The Road Less Traveled

43 Year Reunion

2011-09-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

Through Andre's long lost Ecuadorian friend that I had mentioned in the previous blog, Andre also renewed his friendship with the third college friend, Carlos. Carlos had remained in the States, married an American, become a U.S. citizen and was now semi-retired. During our trip to the States Andre talked to him and emailed several times. All three of the college friends were in contact and a plan was hatched to have a reunion. After we returned to Ecuador, Carlos and his wife, Donna would travel to Ecuador for 2 weeks and the 3 couples would travel together around Ecuador. Schubert, the other friend, had a company bus which would be used for our travel around Ecuador.

We flew to Quito and met with the two other couples at the Quito Hotel and decided on a trip plan. The first few days we would make day trips from Quito and return at night to the Quito Hotel. We traveled to Lago San Pablo, Otavalo, Cotacachi and San Antonio de Ibarra, and stopped for beverages at a beautiful lodge by Lago San Pablo called Hosteria Puerto Lago. We had lunch at a hotel in Otavalo and made brief stops at the various towns, before returning to Quito. The following day we stopped in Sangolqui, located in a valley 45 minutes from Quito and then continued on to Pelileo, where Schubert's factory is located. We remained there a few days and made day trips to Ambato and Banos. We bought leather jackets in a shop located in the hills of Ambato and had several lovely lunches at unique hosterias in the area. After 3 nights in Pelileo we left for the coast and Salinas, glad to be getting away from the cold and rainy weather we had thus far encountered. The trip to Salinas took 10 hours on the bus without stopping to eat, as there were no good restaurants along our route. On the coast the only thing we saw for hours were the endless miles of banana trees. We arrived in Salinas after dark and were famished. We headed to the Barcelo hotel on the beach for a buffet dinner and then back to Schubert's house near the beach. The following day we marvelled at the change from the previous days. We were surrounded by ocean, sand, lots of condominiums and warm air. We spent part of the day walking and sitting on the beach. Vendors were all over selling, jewelry, lobsters, cooked fish, and carved wood products, but the highlight of the day was a trip to the Farallon Dillon restaurant for lunch. Overlooking the ocean and houses, perched on a bluff, stood this breathtakingly beautiful nautical restaurant, hotel and museum. We explored the place and enjoyed an outdoor lunch of freshly cooked seafood. We had never been to Salinas before so we enjoyed it even more. The following day we headed for Cuenca and spent the next few days between our house in Yunguilla and the city. We took our friends to some of the indoor and outdoor shops as well as to some of Cuenca's delicious restaurants.

Finally after 10 days on the road together, we said our goodbyes to our friends. They were returning by bus to Quito where Carlos and Donna would be returning to the States in a few days. The road trip certainly brought the three friends closer to each other once again. The 3 friends had a chance to reminisce, laugh and discuss many things while on this trip and all 6 of us became very close. We remain in contact with both couples and we are sure that we will continue our relationship in the future.

Pura Crema Bus at Lago San Pablo Resort

Lago San Pablo

At Our Friends' Apartment in Quito

Dining Out

At the Beach in Salinas

The Three Friends

The 3 Friends Performing at the International Student's Show in College

Farallon Dillon Restaurant

The Blog Is Back

2011-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

We are back with the blog! Many have wondered why there hasn't been a blog in 4 months and the following are the reasons: Our last blog was on April 5th. On April 8th we left for the United States and remained there for 10 weeks, returning late in June. We would have continued with the blog in the U.S. if we had anything interesting to write about, but alas there was nothing. It was mostly a work trip and there was nothing particularly relevant or noteworthy to write about so we refrained. Upon our return to Ecuador we wanted to commence the blog again but we had no internet until a few days ago. Before we left Ecuador we terminated our internet contract with our then provider as we were unsatisfied with the service. However getting internet access through another provider proved to be more difficult and time consuming than we had imagined and it took us another 1 1/2 months to get our service installed, but we are now up and running and ready to continue with the blog.

I want to write about a trip we took to Banos before we left for the U.S. because it will have relevance for future blogs. As a matter of fact I will continue where we last left off in our blogging.

One thing I need to discuss is Andre and his Ecuador connection. When Andre went to college in California he became friends with 2 Ecuadorian students. Later on he ended up transferring to another school that specialized in the field he was interested in and lost contact with his Ecuadorian friends. When we moved to Ecuador, Andre tried unsuccessfully to track down one of the students. One day we had an Ecuadorian friend over for lunch and she brought a friend of hers who knew the family of this Ecuadorian man. With a few phone calls this friend was able to get us the phone number for Andre's long lost Ecuadorian friend and Andre reestablished contact.

After our benefit concert our boys returned to the U.S. and we returned to Yunguilla to rest as we had had a very busy 2 months during their stay. After about a month and a half of basically doing nothing, friends of ours asked us if we would like to join them on a 3 day trip to Banos. We were ready for some activities and said yes. By now Andre was talking to his long lost Ecuadorian friend and when Andre mentioned that we were coming to Banos with our friends who would be driving there, his friend said that his business was located 45 minutes from Banos and that we should meet on the highway on our way up to Banos. Strange as this seems this is how Andre and his friend renewed their friendship after 43 years. His friend was waiting for us in his car on the side of the highway road and we met him there. We then followed him to a restaurant in Ambato where we enjoyed a lovely lunch and we then continued to his factory in Pelileo where we spent an additional few hours talking. By then it was dark and rainy and we had no idea how to get to Banos, but the friend led us to Banos, and we made up to return to his factory the following day for lunch.

Our travel companions had made all the arrangements for our stay in Banos, and we stayed at a little guesthouse which was a 5 minute walk to the heart of town. Our friends couldn't have made a better choice. This place was owned by a Danish couple who settled in Banos. They built a house for themselves and a guesthouse with 2 rooms. The rooms were immaculate and nicely decorated and the house itself was located on a quiet street behind an enclosed gate. The rates were very reasonable and the only additional costs were breakfast which you could order every evening. The breakfasts were delicious with homemade breads, fruit, cheese and eggs. Banos of course is well known for the healing thermal waters and this was our first stop after breakfast. We then explored the town a little and headed to Pelileo to lunch with Andre's friend at his factory. Andre's friend owns a large dairy manufacturing factory. He actually constructed a residence at the site of the manufacturing plant and he stays at the plant part of the week and then returns to Quito, his home, which is 2 1/2 hours away, and spends the rest of the week and weekend in Quito. Andre's friend, whose name is Schubert, and his wife who drove in from Quito, were at the factory to greet us and we had lunch at his residence. We then took a tour of the factory which was very interesting. They manufacture milk, yogurt and yogurt products and manjar ( a product similar to liquid caramel and very popular with Ecuadorians as a sweet). After spending a nice afternoon in Pelileo we returned to Banos. For dinner we walked to town and had a choice of many nice restaurants. Banos gets a lot of tourists and therefore has a good selection of restaurants. We chose a nice restaurant and had a tasty dinner and then explored the town a little more. Banos is famous also for their taffy and we watched people stretching the taffy by hand. Then we headed back to our guesthouse for a good night's sleep.

The following day after breakfast we headed to Puyo which is about an hour away, right by the jungle. There was a monkey rescue center we were going to visit. While there I got into a tug of war with a monkey who decided to grab Andre's sunglasses and try to run off with it, but fortunately I was able to get it back. After spending an hour at the center we returned to Banos and headed up into the hills to visit a resort there called Luna Runtun. This place overlooks the entire city and has absolutely breathtaking views. We ate lunch at one of the restaurants there which was all enclosed by glass so that you could look down at the entire city. After lunch we continued upward on the road until we arrived at the viewing spot for Tungurahua volcano which is nearby. Absolutely spectacular. There is a little house located there where a government workers stays. He, along with other people at other strategic locations, monitors the volcanic activity of Tungurahua which is an active volcano and has erupted in recent years. We spent a half hour in his little house where he showed us different types of volcanic ash and lava he has collected from the volcano. He has a walkie talkie and communicates with the other workers as to the activity of the volcano. If there is an imminent threat of an eruption these workers must get the information out to the surrounding towns so that there can be an evacuation of people. Even if it is not a major eruption, people need to be evacuated as it is dangerous to breathe the ash from the volcano and can cause pulmonary problems and even cancer in the future. He showed us a breathing mask that he received from firemen in Florida so that he can be protected from the ash. We then returned to Banos and took a walk to the Banos waterfall. For dinner we went to a Swiss restaurant.

The following day we left Banos to return to Cuenca but first made a stop in Pelileo. Our friend had prepared packages of his products for us to take with us, and we thanked our friend for his generous hospitality and promised to stay in touch. After a 6 hour drive we returned to Cuenca, all of us quite happy with our trip.

Andre With His Friend and Wife At Factory Residence

Chef and Friend in Factory Residence Dining Room

At Monkey Rescue Center in Puyo

Another Resident at Monkey Rescue Center

View of Banos From Luna Runtun Restaurant

Outside of Luna Runtun Restaurant

Outside of Luna Runtun Restaurant With Friends

At Banos Waterfall

Banos Waterfall

View of Banos From Waterfall

View of Thermal Bath

Tungurahua Volcano

Benefit for Colegio Nacional de Santa Isabel

2011-04-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

Andre has always loved classical music and whenever we are in Cuenca we try to attend a concert. At one of these concerts Andre approached the conductor, William Vergara, at the end of the concert to discuss the possibility of his performing a concert at our home in Yunguilla. The conductor expressed interest in the idea so we invited him to our house to see the terrain and views and once at our house he was very excited about having a concert there. We also have a relationship with Colegio Nacional de Santa Isabel where we volunteer twice a week helping out the English teachers.

Thus an idea was born. Why not have a benefit concert at our house to raise money for the school. A lot of work was involved in setting this up but it was a labor of love. Our boys got caught up in the concert planning as well and asked if they could stay longer and remain for the concert, so we extended their stay for an additional two weeks. We had to hire a bus for transportation from Cuenca for our guests and musicians plus we needed to rent tents in case of rain, get outdoor speakers and hire someone to monitor the sound. We also needed to find a source of outdoor chairs.

We decided to serve various appetizers, cheeses and wines before the concert and this involved a lot of preparation as we served over 18 different items. We sent out invitations to our friends and acquaintances and were delighted when 42 paying guests ended up attending. These were expats from Cuenca, expats from Yunguilla and Ecuadorian friends and acquaintances. Two of the teachers from the Santa Isabel school were present and helped collect the entry fee from the guests as they arrived.

We spent an hour or so serving hors d'oeuvres and drinks to our guests. We hired servers who walked around serving hot appetizers and drinks to the guests and we also had a table set up with cold appetizers. Then we all sat outside and listened as the Cuen-K Ensemble and guest violinist Tadashi Maeda performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was a rousing success. The music was beautiful, the weather held up and everyone enjoyed themselves. Best of all, thanks to the generosity of our guests we raised $900 for the school after expenses.

We questioned the teachers about what they needed and we bought them a Toshiba laptop, a Samsung laser printer, an LG DVD player and school material consisting of reading books in English with CD's, English work books and English posters to hang in the classrooms. We were at the school this past week presenting the teachers with their items and everyone was delighted. This concert was a win-win situation for all and we were happy to be a part of it.

Food Prep Before The Party

Loaded Refrigerator Before The Party

Keith Preparing Grilled Chicken For The Party

The Teachers From Colegio Nacional de Santa Isabel

Musicians Practicing Before The Concert

Audience Getting Ready For The Concert

View of Audience and Musicians

Servers For The Party

Presentation Of Gifts At The School

The English Department For The School

Otavalo and Cotacachi

2011-04-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Once again it was after dark when we arrived at our last destination. Unlike the other two vacation spots this hotel , La Posada del Quinde, was located in the city. However once inside we saw that the rooms wrapped around a beautiful large garden and an outdoor terrace area so you had a feeling of being far from the city. This hotel was not all inclusive like the previous places but did include breakfast, and they did serve lunch and dinner if you wanted it so we all gathered in the dining room for dinner, which you ordered from a fairly extensive menu. Once again there weren't many guests at the hotel. We had a chance to speak to the owner, a young American woman from California named Maggie. She had just purchased the hotel a few months previously and was still in the process of adding her own personal touches. She had taught Spanish in California and had previously been an exchange student in Ecuador while in school. On a recent trip to Ecuador she decided to buy the hotel and settle in Ecuador. The rooms were fairly nice but showed a bit of wear and tear, but I would recommend the hotel and it's rated as the number 1 hotel in Otavalo by Trip Advisor.

The following morning was Saturday and after a breakfast of fruit and eggs we walked to the largest South American open air market which was 5 minutes from our hotel. We then proceeded to spend the entire day at the market and by evening still had not covered the entire area. The market is open everyday, but it is on Saturday when you have the huge market. What types of things were for sale? There were clothes including sweaters, jackets, blouses, shirts, T shirts, hats, shoes, sneakers, scarves. There were all kinds of paintings and art work, wood carvings, rock and volcanic carvings, quartz, tablecloths and cloth embroidery, tapestry, wool weavings, craft items and so much more. Needless to say we bought a lot. We stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant in the market area and were serenaded by Andean musicians who sang and played several instruments, among them the pan flute. Finally after 5 PM we brought back our purchases to the hotel, rested up a bit and then headed back to town to try one of the restaurants for dinner. Since Otavalo is a tourist town there are several restaurants but we did not find the food to be noteworthy at any of the restaurants we tried. After dinner we returned to the hotel where there was a concert by a group of Andean musicians who were quite talented.

Sunday we headed to Cotacachi and the leather stores. There was store after store of leather goods for several blocks. We checked out practically all the stores, stopped for lunch in town and finally found leather jackets that we liked and purchased. We decided to check out a nearby hotel and spa called La Mirage which is a 5 star resort but unfortunately they wouldn't let us in as they said they were busy with a convention, so we returned to out hotel and later went out to eat dinner.

Monday morning we went to see a master weaver in a nearby town who demonstrated the art of weaving and showed us some of his creations. He creates everything by hand which is very time consuming and a dying art as most items are now made by machine. We then went to town to have lunch and do a little more shopping before returning to our hotel. We had arranged for private transportation back to the Quito airport where we had a late afternoon flight back to Cuenca, and it took around 1 1/2 hours to get to Quito. We arrived around 7 PM in Cuenca.

La Posada del Quinde

Dining Room at La Posada del Quinde

Otavalo Market

Andean Musicians

View From Otavalo Market

Cotacachi Leather Store

Master Weaver

Master Weaver At Work

Creations of Master Weaver

Views on the Road From Otavalo to Quito

View From Plane

View of Snow Capped Peak From Plane

We all had an immensely enjoyable vacation, having had a chance to experience and do many different things and to view different topographies. We plan on doing a lot more traveling throughout Ecuador in the future.

