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| Some of our local residents |
Okay, so last time I left off, we were in the midst of trying to find room for the new, comfortable, and very LARGE sectional couch that our thoughtful landlords (Klever y Eulalia) had delivered to our place recently (refer to the pics from last post), which took up ALL of our living room. The solution to the problem was to remove the bunk bed they also kindly left for us (in the second bedroom that we use as our office) to make room for a few of the sectional pieces.
In the meantime, all the other living room lamps, entertainment unit, bookshelf, decorations, side tables, assorted barstools, etc. needed to be parked in the middle of our kitchen for a few weeks and dodged around whenever we cooked or entertained at home.
But we’re past that now, and here is how our place looks since we’ve re-arranged:
Despite our modest accommodations, our new place has become sort of a “hang-out” for local and expat friends and neighbors, especially our friends across the street, Manino and Nick. It reminds somewhat of my “Elko days” during my twenties.
Also the dancing in our Olon Park is still going on (see the video posted on “Olon Flash Mob") which happens on Mon/Wed/Fri from 5-7 PM for at least a few more weeks and is SO MUCH FUN and great exercise. For various reasons, I’ve not had a chance to participate in these as much as I desired, but am hoping the town’s enthusiasm for it will endure for a while longer.We also welcome a number of new expats to our area: Rebecca and Wil from Texas, Joe and Elizabeth from Durango, Colorado, and in particular Charlie and Nique (most recently from Costa Rica, who have become good pals). We have also had the chance to spend time with other interesting friends - Brian and Holly (expats living in Cuenca who have visited us on the coast) and other fun visitors passing through (many who are considering moving to Ecuador).
We recently went zip lining with some vacationers staying at Sarah’s house. The nearby zip-line (“Montanita Canopy”) has nine lines, and is a blast…not counting a couple of hills or steep terraced steps to get to a few of the lines, which is the most challenging part for us old farts.
Our adopted stray beach dog Daisy (who is now around two and half years old, we think) had her FIRST much needed bath this last week. Actually, Daisy pretty much belongs to everyone in our Jardines de Olon neighborhood and spends most of her time hanging out at Doug and Pam’s house since our temporary long-term move to the new barrio a few blocks north. She loves her Daddy Doug and Mommy Pam. 
For a beach dog, she doesn’t like getting wet, so Doug, Pam, Todd and I approached this undertaking with a certain strategy and a great deal of humor. Actually, Daisy handled the experience better than we expected, but she may be giving outdoor hoses a wide berth for a while. We are now back in Cuenca this week for our 5th trip since May (arrived on Monday afternoon/checked in at the Hotel Inca Real, as usual) for more dental work and other medical appointments (some anticipated, some not) and are staying longer than normal this time, probably until at least next Tuesday. As always, we are enjoying our time here when we are not sitting in doctors’ chairs, and much to write about in my next post about this Cuenca trip.
And PS to all my cousins and family gearing up for the reunion this weekend in Kansas City....Love and miss you all, and wish I could be there. Have a great time, take lots of pics and send them to me.
Looks like Daisy survived! Wow, you stay busy, Leigh. Here is my question, Where do you get the food for entertaining? We know we will have lots of visitors but have not figured out how to do that with no supermarkets around. And I hate doing dishes!!! So I worry about being a good host, yet being able to enjoy guests and I get no help from the R in these matters. Any insights?
ReplyDeleteHi Judy!
DeleteYou know, we get most all of our fresh veggies & seafood (locally (accept celery, which is available, but eesny-weensy immature stalks, and we generally need to get our fresh ginger at the Super Maxi too in Libertad/Salinas. Real butter is easy to find here too.
We get all of our meat, cheeses, specialty sauces/spices/mustards, some frozen things,some gringo foods, dry yeast (hard to find here) sour cream, pickles also at the SuperMaxi (though Hipermart has better pickles). And anything else that is hard to find here. You can hire a driver to take you if you are going to buy a bunch of groceries, but I usually just take the chicken bus and carry a couple of big canvas bags to haul back every other week or so to stock up.
Our new Oloncito market is carrying a much more varied and extensive inventory now, as are some or the Montanita tiendas (for instance, pkg flour tortillas are easy to find now and canned whole tomatoes are finally arriving on our local shelves).
We also do buy several cuts of pork locally that we like (some great shrink-wrapped pork chop steaks, also shrink wrapped pork roasts (there are two different varieties, one with more fat - which is great is soups/lentil beans/etc or can fry up like pretty crispy like bacon.
We've learned to improvise a lot in the kitchen, or adjust some recipes to what's available....Fresh tomatoes are cheap here, so we make a lot of bruchetta and pico de gallo when entertaining.
And if you want to entertain a lot - really recommend you consider doing pot-lucks, since most everyone down here has perfected a recipe or two for these. The hardest thing about those is keeping straight who's tupperare or pyrex goes home with who, because those are LIKE GOLD down here (incredibly spendy if you have to by those things here....!)
Todd's really the cook in our family, so you should pick his brain more when you get here....Also, our friend Pam Gould is a talented cook, entertains frequently and has some killer recipes.
You probably should think about joining the facebook page "Food and Cooking at Altitude" https://www.facebook.com/groups/81361528151/10150937150253152/?comment_id=10150937961253152&ref=notif¬if_t=group_comment_reply#!/groups/344914652210188/
Intially the page was started for those living in Cuenca and Quito to share high-altitude cooking tips, but lots of great recipes being exchanged there for any area.
As far as doing dishes....I hate doing them too, but it's not so bad doing them by hand (and there will always be happy helpers after a party)...And if you don't want to bother with even that, I say fuck it....let them eat off of paper plates.
And no one here will object when you tell them it is not ONLY a "potluck"
DeleteBUT ALSO BYOB.....
Lots more to say about this topic. LOL.
Saving for another day to reflect.