jardin Escondido while Shelley & Fredi had another bowl of home made soup, continued to seek "hippy pants" and checked up on our emails. Back to our rooms at 2 o'clock for a late nap, we met at 5:30 again to take a cab to Craig's Bookstore for an Italian meal. While the food wasn't Four Star, there was plenty of it and of a quality you wouldn't expect in an Ecuadorian backwater. Craig died in a tragic accident several years ago and his wife has remarried an ExPat potter from the United States. He regaled us with various stories and invited us to a Gallery Opening the next day.

We all agreed on Saturday that walking downhill was definitely exercising muscles not normally used. While we all looked to each other for an excuse not to do the walk, none of us was going to be the first to give in so... we all undertook the mighty walk once again. We arrived in the village, having made our best time ever and sat in the park deciding what to do next. Unfortunately, Barbara took a spill on an uneven sidewalk and bruised several parts of her body and scraped skin off several other parts. Not wanting to walk her around any more, we caught a cab to Izhcayluma and had a lunch of pizza & burgers. The gallery showing that evening provided 10 minutes worth of entertainment with the usual crowd you seem to see at most Gallery Openings. (How do they know?) Back at Izhcayluma the ladies had a German dish of oven baked potatoes, vegetables and cheese while he boys had stroganoff and a chicken dish. Knowing we were returning the next day we had a bit of a party.

Up bright and early Sunday morning, we all ate breakfast together and then Brian & Shelley caught the bus home. Barbara & Howard had arranged to take a cab back to help alleviate some of the pressure on Barbara's knees due to her fall. The bus ride back was largely uneventful except we caught all of our transfers one right after the other. Our week's holiday from retirement living met all our expectations and we thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with our friends. They were truly great company!

If you'd like to see more pictures of Vilcabamba (To, At & Around) click here.

Step Right Up for a 2 Cent Tour

2010-07-03T21:26:00.000-04:00

Our friend Holly semi-specializes in taking pictures of insects. When we asked her if we could share some of these pictures on our blog, she graciously consented. Unable to pick out just 5, we will showcase Holly's pictures on a couple of other blogs in the future as well.

There seems to be some difficulty for us getting a hang of this year's "winter". It's been raining a lot more and cooler from time to time and then a day or a couple of hours of heat will bombard us and we get all confused. We seem to feel last winter was warmer, but memory is a faulty thing and it's easy to forget the rainy days when you have, to all intent and purpose, endless days of sunshine coming at you. Don't get us wrong, we don't mind the change in weather. It was one of our concerns when we first came here, that being so used to "seasons", we'd miss them. Here we get seasons but not so severe. It makes a nice change for awhile and you always know the sunshine is just around the corner.

The morning routine out of the way, we walked around paying our bills and eventually ended up downtown where we had arranged to meet a "blog couple" for lunch. They were in town for 8 days scoping things out and arranging an apartment for their return later on this year. We met and ate at the Raymipampa Restaurant then took a "2 cent tour" around town: to the coffee place, to the 10th of August market, down the stairs and across the river and then caught a bus for that Cuenca bus experience. They're lovely people and only had good things to say about Ecuador and Cuenca in particular. They'll be coming back with their own little dog Nick and we all hope Fredi & Nick will become the best of pals.

In something less than 8 months, Brian is going to turn 70. OMG! (As our children would say!) We're prepping for that. We're discussing the event and setting up the situation in our own minds to better cope with it when it happens. Someone famous said, "If I'd known I'd live this long I would have taken better care of myself." We quit smoking over 2 years ago now and apparently have been lucky; Brian has minor chronic bronchitis; Shelley seems OK. We walk every day (Fredi helps) and other than roast pig, eat relatively healthy. One never thinks when they're 13, or 33 or even 42 of eventually reaching 70. There are milestones: 13, 20, 30, 40, 50... and then who cares? The government in most countries gives you money somewhere in your 60's (thank you very much). We're counting on our sense of adventure to continue. Keep on learning; keep on keeping on. (This moment has been brought to you by the Baby Boomer Generation.)

Needing a day off, Brian took Fredi for her mid-morning walk while Shelley stayed home. Brian was attending yet another cooking class in the afternoon (this time Mediterranean) and Shelley's plan was to hide most of the day except for Fredi's early evening walk. Shelley nurtured the plants out on the balcony (watered them, picked out weeds & cut a few back), spent a couple of hours on the computer, read her book and watched a movie. It was a lovely day for her. As usual Brian bounced through the door after his cooking class enthusiastically greeted by Fredi and reported that once again class was a big success. This time the cuisine was generally Mediterranean, featuring dishes from Turkey, France and Morocco. Brian said the big hit was a ravioli with home made pasta filled with lamb and a wonderful sauce, a traditional Turkish dish.

Canada Day (July 1st) dawned bright and sunny and we started the day with a minor disagreement. Some friends had given us maple leaf decorations and Brian wanted to hang them all day and take multiple pictures. Shelley felt that would be unpolitical and thought we should hang them briefly for the picture session and then take them down.

Brian stamped his rather large definitely undelicate foot and exclaimed, "How come we always do what you want!"
Shelley laughed.

Because we were out of hummingbird food, we hopped on a bus to the Mega Hierro True Value Hardware store near the airport to pick up some. We know...we know...you can make hummingbird food from water & sugar & red food dye for an eighth of the price. Nevertheless, we buy the packages because we have this niggling feeling the hummingbirds like it better. Coming back, our bus was diverted and we ended up in a traffic jam and instead of a 25 minute bus ride, it turned into an hour and a half. That evening Shelley suffered, having contracted a cold that decided to come on full force. Several Tylenol, Vitamin C & a decongestant later, she began to feel somewhat better. [Interesting Fredi Fact: Fredi, for the very first time since we've had her, stayed with Shelley the entire evening. We're not sure if she was comforting Shelley because of her cold or mad at Brian because he'd gone out the day before.]

Shelley continued to be quite snuffly on Friday & Saturday, so Brian went out and did the chores and took Fredi on her walk and Shelley stayed home and blew her nose. It's such a luxury to be able to take care of a cold, rather than marching forward like a good soldier going to work, plodding through the chores & generally fighting the whole sick thing. We'd previously arranged to have dinner with a couple Saturday evening at the Terrace, so a Tylenol & a decongestant later, we set out enthusiastically for yet another wonderful meal at this restaurant. As usual the food was great. Everyone except Shelley had filet mignon. Shelley had one of their cheese burger which she simply can't resist. As our friends had just spent 6 weeks in the States, we had a lot of catching up to do. The company was great and we had a lovely evening.

Don't Miss It At All

2010-06-28T14:28:00.000-04:00

Nothing special planned, we wandered off to Feria Libre just because it was Wednesday and thus the biggest market day. We always carry Fredi in her back pack when we go to Feria Libre and there's always several people that want to pet her and talk about the pack. We found a hair barrette for Shelley that has been advertised on TV (and thus must be wonderful!) and she bit the bullet and paid the $2.50 they asked for it. We checked out the cactuses but didn't see anything we didn't already have. We traipsed around looking at the clothes & the fruit & the pets & the cookware & the blankets & the shoes until we got tired and then we walked home again.

Brian had another cooking class on Thursday; this time on New Orleans cooking. We got up in the morning and did our usual routine: first thing walk Fredi, breakfast, showers, morning news, daily chore, cuddle, etc. and then set off to the butchers where we hoped there'd be a prime rib to pick up. Shelley waited outside the store with Fredi while Brian went inside to see what his efforts had produced. Fredi put her paws up on the window ledge and watched her Papa the whole time he was in the store. He left with no package in his hands. Apparently the butcher had cut the ribs with maybe an inch of meat on them. Brian let him know kindly this was not what he was after. Upon arriving home, undaunted, this time he went to the web and printed off a butcher's chart, plus some actual pictures of what the roast should look like. (Isn't it amazing what you can get on the web!?) We'll try again another day.

While Brian was away at his cooking class, Fredi did her usual sidling up to Shelley, lying beside her, moving when she moved, generally being obsequious until Brian walked through the door. Then Shelley became dust in the wind. (Sigh!) As usual Brian was all pumped up with what he had learned in cooking class. He particularly liked the chicken & sausage gumbo and the shrimp remolade.

"We all sat around and BS'd and watched her cook" Brian told Shelley. "It's really neat taking the class with friends. We've taken enough of them together now that it's become a bit of ritual."