Hacienda Primavera

2011-03-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

We left the jungle lodge at 8:30 AM after an early breakfast and traveled north to Quito. We had made previous arrangements to meet our private transportation to our next destination at the Quito Airport and we arrived at 12:30, right on time. We were greeted by a man holding a sign with our name and it turns out that he was the owner. He had arranged for a car and driver for us and made sure we were all set in the car. The owner told us that he wouldn't be coming to the hacienda until the weekend. Off we went, this time north for a 3-4 hour journey. After driving for an hour we stopped for lunch. We were told that this restaurant was very well known and popular for typical Ecuadorian food and we all had a feast. We ordered different soups, a few appetizers and main courses and it was more than we could eat, but everything was delicious. We continued driving. We had previously made up to stop along the way at San Antonio de Ibarra, the town that is known for wood carving. By this time it was around 4:00 PM and raining. We quickly looked in 2 stores but didn't buy anything because we felt rushed. The owner of the hacienda was in communication with the driver and we still had a long way to go to get to the hacienda. We continued our drive and were actually close to the Colombian border. The last half hour of our trip was on a wet dirt road with mudslides that had fallen rocks lying on the road. It was now getting dark and I was getting anxious. The driver had never been to the lodge before and we kept stopping to ask if we were going the right way. Finally at 7:00 PM we arrived at Hacienda Primavera Wilderness Eco Lodge. It is located in El Choco Rainforest Reserve in a cloud forest. The place is a large self-contained hacienda. The guest rooms are in the rear of the hacienda and wrap around an open courtyard. The rooms were lovely. Our room had 2 small balconies and you are totally surrounded by trees, mountains and streams. Dinner was ready so we headed to the dining room which consisted of several white linen tables. Dinner was delicious and gourmet. We had soup, main course which was a stuffed chicken breast and a gourmet parfait dessert. It turns out that we were the only guests at the hacienda so we were catered to the whole time we were there. Our waiter and chef turned out to be much more than just a waiter and chef. After dinner we were told that they were going to entertain us and we were serenaded by them for 1 1/2 hours. The chef sang and played guitar and the waiter sang as well. It was a treat and we enjoyed their entertainment immensely. When we returned to our rooms we found chocolates waiting for us on our pillow. We looked forward to spending 3 nights here. We all slept very well. Our first full day at the hacienda started with breakfast out on the terrace. We had eggs, fruit, and assorted bread. The main activity at the hacienda is horseback riding and we we all saddled up and rode around the area with our two guides for a few hours. It was a great way to see the beauty of the surrounding area. We returned to the hacienda for a gourmet lunch. After lunch Derek and Keith were planning to go hiking but it was raining very hard so we had to stay at the hacienda. If I have any criticism of the hacienda it's that they should have more activities when it is raining. We spent the afternoon playing scrabble, using their internet or reading until it was time for dinner. Once again we had a delicious meal consisting of soup, filet mignon and dessert. After dinner we were once again entertained by our singing duo. The following morning we went trout fishing, and it was similar to the trout farms in the Cajas but much warmer. We caught a total of 6 trout and brought the trout back to the hacienda for the following day's lunch. After lunch Andre and I stayed at the hacienda while the boys went out for a long hike with the guide. The following day, which was our last, we once again went out riding in the morning and had our trout for lunch. We left after lunch with the guide who was going to drive us to Otavalo, our final stop. We made several stops along the way and once again didn't arrive at our next destination until after dark. We first stopped at a small town about 1/2 hour from the hacienda called San Juan de Lachas where a group calling themselves grupo artesanal raices negras had a small house where they displayed and sold their pottery and masks which they made from clay. We spent some time there and ended up purchasing several items. Next we stopped at a roadside area where they made panela from sugarcane and sampled the liquid panela. Finally we were taken to a bullfighting ring which of course was not operational except for weekends.

Wood Carving Store in San Antonio de Ibarra

Our Musically Talented Chef

Getting Ready for Our Ride

On the Mountain Trail

Derek and Keith Hiking Near Waterfall

Derek and Keith By Waterfall

Pool at Hacienda Primavera

Outdoor Dining on the Terrace

Our Chef and Waiter

Entrance to Dining Room

Scenic View on the Way to Trout Fishing

Another View from Same Walk-On Bridge

First Catch of the Day

Derek Following Path of Trout Stream

Keith by Same Trout Stream

Keith With the Biggest Catch of the Day

View From Our Room at the Hacienda

Sugar Cane Field Where Panela Is Made

I highly recommend Hacienda Primavera. The food and service are excellent and the hacienda and surrounding rainforest are beautiful. Just remember that if you go during the rainy season, you will be driving on a bad road for over 1/2 hour and you may get rained out of your planned outdoor activities and not have too much to do.

Huasquila Amazon Lodge

2011-02-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

It's catch up time on our blog. We have a lot of information to convey and will be doing several blogs over the next few weeks. Our last blog was over a month ago and there are several reasons for this. First, our sons have been staying with us the last 2 months and just returned to the States last week, and we were very busy doing things with them during their stay. Secondly, we did a lot of traveling with them and did not bring our laptop as we were in remote locations and wouldn't be able to access the internet. Third, we have 2 computers with 2 modems for which we get a certain amount of megabyte usage each month. Our sons, who are used to unlimited usage and downloads, managed to use up all our megabytes 3 days into our month. We had to buy extra megabytes to last the rest of the month but this was only for emergency use and to check emails. We just got our new monthly allotment the other day so we are now good to go. Lastly we were busy working on a benefit fundraiser that we organized.

I want to continue where I left off on my last blog. On New Years Day we left for a 10 day trip to different Ecuadorian locations. Today I want to talk about our first destination, Huasquila Amazon Lodge. We flew to Quito in the morning and were met at the airport by the driver from the lodge. We had previously arranged with the lodge owner for private transportation to the lodge. We were four people with four suitcases so we felt the extra expense was worth it as opposed to bus transportation from Quito. It was a four hour drive to the south and fairly scenic. We stopped along the way to take pictures of a snow capped peak in the distance. This was at the highest altitude and coldest spot of our four hour trip. From there we started to descend and the foliage changed and became more tropical. Along the way we stopped for lunch but there weren't many restaurants opened because it was New Years Day. We finally found a place that served a typical chicken lunch.

Near Snow Capped Peak

Exterior View of Our Bungalow

Jungle Hike

Entering Cave

Inside Cave

Our Boys Under the Waterfall

Derek Near Waterfall

Interior of Our Bungalow

Keith Participating in Wedding Ceremony at Shaman

We had decided that we wanted to go to the Amazon jungle on our vacation, but this isn't a typical jungle retreat. It is not deep in the jungle and you do not have to get there by boat. Andre and I had previously been to a jungle retreat in Costa Rica which you had to travel to by boat. There we had spent a few days going by boat to different locations and viewing lots of animals in their natural habitat. We wanted to do something a little different this time and that is why we chose this place. If you want to view lots of animals deep in the jungle then this is not the place for you, but if you want an interesting and activity filled vacation then you will enjoy this place. We arrived around 5 PM and explored the grounds. Immediately our sons voiced their displeasure. It seemed too much like a resort to them and they expressed concern over whether there would be any interesting activities. This place has a pool with a hot tub so our sons were thinking that this is all we would have to do. I had researched the lodge and its activities so I knew better. The lodge is constructed tiki style with tiki like bungalow huts as accommodations and with a large outdoor thatched area for meals. All meals and activities are inclusive. The food is good and plentiful. Lunch and dinner usually includes an appetizer, soup, main course, dessert and juice. Breakfast can be a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast or an American style breakfast such as pancakes, french toast and eggs. The owner of the lodge resides in Quito and it is his parents who stay at the lodge. His mother basically runs the place with a little assistance from the father. The mother, Cecilia, loves to mingle and talk with the guests and is fluent in both Spanish and English. Everyone is very accommodating and tries to please. Although we are not deep in the jungle, this is still the Amazon so there are lots of bugs. We didn't have a problem with mosquitoes but did see almost every other variety of insect such as spiders (very large), moths, flies, roaches, etc. If you are totally averse to insects you should not go to the jungle. I'm sure there are even more insects deeper in the jungle. Our boys had more problems with insects than we did. I think their room had more spaces for bugs to enter. Once we turned off the lights and went to bed we tried to ignore any buzzing sounds we heard and we managed to sleep fairly well all three nights there. One good thing about the location is that the lodge is at a higher elevation than most jungle lodges. We were at 2750 feet so at night it cooled off somewhat and was pretty pleasant for sleeping. Our lodge also had electricity 24 hours a day. We chose the 4 day/3 night package that they offer and this seemed to be the right amount of time although it really ended up being only 2 full days. The first and last day are travel days so you don't have much time for anything. Our first full day there we went on a hike with a quichua guide who knew the area and the plants extremely well. We were given boots to wear as we walked in mud, streams and wet areas. The hike lasted around 4 hours and was lots of fun. You have to be in fairly good shape to do this hike as it requires climbing and walking through woods. Throughout the walk, our guide pointed out various medicinal plants which we got to sample. He also showed us how the indigenous tribes use the trees to make items such as handbags and jewelry. We walked through a pitch dark cave using flashlights and saw bats. Our sons went under a waterfall and swung from a tree vine. They had a blast. Exhausted, we returned to the lodge for lunch and a little rest and then left again for the nearby zoo/animal center. This is a center funded by a private person who takes in animals rescued from illegal animal trade from the Amazon region. We spent over an hour walking around and viewing the various animals and there were quite a few including lions and tigers. Some animals were allowed to roam freely and we had an anteater as our companion throughout our tour of the facility. The next day Andre and the boys went to tour a large cave while I decided to go to the nearest large jungle town about 1/2 hour away called Tena to try to track down some of the medicinal herbs I had seen the day before on our hike. I was accompanied by another guest and we were driven by the driver who had brought us to the lodge. There is a small market in Tena and I found two of the items I had seen the day before on our walk. One was a liquid and the other was leaves and I purchased them both. Unfortunately the leaves sat in my suitcase for 10 days and started getting moist because of the humidity so I had to throw them away, but the liquid is fine. It is called Sangre de drago and as I researched it I found out that it is indeed an amazing medicinal liquid used for many purposes such as wound healing, digestive problems, skin care. Andre and the boys also had a great time at the cave. They explored many areas, applied mudpacks to their faces, swam, listened to tales about the history of the cave and about how it was a hiding places for the quichua during the Spanish invasion. After lunch, in the late afternoon, all the guests in the lodge were taken to see a nearby Shaman. However this was the least enjoyable of the activities because we all felt that this was not an authentic Shaman and it was a rather poor performance. I would still love to see an authentic Shaman. The following day we left very early after breakfast as we had to travel back to Quito and continue north to our next vacation stop.

I would definitely recommend this lodge. All four of us had lots of fun and were kept busy, but remember my two previous caveats: Don't expect to see a lot of animals in the jungle but expect to have many insects in your room.

Our Sons Have Arrived

2011-01-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

This will be a fairly short blog as we are leaving shortly for the Cuenca airport to commence a 10 day trip to various parts of Ecuador and will not have our computer and probably won't have computer access throughout the trip. Our next blog in a few weeks will detail our forthcoming journey. It is New Year's Day morning and we want to wish all our readers a happy, healthy New Year. We hope that you all enjoyed New Years Eve and that 2011 is a good year for you all.

Our sons arrived in Cuenca for a long awaited, extended visit. They will be with us until January 18th. So far we have shuttled back and forth between Cuenca and our home in Yunguilla Valley. We have been doing lots of local things, awaiting the New Year to commence our more extended travels. Among the things that we have done are a trip to Cuenca Canopy where our sons spent several hours doing canopy glides, jumps and walks through ropes, much to their delight. One son needed to have a root canal and we spent several visits on dental appointments. We went to the Cajas for a delicious lunch at Dos Chorreras. We ate our way through Cuenca and Yunguilla Valley, going to many different restaurants. We visited with many of our friends and went to several holiday parties. We saw the Christmas parade of the Cuenca children and we watched fireworks on New Years with several friends after a lovely New Years Dinner at our friends' apartment. We enjoyed quiet time at our house in Yunguilla Valley.

We look forward to the new year and to our trip.

Cuenca Canopy with Friends

Derek Ziplining

Derek and Keith

Derek Walking the Wire

Our Family at Cuenca Canopy

Dinner and Show at Likapaay Kusini Restaurant

Christmas Parade

Feasting at the Christmas Parade

At Home in Yunguilla

Our Dog Lucas

Our Dog Pelusa

New Years Eve with Friends

New Years Eve Fireworks at Friends' Apartment

New Years Eve Rooftop Views

Census Day

2010-12-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 28, 2010 was census day in Ecuador. This is an occurrence that takes place every 10 years. About 6 months ago we had the census done in the United States and we were curious to see if there were any similarities, but there seem to be none. The census is done in a series of steps in the U.S. First there is a census form mailed to everyone in the country to complete. If the census is not completed and mailed back within a few months, then there are census takers sent to the non responding houses to do a personal census interview. The whole process lasts for several months. Ecuador is quite different. Census takers are sent to people's home to complete the census questionnaire but everything is done on one day except for rural areas.

The approximately 14 million people living in Ecuador were all counted on November 28th in a National Census of Population and Housing. Everything was shut down for the day and people were required to remain in their houses from 7:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M.. No alcohol was sold from Friday evening until the Monday following the census. Police and military personnel patrolled the streets and roads to make sure that nobody was traveling or walking the streets and anyone found on the streets except for medical workers or police could be arrested or fined. Cuenca was a ghost town as I imagine all the towns of Ecuador were. All bus terminals, ports, restaurants, stores and businesses were closed. Airports were not operating during the curfew except for international travel. People who had flights that day needed to be at the airport before 7:00 AM or after 5:00 PM. Travelers arriving at any of the airports in Ecuador had to remain there until after 5:00 P.M. Borders between Ecuador and Colombia and Ecuador and Peru were closed.

The Ecuadorian census takers consisted of high school students assisted by some of their teachers. We have read varying figures regarding their numbers- anywhere from 35,000 total census workers to 361,500 high school students and 22,000 additional teachers. The students had gone through training during the previous month. The students and teachers were not paid as it was considered a civic responsibility for them. They went door to door to conduct verbal face to face interviews. The students were each assigned 12-14 people to see and interview. The census form consisted of 74 questions and took approximately 1/2 -3/4 hour to complete. Many expats found the census questionnaire online prior to the visit and printed it out so that they could look over and complete the questions beforehand as all interviews and questions were in Spanish. The 6 page census questionnaire covered everything from detailed housing conditions such as the number and types of bulbs in the house to race, age, sex, land line and cellular telephones and internet and TV connections. Many Ecuadorians were worried that the information from the census would be used to find out who wasn't paying their bills or mortgages or to force Ecuadorians to accept homeless people in unused bedrooms, but the government denies such allegations.

We were at our home in Yunguilla all that day and nobody showed up. We later heard that in rural areas the census would continue until December 5th but the week passed and nobody ever came to our house. We are wondering how accurate the results of the census will be. If they missed us they missed many other people throughout Ecuador. The funny thing is that when we went to our apartment in Cuenca there was a sticker on our door stating that we had been "censada" (the census taker had come to our apartment and interviewed us). Preliminary results of the census are due in January and we are curious to see if there will be any mention of the number of people who never received a visit from the census takers.

Water, Water Everywhere ( But Not At Our House)

2010-11-24T21:11:00.000-08:00

It was Friday afternoon and not a drop of water. Our caretaker checked and the problem was throughout the immediate area. Normally this would be a mild inconvenience and we would wait it out, but the next day we had a large party and we were in the middle of serious preparation mode. Lots of food to be prepared and lots of dishes and pots to be washed. We went to the nearby convenience store and picked up several 5 liter bottles of water and used these sparingly to keep up with the dirty dishes. Saturday morning we were up very early and there was still no water but by 8 AM our water returned. A group of 26 guests were to arrive at 1 PM and it was overcast and drizzling. We made alternate plans to transfer the party indoors if the rain didn't abate but around noon the weather cooperated and the sun actually came out. Our party came off without further impediment and the afternoon was enjoyable for all. This was the last of the 3 parties we had planned. This was for our Yunguilla expat neighbors. We, like all of our guests, knew some of the Yunguilla expats but didn't know the majority of the guests. It was a good opportunity for everyone to meet and get to know one another and the conversations were lively and interesting. The food was tasty and plentiful. Everyone brought a dish and we made spareribs, grilled boneless chicken and hamburgers as well as baked beans and chocolate toffee. As we were walking the last of our guests to their car the rains once again started and we were very glad and appreciative that the rain held off until the party was finished.

Fast forward a week. Water is coming out of our faucet but at an exceedingly slow rate, in fact so slow that there is not enough pressure to trigger the hot water. Our choice- a cold shower or a sponge bath. I choose a sponge bath and Andre the cold shower but after a few days of this I am longing for a hot shower. We determine that the cause is a faulty automatic starter on the pump. The architect promises to bring a new one on Saturday. We postpone our weekend guests for the following weekend. The architect arrives at 6 PM on Saturday and installs the new starter, but alas there is yet another component missing and he can't get that part until Sunday morning. Finally everything is working on Sunday and we celebrate by soaking in the whirlpool tub Sunday night. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Cuenca

2010-11-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

Cuenca was founded on April 12, 1557 by Gil Ramírez Dávalos, a Spanish explorer, commissioned by Andrés Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru. Mendoza had the city named after his home town of Cuenca, Spain. The city became independent from Spain on November 3, 1820. Yesterday, November 3rd, Cuenca celebrated 190 years of independence. To mark the occasion Cuenca had almost a week of celebration and festivities. 100,000 people came to Cuenca to partake in the festivities which started on October 28th and continued through November 3rd. Most of the people were tourists coming from other parts of Ecuador. Schools and businesses were closed for several days during the celebrations.

