Here are some more pics from the staging area of the Cuenca Navidad parade The parade lasted over eight hours. When we left the staging area, it was 10:45 and the parade had not yet begun (scheduled start was10:00 ya gotta love Ecuador).
We spoke with some gringos who live by the staging area (the Tomebamba river). They said that families began arriving around midnight the night before to setup and decorate their cars and trucks to transform into floats.
parade participants came from all around Ecuador, as well as Columbia, Peru, and other countries. Some traveled on horseback and entered the parade that way. In South America, different regions and towns have unique Panama (that actually originated in Ecuador) hats. Many of these are represented in our pics.
Three of us had cameras and took around 200 pics. These were edited and boiled down to around 70. I will post a few at a time over the next several posts.
Enjoy

Feliz navidad from Cuenca, Ecuador. It is in the 70s today and beautiful.
We went to watch the big Christmas parade this morning. They were expecting around 600 floats. We went to the staging area prior to the parade kicking off. Here are a couple of pics from the 150 or so that we took.
Wish all of you were here to see it for yourselves. Words and pics do not do it justice.

Today (hoy) Cuenca is imitating Western Washington. It is raining a lot. Unlike good ol' WW though, we know that soon the sun will return. Here are some pics:

Cuenca is full of surprises. Todays surprise came this evening when we heard sort of crashing/crushing sound. We both left what we were doing and began investigating our digs for the cause of the alarm. Eventually Jackie wandered into the kitchen and discovered mucho agua on the floor. Looking further, she found that one of our kitchen sinks had sunk. That is, it freed itself from the countertop and fell through the cabinet.
As it turns out our landlord was in the building for an owners meeting. He came up, helped clean up, apologized, drank a beer, told us it was his birthday, talked about his family and showed pictures, and arranged for repairs tomorrow. Nice guy. Not a great birthday gift.
Roseanne Rosannadanna always said 'it just goes to show it's always something'.
So true. Life in third world.
By the by, I went to the building meeting that was scheduled for 19:30. I arrived at 19:28 and ended up speaking with an Ecuadorian man who had plenty to say about a lot of things. We talked until the crowd was hushed at 20:06 to announce the beginning of the meeting. The first announcement was that the meeting was for owners only. I rose to leave and the man I had been speaking with said 'don't worry about it, you just can't vote.'
So I sat about three or four more minutes while nothing happened, and finally said 'I'm going'. My new friend agreed and we both left.
Hopefully he didn't go home to sinking sink. I did. Here's pics.

Ready for the turkey feed.

Left to tight; George, me, Jackie, John, and Barbie standing. Rene took the photo.

Dinner was great turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rum glazed carrots, green beans with garlic and bacon, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, squash soup, topped of with pecan pie.

I'm still recovering.

Turkeys are a bit pricey in Ecuador. Can't say ehy. But we got one anyway. Gonna host Thanksgiving for some Gringo pals. Jackie opened up the bird today, and of course all of the usual stuff was in a bag inside (like cracker jacks). The big surprise was that the feet were included. No joke, toenails and all. We'll put them in the freezer for when you visit.
The weather has been high 70s during the day, clouding up and raining in the evening. I've never spent Thanksgiving in the sun. I highly recommend it.
There are 52 churches in Cuenca. We toured one this week. Todos Santos (All Saints) is the name. This church celebrated it's first mass (of course it is a Catholic church, thanks to the Spanish and the Jesuits) in 1540. I wasn't more than 12 years old at the time.
Anyhow, the church was fascinating. They have cut out around five 6X4 chunks of the floor to reveal various historical relics including the original foundation and skeletons of two individuals thought to be centuries old indigenous folk.
The clerk who took our tour fee ($1.50 each, it is still a Catholic church so of course there is a fee) left her post to point out interesting things and try to enlighten us about the history of the church. She spoke only Spanish but she took great care to speak slowly and repeat things when we started looking really stupid. We were with our friends George and Rene, and between Rene and I we got a lot of information from her dissertation.
It was quite an experience being in such an old structure. Looking forward to more of these adventures.
In case you are interested, our electric bill La cuinta de luz) is running $32-$36 per month.