Brian, who is not a big bread pudding fan, really enjoyed the bread pudding with a special subtly lemon-flavoured sauce. Shelley is looking forward to trying that recipe for herself. Shelley has set up a special binder with Brian's cooking class recipes. It's kind of fun to watch it grow! Friends from the cooking class had remarked that ExPat potluck dinners have really improved in quality as a result of various people bringing dishes that they've learned in class. Little by little our life in Ecuador gradually improves in quality as our friendships deepen and the catalogue of shared experiences expands.

Wearing our rain coats & keeping our fingers crossed, we caught a bus downtown and went to the post office to mail off a card to Shelley's Aunt in Canada with a 3 page letter enclosed ($4.75). We then walked across town, picked up 3 DVDs ($4) and caught another bus home just in time to miss the downpour we were expecting. Friday evening we went to Gringo night at Zoe's and met a couple of new people in town. As usual, Zoe's was hopping with people (many of whom we knew) and quite noisy. We caught up with a few friends and then escaped to the Mediterraneo Restaurant for pasta dishes and a quiet intimate dinner with our new friends. It was a nice evening and very neat getting to know new people. They were quite excited, having just rented an apartment and were looking for appliances and a bed before they had to go back to the States and divest themselves of most of their belongings there.

Because we were going out to dinner at a friend's place Saturday evening, we spent the day mostly puttering and watched a movie on TV. It rained off and on and we gave Fredi a bath after taking her outside for her walk because she was a soaked little puppy and we couldn't present her to our hosts that way. It was a lovely evening, we were served a shrimp appetizer and tortilla soup as the main dish with brownies & ice cream for dessert. Everything was perfect, including the company.

Sunday we went down to Parque Calderon, met a few friends and chatted for awhile, then went on our way and got tomatoes and roast pig. One of our U.S. American friends gave us 3 Canadian flag-hanging-twirly-things that they had picked up for pennies at a liquidation sale. They presented them to us as Canada Day is July 1st and they thought we might want to decorate our balcony with them. It was very thoughtful.

Monday, we shopped and cooked. If you've read past blogs then you know at one point we asked for $500 cash from a machine and got nothing although they deducted the amount from our Canadian account. It took several phone calls and emails but eventually the $500 was refunded (in about 6 weeks). Well...on Monday we asked for $500 and it gave us a receipt for zero, plus no cash. We then tried again and the machine told us we were over limit for the day. Back at home, upon checking with our account on-line, we saw $500 had been deducted and then refunded immediately. Because of a couple of these hiccups, every time we use our bank card at a machine we hold our breath for a bit.

It was a quiet couple of days that were needed and enjoyed because we were ready for a break from the bustle. We've just recently spent some time with folks newly retired and new to Cuenca. The energy required just listening to their adventures is considerable. Shelley thinks that they're in that "recently retired stage" where they still feel they have to do 4,365 things a day. We've progressed to the point where going to the Post Office is our big chore for the day. When we hear about going to see an archeological site, eating breakfast, lunch & dinner out, shopping for appliances and taking in a museum or two, we think perhaps 5 or 6 days might be needed. They accomplished this in just a few hours. Dimly, in the back of our almost completely full brains, is a dull memory of our days being like that as well. You know something ? We don't miss it at all.

What Means This: Dottering?

2010-06-22T17:38:00.000-04:00

It ended up being another chore day as we wandered downtown on Friday and picked up Shelley's slacks from being hemmed, dropped into a printer's place (Sanguirma 9-18 y B. Malo) to get another 200 personal cards printed up and swung by the post office to check on our PO Box. The pants looked great, professional and well done. We got 200 cards printed in probably August of 2008 and we were getting pretty low these days so decided we should purchase another 200. They told us the cost would be $40 and we expressed our amazement and surprise because the original cost (only less than 2 years ago) was $20 or $25 (we couldn't remember exactly). After much hemming and hawing and a telephone call and finally a discussion with someone who presumably had more authority, we got the cards for $30. At the post office were 2 birthday cards for Shelley & 2 Father's Day cards for Brian. We were thrilled! We also ran into a couple we know and chattered for awhile about what we'd been up to all the while standing in the middle of the Post Office being in the way. (Again, don't you hate that!) We ended up being well satisfied with our excursion.

Saturday was spent trying to get in touch with people, some successfully, some without success. We arranged to meet yet another "blog couple" for dinner at Tiestos so spent the day puttering around saving ourselves for the evening. We'd invited the blog couple over for pate and a glass of wine before we set off to the restaurant and they were very enthusiastic about Cuenca and their plans to find an apartment and return later in the year. As usual we had a fantastic meal at Tiestos. The energy and ambiance of the restaurant really adds to the whole dining experience. This time these had a guitarist playing and singing in the background. Our guests were very impressed with Fredi's good manners and we had a lovely visit!

Originally, we had started the blog to keep in touch with family & friends easily. Keep them in tune with our daily life and thus not lose touch with them Out of the effort came "blog friends"; people all over the world who were interested in Ecuador, interested in our daily lives in retirement and interested in Brian & Shelley as people. Go figure; this was a surprise; not something we expected. Many of these "blog friends" we've had the happy opportunity to meet. In almost all circumstances, it's been a pleasure to meet them and share our lives in a more intimate manner. We're not sure the keeping in touch with friends & family part is working out though. We feel they touch base with the blog from time to time but perhaps this isn't enough. Be assured friends & family & others we're here; available on Skype, happy to reply to an email from you, wondering always what you're up to. We want to hear from you too!

Fredi had had her bi-weekly bath on Saturday so we were rather disappointed on Sunday morning when it dawned drizzly and wet. We took her for a short walk and then dottered around the apartment until it was time to go out in the early afternoon to a birthday bash for a friend. By the time we left, the weather had improved and we both walked out without a coat. It was a pot luck and there were tons of people (we of course took Brian's pate) so there was a wonderful assortment of food to eat (lasagna, potato salad, stuffed eggs, pineapple salsa etc.) and a couple of speeches from the birthday girl. Three hours later when we exited the building it was raining once again and us without our coats. We cowered in door ways until a cab came and then bombed through the streets until we hit an intersection and were in a bit of a fender bender. Our cabby was in the right, nevertheless we had to get out (without paying of course) and flag down yet another cab in the drizzle. Poor Fredi was late for her afternoon walk by this time, but we ventured upstairs to our apartment to pick up coat before allowing her to relieve herself. In the end, all was well, we really weren't very wet and Fredi was a happy dog.

Just before we went shopping on Monday, we phoned a friend we thought needed some cheering up. While shopping, we bought the fixings for hamburgers & salad and some strawberry cheesecake ice cream, plus a box of wine. Now the previous list of things can't go all the way and cheer somebody up but it sure is a good starter. We puttered around the house Monday afternoon and our friend came over early evening for dinner. We talked and ate pate and eventually cooked the burgers and ate sitting on the couch & talked some more. We had strawberry cheesecake ice cream and drank our wine and kept on talking and in the end I think we sent our friend home feeling just a little bit better. We sure hope so in any case.

To a bright, sunny, warm day on Tuesday, we caught the # 28 bus down to our printers and picked up our cards. They looked exactly like the old set so we were well enough pleased. We then wandered to the park in the main square and sat in the shade on a bench for awhile, taking in the sights and occasionally letting a small child pet Fredi. Stopping in at the 10th of August market Brian got his roast pig as we hadn't been able to do that on Sunday. We then walked the rest of the way home, enjoying the sunshine, the sights & the exercise.

It's Almost All About Food

2010-06-17T12:35:00.000-04:00

Our friend Jan, who currently lives in Holland, just went for a holiday to Russia. The pictures on this blog are courtesy of him. Jan, who's been all over the world, both because of pleasure trips and work commitments, commented that perhaps this trip to Russia was one of his most enjoyable holidays ever; the country was so much more than he expected. This was his European last hurrah as he is moving to Saudi Arabia on contract work for the foreseeable future. A good part of our wanderlust urge is experienced vicariously as Jan travels the world. We regularly Skype with him in China, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Holland and other far away places.

As usual, off we went to Parque Calderon on Sunday and met a gaggle of people. We all stood in a circle in the park and introduced the newcomers and talked about what we'd been up to and generally caught up. Afterwards we got Brian's roast pig ($2) & Shelley's bag of tomatoes ($1) plus a pound of chicken livers ($1) because Brian's going to try making country pate (which also takes veal & pork & spinach & walnuts, etc.) as he learned in one of his cooking classes. It's still cool out and Shelley was able to wear one of her home-made sweaters brought from Canada. It was pretty much perfect for the weather without a coat.