On Thursday, October 28th we came to Cuenca for a few days to shop, meet with friends and enjoy some of the celebratory events. We didn't specifically come to Cuenca for the festivities as we needed to do our biweekly shopping, but once in Cuenca we decided to participate in as many events as possible. This was our first time being in Cuenca in November so everything was new for us. Thursday we stopped at the Mall Del Rio on our way from Yunguilla to Cuenca. Andre needed to buy new sneakers and couldn't find anything large enough near us. Payless Shoe Store in the Mall was the only store that had a large enough size. They had one pair of sneakers that fit and as an added bonus the sneakers were on sale. They cost $70 but were on sale for $43 (the sneakers were probably too big for everyone else). We snatched up this bargain immediately. We also had lunch at the Mall and picked up some items at Coral Center. Next we stopped at the University of Cuenca Department of Agriculture. This is a separate facility near the Mall that houses the Agriculture and Veterinary departments. We went to see the professor of Agriculture. I am on a quest to obtain different varieties of fruit trees, nut trees and flowering plants and someone suggested that I should try the school. We spoke with the Professor and he was very receptive. He has written several books on native species and is very well informed. I gave him a list of the items I was looking for and he showed me a list of what he currently has available. He is going to email us an inventory list of the items I was interested in as well as the prices. I was quite happy and excited by the good results we had at the school. We then headed to our apartment to change and meet our friends for dinner and a concert. We met at a restaurant we had previously been to called Parrillas El Charrua on Augustin Cueva near Solano, across from the University. This is a good quality and reasonable steak restaurant. Unfortunately we never checked with the restaurant and it turned out that it doesn't open until 7:00. Since we had a concert at 8:00 we went to California Kitchen which was near where the concert was being held. The meal was adequate and then we continued to the outdoor park concert which was part of the Cuenca birthday festivities. The program consisted of an excerpt from the 1812 Overture followed by fireworks and then 7 Spanish songs that had to do with Cuenca sung by a female soprano . The concert was well attended and it was standing room only.

Friday we brought our car in for brake pads and tire rotation and balancing and took the bus downtown. We had several chores to do, had lunch at the German bakery and then went to the Cidap Museum where they had displays from artisans from all over the country as well as neighboring countries. It was very interesting and we enjoyed seeing all the artistic displays. We then picked up our car and returned to our apartment. Off we went, this time in a taxi, back to the downtown area again. We met four of our friends for dinner at Goda and the food was tasty and well presented. We then all ended up going to Parque Calderon where they were having the same concert that we had seen the night before. We met several friends there and spent the rest of the evening chatting with them.

Saturday we did our food shopping at Supermaxi and the Coopera and had lunch at Good Affinity. It was only mid afternoon and we weren't going out until 7:30 that evening so we decided to go to Parque de la Madre and Cemuart where they had all kinds of vendors selling different items. We ended up buying a small picture for our kitchen and a table for a lamp at Cemuart. We were invited to dinner at a friend's house but it wasn't easy to find. It was located in Misicata on the road to Banos but we missed it the first time and had to turn around and double back. The other invited couple had even more problems than we did finding the house so we ended up having a fairly late dinner. Dinner was delicious, a smoked trout pate as an appetizer, cold gazpacho soup, paella, sangria and ice cream and biscotti for dessert. Everyone enjoyed themselves and by the time we looked at our watch it was midnight. Our host graciously drove us all home.

Sunday we packed the car and headed back to Yunguilla, stopping at a roadside restaurant for lunch. Once back we unpacked everything and relaxed for a little while as we were invited to a Yunguilla neighbor's house for coffee at 4:30. We didn't know quite what this meant but soon found out. We were joined by a few other guests and after a tour of the house we all sat outside and were served an extraordinary amount of sweets. First came the savory platter which included cheese and crackers, olives, cocktail onions and pickles and then we were served sweet after sweet until we felt like sugar junkies. We first were served a homemade cake with homemade ice cream. Next we were served homemade caramel popcorn which tasted like poppycock without the nuts, sugar coated roasted corn, suspiros which are sweet meringues and a crunchy hard cookie. Then we were given an humita which is pureed corn steamed in its own husk. To drink we received homemade lemonade which contained the whole lemon with skin and rind (these lemons don't have pits) and then finally the homemade coffee was served. In between was interesting conversation. I even managed to make myself understood in Spanish. Finally around 8:30 we returned to our house.

It ended up being a fun four days for us. Happy Birthday Cuenca and many happy returns.

Ecuadorian Party

2010-10-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Some people we know in Cuenca have wondered if we would be bored living out in Yunguilla. We told them we didn't think so, but not only are we not bored but we are quite busy most times and enjoy the peace and serenity of our country home. Every week two days are spent assisting at the school. Additionally we spend a few days every couple of weeks in Cuenca shopping and meeting with friends for dinners and concerts. What has taken up a lot of our time these past few weeks was preparing for our second of three parties we've planned. This party was our Ecuadorian party and we invited Ecuadorians we know from Cuenca and Yunguilla. Eventhough there were less guests than at our first party, we had more work to do. For our Cuenca expat party, everyone brought a dish- either salad, appetizer, side dish or dessert as well as bringing their own alcoholic drinks. This is pretty much standard for expat parties and we routinely bring drinks and a dish to parties we attend. However we didn't know what the standard was for Ecuadorian parties. We asked our next door neighbor and she told us that it was not customary to ask Ecuadorians to bring anything. This meant that we had to prepare all the food which was more work. Additionally we had to buy and transport wines, beer, soda and water for the party. Since we had to prepare everything we wanted to do as much in advance as possible. The week of the party I prepared several desserts in advance and either froze or refrigerated them. The method of inviting guests was also different. Instead of the email invitations we had sent for the first party, Andre telephoned all the people to personally invite them. The reason for this is that we didn't have email addresses for most of the people and secondly we know that Ecuadorians rarely check their email. From this we compiled a guest list of over 40 people who accepted. We expected our first party to be the largest and the next two to be smaller, so we were quite surprised by the size of the guest list. As you all know, Ecuadorians are very family oriented and some invited guests planned to bring their children, grandchildren, etc. I also realized that just because we got a lot of yes replies didn't mean everyone would show up. To eliminate no shows as much as possible Andre called the week of the party to once again confirm everything. This eliminated several more people and we now expected 35 guests this past Saturday. What we ended up with was 24 guests. One reason for the lower amount was that some of the guests had children or grandchildren attending the German school and they had an event at the school that day which started later than expected and they were still at the German school. Additionally there were some no shows.

The party itself was a success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The weather cooperated and the food turned out well. We had a nice mix of younger and older people and 4 children as well. We served hummus and pita bread as an appetizer and then set up buffet style tables outdoors with salad, rice, roast potatoes, mote, roast pig which we roasted in our woodburning oven ( an 18 pound leg), grilled boneless chicken, sausage and hot dogs. We tried to prepare a fairly typical Ecuadorian meal and even made Aji ( I was able to find a recipe online). Our caretaker's wife prepared the mote (corn) as we had once tried to make it and ended up throwing it away as it never got soft enough to eat. For dessert we had lemon bars, brownies, cheesecake bars, chocolate toffee and almond squares and cookies. We had heard that Ecuadorians like to party and that the parties can last for over a day and we also heard that Ecuadorians like to drink a lot. Neither proved true at our party. We had purchased several bottles of red and white wine but we didn't even finish one complete bottle of each. Maybe a total of 10 beers were consumed. Most of the women drank either soda or water. Additionally people started to leave around 5 and by 5:30 everyone had left.

Below are several pictures from the party. And now...we start planning our last party which will be on November 13th for the Yunguilla expats.

Politics As Usual

2010-10-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, September 30th we were in Cuenca. We had arrived a few days earlier to do our food shopping and get together with friends. We had just finished shopping at the Co-op and were back in our apartment when the phone rang. It was one of our friends advising us that there had been a police strike that morning and that many businesses were closing. We turned on the TV which stated that the police were on strike and that there were political demonstrations going on in Quito and Guayaquil. The President was shown being wisked away between tear gas dispersions. So what was this all about? Much confusion reigned for several days but in hindsight and after reading several detailed accounts this seems to be the most likely scenario:

Ecuador is in a cash crunch. Correa has instituted a broad program for improving the country's infrastructure while at the same time initiating social programs to help the poor people. The only problem is that the government doesn't have the funds for such an ambitious program. Since 2008 Ecuador has defaulted on 3.2 billion dollars in bonds. Naturally Ecuador can't find many countries willing to loan them money and if they do find a country willing to make the loans it is going to be at very high interest rates. Right now Ecuador has a 2.7 billion dollar budget deficit. According to a recent article at Bloomberg.com Ecuador will probably tap the nation’s pension fund and seek a loan from China to help finance its $2.7 billion budget deficit. The government had altered retirement and military regulations in the week preceding the strike and this is in fact what caused the police strike. Among the changes are mandatory retirement for government workers at 65 years of age, buyouts of retirement pensions will be paid one half in cash and one half in government bonds, and special benefits and bonuses that are enjoyed by the police and military are being taken away.

On the day in question Correa went to the police hospital in Quito to either see a doctor there or talk to the police on strike. From here on the events of September 30th are open to speculation but the following seem the likely circumstances: Correa says he was kidnapped for 10 hours and a coup was attempted. He blames former President Lucio Gutierrez for initiating the coup attempt. However several patients and doctors present at the hospital dispute his claims. They say he was never kidnapped, was never without his security team and was free to leave at any time. At 9:00 P.M. Correa ordered 500 army troops to the hospital and with submachine guns and tanks, a 40 minute battle ensued between the police and military in which 10 people lost their lives and others were wounded, before President Correa was whisked back to the National Palace. What is the truth? We may never know but we do know that President Correa has a flare for the dramatic. Earlier that day Correa had gone to the barracks to confront the cops. Once inside the building he went to a window, tore open his shirt, and shouted, “If you want to kill the president, kill him!” So why did President Correa orchestrate this drama? This is only conjecture but the drama minimizes the attention that was being focused on the real facts leading up to the strike, it rallies his supporters behind him and it casts guilt on his political opponents.

Mr. Correa had little trouble managing the story. In the morning he closed down independent television reporting, limiting Ecuadorans to his version of the day’s events. Mr. Correa has taken to the airwaves since to implicate his political opponents and like any good politician has turned this event to his advantage. Meanwhile he raised the base salaries of the police the following day and the strike was over.

The strike and its ramifications were displayed prominently all over the airwaves and we watched the events unfold on TV on Thursday evening. We expected to be bombarded with emails from our boys and friends and family in the States, but we didn't even receive one email from anyone. When we spoke to the boys a few days later one didn't even know anything about the September 30th strike and the other said he saw a one line caption on TV on CNN news referring to the event. Maybe if there had been an actual coup there would have been more publicity.

So what happened in Cuenca on September 30th? Lots of businesses and stores closed down. Of course at that time nobody knew what was happening so everyone decided it was better to err on the side of caution. We heard that a bank was robbed. Of course if there are no police around, opportunists will always take advantage of a situation. This has happened during every natural disaster in the States as well. Otherwise things were pretty quiet in Cuenca. We also heard there were some demonstrations at the University but it was rather quiet and orderly. Cuenca, although the third largest city in Ecuador, is not a political hotbed. There may have been more protests and demonstrations in Quito and Guayaquil. We were planning to return to Yunguilla that day and decided to do so. We were able to stop at a bank and get money from an ATM machine eventhough the bank was closed. We did not know if we would be able to drive unimpeded from Cuenca to Yunguilla. In the past, roads have been blocked during indigenous protests and we did not know if any roads would be blocked or if there would be any roving gangs. However the roads were totally passable and quiet with no indication of anything going on. We returned to our house without incident. Our friends also told us that by the following day most stores and businesses were open and it was as if nothing had happened.

What does this all mean to expats and prospective expats? Not much. International Living is a business that promotes international travel and relocation. They write about the advantages of relocating from the States to lots of different international locations. They publish a monthly magazine as well as publish books about individual retirement locations. Additionally they conduct seminars all over the world promoting their chosen locations as well as conduct real estate tours in various countries. In other words they have a vested interest in promoting these locations. They have named Ecuador the top retirement location in the world for the past 2 years as well as naming Cuenca as the top city in Ecuador to retire. So of course International Living wants Ecuador to look as attractive as possible. They wrote an article a few days after the September 30th strike and of course International Living minimized the impact of that day and stated that it doesn't really affect the expats. For once I have to agree with them. I believe it will have no impact on the expats. Furthermore even if there were a coup and a new government/President was installed I believe it wouldn't have an impact on the expats and not much of an impact on your average Ecuadorian citizen. If you've done your homework like we have you know that Ecuador has had 7 Presidents in the last 14 years and several were overthrown in coups. This is the history of Ecuador. They seem to dispose of Presidents as easily as disposing of old razors. What you should know is that most of the overthrowing of Presidents occur swiftly and almost bloodlessly, in coups where the President either flees the country in one day or where he resigns and steps down quickly. There is no history of bloody civil war in recent times. It is business as usual very quickly and the country continues with very few repercussions. It is not in the interest of the Ecuadorian government to disturb the expat community nor alienate the Ecuadorian populace.

It will be politics as usual and nothing more.

Party Time

2010-10-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Since it had taken well over a year from the time we first came to Cuenca until we finally moved into our house the end of July, just about everyone knew about our house and were following our progress. There was much interest and curiosity from our friends and acquaintances about the status of our house and when we would be able to move there. Andre and I were thinking that it would be nice to invite our friends, acquaintances and friends of friends once we were settled in. We realized that it would be too much to invite everyone at once so we decided to break it up into 3 different groups- the Cuenca expats, the Ecuadorians and the Yunguilla expats.

Last Saturday on September 25th we had the first of our 3 groups, the Cuenca expats. This is the largest group and we ended up with 35 guests plus us. We would have been over 40 except for a few last minute illnesses. Everyone was asked to bring their own choice of drink and either an appetizer, salad, side dish or dessert. We were providing all the main courses. Since we have lots of barbecue areas we decided to grill hamburgers and hot dogs. Additionally we served cut up barbecued chickens which we purchased locally. We originally had wanted to cook the chickens as well but we just didn't have the space to store the chickens either in the refrigerator or freezer. We ended up getting 10 cut up chickens and there was no way this would have fit in the refrigerator. As it was we barely had space for everything. We went into Cuenca a few days before the party to do all our shopping for the party. We had to empty out the refrigerator and freezer beforehand so that we could fit everything in. Additionally we didn't know what a lot of our guests were bringing and Andre was worried that we wouldn't have enough food so he made large trays of macaroni and cheese and vegetarian chili as well.

The Cuenca expats chartered a bus to take them to our house, wait for them during the party and bring them back to Cuenca, all for the very reasonable cost of $5.00 a person. Additionally several people who had cars drove to our house. The invitation was for 12:30 and everyone seemed to arrive around 12:45. We later received a thank you from someone who was at the party who said he had followed our blog for a long time and decided that we were pretty sane people, but the fact that we had this huge party had now convinced him that we had a screw loose. So should we be commited for having this large get together with lots of people, some of whom we didn't even know? Actually the party ran rather smoothly and flawlessly except for the very beginning. The bus let the passengers out by the entrance to our gate as the bus was too tall to pass through the gate. All at once there was a group of 25 people descending down the path to our house and this was a sight to behold. Everyone had both drink and food contribution with them and they all entered the kitchen at once. To make matters worse someone dropped their beer and it broke and spilled all over the kitchen floor. Additionally they cut themself on the bottle and were bleeding on the floor. Not to worry. A few minutes later with mop and bandage in hand everything was under control. The wine opener was retrieved, food was set up outside, people took plates of food and sat down and the rest of the day was peaceful and enjoyable for all. There was tons of food, the variety and selection was awesome and there was something for everyone. There were lots of appetizers, salads and side dishes to complement the main courses. Additionally there was a large selection of delicious desserts. The weather cooperated. It was neither too sunny, too hot or rainy. It was very pleasant outdoors and people enjoyed meeting and talking with the other guests. The Cuenca expats seemed to enjoy being out in the country, close to nature, with spectacular views all around, and we also were able to enjoy ourselves, partake of the food and mingle with our guests. Alas, all too soon it was over and the bus passengers made their way up our driveway to the waiting bus. The 9 people who had not come by bus remained until 5:30 and we had a pleasant time sitting and talking outdoors. They even helped us bring in a lot of the food that was set up outside. We realized that we had way too much food and prepared doggie bags for the remaining people. We continued our clean up once the last of our guests had departed.