I haven't posted for awhile. I got some kinda bug. Probably this year's version of the South American flu. It slowed me down a bit, but no big deal. Don't like being sick though. Particularly when the sun is out and the weather warm. Guess I always associate sick with dank and dreary days.
Back at it now though.

November 3 is Cuenca independence day and it is a huge holiday. In fact, so huge that the party started today and will continue four days through the third. Someone with more knowledge and ability than me, ordered up and delivered a beautiful, sunny, mid 80s day with a gentle breeze. Wow, I've never seen a sunny, mid 80s Halloween. Got one today. Welcome to the equator.
Several of the parks as well as many large sections along the Tomybamba river are lined with booths where vendors display their wares for sale. Goods include 100% chocolate, woven hangings and clothing, beautiful embroidered pieces and embroidered clothing, food, drink, pottery, paintings, jewelry, leather goods and clothing, shoes (zapatos), lotions, teas, coffee, and more. We spent the day and pile of money touring a small portion of the booths. We got some very nice things, mostly decorations for our casa. Come visit and you can see the stuff first hand.
Tonight we are off to a Halloween costume party at one of the local hang outs. They have a rock band. Should be a kick. The next three days will be more gawking at hand crafted goods and enjoying the sun, food, drink and camaraderie. Tuesday we are having early thanksgiving with sixteen of our closest friends.
Yesterday a new bakery opened a few doors down the street from us. We stopped in and picked up some croissants and cinnamon buns. They were quite good. American style texture. Much of the baked goods here tend to be very light and very flakey (altitude don't 'cha know). Cuencan breads are typically most disappointing to a gringo palate. This bread dough was quite good though and they told us that they are trying to appeal to the gringo taste ("the way you like it", "if you have suggestions or special orders..."). Looking forward to good bread. I don't miss too much about life up North (norte), but I grew up on hearty bread.
And such is our life in Cuenca. Hasta luego.