Shopping & cooking was on our agenda for Monday. We met new acquaintances in the store and stood in the way of other shoppers (don't you hate that!) and chatted for awhile trying to set up a date to get together. As they'll be taking Spanish lessons and don't know the timing of them yet, we had to defer our decision until later in the week. At home again, Shelley made carrot muffins for breakfasts while Brian was walking Fredi. When Brian came home he made his pate. There was much grinding & mixing & wondering about does x = y and towards the end moaning because his back gets sore from standing at the counter chopping. Two hours after starting, Brian finally got two loaf pans of pate in the oven and then it had to bake for 4 hours. (PS: Shelley ended up washing a fair bit of his dirty dishes.) After baking and cooling you weigh the mixture down for a day or so and then the whole thing is ready to eat. Brian assured Shelley it's worth the effort, because the end result is so delicious! She's waiting to see (don't forget that mound of dirty dishes).

Brian was scheduled to take another cooking class on Tuesday; this time regarding appetizers. We needed to fit in a walk for us & Fredi, plus Brian's nap before he was due to leave for the class shortly after 2 o'clock. We managed to do all that plus have an early slice off the pate. Brian said it wasn't as good as leslieabreen@yahoo.com (the cooking teacher) had made, but it still was mighty tasty! He had substituted bacon for pork fat and brandy for cognac in the recipe and thus it made the whole thing somewhat different. Later on in the afternoon, when lunchtime was upon us, the pate tasted even better. We expect this ripening will continue until the taste sensation is beyond description.

The weather has begun to be somewhat warmer. Still not tropical. We're in long sleeved shirts when we go outside, but Shelley doesn't have to wear a Canadian sweater watching TV in the evening along with thermal socks. It hasn't rained for a few days and we had to water the outside plants as a couple were drooping, but we're not confident this marks the end of "winter". It's probably just a lull. We've been told that the "cold snap" came several weeks earlier than normal and that we can expect the regular Ecuadorian cooler weather in July & August.

At Brian's cooking class the usual assortment of friends were there to learn how to make half a dozen different appetizers. It is the nature of appetizers that they are fairly picky to prepare so Brian is not sure if he'll ever actually make any of them, although he raved about the crackers and also a carrot puree; so perhaps he'll bite the bullet and make them anyway. There was lots of discussion and catching up and a couple of glasses of wine at the end. Brian says that much of the value of these classes has to do with the various tips that are passed along, not only about preparation, but also where to get some of the ingredients. Again, he showed up at home following the class just the tiniest bit tipsy. Shelley deigned not to notice. (Note: As usual: Fredi came out of her skin when Brian walked through the door.)

A last minute cancellation Wednesday morning left us with a gourmet breakfast of pate on buttered toast triangles enough for 4 people. The pate has now mellowed to the point where it's food for the Gods and we managed to consume all of the breakfast despite ourselves. Later on we walked downtown to La Precisa (on Tarqui, half way up the block between Calle Larga & Presidente Cordova) which is a place that'll hem up pants, do minor repair stitching, cobble your shoes and a myriad of other things. The slacks Shelley had purchased the other day were about 4 inches too long, so for $1.75 she's getting them hemmed. The weather has improved a bit; still not terribly hot but not as cool as it has been. The pleasant walk downtown and back again was just enough to make us feel like we wore off at least some of the breakfast.

Having heard a rumour you could get special cuts of beef done at certain stores, we walked up to the Bocatti on Gran Colombia and ordered a prime rib. Brian first printed off a drawing from the web as to how the different cuts are butchered. He showed this picture to the butcher in the store and explained that he wanted the meat cut from ribs 7 - 10. All rib roasts are cut from ribs 7 - 12. We're supposed to be able to go back next Thursday and pick it up. The date was dependent on when they get their next shipment of beef. We'll of course, report back when we cook it, as to how it was.

Dining Ups & Downs

2010-06-12T17:02:00.000-04:00

A friend had just returned from a trip, so we decided to meet for lunch Wednesday at the Inca Lounge & Bistro and catch up with each other. We arrived at noon as per the article in Cuenca Highlife and found the place locked up. Waiting for our friend to arrive, eventually someone came through and advised the opening time was actually 1 o'clock. (Please note: All conversations were had with individuals where English was their first language.) We told them about the article giving the wrong time. They didn't seem terribly concerned. (Incidentally we checked when we got home and the article definitely said they were open at noon on Wednesdays). After 20 minutes or so, they let us sit at a table outside and provided us with tea & coffee while we waited. They were apparently out of milk so Brian drank his coffee black, not something he usually does. Our friend arrived and we chatted and caught up with each other and finally a young man came down with 3 menus. We decided at that time to move indoors as it was a bit cool outside. The young man took the menus and led us upstairs. Sitting down, we were asked to put Fredi on the floor for hygienic reasons. Shelley instantly complied but mentioned to the young man that this was the first time ever, eating out in Cuenca, when anyone had said squat about the dog. The young man then told us quite a long involved story about how much he likes dogs and did for dogs. Shelley said she understood but wasn't it ironic that this was the first time anyone had ever said anything about Fredi at a restaurant other than to pet her and tell us how adorable she was. The guy asked, "What do you want me to say?" and Shelley answered "Nothing I guess...turn around and walk away." Remember: Fredi is on the ground. The fellow then announced "New policy. No dogs allowed in my restaurant!" and turned his back on us.

Somewhat stunned, we got up and offered to pay for our tea & coffee and were advised there was no charge. We then left the restaurant (remember we had waited an hour with dog in lap before being officially seated) wandered around a bit wondering where we were going to eat and decided since our day was somewhat spoiled, we'd just drop into Monday Blue up the street and have a burger there. We've been told the burgers at the Inca Lounge are the best in Cuenca. We'll never be able to report on that as we'll never go back there with or without Fredi. The burger at Monday Blue was a little ragged but what do you want for $2.50.

Honestly, we've always been somewhat surprised that all the restaurants in Cuenca have allowed Fredi. We've half expected to be asked to leave in several different places. Told at the door, we would have simply said we understood and walked away; end of incident. We however, didn't expect after waiting for an hour (dog on lap) to be bushwhacked, even though we'd complied with their request to put Fredi on the floor. We could go into an even longer commentary about some people being hyper sensitive, unable to accept even the smallest challenge to their authority but...we won't. For us, the entire experience was pretty awkward. Something's odd at the Inca Lounge and we're not quite sure what it is. We do know that we have absolutely no issue with a "dogs" or "no dogs" policy. We simply felt that the situation was not handled well.

Hungry, for some reason, for a decent burger, we locked poor Fredi in the bedroom on Thursday and caught the #7 bus to Mall del Rio. Brian picked up some socks and Shelley some underwear & a pair of slacks. Then we stopped at Burger King and had a good old familiar Whopper Combo. It's quite expensive by Ecuadorian standards but a couple of times a year we make a point of doing it just for the nostalgia of it all.

It's quite chilly out these days. One has to wear a sweater or a light jacket or at the very least a long sleeved shirt, and in the evening we cover ourselves with a light blanket while we're reading or watching TV. It usually rains a bit some time during the day and we haven't had to water the outside plants for several weeks now. When it's warm out, we have to water the plants twice a week.

There was yet another "blog couple" in town and we'd been trying to set up a lunch meeting with them all week. They were extremely busy checking out real estate in town and in the outlying neighbourhoods and we finally decided on an early supper Friday evening at the Raymipampa Restaurant. Thus, Brian took Fredi for a walk to our neighbourhood park and Shelley spent most of the day puttering around the apartment. As it turned out the couple was from the same area of Canada that we were. They'd also arranged to meet another woman (originally from Chicago) at the restaurant. We all chatted and talked about our experiences and got to know each other over a 3 hour period so it obviously went pretty well. It's so nice for us to meet folks who we'd only e-mailed with in the past. We meet up with blog correspondents quite frequently. We're happy to share our experiences in Ecuador and it's wonderful to hear about people's lives and adventures.