So how would we evaluate everything? Was it a lot of work? Yes, but what else do we have to do. We're retired. Also we both felt that it wasn't much more work than having an indoor dinner party for 10-14 people. We used paper goods and plastic utensils and were able to throw everything away. We also had the help of our caretaker and his wife. We were really able to enjoy our own party which you rarely do when you entertain. We also both enjoy cooking and entertaining. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and were very appreciative of us having them over, and we love showing our house and sharing it with people who enjoy it.

Maybe we do have a screw loose but we like it that way. We are already busy planning our next party and are excited about it.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

2010-09-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

That's an easy one to answer. We have cornered a large amount of the flower market in our area. Now that our vegetable garden has been replanted and is growing nicely we have turned our attention to flowers. We decided that we wanted a row of flowers from the house up to the gate. Our caretaker turned over the soil and prepared it for planting. We found a store that sold flowering plants and purchased what we thought was a large amount of plants. However we barely scratched the surface. We then realized that it would take a very large number of plants to cover the area. We had to make 5 separate trips and must have purchased 100 flowering plants but finally our row of flowers is complete. We are now on the lookout for fruit and nut trees to add to our fruit orchard.

We continued our volunteer work at the school, working with English 2 and English 3 students this week. We spent Monday and Friday at school.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had our friends from Cuenca visiting us. Tuesday we just hung around the house and relaxed. We had a salad with grilled chicken for lunch and for dessert we had the chocolate cake our friends brought. The women took a walk later in the afternoon while the guys changed lighting outlets and hung up an outdoor speaker. For dinner we had corvina with grilled potatoes and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. We then watched the movie "Thank you for smoking" which is very funny.

Wednesday morning we had a vegetable omelette for breakfast and then went to Santa Isabel and walked around for awhile. We stopped at a pizza restaurant for lunch. Later our friends and I took a walk again up the road, stopping at the reservoir which is the source for all the water in the area. Andre stayed home to prep dinner. For dinner we had grilled shrimp with rice pilaf and vegetable loaf for dinner followed by chocolate mousse. We ended the evening with another movie "In Bruges".

On Thursday we had breakfast, picked some fruits and vegetables from our garden for our friends and then our friends left to return to Cuenca.

On Saturday we had 2 couples from Cuenca come out to see our house. They are friends who are unable to attend our upcoming housewarming party but wanted to see the house. After a tour of the house we all went to eat at a nearby restaurant called Bambu where we all shared a large parillada with potatoes and salad. After lunch we said goodbye to our friends and they headed back to Cuenca.

Sunday we did some shopping at the market and also picked up the last of our flowering plants.

Back To School

2010-09-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

With retirement comes the opportunity to do many things we weren't able to do when we were working fulltime. We always wanted to do some volunteer work and have found something of interest to us. We are volunteering in one of the nearby schools. We found out about this school from our caretaker's daughter who is a student there. They have English classes at the school and we thought that we could be useful. We both have a background in teaching. I have an undergraduate degree in Spanish and Psychology and a Master's Degree in Education. I have tutored Spanish since I was in high school and did student teaching at my old high school for Spanish while I was getting my Master's Degree. Unfortunately at that time the schools were cutting back on foreign language classes and I couldn't find a teaching position for Spanish. I ended up working for attorneys who wanted someone who could speak with their Spanish clients. Andre has actually taught English to Chilean adults at a language school while he was living in Chile.

We went to the school and met with the administrator. We didn't know what to expect after we offered our assistance, but our offer was met favorably. The administrator called in the four English teachers and we met with them. We explained that we would help in any way they needed. They all were excited and we made up to start on September 6th. They invited us to a food festival they were having that day at the school and we gladly accepted. Pizza, other finger foods, fruit, juices and desserts were served in the outdoor area with booths manned by different teachers. Everyone must have contributed a dish as there was a lot to eat and the students seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Last week we started our volunteer work. We decided to do it twice a week. So far both times we have attended 4 classes with the teacher. Thus far we've also had a break after the first 2 classes. The classes are 45 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes to get to the next class. So far our school day lasts around 4 1/2 hours. On Monday we had to be at school at 8:15 while on Thursday we started at 10:00. It depends on the particular teacher's schedule for that day. We have thus far worked with 2 of the teachers. There are 40 students between 12-14 years old in the classes and they are adorable and very sweet. They are pretty well behaved besides the usual giggling and talking and seemed pleased to have us in the class helping them. Most of them are curious. We have been in classes which were the equivalent of Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. In first year Spanish the students were doing writing exercises in their workbooks. They had to write the names of their parents, brothers and sisters and other family members who lived with them and describe the relationship. Then they needed to write what type of work they did and where they worked. Additionally they needed to make English sentences out of this information. Andre and I walked around the classes helping the students to complete this. This is a country school so most of the parents are farmers, laborers, mechanics, etc. A number of the students had family members who were living and working in the United States. The students learned some English and I learned a few new words in Spanish. I thought it was commendable that the students are studying English. Most of them will not continue their education beyond high school but they all will have a smattering of English. In the Spanish 2 classes I had to read short paragraphs in English related to what they were studying. The chapter they were presently working on was called Diseases and Treatments and I read paragraphs titled "Is Water a Friend or Enemy", "Diarrhea" and "Dengue Fever". I would read the paragraphs and Andre would write the difficult English word and its phonetic pronunciation and pronounce the words for the students, and then later the students would have a chance to read in English and we would correct their pronunciation. I even had a chance to sing and recite some jingles they had in their workbooks. I have a horrible voice so normally I don't like to sing with anyone else around but the teacher asked me to sing so I did. Instead of mocking me and making fun of my singing the students applauded my performance when I was finished. What an exhilarating experience. Andre and I both enjoyed our first week of teaching very much and look forward to doing it for a long time.

Tuesday Andre made a quick trip to Cuenca in the morning to repair a pump and returned in the afternoon. On Friday, friends from Cuenca arrived to spend a few days with us. We all went out to lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant and everyone got the breaded shrimp and we all enjoyed it. Friday night Andre made a cazuela which is a Spanish soup that contains chicken, sweet potato, carrots, rice, corn on the cob and green beans. Our friends brought playing cards and taught us to play Uno after dinner. On Saturday we had vegetable omelettes for brunch. We then proceeded to explore the nearby "Jocotoco Reserve" which is a bird sanctuary. Unfortunately we went in the early afternoon and found out that the birds appear in the morning and early evening. On our walk our caretaker and his wife, who had accompanied us, did discover valerian root growing nearby and climbed up and cut some off. Valerian root is an herbal remedy used to treat insomnia and anxiety. We were told that the bark needs to be peeled and the inner white root needs to be placed in a glass for 8 days and the root will secrete a liquid which is used as a remedy. More on this in future blogs.

Our caretaker (center), his wife and his brother (right), who is the caretaker of the Jocotoco Reserve

Valerian Root

Saturday night Andre grilled a pork tenderloin and vegetables and also made mashed yucca with garlic. For dessert he made crepes with cream cheese and chocolate. It was very tasty and we all enjoyed the meal. Once again we finished the evening with Uno. Sunday after breakfast we drove to the nearby Sunday market to buy various things and show our friends the market. We then drove our friends to the bus stop as they were going to return to Cuenca.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go

2010-09-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

We returned to Cuenca last week for lots of shopping and socializing. Maybe at some point in the future we will have leisurely visits with time for sightseeing and doing fun things but for now I feel as if we're in a race and have to get a ton of things done in the 3 1/2 days we usually allocate. Andre keeps wondering why our shopping lists are so long but I assure him that they are getting smaller. It had been 2 1/2 weeks since we were last in Cuenca so there was lots of food shopping to do in addition to trying to find the items we missed on our last trip and looking for the new items we had since added.

We were hoping that the blast of cold air that hit us on our last visit had ended and yes it was definitely warmer. However it was cloudy and rainy the whole time we were in Cuenca. I don't think the sun popped out at all while we were there. Maybe next time we will have both sun and warmth.

We arrived around noon on Tuesday and immediately started shopping. First we hit Superstock and bought a lot of specialty food items. Next we had lunch in that area at a seafood restaurant. We finally ended up in Coral where we found a lot of the items on our list. We then headed back to our apartment where we had to quickly change and rush out again to meet our friends at their apartment. We were supposed to eat at an Italian restaurant nearby but it was closed so we walked to Akelarre and had dinner there. I had a vegetarian crepe stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, cheese, peppers and onions which was good and Andre had the trout which he liked. We then went to play pool at Sankt Florian. Having learned our lesson last time about the food, we only had dessert and drinks there and we had no complaints with the desserts. We played a few games of pool switching partners each time and since none of us are very skilled players had a lot of laughs as well. We finally made it back to our apartment after 10. We then called our boys who we hadn't spoken to for quite some time due to our computer difficulties in Yunguilla. Andre spoke first and then ended up going to bed. I then talked with each of the boys and by the time we had caught up with everything and gone over all the mail for the past month it was past 1:30.

Wednesday was more of the same with trips to the bank, eye doctor, restaurant supply store and supermarket. After the eye doctor we had lunch at one of the Chinese restaurants that we frequent and had our favorite special Wonton soup. After lunch we shopped at SuperMaxi and picked up lots of stuff. We then hurried off to our friends' apartment for a very tasty dinner of beet and carrot salad, avocado and tomato salad, chicken pesto over green and white noodles and empanadas stuffed with figs for dessert. We spent a nice evening catching up with our friends and getting advice on how to pick and choose animals to raise at our house. Once again we didn't get back to our apartment until after 10 P.M.

Thursday we once again returned to Artesa to pick up some lamps for the house. Of course everything is a project at Artesa and although we quickly picked out our selections it still took over 2 hours from start to finish. Luckily we ran into some expats that we knew there and spent time catching up with them. Next we picked up some additional tile at Graiman. Off we then headed to Good Affinity Restaurant and who should we meet there but the same expats we had met at Artesa. We then dropped off everything we had purchased that day while in our car and took a bus to town to continue our shopping. We made stops at Eljuri to pick up a manual on one of the products we had previously purchased then continued on to Colineal to pick up an attachment that had been missing from our purchase and also went to Pycca for more glass containers and finally browsed at an artesan craft store looking for decorative items for the house. We were invited to dinner at another friends' apartment so we took a cab to their place. There were 6 of us for dinner and although we started dinner at 6 PM, it was once again 10 PM by the time we left. We had a delicious dinner of salad, lasagna, garlic bread and cheesecake with fruit for dessert.

Friday we decided to drive to a lighting store which Andre thought was closer to our apartment than it turned out to be. We got stuck in a massive traffic jam and it took forever to arrive and then get to our next destination which was Banco Pichincha. By the time we made it to the bank it was 1:00 P.M. Andre and I both commented that the bank was filled both times with expats in various stages of moving. Some had just moved to Cuenca, others were in the process of moving and still others had purchased apartments for a future date. The expats keep coming to Cuenca and will probably continue to do so as Ecuador was once again just named the top retirement spot by International Living. We also went to the store where we purchased our beds to order a sign for the house. We next stopped at the other Chinese restaurant we frequent since we are unable to get the soup we love in Yunguilla. The restaurant was packed with no available tables but we spotted two expats we knew and they invited us to join them. What initially was supposed to be a quick lunch turned into a 2 hour lunch as we chatted with these expats that we didn't know well and got to know them much better and had a very pleasant time with them. It was after 3 PM by the time we all left the restaurant and we still had more shopping to do at the Coopera and bread store. By the time we finished all our shopping and loading of the car it was 5:15. We headed back to Yunguilla, just about getting through most of our trip before it was dark. We stopped at a roadside restaurant near the house and picked up dinner before heading to the house. The place was busy and it took a long time to get our food. It was after 7 by the time we arrived home. We ate dinner and then spent the rest of the evening unpacking.

Saturday we decided to try a pig lunch at one of the places we pass by the side of the road. We had never tried this from a roadside restaurant. This place actually cooked the meat after cutting it off from the pig and served it as a stew called Sancocho which had chunks of pork, some on the bone. This was served with mote(corn) and a yucca filled empanada. We also saw people ordering pig skin and we decided to try it. They use a blow torch on the pig to cook the skin until it is crisp. It was an interesting meal and we decided to try some other pig places in the future to see if they prepare the pig differently.

Sunday we went to the market in Santa Isabel and bought chicken, fish, seafood and pork. We have been very pleased thus far with all the items we have bought at the market. We then stopped at a plant store to pick up lots of flowering plants for the house.

Old Friends, New Friends

2010-08-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Now that most of our plumbing woes are behind us and our faithful plunger is close by we decided to have our first overnight guests from Cuenca. Our friends arrived mid day and we went out to eat lunch at a nearby hostal/restaurant called Jardin del Valle. As it was a Sunday the place was packed. Our friends were quite surprised that such a nice place existed in the countryside of Yunguilla. Yes, we have a few nice places in our area but they are limited in number. The restaurant is set up in an outside area around a large pool. Since this is a hostal as well there are always lots of weekend guests and there were many people swimming in the pool. There is also an enclosed restaurant room for special parties and probably rainy days, but since the weather is almost always cooperative most people enjoy eating outdoors. The food is very good and the menu is extensive. However during the week there are hardly any people around and the menu is very limited. This place would make a great weekend get away. Since we were going to be having a big dinner we didn't want a giant luncheon platter and ordered modest lunches. I had seafood ceviche, Andre had fried clams and our friends had a salad with chicken and a burger and chicken wings. We then returned to our house and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with our friends and relaxing. Andre cooked a great dinner of cut up marinated boneless chicken, stirred fried vegetables and fried rice all on our hibachi grill. We started off the dinner with an appetizer of artichokes and there was plenty of wine flowing during the meal. The following day we had brunch outdoors. The menu was vegetable omelettes with croissants and homemade papaya/orange juice. The weather was warm and everyone was mellow and relaxed. We spent most of the day outdoors and then finally it was time for our friends to leave as they wanted to be back in Cuenca before dark.

On Thursday our Ecuadorian neighbor arrived for a long weekend. We had previously made up that we would get together for a homemade pizza meal. She would make the pizza dough and we would contribute the rest of the ingredients and we would prepare it in our wood burning oven. Andre went over to watch her make the pizza dough. Previously when we had made pizza in the U.S. we bought ready prepared frozen pizza dough or a ready prepared crust but it seems that they don't sell pizza dough in Ecuador so we need to learn how to make our own. I stayed behind at the house as the Movistar technician had just arrived. He had made some adjustments at the Movistar tower and we were hoping to have better reception. We still could not get any reception from the room designated as our computer room, so the room has been renamed the library room. We had to move one computer desk into our movie/tv room where the reception is good. We are just happy to have a functioning internet after 3 weeks of no internet in the house.

This is the third time we have used the wood burning oven. The first time the caretaker prepared a chicken to test the wood burning oven when it was completed and we were still living in Cuenca and only at the house for the day. I remember that it took a long time and we didn't end up eating lunch until after 4. The next time we used the oven was the day we moved to the house. Once again we had told the caretaker to prepare a chicken so that we would have something ready for dinner our first night. This time we were involved in the process from start to finish. The caretaker's wife showed us how to start the fire with logs of wood but from there we managed on our own. Please note that this form of cooking isn't for anyone in a hurry. It can take all day. We let the fire burn with the wood for 4 hours. Once everything is hot and the wood turns to ash, you brush all the ash out and then the heat from the oven slowly cooks the food. It took an additional 3 hours to cook our chickens and it now took an hour to cook our pizzas. What took time to cook was the dough. Next time we will put the pizzas directly on the floor of the oven like we have seen it done at some wood burning pizza restaurants. This time we cooked the pizza on pizza trays. Needless to say we were all starved by the time the pizza was ready. We made 3 pizzas and gave one to the caretaker's family to try as they had never eaten pizza. Our pizza dinner was very tasty and we planned our next future cooking adventure with our neighbor.