We spent yesterday in Quito submitting our applications for resident visas. Our flight left at 8:40 and arrived at the Quito airport around 9:30. We were supposed to meet a facilitator, whom we had never met, at the government office to complete and submit our applications. We were told several times that it would take 2-3 hours to complete and submit the apps. So rather than booking our return flight at 2:30 (we all know that if you tempt fate it will bite you in the rear), we booked the return to Cuenca for 6:40. Lots of time to get 'er done and relax. I forgot to mention an integral component of the timetable. The trip from the Quito airport to downtown Quito is a one hour cab ride. And these cabbies don't diddle around to run up the tab. It is pedal to the metal.
All that being said, we arrived by fast moving cab at the government office around 10:35. We were met by an English speaking Ecuadorian gentleman who looked to be in his twenties. He greeted us by name, introduced himself, and told us that he worked with Andrea the facilitator we supposed to meet.  He then took inside the office that had around ten clerks attending numbered stations. There were around sixty (I wasn't counting yesterday, never do an Jueves ((Thursday))) people sitting and waiting their turn while each station had a customer. Our facilitator led us to station #3 where he caught the eye of the clerk. She reached behind her and grabbed a thick folder that she handed to him. This was our application packet. He opened it and had us sign in a few (no counting on Thursday) locations. We did and he handed the packet back to the clerk and then led us down to station #6. Here the clerk was serving a woman so the facilitator stayed off to the side for a few minutes until the clerk was free. At that point we moved in, presented our passports, information was entered into his computer, and our pictures were taken. Andrea joined us just prior to our picture session. She speaks no English, thus the associate.
Once the pics were a wrap and the director yelled 'cut', Andrea told us that we were done and that t would take 45 days to process our applications. The whole process took ten minutes. So we decided to scoot back to the airport and see if we could get on the afternoon flight. Andrea's husband drives a cab (keep it in the family fight?) so she called him and twenty minutes later we were on our way back to the airport.
This driver knew a way to avoid all freeway congestion of the city (which can move very slow). We exited Quito by way of very long cobblestone switch-back two lane road. It was very scenic, with little traffic. It probably didn't do good things to the suspension system of his cab considering the cobblestone surface and speed he was going, but sure got out of Dodge fast. We got the airport around 11:50 to find that the afternoon Cuenca flight was full and our next option was the 6:40 flight that we were currently booked on.
So we spent the afternoon at the airport hanging out. We weren't up for two more hour long cab rides. It was fun and educational. Well maybe neither. The chairs were not exactly home style cozy but at least there were chairs. We ate at restaurant and the prices weren't too horrible considering we were a captive audience. We later returned and sat in the bar. We had noticed on the menu earlier that while their drinks were fairly pricey (imported American booze), their wine was $11.00 a bottle. So it must be very affordable by the glass also. With this information in hand, we ordered chip and guac y vino blanco. The chips and guac were good as was the vino, so I got a second glass. When done I kindly asked 'puedo pagar la cuinta po davor' (may I pay the bill please). The barman brought the bill $44.00. What!!! Where did that come from? Turns out the wine is $11.00 a bottle and $9.36 a glass. Airports go figure.
We just finished our first Cuenca thunderstorm. I don't think that I have ever heard thunder that loud.
Oh yeah, the thing that I wanted to note was; because we have to wait 45 days on our visa apps, we can't leave the country. Well we can leave, we just can't get back in. The ninety days on our passports expires soon and so we can't come back to Ecuador on our passports for 180 days. But because we have applications for resident visas, we can stay until those apps are resolved. In a sense we are now hijacked in South America. Maybe they'll make a movie.

We spent five hours today enjoying an Oktoberfest experience in Cuenca, Ecuador. The woman who hosted the event at her home has been in Cuenca thirteen (trece) years. She owned and operated a restaurant here for few years and now she does cooking classes two days a week and she offers a monthly event. This month was Oktoberfest.
We were joined by eight other folks plus our host and her beau. All of us were from the US expat with the exception of the beau who is from Cuenca but attended university in the States and worked and traveled there for several years before coming back South. He comes from one of the 'established' Cuenca families and he told us about his home (36 bedrooms with a 350X15 swimming pool. He was thoroughly engaging and completely charming. Our host was also personable and fascinating.
We knew and have spent time with two of the other couples and the two new acquaintance couple were also very engaging and interesting folk. The meal was wonderful and the wine flowed. A great time. Dinner for two with six glasses of a nice white wine (vino blanco) was $44.00.
But what really caught my attention (leave it to me) was this. A very common conversation theme here amongst the ex-pats is 'things that you can't get here'. The list almost exclusively made up of food stuffs like; horse radish, Fritos, Dejon mustard, French onion soup mix, rice-a-roni. Mostly this conversation revolves around methods folks have devised to simulate or replicate these items out available ingredients. In lieu of this, where they can be found for purchase in either original or replicated form.
Todays' 'I can't get it here' discussion was also a familiar one. It revolved around Netflix and Roku. Ways to make these systems work, but more importantly what shows are now accessible. I find this conversation fascinating and ironical. Because, as interesting, social, charming and diverse as these people are, the TV shows that captivate them, thoroughly bore me.
Different strokes.

So you want to be a notary public in Ecuador? Well you have to start with a Doctor of Law degree and follow that up with at least ten years of practice. Then you can apply to be considered for a notary position. Cuenca is a city of about half of a million (media milion) and it has thirteen notaries. This is the sort of stuff that  fascinates me. Odd character.