Off we went on a road trip on Saturday to Paute with a friend. We stopped in at 4 or 5 nurseries and looked at plants. Shelley bought a small fir-type tree which they potted for her right there and our friend bought 4 huge flowering plants. We then dropped into the Corvel restaurant for lunch. As it was a bit chilly we ate inside but they have a lovely outdoor patio when the weather's good. We had a bit of a scare when we thought they were asking us to sit outside with Fredi but it turned out they only wanted to know if Fredi wanted a bowl of water. Brian had steak with shrimp, flambéed right at the table with appropriate flare by the chef, our friend had giant prawns and Shelley tried out the vegetarian rice ($22.40 including drinks). The entire day was such a treat. We really enjoyed ourselves!

Free, Free, Free

2010-06-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

It turned out to be a chore day for us on Friday as we ventured downtown to refill our phone for a month ($10), refill our 2 bus passes for about 2 months ($20) and drop into the CB Carolina Bookstore for another ten books ($40).

"Remember when just filling up the phone card seemed to take us the whole morning?" Shelley asked Brian.

"That's because we didn't know what to ask for, didn't know where to go, didn't know how to ask for it and generally didn't know anything." he replied.

Brian had spent some time that same morning phoning around trying to find someone who would go to the symphony with him that evening. It took 3 calls (the other 2 were already busy) to find someone happy to accompany him to the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra's musical dramatization "Mozart Comes to Visit". When Brian returned home from his evening out he reported that he had run into several of our friends. The concert was geared towards children and families and they had a character dressed up as Mozart who was instructing the conductor of the orchestra how his music should be played. There was a lot of audience participation and as usual the Cuenca symphony was first class. On leaving the concert, Brian accompanied a friend to the main square which was teeming with people celebrating Corpus Christi replete with fireworks, pastry & candy booths and thousands of people. It was a real family occasion with lots of little kids and everybody socializing and generally having a wonderful time.

Another one of those things we don't notice so much any more are the store mannequins. When we first got here it was hard not notice that Cuenca had imported all the mannequins from our childhood and then saved them. This blog displays only some of these vintage mannequins around town.

A walk around the neighbourhood sufficed for our morning outing on Saturday as we were meeting some friends at the California Kitchen for dinner. The California Kitchen is Cuenca's newest eatery, started up by U.S. ExPats in the spirit of an old-fashioned classic dinner. Great hamburgers! Brian had a Yosemite Steak Sandwich and cheesecake that he declared to be among the best he's ever eaten. It's neat to see this restaurant being successful and as usual we had a very pleasant visit with our friends (who highly recommend the berry cobbler).

Down at the park on Sunday we ran into several people we know and ended up showing the roast pig place to some newcomers to Cuenca. Monday we went shopping and Shelley made chili (chili powder courtesy of a friend who brought some from Canada). Shelley's chili recipe is to dump cans of whatever she can find in the cupboard (beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, corn, green beans, mushrooms, potatoes, etc) together with pre-cooked ground burger (and/or chicken) and chili powder (to taste) into a slow cooker and cook until the room smells good. It always seems to work.

In Canada people will often grow Norfolk pine trees indoors. In Parque Calderon in Cuenca there are Norfolk pine trees that are over 70 feet tall. It's hard to equate those huge pine trees, as big as a Douglas Fir, to the somewhat bigger than bonsai ones grown inside our homes in Canada. A few months ago Shelley spotted a 3 foot Norfolk pine at a nursery and wanted to get it to grow indoors. Brian, doubting Shelley's wisdom, asked the fellow at the nursery if it was possible to grow these magnificent trees inside. The fellow was aghast! Shelley stomped off, disappointed Brian would doubt her knowledge and we ended up not buying the tree. A few weeks later, we happened upon a poor, deformed, Norfolk seedling at one of the flower markets for $1. Shelley bought the defective plant and took it into her home and nurtured it and made it welcome. We're now happy to report it is doing just fine indoors, has grown to be about 2 feet tall these days, has worked past it's bent deformity and is now growing a straight strong trunk. In Canada, we had a Douglas Fir, grown from a seedling, in a pot on the back of the boat, outside. Shelley called it Fred. Fred Fir. We had to leave Fred behind when we came to Ecuador and now this lovely survivor Norfolk pine has taken its place. What should be call it; perhaps Norbert? Norman?

If Fredi could say "yippee", she would have so exclaimed, because on Tuesday we went off to her mostest favoritest place in the world ~ Parque Paraiso. We've been planning on going several times and always the day dawned to rain and we were put off. This time, as we were waiting for the #14 bus, we conjectured we might just end up going for a bus ride only because of the threatening rain, but as it happened things worked out. If we go on a week day the park isn't too crowded and Fredi can roar around, off the leash, to her heart's content. All we need to do is remember to bring Puppy Treats so we can entice her back right away if need be. We did our usual turn around the park, past the playground equipment, past the island and the geese in the pond, past the occasional lovers, up onto the bridge system over the marshy area, alongside the river and then back in the the main park, crossing to the football field and past the concessions. Fredi would madly dash off to see a butterfly, joggers in the park, little children with their parents, flowers on the bushes or just out of pure exuberance to be off the leash and free, free, free.

All in All

2010-06-03T16:06:00.000-04:00

It's a fact (for those wondering) that we don't throw a hissy fit if we can't go shopping on Monday for some reason. Just the other week we had to postpone it to Tuesday and a couple of months ago we shopped on a Sunday. Nevertheless, Monday we went shopping. Shelley finally found a muffin tin and we got 3 jars of Heinz green relish (!!!) that we've been seeking forever. Someone assured us we could buy green relish in Ecuador but until now we've been unable to find it.

If you click here there is a re-print of an article written by Lee Dubs (one of the owners of the CB Carolina Bookstore) that is a must read for anyone thinking of coming to Cuenca. Our own wish, coming to Ecuador, was to assimilate into the society. This is not so easily done if you don't speak the language. We are friendly with several Ecuadorians but cannot claim a real friendship with any. In time we sincerely hope this will change as our language skills get better. For now, we always remember we're in "their" country and have to accommodate ourselves to their culture. Except for perhaps pedestrian right-of-way, we've had minimal trouble adjusting this way. For those who come complaining and decrying where they came from was "better", we have a simple answer: go back!

Tuesday we went out to dinner with several couples to the LaVinas Italian Restaurant (Luis Cordero 5-101 y Juan Jaramillo). The evening was to celebrate the arrival back in the country of a couple whom we'd all met several months before on their initial exploratory tour of Ecuador. It was supposed to be a surprise! There we were, waiting, sitting in the restaurant and the fellow of the couple walks by with their dogs. We wave. He waves. So much for the surprise. It was a nice evening but typical of any gathering at a restaurant with more than 4 people: you end up talking with the four closest to you and no one else. Nevertheless, fun was had by all.

It's been raining pretty hard off and on for the last couple of days. The river is high and actually went over the low bank last evening. Even though this is considered the rainy season, it still doesn't hold a candle to the rain in Vancouver. Here, we know that the sun will shine soon and the rain never goes on day after day, night after night like we were used to back in Vancouver. There are several "blog people" arriving in Cuenca during June. We're looking forward to meeting them but wonder if June is the best month to make your initial acquaintance with Cuenca. We first came in February when the rain in Vancouver could easily go on 40 days & 40 nights and it was cold and the days were short. Arriving to warmth with only an occasional heavy shower was a wonderment we apparently have never gotten over.

One of the first places we ate at in Cuenca was the Raymipampa Restaurant, just off the main square downtown. It serves the traditional potato soup which is a must try for anyone coming to Ecuador, the menu is in both English & Spanish & quite extensive, the service is good and the prices are reasonable. It's a lunch place, not fine dining, but very popular with both expats & Ecuadorians. In any case, we often suggest this as a first meeting place for new people we've talked to through the blog. On Wednesday we met there with a couple from California, in Ecuador for 2 months to find out if this is the place for them to retire. They chatted about their experiences so far and we gave them a couple of pieces of advice and all in all it was a nice lunch. That evening we went to the Galeria de la Alcaldia de Cuenca (Bolivar y Borrero) to see a showing of Liza Wheeler's mosaic works. As always, the work was wonderful and there were several people we knew and could chat with. We seem to have a pretty busy week lined up for ourselves. Brian asked Shelley if we had anything happening Thursday and when Shelley replied in the negative, Brian heaved a great sigh. This is retirement: 4 social obligations in the same week is high chaos for us.