Friday we had a British couple over for lunch. They live a little further up on the same road as us. We had initially met them at the bank in Cuenca and struck up a conversation when we heard them talking in English and talking about Yunguilla. They have bought a large property (8 hectares) with an older house and had the intention of opening up a bed and breakfast place similar to what they had in England. They have since changed their mind and will now just build a new house for them to live in on the property. Their architect is currently drawing up the plans and they hope to start construction soon. We spent a lovely afternoon getting to know each other better. Andre once again cooked up a super meal on the hibachi grill. We had an avocado, smoked cheese, tomato, onion and red pepper appetizer to start off with and then had a delicious meal of grilled corvina, sauteed vegetables and rice. Andre is absolutely delighted with having so many different ways of cooking meals and is utilizing all our different cooking methods. We will definitely eat very well out in the country.

In Search Of A Tree Cutter

2010-08-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Living in the country poses certain issues that you do not encounter in the city. For instance how do you locate a person to do work for you? In Cuenca you can let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages and will at least have a start toward hiring someone. Here in the country it is quite different. We ask our caretaker. He is 40 years old and has been living here all his life. He knows just about everyone within a several mile radius. Most people living in the country are born here, live here all their lives and eventually die here. The problem is that most of the country folk do not have either land line or cell phones. You need to go to their house to talk to them. Most of the country folk do not have cars either and need to use either public transportation, walk or ride a bicycle. When we hired a person to build our wood burning oven our caretaker had to walk to this person's house to speak with him and the oven builder had to walk here to meet with us and to do the job. Now we decided that we wanted to cut several trees that were on the property. Our caretaker had to walk 1 1/2 hours through dirt roads to speak to the tree cutter. We were in Cuenca at the time and he arranged for the tree cutter to come over to the house when we returned. However the tree cutter did not show up. Andre and the caretaker drove to the tree cutter's house and found out that the tree cutter was presently working on a big job and would not be available for quite some time. Our care taker immediately suggested another tree cutter he knew. We all drove to his house which was about 15 minutes away. To make matters more difficult this tree cutter was deaf. Unfortunately he never had the opportunity to go to school so he could not read, write, use sign language or speak. Through gestures and pantomime we indicated that we had trees to cut and wanted him to see it. We all drove back to our house and he and the caretaker went through elaborate pantomime. We thought at the end that we had somewhat clarified that he would start to cut the trees the following day and that it would take 7 days and cost $20 a day. We drove him home and expected to see him the following day but he didn't show up the next 2 days. By the third day we once again went back to his house. This time we determined that we needed to bring all his equipment to our house in our car and this is what we did. The following morning he arrived on his bicycle and commenced work. We found out from our caretaker that the tree cutter had a speaking brother and from the brother we found out that the tree cutting cost $30 a day. He ended up spending 4 days cutting trees at the house and did a good job. We also learned that the house he lives in was given to him by the government. The government built 3000 homes in the area modeled after the Habitat for Humanity homes and I guess they give them to needy people. We don't know how one applies or what the criteria are. It is a very basic small home constructed out of concrete block with cement floors and walls but we were impressed that the government does provide housing to needy people.

When we first came to Cuenca last year we tried Cuy at a nearby restaurant. When we were in Cuenca last week we bought some Cuy at the Coopera and decided we would cook it. We cooked it on the rotisserie in our oven and I am happy to report that it turned out very well.

We finally hit the trifecta this week. Our 3 appointments all showed up on the same day. First the architect sent a worker to continue with out list of repairs. Second Indurama sent a repairman to fix a minor problem with the stove and lastly a technician from Movistar finally showed up after 3 weeks of no internet. He determined that there was no viable signal in the room we had designated as the computer room. However we were able to get signals from other rooms in the house so for now our laptop is in the kitchen and I am blogging from the house.

We paid a visit to the couple that had previously come over to our place and who had been living in Ecuador for over 18 years. We spent a very interesting day with the husband (his wife was in the States for a few weeks). First of all it was an adventure just getting to his place. We took a wrong turn and additionally the road to his house made the road to our house look like a luxury road. We felt like we were in Disney World on one of their adventure rides only this was the real thing. He has a property of 80 hectares (200 acres) and he drove us around his property and showed us his various businesses. He grows and produces coffee for sale, grows sugar cane for rum and aguardiente which he also sells, has a dynamite blasting business, builds septic tanks and also has gold extraction machinery. We enjoyed a beef stew lunch, lemonade and candied figs. We learned a lot about the history of the area and once again were entertained with his stories. It was a fun day and an interesting week. We are certainly enjoying living here.

A Whirlwind Week

2010-08-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we headed to Cuenca with a long list of "to do's". First stop was my 11:30 dental appointment for a cleaning to finish up all my previous work. The dentist wasn't there. By the time she showed up at 12:45 there were 5 additional people waiting. With apologies for being late and an explanation that she had gotten caught in horrible downtown traffic I finally was taken. By the time i got back to the apartment it was 1:30. So much for accomplishing a lot on Tuesday. We had a quick lunch at the Oro Verde Deli and then headed to Coral Center where we got through about 3/4 of our Coral Center list before we had to leave because it was getting late. We were meeting friends for dinner. We went to La Herradura near Remigio Crespo. This was our second time there and we were as impressed as we were our first time there. The four of us shared the lomo fino familiar platter which consisted of 3 pounds of steak, roast potatoes and salad. Very often salad means cooked peas, corn and carrots in a mayonaise base. Not so here. Salad consisted of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper and avocado. The food was delicious, the setting quite pleasant, the meat tender and cooked to perfection and the price quite reasonable- $31.50 for the platter. Although we cannot compare it with the Terrace Restaurant since we have no yet been there, presently this is our favorite steak restaurant and I highly recommend it. It was good to see our friends and catch up and we all had an enjoyable evening. When we got back to the apartment we froze and couldn't wait to get under the covers. We have been spoiled with the warm weather in Yunguilla.

Wednesday morning we headed to Artesa as we wanted to purchase additional dishes. We arrived at Artesa before 10:00 and by the time we left it was after 1:00. No, we didn't spend over 3 hours looking at dishes although it wouldn't be hard to do so as this is one of my favorite stores. The retail store is very disorganized. There is one person who prepares the invoice and takes the payment and there was a couple ahead of us, and we had to wait an hour until the store clerk finished with them. I thought they must be buying out the store but their bill only came to $275 so I don't know what the holdup was. Next we had lunch at Chifa Bingui by the Totems and we both had our favorite special wonton soup complete with meat, poultry and seafood. It was delicious and helped warm us up. One of the servers was working in her heavy jacket. We then went to Movistar. As mentioned in previous blogs we have not had any internet connectivity since we moved to our house and our phone calls have not been returned by Movistar. We thought we would be able to resolve this issue by going directly to the office where we signed our contract. How foolish! I am once again writing this blog from an internet cafe. At the Movistar office there were 2 issues to resolve, one was the lack of connectivity in Yunguilla and the other was the problem we now had connecting in Cuenca. Our modem was tested and found to be okay. We were advised that we needed to download the Movistar program again and that we should contact a technician once we returned to our apartment as it was too time consuming to do in the office. We were also given a ticket number regarding our Yunguilla connectivity and told that we would be contacted within 48 hours by people who check a map. They would be able to advise us if we could get a signal in our sector of Yunguilla Next we went to Porta to see what options they offered. They said if we have cellular availability where we were we would have internet availability as well, but we are unable to do anything yet as we first have to resolve our Movistar issues. We returned to the apartment and Andre spent over an hour on the phone with the Movistar technician but at least we are now able to connect in Cuenca. Once again we were meeting friends for dinner. This time we went to the restaurant inside the Santa Lucia Hotel. We also had previously been there. The menu is predominantly Italian but there are other choices as well and additionally there are daily specials. The restaurant is in an enclosed inner courtyard and they had heaters set up throughout the room so we stayed nice and warm. We shared appetizers of eggplant parmigiana and sauteed mushrooms. Two of the people had risotto dishes, one had nocchi and I had salmon with grilled vegetables which was excellent. We all had dessert. Andre and I had tiramisu and our friends had creme brule and a maracuya flan. Once again it was good seeing our friends and catching up with them as they had recently returned from a trip to the States.

Thursday morning we were awakened at 6:55 by our bed shaking. There was an earthquake of either 6.9 or 7.2 depending on where you read the report. It was centered in an Amazon jungle area north of Guayaquil and south of Quito. Luckily there wasn't much damage as the earthquake was very deep and the area is not very populated. We first went to Juan Eljuri department store where we exchanged a lamp they had previously delivered. It was not the lamp we had chosen so we now exchanged it for the correct lamp. We then went to a lighting store we had found on one of our walking expeditions. We had previously gone to a few other lighting stores but this store had a much better selection. We ended up buying 2 hanging lights for the dining room and living room and picked up a few decorative items as well. We then had lunch at Good Affinity, our favorite vegetarian restaurant. Next we went back to our apartment with our car fully loaded and took a bus downtown to continue our shopping fest. We made stops at Colineal to report a missing electrical plug from our couch, we stopped at Espana to find out about service for our stove and refrigerator, we went to a Calle Larga furniture store to order additional furniture, we went to Pycca to pick up some glass storage containers and finally went to LaVictoria for house speakers. Our original intention was to purchase everything, take a cab back to the apartment with all our shopping goods and change clothes, as once again we were meeting friends for dinner. However we spent so much time at LaVictoria setting up and testing out the speakers that there was no time to return to our apartment. We called our friends who live downtown and asked them if we could leave all our packages in their apartment while we went to dinner and this is what we did. We went to a new restaurant that we had heard about called Las Monjas. The setting is impressive and we thought we were in for a treat. we shared 2 seafood appetizers which were very tasty so we thought we had found another winner, but then the main courses were served. First off everything was cold. I had a spicy breaded shrimp dish with mashed potatoes and vegetables. The mashed potatoes were cold and dry, the vegetables were cold, the shrimp was lukewarm and not spicy. Andre had a salmon dish and said the salmon was fishy. Too bad. This restaurant had promise. Perhaps in the future they will get their act together. After dinner we gathered our stuff at our friends' apartment and headed back to our apartment. We spoke to our boys for quite a while as this was the first time in over 2 weeks that we could contact them.

Friday morning we shopped at the Coopera and then Andre went to the acupuncturist. We had not received a call back from Movistar and Andre stopped off at the office but they were closed due to the holiday weekend, so we had to leave without any resolution. It took a long time to pack the car as we were so loaded with packages that we didn't have one inch of space left when we were done. We stopped at Oro Verde for a bite and then headed back to Yunguilla, glad to be out of cold Cuenca. As soon as we arrived at the house we took off our jackets and enjoyed the warm weather. So glad to be back in our mountain paradise.

First Impressions

2010-08-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

We have been living at our house for the past 10 days and these are our initial impressions:

Problems- Our main two problems thus far are plumbing and internet connectivity. For the first week we could barely use our master bathroom. There were leaks, the water pressure was almost non existent, there was no hot water and the bathroom smelled like a sewer. We used the downstairs bathroom to shower. Our architect told us we needed to replace the pump and once we did this most of the problems were solved. We are now able to take hot showers with water at full force. We still have some minor leaking of the bathroom sinks but hopefully this will be resolved soon. Our other major problem is lack of internet connectivity. We have a modem from Movistar but we are unable to connect from the house. Of course when we signed up for our 18 month contract we were assured that we would be able to connect in Yunguilla Valley without difficulty. Perhaps, but we are up in the hills and cannot connect. Every day we call Movistar and every day they tell us we will receive a call back from them shortly, but we never do. We will be coming to Cuenca and we will have to break our contract and go with Porta, which has a stronger signal. Meanwhile we have to go to internet cafes to retrieve our email. This blog and the blog from last week were done at an internet cafe.

Weather- The weather is much warmer and much more pleasant than Cuenca. We have been reading about the cold weather in Cuenca, Paute and Gualaceo and are glad that we are here. We are outside in T shirts and light pants and usually eat outside every day.

Bugs- Yes, bugs are alive and well in Yunguilla Valley. Andre keeps reminding me that we are out in the country, but it will take some getting used to on my part since I do not respond well to bugs. Besides getting bitten up by mosquitoes we also get our share of flying insects in the house nightly- moths, beetles, flies and even a worm or two The good thng is that they are usually gone or dead in the morning. We have not yet used any insect repellent and will also need to find ways to seal up some small openings where the insects may enter.

Beauty- We are surrounded by extraordinary beauty and one does not ever tire of this. If I had to visualize paradise it would look just like this.

Garden- Having our own vegetable garden and fruit orchard is wonderful. Whenever we need an item that we are growing we go and pick it in our garden.

Friends- We have not invited any of our Cuenca friends yet as we wanted to fix all the plumbing issues first, but we did have our first guests over. A couple who live in Yunguilla and are the pioneers of the expats, having lived in Ecuador for over 18 years, came over for lunch. We had hummus and a giant salad with smoked chicken and spent several hours talking, and our guests enthralled us with their stories and experiences in Ecuador.

Weekend vs Weekday- Yunguilla is mostly a weekend community. Restaurants are crowded and stores are very busy on weekends as opposed to weekdays when many of the restaurants and shops are closed. This past weekend there was an invasion of thousands of young people. The streets were mobbed, cars were double and triple parked and you could hardly drive through the streets. The police were everywhere directing traffic. We later found out that there was an international concert being held that evening.

Serenity and Tranquility- Even with all the noise and throngs of people in town, just 8 minutes away at our house it was totally peaceful and quiet and this is how it always is at the house. We have definitely found our Shangri-la.

At Last

2010-08-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

On Friday, May 15, 2009 we went house hunting with a realtor to Yunguilla Valley to see 5 houses. We had been looking at houses in different areas but had not seen the right property yet. When we saw this particular property that day we knew this was it. It had the spectacular views and the land we were looking for. The house itself could be renovated to our specifications. We were told that another American couple had made an offer on the property and were flying back to the States and would wire funds on Monday. We spoke to the realtor and were advised that since this couple had not left a deposit, the first people to leave a deposit would get the house. We made one of the most important decisions in our lives in a matter of hours. We got money out of an ATM machine and put down a deposit.

Fast forward to over a year later. This past week we finally moved into our country home. 90% of everything is finished and the other 10% can be done while living there.

Monday and Tuesday we did our last minute errands in Cuenca. Wednesday we went to our house, the car stuffed with items we were bringing from Cuenca. Our first evening there we had chicken cooked in our wood burning oven and ate on our terrace outside as it is considerably warmer than in Cuenca. The rest of the week we were busy unpacking and settling in. Saturday and Sunday we ate at local restaurants. We also met our next door neighbor who invited us over to chat. It is much quieter here in the country and we sleep much better without the sound of car alarms, bus brakes and loud music. We are so happy that our long wait is over and that we are finally in our home.

More next week.

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

2010-07-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

For a week the weather was absolutely gorgeous in Cuenca. Either totally blue skies with perfectly clear views of the mountains in the distance or an occasional fluffy white cloud in a sun filled sky would await us. It was glorious and wonderful to be outdoors enjoying the weather and the beauty all around. Temperatures of around 70 degrees during the day. This is weather everyone dreams of and longs for. It doesn't seem to occur very often in the States but it certainly is not unusual here.

The drive to our house is always breathtaking but this past week it was absolutely exquisite as well. Every color, shading and line of the majestic Andes mountains was visible as the sun bounced off its surfaces. Contrast that to the week before when we were returning from Yunguilla Valley to Cuenca in the late afternoon. Once past Giron there is an area where you quite often hit fog which lasts until Tarqui and last week the fog was really dense and you could not see in front of you at all, but this week it was totally clear and picture perfect.