There is a local artist named Vega who work is ethni as well as interesting. There are several local shops that sell the work as well as a factory.
Jackie went with our Italian lady friend on the bus to the factory. She got some great stuff. Here are some pics.

We got awakened, awoked, woked-up early this morning to the vibrations of a 5.3 earthquake. It did no damage in Cuenca that we know of, but it was an eye opener. It is such a helpless feeling because no matter how strong you are or how well you have prepared or how much you have read, you are still powerless against the forces of nature. It is humbling to experience such an vent.
Not something to wake to daily, but fairly awesome.

After two weeks of warm, sunny weather, we are now concluding our third straight day with at least one extended (one hour plus) rainfall. The weather remains warm, low to mid seventies. And yes Western Washington dwellers even on days with rain, we still have sunny spots.
We went to a pop-up restaurant affair and had a Viet Nahmese meal. It was on top of a building in el centro (pic included). Each table sat eight. We ended up sitting with a very interesting Italian lady who lives in our building, and two of her friends who were also quite interesting. That made five of us and left three empty seats.
As we conversed and drank wine, we were soon joined by a somewhat quiet gentleman. Through conversation we learned that he was waiting for his wife who was coming separately from her work. The meal was five courses and she arrived before the first course. As is custom, introductions were completed about the time that dinner began. As the evening and the meal progressed, this gentleman and I conversed. It turns out he is the co-author of one of the books that we read and that helped us decide to come to Cuenca. He is also co-founder of gringo tree and gringo post. He has also written for international living, and he currently writes for Cuenca highlife. He has been in Cuenca about twelve years and is married to a lovely Ecuadorian lady who operates Rentals Cuenca. They deal a lot in turnkey rentals.
Interesting evening. We keep meeting fascinating folks. What fun.

Here are a couple of links for your edification and pursuing pleasure.
La Feria Libra is a very large market in Cuenca. It is filled with hundreds of vendors (most indigenous women) displaying and selling fruit and vegetables. There is also (tambien) mea, seafood, live animals for pets and some for slaughter, and sundries (copper work, kitchen ware, pottery). In addition to the vendor booths inside, most available space (sidewalks, allies, vacant corners) also have vendors without booths and display space. To top it all off, even more vendors roam through the shoppers selling mostly single items (bag of beans, candy).
Here is a link to a YouTube vide. on Feria Libra.

https://youtu.be/ZZkMBJqNyrc

This link leads to another YouTube vide. This one is also very interesting and is about La Casa De Guitarra in San Bartholomew, Ecuador. It is a very small and uniquely quaint little town. The vide. shows the making of a guitar. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/Ny2agZFslr4

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Today is (hot es) Guayaquil independence da. National holiday. Few businesses are open. Cash machines are empty.
Ecuadorians love fireworks. Big loud ones. So it has been a bit noisy today with scattered noise increasing on into the wee hours.
November 3 is the Cuenca independence day fiesta. Understand that it lasts four or five days. Looking forward to it.

We got history on our free Spanish classes. Turns out the program was started by the mayor of Cuenca to teach Espaniol to gringos and get at least some of them proficient enough in the language that they could then communicate well enough with Cuencanos to teach them English. Very cool plan as teaching English to Ecuadorians is real emphasis in schools. Personally, I 'have miles to go before I sleep (or teach in this case).'
Our free class teachers (maestras) are volunteers, and as will happen with volunteers, they come and they go. Our teacher went....and was replaced with a new one.
The reason I bring this up is that this woman is very interesting. She is from Venezuela and has been in Ecuador one month (un mesa). She was in Peru and her visa was expiring. She told friends that she was going to try for an extension. They said 'you should go to Cuenca instead.' She had never heard of Cuenca before and knew nothing about it, but went anyway. And now she is teaching our class as a volunteer.
She has done a good deal of traveling including two stints in the States with her family (Texas and Oklahoma respectively). She has studied classic languages in Venezuela and at Texas A&M. Her goal is to travel the world as a volunteer. She is a happy and seemingly very centered person.
I know nothing about Facebook as it is a road I have not traveled. Those of you who do though may recognize her handle. She is 'the traveling freckle'. I understand she has quite a following. The best part for us though is that she has a job selling chocolate and is bringing some to class jueves (Thursday). I will say it again, Ecuador understands chocolate.
We just keep meeting really interesting people.

