Todd and I truly enjoy living in our new rental house in a wonderfully friendly local barrio. Our neighbors are kind; they are aware when we’re absent during our Cuenca dental trips, and keep a thoughtful eye on our place. Our landlords, Klever and Eulalia are easy to work with, and have gone above and beyond making us feel comfortable in the home we rent from them. Typically, most locally-owned long-term rentals have cold water kitchen sinks, suicide shower heads, and do not include appliances or furniture or other amenities, but they left us a bunk bed, and Eulalia sweetly picked out and provided all the curtains.
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| Pre-couch delivery |
Klever and Eulalia also thoughtfully provided/delivered a small coffee table too (along with four more nice barstools to add to the two we brought,) and we are ever so grateful for the additional cheer it adds to our home, that now comes “furnished”.
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| Our living room with the new sectional. |
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| Where everything else that WAS in the living room NOW resides until we can re-arrange. |
But it is BIG…so vast that we have to high-hurdle over part of it to enter the living room, and we asked Klever and Eulalia if they would consider moving/finding a new home for the bunk bed in our spare room (office) to make room for some the sectional pieces, to which they agreed. I’m looking forward to re-arranging the furniture after the bunk bed is removed; our new rental home is getting more organized and quite cozy.
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| Where we plan on putting some of the sectional pieces after the bunk bed is removed. |
We took our fourth trip into Cuenca a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time, especially now that the most unpleasant dental procedures are behind us. We have a couple of more appointments to make before we’re done, and we really look forward to our trips there.
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| Shel, Doug, Pam, Marsha |
As chance would have it, our friends and neighbors – Doug and Pam – were also in Cuenca that week, as were our friends Shel and Marsha from La Entrada, and it was a fun week. We all drove back together to the coast on Saturday (in two vehicles). However, a word to the wise – prepare to be pulled over at the police checkpoint leaving Cuenca, (located just on the outskirts) whether you are using a shuttle van or in a private vehicle while the cops make sure all driver/vehicle paperwork is legitimate. Todd and I are getting pretty used to being van passengers during this routine shake-down stop and we just smile brightly from the backseat while the authorities confirm that the documentation is “in order”. Depending on which cop pulls you over, it can be either a somewhat intimidating situation and/or comical predicament to resolve. **
The festival of Corpus Christi began about half-way through our trip, mostly centered around the Parque Caldron with lots of food booths (virtually ALL selling sweet goodies, but other stands selling savory grilled treats were served up at night). It was crowded with people (and of course, lots of nighttime fireworks are part of the fiesta), and the holiday lasts for a week or so. It’s fun to walk around as turistas, but I rather imagine it drives residents near the park crazy after the first few days.
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| Prepare for sugar over-load |
During this trip, we took a visit up to the “El Mirador de Turi”, which overlooks Cuenca.
I had been once before, on my first 2007 trip to Ecuador, but it was a little surprise jaunt for Todd who had never been there (we recently celebrated our second wedding anniversary). It was a breathtakingly beautiful sunny afternoon, and the view of Cuenca from Turi is stunning. Also nearby is Eduardo Vega’s ceramic studio and workshop, and both Todd and I are huge fans of his work (we had several of his pieces in our Palm Springs home which are now in CA storage, including some of his tiles we are going to use in our new home construction here).
Like most guys, Todd is not much of a shopper, but he was captivated by the wares, and we saw the artist Eduardo briefly in the shop. 
This time, we also visited the Museo “Banco Central” (interesting) and the adjacent “Pumapungo” 500-600 year-old Inca ruins (which is mostly grass, with various sparse stone foundations left, but we did enjoy the bird aviary, the gardens, and other free-roaming wild-life on the grounds).
We walked a lot, spent several afternoons at the Cuenca Microbrewery (located across from the Iglesia Merced). It is the “best microbrewery in Ecuador – and the only one in Ecuador" (according to one long-time coastal expat friend of ours here). We pigged out on authentic Mexican food at El Pedregal Azteca, had a couple of tasty $3.00 “almuerzos” (lunch-time specials) at “off the radar” restaurants, and spent one lazy afternoon and evening eating take-out and watching movies in the room.
We got together with Doug & Pam and Shel & Marsha for dinner one evening (and bumped into each other often), and on our last night there, I popped into the Friday “gringo night” at “California Kitchen”, where I had a chance to see again (or finally meet for the first time) a number of Expat Facebook or forum friends, in particular Nancy and Rich who write the blog “RichAndNancy”.
We’re headed back to Cuenca in the next couple of weeks for more appointments, and looking forward – as usual – to our next trip there.
** By the way the shuttle van company “Operazuaytur” is back in business, and we used them to get from Guayaquil to Cuenca on our journey there this time.
We were going to use them for the return, but tacked on an extra day (darn!) to hitch a ride home with Doug and Pam instead.
interesting blog
ReplyDeleteThanks, Douglas!
DeleteThanks, Judy! Wish you were here - miss you!
ReplyDeleteYou have done more touristy stuff than us, and we live here!
ReplyDelete