Our week was fairly busy with our usual routine, visits to the acupuncturist for Andre, a visit to the dentist for me and lots of shopping. We were busy searching and shopping for items for the house. We ordered gym equipment, a TV, and a lamp from the main Juan Eljuri department store near the airport. We also picked up several items at the Rotary Market for cooking and decoration. In addition there were shopping trips to SuperMaxi, the Co-Op, the bread store and trips to Coral Centro for items we need for the house. We also made arrangements with Direct TV for service for the house.

We ate out several times and got to socialize with our friends as well. We ate at a Peruvian seafood restaurant called La Mar which is by the Totems. It is a nicely decorated restaurant and the food was tasty. We had Parihuela, a seafood soup. We revisited Raymipampa and had a delicious lunch and also had a good pizza at La Fornace. We met friends at our favorite restaurant, Tiestos, and as usual had a great meal and a very enjoyable evening. We also met friends at Sankt Florian one evening to play pool. Hesitantly we had agreed to have dinner there. We had eaten dinner there on a prior occasion and thought the food wasn't very good. We are required to spend $3.00 per person when we play pool so we decided to try dinner there again. Bad decision. The food was awful. We wanted to order empanadas but there was only 1 left so the other 3 of us ordered pizza. We all thought there was no way that they could ruin it. Wrong. It was almost inedible. It is a shame because this is a nice place and the lunches are good. Perhaps the cook leaves after lunch and whoever is there in the evening can't cook. However we had lots of fun playing pool. All of us are pretty poor pool players so it was quite amusing. We kept switching partners after each game and we all had a lot of fun and laughs. All in all it was a good week and we accomplished everything we wanted to get done.

Restaurants Galore

2010-07-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Since our return to Cuenca some 2 1/2 weeks ago we have been busy catching up with our friends. Some friends like us have recently returned from the States. Others were getting ready to visit the States for short periods of time. Several other friends have been enjoying travel throughout Ecuador, with trips to Otavalo, Quito, Cotacacchi, Vilcabamba and a jungle cruise.

Most of the time we meet friends at various restaurants. This has given us a chance to eat at several new restaurants as well as revisit others. Among some of the new restaurants we have tried are the following:

Dos Mundos a Parillada restaurant on Remigio Crespo. We thought we knew just about all the restaurants in this area but then realized that this was a new restaurant converted from a former computer store. Food was tasty but meats were very thin so we could not get the meat medium rare as we usually like. I would say it would be worth another visit to try some of their other offerings.

La Herradura, also a Parillada restaurant near Duramas just off Remigio Crespo. This is a more upscale restaurant and the food was excellent. Five of us shared a 3 pound platter of lomo fino with potatoes and salad and one person had the shrimp parillada. The meat was plentiful and tender and the price was extremely reasonable, coming out to only $20 a couple including drinks. This place is definitely a keeper.

Mangiare Benne is an Italian restaurant that is attached to the Posada del Angel Hostal. The food is good but if you are on a low carb diet this is not for you. 95% of the items on the menu are various forms of pasta, ravioli and other forms of dough stuffed items.

Inca Bar. The food is good for informal dining with hamburgers, veggie burgers, salads and sandwiches. We went with friends there to watch one of the World Cup Soccer matches so it was packed wall to wall with people, but I'm sure it's normally less crowded.

We also returned to restaurants where we had previously eaten such as:

Balcon Quiteno. We went here with friends to watch the finals of the World Cup Soccer match. We have eaten here several times. They have a varied menu and the food is always good.

Bertuchis. We've eaten here before as well. They have a very large menu of tasty Italian dishes. This time 3 of us had vegetarian pizza which was tasty and one person had a seafood pasta dish.

Good Affinity. We've probably eaten at this restaurant more than any other in Cuenca. It is only open for lunch. Popular with both Ecuadorians and expats this place can get crowded during the height of the lunch rush, especially on Saturdays. The menu is vegetarian and limited, with only half a dozen items but what they prepare they do extremely well. We usually get their lunch of the day which consists of soup, juice and a plate that contains 5 different items, a salad, a bean item, a mixed vegetable item, rice and a fried vegetable item. Their soups are among the best we've had in Cuenca. We've eaten at several vegetarian restaurants and this restaurant in our opinion is the best, all for the price of $2.25.

We've also been frequenting Chifa Bingui and Chifa Fortuna, two Chinese restaurants where we also love their special soup that contains wontons, vegetables and various meats and seafood. What makes the soup so good is that they grill their meat and seafood before putting it into the soup and this greatly adds to the flavor of the soup.

We look forward to enjoying many more Cuenca restaurants and writing about our experiences.

Additionally we were invited over by friends for dinner and had a wonderful meal of tossed salad with goat cheese and basil, pork tenderloin, potatoes and asparagus and black forest cake for dessert. We love goat cheese and we're delighted to find it is available in Cuenca.

Our days remain busy but are not as rushed as before. Our "to do" list is getting smaller and smaller. We are still shopping for items for the house but do see an end in sight. I am busy with dentist appointments removing and replacing my mercury amalgams and should be finished in a few weeks.

We continue to make progress in the house. Our kitchen cabinets have been installed and this past week our granite countertops were installed. We hope to move in by the end of the month.

On a final note, those of you who know Andre know how much he enjoys cooking. He frequently enters various recipe contests. We get to sample all his different creations and he gets to expand himself as a cook. Last week Andre received notice that he was a finalist in a recipe contest for fish. He created a potato and salmon pancake recipe. He won a cash prize and some of the sponsoring company's fish products. Andre is now even more inspired to continue entering recipe contests.

Threats

2010-07-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

While we were in the States we received 2 threatening emails from David Beyer. You may remember that he is the person we hired to obtain our permanent residency. Unfortunately he never obtained our permanent residency even though he told us we were approved and received payment in full from us. He blamed the attorney who worked for him for giving him false information but neither refunded our money nor obtained our permanent residency. We were forced to hire another firm and pay them to finally obtain our residency approval. We wrote about our experiences and mentioned Mr. Beyer in a prior blog. Mr. Beyer found our blog and has in fact become a follower of the blog. He objects to us writing about him. Here is a copy of the salient features of his emails to us:

Cease and Desist and notice of Legal Action

I am writing to inform you that after reviewing your blog that I intend to file suit against you in the State of Florida, where you own property.

I have spoken to you about your case many times, tried to explain and yet, you have continued to libel and slander myself and my business. I will not tolerate this conduct. Therefore, you have 3 business days to remove any comments from your blog which defame or otherwise libel myself or my business and post a public apology for doing so. Public comments are considered libel if they are not based in fact or if you cannot prove them (I studied law in the US so take my word for this!). Your comments of me being dishonest, intending to cheat you, falsely informing you of an approved case, etc. are false. I can prove it as well using existing emails and communications. I simply passed along the information provided by Mayra the attorney.

Therefore, you have 3 days to remove the comments from your blog and anywhere else you have posted similar comments. I will be proceeding with legal action in the State of Florida regardless of your action or inaction with the blog. Your action or in-actions will convince me if I need to seek additional monetary damages from you.

As I have read with your blog, you are intending to return to Ecuador after 6 weeks in Florida. At that time, you will also be subject to legal action in this country as well. Defaming a person or business and causing financial or reputation loss is considered a criminal offense in this country. You are obviously not aware of that. Check with your attorney to confirm this.

Rather than find yourself in jail, I would recommend you stop breaking the laws of Ecuador. If you continue to harass me, defame me, or otherwise cause me further loss of revenue or reputation, I will not hesitate to have you prosecuted.

Here is our response to Mr. Beyer's email: We do not respond well to threats and intimidation especially when we are the victims. Mr. Beyer is welcome to sue us anywhere he likes-Florida, Ecuador or both. We can prove everything we said and more, much more. Public apology? We have nothing to apologize for. It is Mr. Beyer who should apologize. We will continue to write about our experiences with Mr. Beyer until such time as he refunds our money. We have paid Mr. Beyer a total of $1,900 in fees and costs. He needs to return to us the $600 we paid him for "our so called final approval" and the $700 we paid him for government fees which are paid to the government after the final approval.

We do not want to turn our blog into a "he said, she said forum" that will not be of interest to our readers. We will now look for more widely visible sites rather than our blog which has limited visibility and readership. If Mr. Beyer doesn't like us writing about him he shouldn't have left us in a situation where we were in jeopardy of having to leave Ecuador without being able to obtain our permanent residency and having to completely start the process over again. Nor should he have kept money that didn't rightfully belong to him and was obtained by giving us false information. We will only stop writing about Mr. Beyer when he refunds the money we paid him for services not rendered.

Back To Cuenca

2010-07-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Last week we returned to Cuenca after a 6 week stay in the States. Our stay in the U.S. could be characterized by the phrase "Shop until you drop" because we did a lot of shopping both in local stores and on the internet. Most of our local shopping was for food and we couldn't believe how much time we spent food shopping. I guess it's because there are so many choices, perhaps too many choices. We do our supermarket shopping at Publix and there are at least 5 I know of within a 10 minute drive. In addition there are several other supermarkets within 10 minutes. Add to this the membership warehouse stores such as BJ's and Costco's and the discount stores such as Walmart in addition to green grocers Whole Food and Fresh Market and our local health food store and you can begin to understand how we could spend so much time shopping. Additionally we placed orders nonstop over the internet, most of it to bring back to Ecuador. The weather was extremely hot in Florida so we will not miss it at all although we will miss our family.

I was in a frenzy of packing and unpacking the last week trying to fit everything in our 6 suitcases. Impossible. Just had to prioritize and take the most important items. We expected to pay overweight luggage and so were prepared. We weren't prepared to have to still empty more from our luggage but had to do so at the airport. Our problem turned out to be with our carry on luggage. At the curbside of American Airlines we were told that our carry on cases were too bulky so we emptied out a lot and were advised that we were now okay. However when we were inside heading to the departure gate we were advised that our carry on cases were too large and we couldn't take them on board. Additionally we were carrying a camera case bag, a pocketbook and a small carry on shoulder bag and were advised that we had to get rid of one of these bags. We had to stuff our camera bag into one of our carry on bags and check both carry on bags for an additional $200. Total extra baggage $500. Our flight was non eventful and we arrived in Guayaquil around 10:30 in the evening. Two of our bags went through a routine inspection but all was well. We were somewhat nervous when we went through immigration because we did not have our Censos and had gone through a difficult time when we departed Ecuador. We had been advised at that time that we wouldn't be able to return to Ecuador without our Censos but after a number of telephone calls to Ecuador we decided to chance it. This time when we told the immigration official that we had left our Censos in our apartment in Cuenca he said he would check with his supervisor and then advised us to be sure to bring it with us next time. We were met at the airport by someone from the hostal where we were staying and we were driven there and spent the night. Wednesday morning after breakfast we were picked up by the shuttle service and driven to Cuenca. It was a three hour drive and I for one was very happy when we arrived at our apartment in the early afternoon. We decided to do our food shopping and unlike the U.S. it took us about 2 hours to shop in three different stores and pick up everything we need for a week. We went to the Co-Op, SuperMaxi and the bread store and between the three stores we spent a total of $90. It took us three days in the U.S. to shop for all our food supplies and it cost almost $700. Just another reason why we love Ecuador.

Thursday we first went out to our house and then we went to the furniture factory in Cuenca to see our finished kitchen cabinets. Everything looked good and it is scheduled to be installed next week. Andre is in the midst of world cup soccer fever so we had to stick close to home on Friday and Saturday so he could watch the games. Just as well. This gave me a chance to unpack and catch up. We just ran out for a quick lunch at our favorite vegetarian restaurant, Good Affinity, on Saturday in between the two soccer matches.

Friends of ours had advised us of a July 4th outing for expats at Hosteria Uzhupud in Paute, in the countryside about 45 minutes from Cuenca and it sounded like lots of fun so we told them we would go. Everyone met at Parque Calderon in Cuenca and the Hosteria provided 2 buses for transportation to the Hosteria. Once there we purchased our tickets for $20 per person which included round trip bus transportation, a buffet lunch, live entertainment with a jazz group, complimentary glass of wine, raffle and fireworks. We had a wonderful time. There must have been approximately 50 expats between the 2 buses and we met lots of people, some visiting Cuenca for the first time, others already living in Cuenca. The buffet was set up outdoors in a courtyard area and the food was very good. We had cream of clams soup, salad, Waldorf salad, sliced beef, grilled chicken breast, barbecued pork, baked potatoes, rice and corn bread pudding. There were 4 desserts- brownie, apple crumb cake, flan and fresh fruit with custard and I have to admit I had all four. The food was very good and I would highly recommend the buffet. Next we watched the Hosteria make sugar cane juice. Two bulls walked in a circle pulling an apparatus to which the sugar cane is attached. We sampled the juice but I found it too sweet for my taste. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beautiful grounds and talking with our friends and other expats. At 6:30 there was a great fireworks display and then as we were leaving the women received red, white and blue roses. The buses took us back to Cuenca and we arrived around 7:30. For anyone looking to enjoy an afternoon getaway or an overnight stay we definitely recommend Hosteria Uzhupud. I am attaching some pictures taken there.

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Walk Don't Run

2010-06-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

In Cuenca there is a stadium named the Jefferson Perez Stadium. Additionally, Banco Pichincha had a Jefferson Perez exhibit at the bank displaying various portraits of Mr. Perez in athletic outfits, training, etc. I began to wonder who this man was and why he was important to Ecuador so I did some research on him.

Ecuador is a small country roughly the size of Colorado or Wyoming. They have a population of 14 million people. Ecuador is not a wealthy country and doesn't have a large budget for training elite athletes. Therefore it will probably not come as a surprise to find out that Ecuador has not excelled in Olympic events. What will come as a surprise is the fact that Ecuador had never won any Olympic medal until Jefferson Perez competed. Ecuador now has a total of two medals, one gold and one silver, and Jefferson Perez is responsible for both. His specialty is the 20 km race walk. Jefferson Perez is considered the best Ecuadorian athlete ever. To understand the enormity of his accomplishment one needs to compare Ecuador with the United States. At the 2008 Olympics there were a total of 11,028 athletes participating. The United States sent 630 athletes while Ecuador sent a total of 25 athletes. Jefferson Perez trained on his own in Cuenca and was self coached since 2002, very different than the formal training and elite coaching of the U.S. trained athletes.

Jefferson Leonardo Perez Quezada was born July 1,1974. He was born in Cuenca to a family of limited financial means. His childhood life was not an easy one. At 14 his father died and his mother was going blind. His mother supported the family by selling vegetables in the streets. Mr. Perez comments on his early years. “I always say I was exposed to everything at my youth, crime, drugs, you name it… But I guess I was signed for something different, and that kept me away from all those temptations that usually present themselves to young kids.” He accidentally got into the sport of race walking when he was preparing for a walk that was for a high school physical education examination and was invited by a trainer to compete in a race. From there he quickly excelled. He decided to put his efforts into race walking. Race walking, is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times.

Jefferson Perez had much success as a junior athlete and his top achievement was winning the Junior World Championships in Seoul, Korea in 1992. In 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics he became the youngest race walker to win an Olympic gold medal in the 20 km event and the first Ecuadorian to ever medal in an Olympic event. As a way of showing his thanks he embarked on a 459 km pilgrimage, walking, jogging and running from Quito's Franciscan cathedral to his hometown of Cuenca.

Many more successes followed including winning 3 straight World Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007 which had never previously been done before. After the 2000 Olympics Mr. Perez took time off to complete his college education and received a degree in business administration. Once again at the age 34 at the Bejing Olympics in 2008 he won an Olympic medal, this time a silver medal. After the 2008 Olympics he retired from race walking but he has left his mark on the sport and is considered by many to be the greatest race walker ever. He has also left his mark on Ecuador. He has shown Ecuadorians what can be achieved with ability, determination and hard work and remains very popular throughout the country. There is even talk of a possible future in politics.

The Best And The Worst Of Cuenca

2010-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

What do we like most and least about Cuenca? You have to remember that this will be very subjective. As they say one man's meat is another man's poison, but there will be certain items that just about everyone will agree on. For those of you that are considering moving to Cuenca, this will at least start you thinking about whether this is the right place for you. Use it as a starting point and continue with your own additional research and definitely live in Cuenca for awhile to see if the pros outweigh the cons. For those people who are already living in Cuenca I'm sure you have your own lists of likes and dislikes that may differ somewhat from ours. Additionally, while we are writing specifically about Cuenca this could probably apply to most if not all of Ecuador.