Today we got an early start (9:15) and cruised up to Tarqui, a town north (norte) of Cuenca. On the football (soccer down here folks) field, were 100+ booths of multi-national vendors. Their wares included; jewelry, woven goods, pottery, ceramics, food products (mostly organic), chocolate (not a regular food product), plants, fresh fruit and vegetables, and clothing. We spent three hours going through the booths, talking with venders, buying goods, and being entertained with live music, trained birds, and equestrian shows.
Price of admission? you ask. Nada, cero, nil, zilch. They do this three or four times a year according to the cabbie who took us back to Cuenca once we were broke. The band we heard was from Argentina. We bought a beautiful piece of hand done cloth work from Peru, and lots of food products from Tarqui and Azay province. Oh yeah, Jackie got a cool bracelet also.

a couple pics of our Peruvian purchase. It looks much better in person but you'll have to come visit to know that.

Here are some pics of and related to the new guitar. This instrument is unbelievable. I have owned many guitars and played many more over the years, and this is the finest instrument that I have ever owned.

the Luther, me and my new guitar

The Luther with one of his armadillo shell instruments

San Bortolome el Centro church

Jackie, me, George, Rene

Wednesday (Miercoles) we traveled to San Bortolome. Where?, what?, why? you ask. Good question!
As it happens, San Bortolome is home to a world renowned family of luthiers. These folks have been making guitars for several generations. There guitars have been played by many greats not the least of which was Andres Segovia (the god idol of classical guitar.) I have been chomping at the bit to play one of these instruments and possibly eventually own one.
So at 9:00 AM Jackie, our friends Renee and George, I, and our taxi driver Victor left Cuenca heading Northeast. We goofed around some on the way and finally with the assistance of girl waiting for a bus on very quiet mountain highway, we found our way into San Bortolome's el centro plaza. We all exited the cab to stretch and check out the town center. Victor went to speak with some locals congregated under a porch on a corner of the square. We goofed around about ten minutes when Victor returned to inform us that 'the guy in the tan shirt is a relative of the luthiers. He says that their store is across the plaza but it is closed right now. But the factory is two blocks (?) that way.' I say 'cool, we can walk up there.' Victor half smiles and says 'they say two blocks but you never know.'
So we pile in the cab and follow the given directions. Somewhere around three quarters of mile later, including a nice hunk of seventy degree hill, we arrive at the factory. The pictures are included and speak for themselves.
The 'factory' is absurdly small and is basically a covered porch. The luthier was busy at work on instruments called 'charango.' This is a ten stringed, belly backed lute-like instrument that is made with an armadillo shell for the back. Sadly, he had two in progress but none complete. So I was unable to play or hear the instrument. If he had one done, I probably would now own it.
He did have two guitars that I got play. One was a traditional twelve fret classical guitar. The craftsmanship was superb both in appearance and in sound quality. The instrument was incredibly responsive and delicate. Very nice instrument. It was $90.00. The other guitar was also a classical guitar but it had a cutaway to expand the fretboard. Again, this was a very nice instrument. The guitar had a two piece back with a top that jumped when the guitar was played. A truly amazing instrument ($150.00), but just not me. I ask 'do you have more?' He says 'yes, they are in the store in el centro.'
So we pile in the cab (sadly the luthier didn't fit, so he walked) and we head back. The shop had eight stacking chairs, a counter with some papers and shop stuff, and a glass case with two guitars. The case could probably hold eight guitars but didn't.
I need to back up a bit to describe my pre-conception of the factory and store. I have been in a few luthier workspaces and also in their retail shops. The workspaces (factories) were all large, well organized albeit messy environments. These were spaces where the wood was carefully aged, honed, pampered and eventually shaped.
The retail sights were designed to push guitars. They were clean, slick, comfortable spaces featuring several examples of each available model of instrument.
San Bortolome was none of the above. I was quite disappointed until I played the instruments. They were not only beautiful to see, but they were amazing instruments. The el centro store also had a twelve fret classical guitar and a cutaway guitar. I played both and fell in love with the cutaway model to a point that I didn't want to let go of it. Of course I bought it. The price was $250.00.  As we left the shop, the luthier told me that I needed to put good strings on it because the ones that came with the instrument were lousy strings with no quality to them.
Since I brought the guitar home and tuned it to pitch, I cannot believe what an amazing instrument this is. I plan to find strings tomorrow, but right now I believe that this is the finest instrument I have ever owned. And I have owned a lot of instruments. I will record something with it and post pics once I have new strings.
Lovin' Ecuador.