As we intended Thursday to be a quiet day, we only took Fredi off to the nearby vet to get her nails clipped and then went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Upon arrival back home there was a brown-out. The elevators weren't working and the TV & computer didn't work, but lights came on dimly. We'd witnessed someone topping a huge eucalyptus tree on the way home and the top 30 feet or so of the tree had come down with a loud crunch, like it had hit something important. The noise of the crash drew quite a crowd out onto the sidewalk. We wondered if the brown-out was because of that? It lasted about an hour and then things were back to normal. Later on Shelley made muffins for future breakfasts and Brian made fried rice and a sweet & sour chow mein for dinner that evening. All in all, it was a pleasant, quiet day and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Tungurahua Still Smoking

2010-05-30T14:37:00.000-04:00

After bragging about not having a cold for almost 2 years, Tuesday morning Brian woke up feeling some what snuffy and with a bit of a cough. We went about our day with no more symptoms and in the evening we went out to the Terrace Bar & Grill (Av. del Estadio 1-36 y Florencia Astudillo) with another couple. We've only been there once before, but both meals were stupendous and we really enjoyed ourselves. (They specialize in great steaks!) As it was a Tuesday the place was almost empty but the other time we went was a weekend and the place was packed. It was a lovely evening with interesting people and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Wednesday morning Brian woke up quite stuffed up, had minor laryngitis & asked Shelley for the vitamin C (you know it's bad when he does that). Shelley took Fredi out for her walk alone and Brian spent the day snuffing & napping & coughing but not feeling terribly terribly awful. It's a small cold and it's warm out. It's not like being sick in the damp & cold, shivering, red nosed & miserable. We broke out some of Brian's chicken soup from the freezer so tomorrow the age old recipe should "cure" him. Thursday was more of the same. The soup definitely did some good but Brian still wasn't up to snuff. He had to beg off going to a concert in the evening as his laryngitis wasn't any better. He felt run down but not too awfully sick. Friday was bill day and we bundled Brian and his scratchy throat up and did our rounds. Everything went well but he was quite ready to lie down and read for awhile when we got home. Fredi wanted to know why nap time was so early?

The big news was the Tungurahua volcano exploded on Friday, forcing the evacuation of at least seven villages and closing down the airport at Guayaquil. The last time Tungurahua erupted (February 2008) we happened to be in Riobamba. We woke up in the morning and the streets were covered in ash, you could see the volcano smoke billowing in the distance and people walked around the streets with masks over their noses & mouths. It was all quite exciting! A couple of weeks later we went to Banos and rode up into the hills on ATVs to the point where we got a pretty good view of Tungurahua still smoking. By happenstance we ran into a fellow up in the hills that was a volcano watcher. They apparently have several of these people stationed in little huts near the various volcanoes with a bit of equipment and some pretty good binoculars. Although our Spanish wasn't that good, Brian and his friend Jan actually spent quite some time talking to the fellow and looking at maps, etc. In Cuenca right now, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the occasional cloud scuds across and you'd never know there was a big commotion going on somewhere else in the country.

Regarding studying Spanish: When we first got to Cuenca we studied Spanish an hour and a half each day for almost a year. At that time, we decided we could have the weekends off and studied Spanish an hour a day, 5 days a week. Then we decided studying in the morning interfered with our shopping day, so we cut it down to 4 days a week for an hour each day. Then Brian got sick and we cut out studying all together. Then Brian got better but we decided not to resume studying until after our daughter had visited. After our daughter came and went, we just haven't gotten back to it. Thus, we studied Spanish for 19 months and are now taking a hiatus. Brian is much better at the language than Shelley is. He chats quite happily with taxi drivers, our security guard, our neighbours, people in the shops, etc. These days he'll even make a phone call to complain about our internet service (for example). Shelley's skills, despite studying along side Brian, aren't nearly as good. She still relies on a bright smile and pointing. (Don't underestimate what can be done with a bright smile and pointing!) Sooner or later we'll get back to our studying. Our pile of Spanish language study books sits in our computer room mocking us. We haven't given up; we're simply taking a vacation.

As we had been looking unsuccessfully for a small lamp for our spare bedroom for some time now, we decided to lock Fredi in the bedroom and take the #28 bus to SuperStock (Av. de las Americas S.N y Juan Larrea) on Saturday. We found a lamp right away, plus a couple of others things we had not intended to buy. We then stopped by Coral Centro and took a walk around but managed to resist buying anything. Our mega store shopping stamina has dwindled considerably and we wearily caught a bus home to an overjoyed Fredi.

On Sunday we did our usual: walked to the park, met some friends and chattered while sitting on a bench for awhile, got Brian's roast pig and caught the bus home. Sitting at the bus stop waiting along with us were 3 children between the ages of 4 and 10 (2 boys and a girl). They of course wanted to pet Fredi, know her name, whether she was male or female and where we were from. It's probably good for us to talk with children in that their language skills are closer to our own. Just before our bus came, we bought some home-made potato chips from them and waved goodbye. It was a lovely day.

Have We Mentioned?

2010-05-25T13:51:00.000-04:00

Remembering a Typical Day: Up at 6 am, getting the kids up, fixing them breakfast & nagging them to get ready. Then off to day care and school, work, meetings, lunch, meetings, work. Picking up the kids. Off to the store to get something for supper. Cooking. Some minor cleaning; maybe a load of laundry. Rushing off to the community centre for the kids swim lessons. Bathing the kids, getting them to bed, having a bath yourself. An hour of TV. Suddenly it's 11 o'clock and other than riding on the bus and bath time you've had no time for yourself. Alternative: Up at 5 am, off to work, meetings, work, lunch, meetings, work. Working dinner. Off to more meetings and more work and more meetings. Watch the news. Shower. Crash into bed. It's midnight.

Have we mentioned we're enjoying retirement?

It was drippy out on Friday. We've had virtually no rain all week, so it was OK that it was drippy out. Nevertheless, we needed to get out for at least a Fredi-walk and a bit of fresh air for the 3 of us. We decided to go to the spice store and see if they had pecans. We'd tried twice before unsuccessfully but this time they in fact did provide. We got a medium as well as a small size package of chopped pecans for $7.50 total. The woman in the store did the international rubbing thumb and fingers together to indicate they were pricey when we asked for them. It was OK. We wanted them and don't use them all that often. We also asked about currants but they didn't have any. A customer in the store suggested SuperMaxi but we've looked there to no avail. When we told her this, she advised us we'd have to go to Guayaquil in that case to get them. We managed to make it home before it really started to rain and Shelley made pasta salad for a soiree we're planning on attending on Saturday.

It was a bit muddy outside on Saturday, so we took Fredi for a sidewalk walk around the neighbourhood, ran into a couple of friends and chatted for a bit, bought a box of wine to take to the soiree that evening and generally spent most of the day simply puttering around. The soiree was great! We talked to lots of people we know and a few people we didn't and generally all had a good time. There was tons of food!

What do we miss? Not too much, obviously, or we wouldn't still be here. Shelley misses her girls; the easy contact; being there for them. Brian misses prime rib; but we've been advised of a place where we might be able to get one, so eventually we'll try it out. We miss the sound of lanyards clanking on masts during a windy spell in the marina but our building provides a lovely wooing noise when the wind blows, so it's not too bad. Shelley misses the constant "newness" in products in the grocery store and elsewhere. Every time we'd shop in Canada there'd be something new to discover on the shelf; here it takes a little longer. We miss having the pedestrian right-of-way. That takes some getting used to. We don't miss the cold. We don't miss the crabby people in the city. We don't miss work. We don't miss the general feeling of stress or tension we lived with for so long that we didn't even know it was there, until it was gone. We miss Canada itself. Funny huh? We miss people talking about hockey instead of politics. (Note: Shelley is equally bored by both.) We don't miss the constant rain. We don't miss $3.75 bus rides or $30 taxi rides. Do we belong here yet; belong in Ecuador (?) like we did without thinking in Canada. Close. The people here are generally very accepting. No one gives us a second glance on the bus these days. We crowd in and jostle with the best of them. Everyone smiles at Fredi and we feel welcome. Is that us or them? Perspective changes over time and becomes relative. It's a day-by-day process. We continue on, happy with our decision. It's OK to miss a few things. We know this; we didn't run from, we journeyed to.