I usually like to get the bad news out of the way before hearing the good news so let's start with the worst of Cuenca.

To me the worst thing about Cuenca is the public toilets. This may not even be on any other expat lists but because I have been caught in public toilets on three different occasions without toilet paper it has traumatized me. The majority of public toilets are in horrible condition. Most do not have toilet paper, paper towels or soap and some have only toilet bowls without seats. The toilets are dirty. I don't understand why this is so as Cuenca is a clean, well maintained city. This however does not extend to the bathrooms. I now carry toilet paper with me all the time but I still walk out of toilets with my hands dripping wet and hardly ever find soap in bathrooms. You can find well maintained bathrooms at the malls or in the finer restaurants but beyond that the picture is bleak. Picture a porta potty setup in the U.S. and you will have an idea of the condition of the bathrooms.

Driving is next on my list. The drivers are aggressive and reckless, the roads are curvy and narrow and the driving conditions are not always good (fog, rock slides in the countryside.) Once again I will be the first to admit that I am a nervous driver/passenger. This situation was not helped when we almost had a serious accident on a windy mountain road because our Ecuadorian driver was taking the curves too fast. I am used to driving on straight, flat Florida roads and so the change is overwhelming to me. I probably would complain about the mountain roads in Colorado or Tennessee as well. I have not yet driven in Cuenca or the surrounding countryside and may never do so. Andre manages okay but finds the driving much more difficult, stressful and demanding as well. You can never be relaxed driving in Cuenca. Being a passenger in a taxi cab or bus is not much better. Most drivers speed and ignore the traffic signs and traffic lights. As a pedestrian you take your life into your hands every time you have to cross the street. Drivers routinely flee the scene of an accident. Traffic is always horrendous in Cuenca with bumper to bumper conditions not uncommon. Drivers routinely create lanes where there are none and cut from both the left and the right lane. Horns are constantly being honked. Let me also honestly state that difficult driving conditions probably exist in many countries outside the U.S. and are not unique to Cuenca. Panama City is always clogged with traffic. Horns are always sounding and taxi drivers have the same mentality as the Cuenca drivers. The mountain roads in Costa Rica were scary and difficult to drive as well.

Lack of knowledge is next on my list of pet peeves. Ask 10 people the same question and you will get 10 different answers. It is very difficult to find out what is correct. This makes it difficult when trying to find out about obtaining residency, shipping containers, obtaining legal documents or just getting the correct information for lesser items. How have we managed? Mostly through trial and error. Why is this so? Regulations change often so that what was correct last week is not right this week. Additionally, Ecuadorians do not like to say that they don't know the answer to something. If you ask them something they will prefer to give you a wrong answer rather than no answer.

Inefficiency is a problem in Ecuador. Two examples pop into mind. One of the larger and busier department stores in Cuenca is on two levels. They only have escalators in the store. Therefore you must leave your cart with all the items you wish to purchase on the ground floor and then proceed by escalator to the second floor. If you want to purchase items that you find on the second floor you are not allowed to take them down to the first floor. You must leave them with a sales associate on the second floor and give them your name. When you check out with your items on the first floor you advise them that you have items waiting on the second floor. You pay for all the items but then must wait for your items to be brought down to the first floor and to be opened and tested. This adds about 1/2 hour to your shopping time. The other example that comes to mind is that when we finally got our cedulas at the government office we had to wait while one person was typing up all our information on a manual typewriter.

Noise level is very high in Cuenca. When we first moved into our apartment we couldn't sleep due to the excessive noise. Everyone has car alarms and they are constantly going off all night. Additionally there are many stray dogs in Cuenca and you hear them barking all night. We hear buses and trucks applying their brakes all night. Cuencanos like to party and we hear music, talking and laughter many times at night. Friends of ours use earplugs to improve this situation and we may also have to do this.

Street conditions are very poor in Cuenca. Unless you are in the heart of downtown Cuenca where all the streets are well maintained and even, you will be coming across potholes, uneven and broken sidewalks, dug up streets, open manholes and broken sidewalks. Andre constantly is tripping. It definitely takes some getting used to and you always need to be aware of where you are walking.

The pollution level is high in the city due to the sheer number of buses, taxis and cars that are constantly driving. Buses emit lots of toxic fumes.

The last item that I am going to mention is one that nobody ever considers. It is certainly not anything that we ever thought about before coming to Cuenca but it needs to be considered by anyone who plans to make Cuenca his/her home. It is altitude. Cuenca is located at an altitude of 8,000 feet. Most expats are not affected too much when they arrive in Cuenca. Some expats may experience some mild altitude sickness which passes after a few days. Expats may get breathless upon over exertion or climbing but beyond this nobody ever considers altitude but you should. The first time we were in Cuenca Andre had a cough that lasted the whole time we were there. At first we thought he had some kind of a respiratory infection or that he was being affected by the colder weather. He also was experiencing palpitations. As soon as we returned to Florida the cough and palpitations disappeared. This time when we returned the same thing happened. Andre has an inherited condition known as mitral valve prolapse which means that the mitral valve doesn't fully close all the time. This sometimes causes atrial fibrillation. He has been checked out by a cardiologist and it is not a serious condition. He is not on any medication and works out at the gym and does spinning without any difficulty. It is a chronic condition but he does not experience any palpitations in Florida. As soon as we return to Cuenca he starts experiencing palpitations. Similarly on our return to Cuenca Andre was once again coughing. This time we checked it out with a pulmonologist in Cuenca and he said it was asthma. Andre had asthma as a child and outgrew it and hasn't been bothered by it for over 50 years. We were stunned. The Dr. also told us that several expats were coming to see him with breathing problems caused by the high altitude. Andre has been seeing an acupuncturist for the last few months in Cuenca and this has helped somewhat but has not completely eliminated the problem. This problem is still hanging over our head and we hope we will be able to resolve it. Once we move into our house in the country we will be at 5,000 feet in altitude and we are hoping this will help but at this point we just don't know. If you have any lung or heart conditions or ever had one make sure you can comfortably adapt to the Cuenca altitude before making a permanent move.

To me the natural beauty of Cuenca and its countryside in particular, and of all Ecuador in general is the country's greatest asset. No matter how many times we drive from Cuenca to our house I am still overwhelmed by the breathtaking beauty of the countryside and the mountains. The country is small but diverse. You can find whatever you want as far as climate, altitude and environment. The weather in Cuenca is excellent with never a need for either heat nor air conditioning. It is a pleasure to be outdoors on a daily basis and most expats do a lot of walking once they are living in Cuenca. The rivers are always nearby and you always have a view of the surrounding mountains.

We have been pleasantly surprised by the level of health care in Cuenca. The Doctors and Dentists have been knowledgeable and well trained. They are certainly more attentive and caring than in the States. Usually a Doctor works by himself without staff and spends time questioning you on your history, symptoms, etc. You are not rushed as in the States. Doctors are not on a pedestal in Ecuador and don't take themselves too seriously. They are down to earth and friendly. You can usually set up an appointment on the same day you call and you are given the Doctor's cellphone number if you need to contact him/her. Best of all a visit to a specialist is usually $25.00. Friends who have had more extensive surgeries in hospitals have raved over the treatment, post operative care and price. As far as medical technology the hospitals may be slightly behind the latest technology in the most modern hospitals in the States but are probably on par with a hospital in a fair sized city in the States. You will not go broke if you need surgery and follow up treatment. Most of our friends have decided to self insure but there are also different insurance plans available as well. We have had lots of dental work in Cuenca and Andre and I are both very pleased with the treatment. I personally like the fact that there is an abundance of alternative practitioners and treatments available in Cuenca/Ecuador. The FDA under pressure from the drug companies and conventional Doctors have all but shut down this approach in the States.

Food to me is much fresher and tastier than back in the States. There is not much highly processed food available in Cuenca. There is an abundance of food being freshly prepared whether it is on the streets or in restaurants but it all looks and smells good. Fresh fruits and vegetables are sold all over Cuenca and the prices are incredibly low. Food is always tasty and well prepared. You can order a $2.00 Ecuadorian lunch and the cook will still pay attention to such details as using fresh spices in the meal. Seafood is delicious and plentiful and chicken somehow is always moist and tender. We feel that we are eating healthier and most expats lose weight when they come to Cuenca, either due to their healthier eating habits, exercising through walking, living at a higher altitude or due to a combination of all of these factors.

Cuenca is an extremely clean city. Every day we see people sweeping, cleaning the streets and parks and picking up trash. There are many people employed to clean and we see them in green or orange uniforms wearing hats and face covers. We have watched parades where the cleaning crews march right behind the parade and start cleaning immediately.

Public transportation is excellent and cheap. It costs 25 cents for a bus ride and students and seniors get discounts. There are many bus routes and the buses run frequently. Additionally, there are thousands of taxi cabs available in Cuenca as well.

We have been very pleased with the people we are meeting in Cuenca, both native and expats. The Cuencanos are truly nice people who will go out of their way to be helpful. The expats are friendly,interesting, open minded and adventurous and we have made several good friendships. The only thing we regret is not having been able to retire and move to Ecuador earlier.

How And Why We Chose Cuenca, Ecuador

2010-05-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Our choice of Cuenca, Ecuador and environs as our retirement home was a combination of diligent research, serendipity and being in the right place at the right time. Here is our story.

In the early 2000's, although retirement was still a long ways off we started to think about retirement locations. Our first thought was retirement options in the United States. We quickly eliminated most of the country as too cold. We considered California (too expensive), Arizona (too hot in the summer and surprisingly cool in the winter), Georgia and South Carolina (too cold in the winter), Hawaii (too expensive). In fact we decided that we were already living in the best state for us, Florida. We have been living in Florida since 1985 so we felt it was time for a change. We were a bit tired of the long, hot summers. We definitely wanted to be out of the hurricane belt and we were a bit tired of the ubiquitous flat scenery throughout Florida. Don't get me wrong. We still consider Florida the best state in the country for living according to our needs but we just felt it was time for a change.

We then decided to explore options out of the country. We had been going through several active hurricane years in the States and so decided to eliminate the Caribbean area and any place in the hurricane belt altogether. Our criteria for choosing a country was as follows: lower cost of living than we currently had, natural beauty and interesting scenery throughout the country, Spanish or English speaking (Andre spoke fluent Spanish and I was a Spanish major in college and always wanted the opportunity to use and improve my Spanish), good weather (we liked temperatures from 60 to 80 degrees), friendly, welcoming native population, fairly low crime area, fresh, natural food, adequate shopping, fairly good health care and good transportation to the United States. We decided that whenever we took a vacation we would explore living options in that country. Our first trip was to Costa Rica in 2003. We went on a group tour throughout Costa Rica. We decided to explore Costa Rica because someone from my office had been an exchange student there and gave it favorable reviews. It was a 10 day group tour but we had two days free which we used to look at real estate properties. Perhaps because Costa Rica was our first look we eliminated it due to poor roads (they have since been improved), lack of good shopping and fairly high costs for real estate. Next we decided to explore Panama. I did a lot of researching online for potential locations and also read International Living daily postcards where they give you snapshots of different countries. Panama sounded intriguing and the pictures showed a well developed Panama City. Panama did not disappoint. We almost purchased two different properties on that visit. One was in a higher altitude location and the other was a beach property. Ultimately we decided against the properties because the higher altitude location was still quite hot and near a cloud forest so we had lots of rain. The beach property was very hot and humid with lots of insects and rain. Over the next few years we went on several Caribbean cruises and made sure to house hunt. We looked at property in Saint Thomas and Barbados and ruled them out as too expensive. Later we decided against the whole Caribbean area because of hurricane threats.

In 2006 we split a two week vacation between Panama and Ecuador. I had seen pictures of Vilcabamba online and couldn't believe that it could possibly be that beautiful and we wanted to take a look for ourselves. We absolutely fell in love with the beauty of Vilcabamba. We also went to western Panama this time and looked over the town of Boquete and some of the surrounding towns. Boquete was too expensive and too americanized, but we did find a lesser developed mountain town that we were interested in. We actually were interested in both properties we had seen but the Panama property fell through as they were going to sell it as a large package rather than smaller lots. We made an offer on the Vilcabamba property which was accepted and we bought the 3 acre lot.

Fast forward to 2009. We finally retired in April and decided to spend 6 weeks in Panama and 6 weeks in Ecuador to determine where we wanted to retire. Ecuador was first in our travels and we ended up spending our whole 12 weeks there. We wanted to look over other parts of Ecuador before deciding if we wanted to build on the property we purchased in Vilcabamba. First stop was Quito where we spent 10 days with our friends who live there. We went house hunting but couldn't find any properties with the views and scenery we wanted. Next we headed to Cuenca. I had read about an area called Yunguilla Valley which had been compared favorably to Vilcabamba with respect to altitude, weather and natural beauty but was less known and less costly. Yunguilla is a long valley that begins just south of Cuenca and ends near the seaport city of Machala, with a few small towns along the way. The elevation in Yunguilla ranges from about 7,000 feet at the Giron side (closest to Cuenca) down to 4,500 feet at the Santa Isabel side (closest to Machala)–the climate is perfect and warm, with a very short rainy season. The valley is at an east-west orientation, so it gets direct sunshine all day long. While most of the economic and real estate development in Vilcabamba has come from foreigners, Yunguilla is mostly driven by Ecuadorians. Even though this is where many middle and upper-class families from Cuenca have vacation homes, properties are still 30% to 50% lower than those in Vilcabamba. And as they say folks, the rest is history. We saw a house that we fell in love with. It's probably as close to our dream house as we could ever hope for. We also liked the fact that we could have access to Cuenca. We liked Cuenca much more than Guayaquil and Quito. Guayaquil is hot and humid all year round, similar to Florida in the summer. Quito is even cooler than Cuenca at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador and offers pretty much everything that you need but isn't overly large. Vilcabamba is much more isolated and the nearest large city, Loja, pales in comparison to Cuenca. You have excellent medical and dental practitioners in Cuenca as well as quality hospitals and excellent public transportation. Cuenca offers lots of things to keep you busy- concerts, art exhibits, parades, fireworks, sports stadiums and lots of good restaurants.

If we had gone to Panama first and found the house of our dreams I'm sure we would have been happy there as well. There are pros and cons to each country and we could probably be content in either place but we're glad it ended up being Ecuador. Ecuador is by far the more stunning country with breathtaking views, offering different climates, temperatures and altitudes. You can live on the beach, the coast, inland, the jungle or the mountains. We hope to spend many happy, interesting years living in Ecuador.