It had to happen eventually. Yep, you guessed it. We had our first Spanish lesson today.
It was quite educational. Speaking another language is so easy in slow motion. That is given enough time to think, remember and formulate sentences and other conversational chunks, I can be a real genius. Sadly interactions occur in real time. And then I don't make it above the developmentally delayed level.
The entire class was done in Spanish and thankfully I only said 'no entiendo' once in an hour and a half (una hora y media.)
Lessons are Tuesday and Thursday (Martes y Jueves.)
It is a spectacular day in Cuenca today. The nicest day since our return. Low 80s, mostly clear skies.
Wow.

 

Jackie really wants this house. So if each of you chip in $47,254.77, maybe we can rent it.

Wuddya say?

 

 

Doctor doctor Mr. MD.
Today we both went to see a local GP here in Cuenca. A friend had seen him recently and highly recommended him. So around 11:15 or so this morning, Jackie dials up his office. He answers the call. He being the doctor in person. Not an electronic maze of pre-recorded voices with multiple choice questions to which you respond by pressing some number only to be rewarded with another electronic question. No, this was the doctor on the line. And, he spoke perfect English, better than me, or I. Whatever.
So Jackie explains that I am supposed to be having my INR (blood viscosity) tested on a regular basis. And haven't. She further explains that she has run out of her prescription medication and has been unable to find the same concoction in Cuenca. 
'Can we make an appointment to come in, maybe next week?'
'Sure, or you could come in today.'
'What time is good?'
'I am here until 1:30 today. Or you can come after 10:00 tomorrow.'
'We will try to come today. Do you need our names?'
'No.'
So we hailed a taxi and set out for the doctor. His office is above a pharmacy (pharmacia). We walked up the stairs and found his office complete with scale, exam table, chairs and diplomas. The doc sat behind a desk but quickly jumped up in front of it when we entered the office
We introduced ourselves and we were invited to sit. Which we did. And we proceeded to explain our situations and respond to his questions. After about a half hour, we left the office. Jackie had the local name of the med she needs (available over the counter at the downstairs pharmacy, or most any other pharmacy.) She also had a box of sample pills to relieve the itch of some bug bites she got. I left with a blood draw referral for my INR testing, and was told that I could get the lab results myself in person or by email, or I could have them forwarded to the doc and he would interpret them and pass the results onto me. Since I need to be tested bi-weekly, I can just go to lab every two weeks. No need for a referral or office call to the doc.
The last item of business prior to departing was 'cuanto?' (how much do we owe you?'
'My fee is $20.00.' replies the doc.
'Is that for both of us or individually?'
'Both of you. I was actually thinking of charging you $10.00 because I really didn't do much for you.'
'That's okay thank you.'
As we leave the office, he is saying 'come back when you are sick, so I can do something.'
Cuenca. Go figure.
Here are some more pics of our neighborhood sidewalks.