It was another great day on Sunday and we walked to the park, sat around for an hour and then got Brian's roast pig. Monday we went shopping and Brian took his hand at trying to make pie crust for a meat pie, using left-overs from beef stew. His pie crust turned out like Shelley's. Tasty but cobbled together (somewhat). Neither one of us seems to have the knack of rolling out crust. We tried putting it in the fridge for several hours this time before rolling it out. That helped, but the whole process is really an art. Maybe between the 2 of us, we'll eventually get it! Brian insists that this is his first time, so he didn't do all that bad. By the way...the meat pie was absolutely delicious.

As Shelley's income tax finally came through, we headed off downtown to buy her a new blouse in celebration. "Hey!" you say. "Shelley got a new blouse also when Brian's income tax went through. Doesn't that man deserve a helicopter?"

And we let a profound silence settle around those words.

Afterward we went and had a cup of lime tea & then sat in the park for awhile listening to The Wabash College Men's Glee Club from Indiana do their thing. They're apparently on a tour of Ecuador from May 19th to June 2nd. They sounded lovely and the audience was very appreciative even though most of the songs were sung in English. They did, however, do the Ecuadorian National Anthem in Spanish to much clapping when it was finished.

Please note: all (except for the last one) of the pictures in this blog were taken from a temporary wall put up around a construction site.

Grateful For the Time

2010-05-20T13:51:00.000-04:00

In the comment section of our blog someone named Anonymous asked us what our annual expenses have been in Ecuador for the last two years. The following is a monthly breakdown. One would multiply this by 24 to get an estimate for 2 years. Rent $300, Maintenance $75, Groceries $400, Utilities & water $30, Transportation $10, TV $35, Internet $35, Telephone $10.

Everything else is a variable, really. We eat out about once a week for about $25 (wine & tip included). We take a holiday here in Ecuador every 4 months or so and this usually costs us around $300. Brian goes to the dentist every 3 months ($20) and Shelley every 6 months ($55). We give money to charities. We buy clothes from time to time but a custom made shirt for Brian costs around $25 and we spend about $50 a month on books. We spent $5000 on health care earlier this year but that was a bargain (if such a thing can be said about health care). A regular visit to a Doctor costs around $25. Concerts are often free in Cuenca and one of our main sources of entertainment is walking (we need the exercise). Videos are $1.50 to purchase. Brian's been taking cooking classes recently for $20 a class but don't forget this includes a meal.

Anonymous suggested that we were careful with our money but we don't really feel that way. We live the way we like to live and don't have to worry about money. That's one of the many reasons we chose to live in Ecuador. Please note: In order to get a indefinite pensioners' visa one must have an income of at least $800 U.S. net per month. Another way to get a visa is to put up a $25,000 bond or buy property here. As mentioned in our last blog, one should come for a holiday first to determine if Ecuador is the right place for "you". If your answer is "yes", you should check with a reputable Ecuadorian lawyer while here to find out the current regulations. Gringo night in Cuenca is a good source of information to find a decent lawyer or realtor.

At Parque Calderon on Sunday it was one of those perfect days. Although fairly hot, as we sat on a bench in the shade for over an hour, there was just the slightest of breezes cooling us off. Perfect. We watched the people saunter around the park, the kids getting their pictures taken on the stuffed horses, the giant Barney blowing bubbles in the wind and we fended off young boys wanting to polish our shoes. We listened to the Sound of Silence on pan flute played by 2 young men in North American Indian costumes (complete with head dress & fringed buckskin shirt) along with the shrieks of the comedy play coming from the gazebo. Brian got his roast pig and we sauntered home in the heat. If this is winter, we certainly can handle it.

The other day we got an email from a blog friend teasing us about calling Brian's Sunday treat "roast pig" instead of pork. Brian wrote back explaining that they roasted entire pigs, legs & head & even tail on a spit so it seemed more appropriate to call the meal roast pig. Not quite believing, our blog friend wrote back somewhat amazed and commented it must be a piglet. No, no it's not, it's an entire full size roast pig and you see them everywhere. On the side of the road in the country when you're travelling on a bus. In all the public markets, pulled apart, but with the head bravely sitting there advertising the product. You see them at every fair as well as cuy (guinea pig) being turned over hot coals. We've posted pictures of the roasting pigs from time to time and will do it again. It's a taste treat that tourists will often forgo being afraid of gastric distress, but Brian has it every week and from several different places and has never had any trouble. See here for the last pic we posted. This poor pig is pretty much picked over but note the pig's ear is almost the same size as the man's hand.

On Monday, Shelley had a doctor's appointment so we did our weekly shopping on Tuesday instead. Poor Fredi had to suffer all by herself for a couple of hours 2 days in a row. Wednesday, Brian ran a few chores by himself (Poor Fredi suffered without Brian). On Thursday we headed downtown to the Post Office and also into the San Blas church neighbourhood as we haven't been there for almost a year. They were doing construction on the street, taking up paving stones and digging a ditch for a new sewer system. This encompassed 4 or 5 blocks of Simon Bolivar. We sat in the shade of a tree in the square in front of the church and watched the workers & enjoyed the pleasant breeze. Watching the world go by has become just about our favourite pastime.

Let's talk about the river outside our window. We've shown several pictures of people washing their clothes in the river but it has a life much bigger than that. Right now there's a couple cleaning window screens in the river. There's a small pick-up truck parked beside them and they've come down to do a good job on their window screens. Often we'll see people fishing in the river, with a net and less often with a rod. If the river is way down and one tributary around the small island is empty, we know there'll be power rationing. If the river is way up and pushing over the grass and the stump at the end of the island, it's been raining biblical rain. We note that about once a year the rat population on the river bank has a brief explosion, although you almost never see them in the day time. Children play in the river, we've seen people washing themselves in the river, from time to time a carcass will float down from the hills.

We lived on the ocean for many years (which qualifies us as serious water people) and perhaps don't miss it as much as one would expect, partly because we have this river roaring past our apartment. At night, if the mind is whirling, one only has to make a point of listening to the river and all becomes calm. People walk their dogs along side the river. Lovers find a quiet moment under the trees near the river. We often see families picnicking along the river. Turn off the TV, stop talking, and there's the river. Omnipresent. We left the ocean and one day we'll leave "the river" but we're grateful for the time we will have had with both.

It's all Somewhat Decadent

2010-05-14T12:51:00.001-04:00

Off we went downtown on Tuesday to take care of a chore for a friend. Half way there is the Modern Art Museum, and as it's been some time since we popped in, we did.

Shelley had brought the pennies with her and a black handed youngster along with his business partner at Parque Calderon were very pleased to get them. We both noted they left the park soon after we handed them the pennies. We conjectured they felt they did well enough that day so they were off to spend their new found fortune. We're not sure the young boys who do the shoe polishing perform it out of total abject poverty. Their hands may be black from polish but their own clothes aren't tattered (albeit shoe polish stained in places) & the soles of their shoes are OK. Generally they seem clean & fairly tidy. It may have a lot to do with industry; like a paper route in Canada or the U.S. Do kids still do paper routes or is that too dangerous these days? In any case, we also stopped off at the market and Brian picked up the roast pig he missed on Sunday due to the rain. In the end, we were unable to perform the chore for our friend so it's hard to say if the day was successful or not.

We've been awaiting a credit card up for renewal & Shelley's income tax to be processed. When both have been taken care of, we're planning a holiday. The whole thing is driving Shelley mad. It's one thing to deal with these matters in your home country; you don't even think about it, they just eventually happen. It's another matter entirely when you're thousands of miles away, waiting not so patiently for things to go the way they should. There's that nagging worry that something may go awry and you'll have to deal with the problem from another continent. There's nothing to be done but wait, but Shelley (in particular) finds this difficult. Brian reassures her, points out the worst that could happen (which is not that bad, all things considered) and pats her on the hand from time to time. Shelley's not thrilled with the hand patting but appreciates the rest.

Feria Libre was on our schedule for Wednesday as Shelley wanted two things: more small cactus plants and a cheap purse. We walked on the outside of the market (which we don't normally do) to get to the plant place and noted several gentlemen borrachos lying on the street. We couldn't figure out exactly why this area would encourage that, nevertheless it was a fact. We got 3 cactus for $4 and a purse that'll last about 6 months (which is all Shelley really wants) for $12. We caught a cab home as 3 cactus in a bag is somewhat awkward and spent the rest of the afternoon napping, reading, computering & watching TV. It's all somewhat decadent.

Later on, Brian went with friends to the Concierto de la Orquesta Sinfonica de Cuenca in the Teatro Sucre. As the concert didn't start until 8 pm, Shelley wasn't interested in going, but urged Brian to go and enjoy himself. Fredi was somewhat anxious when Brian started to get ready to go out and Shelley didn't. Fredi's worst fears came to pass when Brian eventually left without her. As it turned out, the concert was cancelled and Brian arrived home an hour before he was expected. They'd gone to a restaurant and had milkshakes and set right the problems of the world.

So why move to Ecuador? One supposes there are as many reasons as there are people who do it. Adventure, politics, weather, economics, health, life style, family and the list goes on, as well as a combination of all, several or a couple of these reasons. For all the reasons there are to do it, there are just as many not to. No one can justify for another, one way or the other. Our suggestion is to try it out for 2 to 6 months. You can get a 3 month visitor entrance just on your passport and a 6 month holiday visa with a little bit of work. When we came down initially we found that our only real cost was the plane fare. Staying in hostels & eating out was easily covered by our usual day-to-day expenses back in Canada. If, while you're down here, you decide you'd like to make the move, then we suggest you contact a lawyer in Ecuador for preliminary information on getting a permanent visa. Then go back and think on it a bit. Many come for only a couple of years and then go back "home". Whatever your decision, you will have had a fabulous holiday!

Friends had invited us over for brunch Thursday morning, so it was nice starting our day outside of our regular routine. There were eggs & bacon & fabulous multi-grain toast & exotic jams & juice & great coffee. There was some discussion about the indigenous people blockading the roads in protest over water rights. As a consequence, on our way home Shelley picked up two large packages of toilet paper. If the roads are blockaded you can still get lots of fresh food, but the packaged stuff that comes in from Guayaquil & Quito gets scarce. As it happens, there was still plenty of toilet paper in the store and probably nothing to worry about. Still, Shelley feels better safe than sorry. The last time there were blockades, some of the shelves in the grocery store were rather depleted for a couple of weeks but it really wasn't that much of a hassle.

Our credit card went through renewal and then we had to go down to DirectTV to advise them of the new expiry date. We chose to pay our DirectTV bill by credit card because we signed up with them before we got our cedulas and thus didn't have a chequing account. We took a cab to their offices near the Stadium and Shelley sat out in the sun with Fredi while Brian went inside to give them the new information. This apparently took no time at all, but Brian decided as long as he was in the office he would look into possibly expanding our package. This seemed to take forever (at least in Fredi time). In the end we didn't upgrade our package but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. The day was glorious and very hot. Coming back from our chore we chose to walk a great deal of the way home and we mused on spring just starting in Canada and the hot weather here. We were over-dressed as it's been cooler and rainy for awhile but today certainly wasn't.

An Ecuador Moment (or Two)

2010-05-10T13:35:00.000-04:00

Brian was so excited about making "country" pate, as he learned in his French cooking class, that on Thursday we had to go downtown and search around for a hand meat grinder. First things first: how to ask for one? "La máquina con la que para moler carne." Got us what we were looking for. Secondly: to find a shop downtown that has such a beast. We started out in the saddle and horse harness area in the 10th of August market. Guess what? No meat grinders there. We wonder what we were thinking? We then stopped in at 3 shops that sold pots & pans & tupperware & such (getting closer) and they kept directing us on to other shops and eventually we found what we were looking for. Cost $19. Now Shelley can hardly wait to see Brian's creations. Not only does he want to make country pate but he's been waxing poetic about sausage. We'll see.

On the bus the other day, a tiny indigenous woman (4 foot 2 inches tall at most, in a traditional costume, gold surrounding more than a few of her teeth, huge smile on her face) became enamoured with Fredi. We were in the back standing area of the bus, the tiny woman with a huge bundle and Shelley carrying Fredi. Shelley was crushed in a corner, surrounded by more bundles on the floor, with her back to the bus wall. The woman was standing in front of her, facing her. Brian was behind several more bundles and the woman.

"¿Cómo se llama?" asked the woman.
"Se llama Fredi" Shelley answered back and then chaos ensued.

The wonderfully whimsical woman chatted happily to Shelley, quite animated, quite free. Shelley tried to slow her down by explained in her halting Spanish that her language skills had a bit to be desired. This did nothing to deter the gnome talking & gesturing quite rapidly to her on the bus, all the while with a huge grin on her face.

Shelley looked up at Brian beseechingly, his skills are somewhat better than hers and he gave her phrases to shoot back at the wonderful old woman petting Fredi & chattering away with Shelley. This went on for several minutes until our stop.

Shelley picked up Fredi's paw & waved it at the woman and said "ciao" (Which is Italian for hello/goodbye but somehow works in Ecuador too). The tiny woman twinkled at her with her gold filled smile and Shelley followed Brian off the bus. We turned around to wave goodbye and the fairy like creature was waving too.

An Ecuador moment.

Much to his chagrin, Brian had his quarterly dentist/cleaning appointment (3 teeth; $20) on Friday. Shelley & Fredi walked with him up to the dentist's office and then left him on his own and continued on their walk. It's been raining off and on pretty steady the last few days so the path was muddy in a few places. Fredi romped & generally had a gleeful time. Shelley had brought puppy treats with her so when it came time to go back on the leash there were no problems. Without the treats she's been known to run manically around us & back & forth, taunting with her freedom. This time though, Fredi in fact inserted her own head in the chain collar in a fit of co-operation (all of course a dastardly plot to get another puppy treat). We then walked through the tall grass in order to clean Fredi's tummy & feet off and it actually did a pretty good job. Brian came back from his appointment and reported he was a "good boy" at the dentist & is free once again for another 3 months.

Due to Brian doing a rather thorough "cull" job, we headed off to the CB Carolina Bookstore on Saturday, a couple of weeks earlier than usual. It had been raining all morning, so of course Fredi's feet & underside got quite damp but Carol still wanted to say hello and we all had a lovely chat together. We had arranged to meet a friend at the Terrace Bar & Grill that evening but our friend begged off at the last minute and Brian ended up going to the neighbourhood (Calle de Batan 5-27 E Imbabura) pizza place. This time he requested tomato sauce and we were somewhat surprised when he got it home and there was none. The pizza was very good nevertheless. We spent the evening watching movies & eating pizza & generally having a good time anyway.

Mother's Day was on Sunday. Shelley heard from her children & all was well with the world. We'd planned on going down to the park & give away all the pennies we saved for the year to one of the boy children who polish shoes. We've turned this into a kind of tradition. Don't exactly know how much money the pennies add up to but they seem eager to get it. In any case, it was raining out and we'd just given Fredi a bath the day before, so we shrank from going outside. We'll give the pennies away next week and Brian will have to live without his roast pig for a couple of days until we can get there to pick some up.

Monday we went shopping & Brian made chorizo sausage without the casings for his chicken soup that he's planning on making on Tuesday. (Note: The chorizo recipe although flavourful, turned out to be not as spicy hot as he had hoped. Brian "kicked it up a notch" by adding more cayenne pepper & chili powder.) With these cooking classes he's taking, he's become much more enthusiastic about trying to recreate some of the things we miss (food-wise) from Canada.

Mere Dots in History

2010-05-06T11:01:00.000-04:00

Of course we went shopping on Monday & Shelley made potato salad just because. Brian & Fredi went to the park and Fredi ran manic circles around the other dogs who came over to see what she was all about. Brian talked on Skype with his friend in Holland and they caught up with each other. In between a friend dropped over to give us a CD he'd copied. We'd figured out how to extend supper for him, but he had already made a dinner date. Shelley read & computered & read some more & watched TV and all in all it was a pleasant quiet day.

There was another cooking class scheduled for Brian on Tuesday afternoon/evening. This time French. Once again Fredi stuck to Shelley like glue while Brian was out; watching her in her bath, lying on her during TV time, sitting next to her during computer time, etc. Her loyalty would be greatly appreciated if Shelley didn't know she'd be deserted as soon as Brian stepped through the door.

Upon arrival home, Brian was quite excited about having learned some new culinary niceties. He was particularly pleased that he had learned a couple of basic sauces, and also reported that the evening was as much a social occasion as a cooking class. The instructor's boyfriend is from an old-time Cuenca high-class Spanish family and he regaled the company with tales of his youth, being shipped off to the United States by his father and making a success of his life in the U.S. Brian arrived home slightly tipsy because of the camaraderie, good fellowship and perhaps one dollop too much of vino tinto. He was quite excited about the cheese soufflé and a rustic chicken & veal pate.

When we first got together, Brian & Shelley, having each failed more than once in a relationship, set up a few rules to help us through our darkest days. When we lived on the boat, we always showered together. The shower was tiny and the water came from a tank, so it presented an opportunity to have genuine togetherness & also saved water. The ultimate rule was, no matter what, no matter how tired, no matter how cranky, we'd cozy & cuddle in bed at the end of the day and talk about...well...whatever came to mind.

These days that one cuddle-time has grown to three. Brian has his bath every morning and after his bath he likes to lie on the bed and dry off. He calls out "I'm done" to Shelley and she comes and lays with him and we talk about what happened when we were 5 years old, and the difference between trees in Ecuador & Canada, and whether Fredi (who always comes and cozies too) needs a brush or not and other not-so-important stuff. Later in the day, towards the end of Brian's nap, Shelley puts on a pot of coffee and goes and lies down with him to gently wake him up. Sometimes Fredi & Brian are already playing "blanket". A complicated game that involves throwing the blanket over Fredi and her finding her way out. Sometimes they're still fast asleep and Shelley wraps herself around them both and by the time the coffee is brewed the grogginess has faded away.

Lastly, there's night time. Shelley usually goes to bed an hour or so before Brian. She & Fredi read (well...Shelley reads & Fredi naps) until Brian has watched the news or the movie he's interested in, or channel flipped until he's felt ready for the end of the day himself. Brian then crawls into bed and groans. That good groan. That thankful to be lying prone and have reached the end of the day without disaster groan. Shelley & Fredi creep into the crook of his arm, head on his shoulder & stomach & we all lie quiet for a time, thinking our own quiet thoughts or simply slowing down.

We all, Shelley, Brian & even Fredi; have other times. Other times of intimacy. All these times are very precious to us. They provide a special kind of peace which eases harsh memories and lingering regrets and they become mere dots in history.

Friends invited us over for dinner Wednesday evening, so we spent the day doing much of nothing and headed over to their place for 5 o'clock. We mistakenly buzzed the apartment of some relatively new folks we've met and they confusedly let us into the building. Upon arriving at their door we explained the mix-up and they graciously showed us their new apartment. It was absolutely wonderful! Finally at our correct destination, we were served meat balls & spaghetti with a side dish of fruit. There was wine & good conversation & garlic bread & more fruit & ice cream for dessert. It was a lovely evening and we quite enjoyed ourselves.

Friends are a funny thing. You make them, you nurture the relationship, you get into arguments or disagreements and for some this makes the friendship stronger and for others you discover there really was no reciprocal relationship there in the first place. Shelley recently had a friend de-friend her on FaceBook.

"Are you upset" Brian asked her?

Her answer was "No, more like sad".

Shelley had quipped less than 10 words at this person and knew the next morning she'd be defriended and wasn't surprised. We're talking about an almost 40 year relationship. Perhaps FaceBook is the way to determine these things. It's bloodless, bold & cold; you know exactly where you stand. With a click of a button you've been de-friended. It's much better than a slow withering on the vine thing, not quite ever knowing where you stand.

At a time like this, with all the new friends we've been making in Ecuador, one wonders which, if any or all, will stand the test of time. We have a strong feeling that the shared ex-pat experience nurtures friendships more quickly. In any event, we're enjoying ourselves and wish all well.

It Could Be Me

2010-05-02T17:36:00.000-04:00

Two years ago last February we gave up smoking. The last cigarette we both had was on the boat before we went off to the airport for our initial trip to Ecuador. Because everything was different & strange & exciting it was fairly easy to quit. Of course there are moments and believe it or not, those moments continue to pop up even now, some 2 years later. Shelley was getting ready to go out, brushing her hair, etc. and knew she'd be ready about 5 minutes before it was time to go.

"Remember that cigarette you used to have after you were ready to go out but before it was time?" she asked Brian.

There are absolutely no real regrets for either one of us regarding quitting. One wishes there wasn't the the almost inevitable weight gain but having a cold last 3 days instead of 3 weeks with a vicious cough is a marvelous thing. We've been told for some that occasional longing for a smoke never goes away completely. Doesn't happen too often but these days it always takes us by surprise.

In the evening on Wednesday we went out to a suburb of Cuenca and had dinner at a friend's place along with another friend. The day had been spent mostly puttering around, so it was lovely to go for the long taxi ride, see some scenery we don't normally see and enjoy the company of folks we really like. Thursday morning we took a bus down to the CB Caroline Bookstore & traded in our 10 books and picked up 10 more. As usual we ran into several people and chatted and got to catch up with Carol as well. Doctor's orders: Carol is spending less time at the front desk these days so it was nice to see her! She and Fredi have a "special" relationship & always enjoy their time together. Brian had an East Indian cooking class in the afternoon from 3 'til 6 so we caught the bus home from the bookstore and had a quick lunch so Brian could go down for an early nap.

Later on, Shelley & Fredi stayed home and discussed politics, world peace, global warming & whether or not Leo (Fredi's lion toy) should be disciplined. We generally had a nice few hours. Meanwhile, Brian trundled off to his cooking class to learn more about East Indian cuisine. These classes have been talked about in other blogs but this was the first one either of us had been part of.

Brian arrived home very enthusiastic about the experience. Basically, the instructor Leslie ( leslieabreen@yahoo.com ) prepared 4 different traditional Indian dishes. Brian remarked that although he's not terribly fond of cilantro, 3 of the dishes contained this herb, but the blend of spices were such that they weren't overwhelmed by the cilantro. There was a chicken dish, a veal dish, a curry dish with hard boiled eggs and a chick pea dish. There was much discussion about how and where to obtain the myriad of spices required and the group amongst themselves were able to identify sources for just about everything. The cooking class is also a social occasion and everybody sits down and eats the food prepared by Leslie. So a couple of glasses of wine (brought by the students) and good company and a great taste experience made it all quite wonderful!

On our bill day, Friday, Brian was outraged because the combined bill for cold water & electricity was $21. After much huffing & puffing we figured out the water was high because of our leaking toilets and probably the electricity was high because of the new TV. It has a standby feature so it never really gets turned off. It's amazing how soon you can adapt to lower prices. Spending between $150 & $300 on heat & electricity in Canada is not unusual. Canada's water is free (one of the few countries that provides that) but heating in the winter & lighting through the dark months makes Canada one of the highest consumers of oil per capita. On the boat we paid a set fee of $30 per month for electricity at the dock and this topped up the boat's battery & kept the heaters running in the winter. The real scary part was filling up the 200 gallon tank with diesel. Last time we did it, it cost $800. Consumption depended on how often we used the diesel stove and how much travelling we did. We usually topped up the tank once a year in the fall to reduce condensation.

On Saturday we did chores, walking half-way downtown to pick up a 3 ring binder & some tomatoes. It was hot outside and we were glad to get home and out of the sun. Later on that evening we had our second biblical rain in a row. Heavy, hard, pounding rain for half an hour or so and then a steady downpour for several hours after that. The river quickly filled and splashed up the bank and over the end of the small island outside our window. We managed to walk Fredi between real downpours but her little feet still got wet & dirty. Sunday there was yet another running marathon and we followed it most of the way downtown. We found out this was the largest event of its kind here and now in its 48th year. Half way there, a friend spotted us and we went up to their apartment and watched the runners for awhile and had a cup of coffee before we continued out way to the Park. There we spotted some stilt dancers and later of course, Brian picked up roast pig.

While we were visiting our friends and watching the marathon from their window, we got into a small discussion as to when we'd go back to where we came from. Some return often, with family obligations & business affairs, some only once in awhile with weddings & babies & funerals & life's milestones. Some want never to go back. All of it's OK; we've each of us our own agenda. Shelley's homesickness seems to have abated. It's been months now since she's been struck by an attack but who knows? Like quitting cigarettes, it may creep up from time to time when least expected. That's not the point. The point is, here we are in the last quarter of our lives. Enjoying new adventures & coping with life's curve balls.

When we were downtown we passed an elderly indigenous woman, no shoes on her feet, resting. Her hands in her pockets, not moving. Not begging. We walked past and Brian reached into his pocket and pulled out his change. He knows Shelley likes to provide to the elderly & the crippled. Shelley picked out a fifty cent piece and walked back to give it to the woman. Her hand darted out of her pocket in the blink of an eye. Shelley dropped the fifty cent piece in her palm, nodded to her (she nodded back) and walked away.

"It could be me", Shelley tells those who ask.