Back In The States

2010-05-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday evening and I'm writing this blog from Florida. We returned to the U.S. on Tuesday. Monday we did last minute errands and packed. We weren't taking much back with us to the States. We had 8 suitcases with us in Ecuador and we packed the smaller suitcases in the larger ones so that we ended up with 3 large suitcases and one small suitcase. Tuesday morning we left at 6:45 A.M. We had an 8:00 A.M. flight from Cuenca to Guayaquil. Unbelievably we had to pay for overweight luggage although we were basically carrying empty suitcases. I think Tame has a lower weight allowance but fortunately we only had to pay $10.00. We realize that when we return to Ecuador we will have to pay hundreds of dollars in overweight luggage as we have tons of things to bring back to Ecuador. Our flight to Guayaquil was very quick-1/2 hour over the Andes Mountains and down the coast. We then had to wait on line at American Airlines for 45 minutes to check our baggage. Next we had to pay our exit tax of $28 each to depart Ecuador and then we went through customs in one second. However this was not the case at immigration. We had our passports with us and we also brought our cedulas as well. After looking at all our documents, immigration requested our censos. Our censos were in our apartment in Cuenca. We never thought we would need the censos. As a matter of fact we never really understood why we needed both a cedula and a censo. We had a temporary censo before we got our cedulas last week and we would take the censo with us and use it in place of the cedula. They are both basically identification cards but the cedula is the important and requested card in Ecuador. Obviously there is a use for the censo as immigration was requesting it. We told the immigration official that we didn't have our censos with us and he told us that we couldn't leave the country. We just stood there unable to move. The thought of being unable to leave, missing our flight, having to return to Cuenca to get our censos and maybe losing all our money for our airflight was overwhelming. Another immigration official was telling our official not to let us leave the country. We tried to explain that we lived in Cuenca and would have to return there to get our censo and that our luggage already was aboard the flight. I don't know what changed the immigration official's mind but finally he said we could leave. Only one problem. He said we wouldn't be able to get back in the country. He told us that immigration would once again ask us for our censos when we return and without it they wouldn't allow us back in the country. The official told us to say that we left the censos in our suitcase, but we are afraid to do this. What if immigration goes through all our luggage and the censos aren't there. We might be in more trouble. We are now very concerned about this situation and will try to contact immigration officials before we return to see what can be done. We don't want to have a problem on our return. Our American Airlines flight left over 45 minutes later than scheduled but made up a large part of the time in the air so that we only arrived 15 minutes late in Miami. The aircraft was one of those giant aircraft with 7 seats across and many, many sections. There had to be several hundred people aboard. We received lunch and saw a movie and the flight was smooth and uneventful. We retrieved our luggage and went through customs and immigration quickly. We had to wait at the airport as our son had checked and saw the flight was delayed and had left for the airport 1 hour later than he had originally planned. We arrived back at our house in Parkland around 7:30 and I was surprised by a few things. It was still light in Florida. With the time change it stays light until after 8:00. It was also warmer than I expected. Usually May is still fairly pleasant but it seems as though the hot summer heat has already descended upon Florida. Thankfully our kids had picked up food at a restaurant for dinner and we all had a nice dinner together.

The rest of the week was a marathon shopping fest. The refrigerator, freezer and pantry all were bare and we spent about $700 stocking up on food. We went to Walmart, BJ's, Publix Supermarket, Tunie's health food store and Whole Foods Market. No wonder we spend so much time in the States food shopping. There's just too many stores. We also went through 5 months of accumulated mail and are still sorting through packages we ordered. We are starting to accumulate items that we will be bringing back to Ecuador with us. We ordered a movie projector that we will be taking with us and tested it out by watching the movie "The Road". We will be catching up on all the movies we haven't seen in the past several months. We will also be going to the gym while we are in the States as we do not get exercise by walking here as we do in Cuenca. Today we went to watch our younger son play in a table tennis tournament.

Our stay will surely go by quickly as we are only staying for six weeks. We will especially enjoy our visit with our boys and our Florida home as we will not return to the States again for almost a year.

Yes!, Yes! Yes!

2010-05-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

No this is not a scene out of the movie "When Harry Met Sally". It is our overjoyed response as we finally received our permanent residencies and cedulas this week after many months of frustration and concern. The process took 5 months as opposed to the usual 2-3 months, but it was the lack of knowing what was going on or whether or not our application approval was forthcoming that made it so difficult. Now that the process is finished we will try to go after the party who caused this whole situation by being grossly negligent and dishonest and who ultimately cheated us and took our money after falsely informing us that we were approved. We have already contacted an attorney and will do whatever is possible to go after him. Please make sure that you or anyone else you know has nothing to do with David Beyer or Ecuador Foreigner Services, the name of the business. We don't want anyone else to have to go through what we went through.

Monday was the usual routine of a visit to the acupuncturist. We then stopped off at the agronomist who has an office nearby. We were interested in finding out about organic seeds and organic all natural pesticides. He pointed us in the right direction and gave us names of several companies that he thinks sell organic pesticides. We next had lunch at a different Chinese restaurant on Remigio Crespo named Chifa Fortuna and the food was good. We stopped at the Vega store to look at their ceramic creations. We then stopped at Maderamica to check on the status of our kitchen cabinets. It was due to be ready on May 15th but they advised us that there had been a problem with the raw wood that had been delivered to them and they had to return it and get another shipment, thereby delaying the whole process. Our new estimated completion date is June 5th. When we returned to the apartment there was an email from our Quito attorney that our visas had been signed and stamped in our passports and everything was complete and that he had sent out all the paperwork to us. This attorney has done a good job for us. Too bad we didn't know about him originally before we hired the first firm. We decided to find out about a return flight to the States. Originally we had booked a round trip flight with Avianca Airlines at a cost of $1,080. We were scheduled to return to the States on March 13th but had to delay our flights when we didn't have our residency papers. At that time we were told that there would be a penalty of $75 per person plus any additional fare cost. When I telephoned Avianca to schedule our return flight I expected that we would have to pay around $150 to $200 extra but was totally unprepared for their response. They advised us that the change in flight would cost us an additional $1688. I was speechless. I decided to investigate other flights with different airlines and I found a round trip nonstop flight from Guayaquil to Miami for half the cost.

First thing Tuesday morning I contacted Avianca Airlines once again wanting to make sure that the price they quoted us wasn't a mistake, and they informed us that this was the correct price. They advised us that our fare had a certain time limitation and that we had exceeded our time limit and that was why our additional airfare was so exorbitant. I inquired as to whether the amount we had as a credit could be applied to a new round trip ticket and they said it couldn't. We can only use the credit toward the return leg of our flight so we will not be able to use our ticket. This turns out to be additional money that we will have lost because of our residency delay. We then booked a nonstop roundtrip flight with American Airlines for $838. We leave next Tuesday morning. Andre and I had dental appointments next. The dentist finished the first half of the work that I need and she also finished Andre's cleaning. When we return to Cuenca I will commence work on removing my mercury amalgams. Tuesday night we went out to dinner at Tiestos with a group of friends. Once again we acknowledged that Tiestos is still our favorite restaurant. The food is delicious, colorful and prepared well. There were 10 people in our group and most had desserts and each dessert was decorated a little differently. Everyone in the group enjoyed the meal and the evening.

On Wednesday morning our documents arrived. We headed over to the Censo office to obtain our new Censos. Unfortunately their computers were down and did not come back up prior to closing for lunch. We were advised to return at 3:00 o'clock. We returned to our apartment for lunch and then went shopping at the Co-Op. We telephoned the Censo office after they reopened and they said the computers were working. We headed back to the Censo office and obtained our Censos. Wednesday night we went to see the Royal Russian Ballet with the same group of friends from Tiestos. Although the performance didn't have a live orchestra and the music that was played was recorded music we all enjoyed the ballet dancing.

Thursday we went to get our cedulas. The clerk checked our paperwork and nodded that everything was correct. However she told us that all the documents needed to be notarized so we had to take a cab to the notary, get the documents notarized and then return once again to the Registro Civil. There were lots of school children there as school children are taken by their teachers to get their Cedulas. We had to wait behind a large class of students but finally it was our turn. Our paperwork was fine so next we were fingerprinted. Photos were then taken of us. Next we had to wait for our information to be typed up. One person types everything on a manual typewriter so it takes some time. Even though there was only one person before us we had to wait awhile. It was now lunch time and we were afraid that they were going to make us come back after lunch, but the Director stayed and typed up our information. We then had to sign everything and were given our Cedulas which are good for the next 12 years. What a relief to be finally finished with this whole process. We had lunch next at a vegetarian restaurant called El Natural. We then found a store where they make copies and put it in plastic. We had this done for our cedulas so we could walk around with our copies and not take the original. We then went to a store looking for movie screens. They told us they would have the screens at the store for us to see tomorrow.

Friday Andre had a dental appointment with the dentist who did his implants just to make sure everything was okay and then continued on to the acupuncturist. Friday evening we met friends for dinner at Tratoria Santa Lucia in the Santa Lucia Hotel and said our goodbyes while enjoying a nice dinner.

Saturday we took friends with us to see our house. This is the last time we will be at our house until we return the very end of June. Our wood burning oven was finished and Andre was anxious to try it out. He had spoken with the caretaker about preparing a meal in the oven. Unfortunately we didn't realize how long everything took. You first have to burn wood in the oven for a few hours until it turns to ash. Next you remove all the ash and then place the food inside the oven. The oven retains its heat for several hours and the food is cooked with the residual heat from the oven but this is a slow process. The caretaker cooked 2 large chickens but the chickens weren't ready until almost 4:30. We all were starving by this time as this was our lunch. The chicken was delicious, moist and tender. In additional we had salad that came from our garden, corn from the garden and naranjilla juice also from our garden. Can't wait until we are doing this on a daily basis. We didn't leave the house until 5:15 and Andre ended up having to drive part of the way in the dark which made driving more difficult. We didn't get back to our apartment until 7:00.

Sunday we were invited to go out with friends but declined since we will be leaving first thing Tuesday morning and still have a lot to do. Next week's blog will come from the U.S.

Progress (Not)

2010-05-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well I should be writing to say that the missing residency documents we submitted to immigration were okay and that our passports have been stamped with a permanent residency visa and returned to us. Instead I am writing to say that our documents are still sitting in Quito, unapproved, unseen and unstamped, waiting for the director of foreigner immigration to return. He was in Guayaquil all week and won't return to Quito until Monday. We were told by our attorney that he is the only one who can sign off on our documents so absolutely nothing happened this week. We can only hope that next week will be more productive.

Our usual weekly Monday routine commenced with a visit to the acupuncturist. We had lunch at a recently opened restaurant called Golden Bangladesh and the food was pretty good. We went back to La Victoria the store where we purchased our computer last week to get some additional information on routers. We then went to a few stores that sell printers to price out different printers.

Tuesday was dentist day for both me and Andre. We both had 11:30 appointments with my dentist, me to continue with my dental work in progress and Andre to have a cleaning. We received a call from the dentist pushing our appointments back to 12:15. I finally got taken just before 1:00 and Andre didn't get seen until 1:45. By the time we left the office it was almost 2:30. The office is not that far from our apartment so we just went back there for lunch. It was after 3:00 by the time we finished lunch so we decided to just stay home since we were going out to dinner later in the evening. Amid fairly heavy rain we met our friends and took a cab to the restaurant. We were having dinner in a restaurant we had never gone to before. It had been recommended to us by an Ecuadorian who said it was the best restaurant in Cuenca and we were curious to see if we agreed. The name of the restaurant is Villa Rosa. It is an elegant restaurant with white tablecloths and attentive service. The menu is fairly large with selections of meats, poultry, seafood and Ecuadorian specialties. We all had appetizers. I had an arrugula salad with cheese and figs and Andre had empanadas. For our main course I had crusted grilled lamb chops with potatoes and vegetables and Andre had lomo fino in a wine and mushroom sauce. The food was very good but we have to say that Tiestos is still our favorite restaurant. Our bill for the 4 of us turned out to be very expensive- $122. However we all ate more than usual. We had appetizers, main courses, desserts and drinks. The main courses by themselves run between $9-$12 plus the additional 22% tax and service charge. I would recommend this restaurant for a special occasion or for someone wanting an elegant dining experience.

Wednesday Andre went to the acupuncturist and then we went to lunch at Good Affinity. We then did our browsing at Sukasa and food shopping at SuperMaxi.

Thursday we decided to go to the Registro Civil which is where we will have to bring our residency documents once they are returned to us. This is the place where we get our Cedulas, the final identification documents we will need for our permanent residency. We wanted to find out what documentation we will need to bring when we go there for our Cedulas. We didn't want any more surprises as we've had more than enough already. We spoke to a few people there and of course we were sent from one area to the next. Finally we were advised that we need to speak to the director but that office was closed. We were told to wait and that the director would be back from lunch at 1:00. We were still waiting at 1:30 with no sign of the director. After speaking to several other workers we were advised that the director was working behind one of the windows there because they were short of help. We finally spoke to her but unfortunately she didn't provide much information to us. We next had lunch at a chicken restaurant called El Asador. We then went to purchase the printer we had seen at one of the stores we had been to a few days ago. It is an all in one printer that can scan and copy as well. We feel this will be useful when we are living out in the country.

Friday Andre went to our house with the store employee where we purchased our TV. The store had promised to deliver the TV for us and Andre accompanied the employee on the trip. Andre had to leave at 6:20 in the morning as the employee needed to be back in Cuenca to open the store that morning. Andre had been attempting to go out to our house with the store clerk since Wednesday but had been unable to go earlier in the week. It seems that there had been a protest regarding water and the indigenous people as a part of that protest had been blocking roads throughout the country the whole week. They were not allowing cars to go through the town of Giron which we need to pass through in order to travel to our house. However by Friday everything was back to normal on the roads. I stayed at the apartment as we were expecting the lobster man to deliver our lobsters. Andre was supposed to meet the architect at the house but he was a no show so finally Andre took the bus back to Cuenca. Meanwhile the lobster man showed up and we purchased three lobsters for dinner. When Andre arrived back at the apartment we had lunch and then went out to do some shopping. We needed wine to cook the lobsters and we also went to the bread store and fish store. We both enjoyed our lobster dinner very much and look forward to future lobster deliveries.

Saturday we went to Super Stock and Coral Center to do some additional shopping for household items.

Sunday we relaxed at home. We spoke with our boys who were disappointed that we weren't all together to celebrate Mother's Day and frustrated that we still do not have a definite return date.

Shopping Up A Storm

2010-05-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

Not too much new to report on our weekly residency update. We received the corrected letter from immigration from our attorney in Quito on Thursday morning and headed to the Property Registrar in Santa Isabel where we gave them the corrected letter and picked up the two letters that they had prepared for us. On Friday we overnighted the documents to our attorney in Quito and he will have everything on Monday morning. Next week we should know if everything is okay.

Monday Andre went to the acupuncturist and then we had lunch. We next went to two outdoor markets, one that specialized in Ecuadorian knitted items such as tablecloths, table runners, wall hangings, rugs, sweaters, ponchos, handbags, etc. We picked up several items for the house. We then went to another outdoor market where they specialize in woven straw items and pottery and picked up several items as well.

Tuesday we went to La Victoria, an electronics store where we had seen some computers that we were interested in. We were especially interested in a Gateway all in one 20 inch computer. We just wanted to make sure that it would work with a modem before we bought it. Sales are quite different in Ecuador than in the U.S. Once you purchase an item in Ecuador it is virtually impossible to return. We were told that if we brought our modem with us the store could try it out for us to make sure the computer was compatible with the modem. If we wanted to buy the computer they would set up the computer for us with all the necessary software. We told them we would return with the modem later this week. We then went to another outdoor market where they sold jewelry and picked up several items.

Wednesday Andre went to the acupuncturist. We then went shopping, stopping first to pick up dog food for our dog in Yunguilla and next going to a fish store that friends had told us about which is actually run out of a house and then finally to the Co-Op for our produce.

Thursday we first went to our house in Yunguilla. Our kitchen table had been delivered by the architect and we loved it. The architect had also installed the painted glass wall in our master bathroom. We then continued on to Santa Isabel where we had lunch and then went to the Property Registrar where we picked up the necessary documents for our residency. We also paid our house phone bill in Santa Isabel.

Friday Andre went to the acupuncturist while I went to my dental appointment. We then met at Parque Calderon. We went back to La Victoria with the our modem and they were able to get the computer working. We decided to buy the computer and they said they needed a few hours to get the computer set up and that we should return later in the day. We had lunch at the German bakery again having crepes filled with vegetables and cheese and shrimp empanadas. We next headed back to the outdoor market where they have knitted wool and cotton items to pick up additional items for the house. We then returned to La Victoria to pick up our computer.

Saturday we first went to the security store where we signed a contract for our security system monitoring at our house in Yunguilla. We then went back to the store where we bought the appliances for the apartment. They had called us to let us know that the TV we wanted for the house had just arrived in the store. They set up the TV in the store so we could see a demonstration. We liked the TV and purchased it. It is scheduled to be delivered to the house next week. Next we went to Boyaca to purchase additional bathroom rugs for the house. We then went back to the Chinese restaurant that we had found last week and once again had a delicious lunch. We finally stopped at Vega Home store and purchased a flower vase for our house. We have noticed a change in the weather in Cuenca this week. It is starting to get cooler. The day may start out warm but the temperature can cool down significantly during the day. In addition, it has been a rainy week with little sunshine and this is also contributing to the cooler weather. We first came to Cuenca last April and remember that the nights were always very cool. I guess we are heading into the South American winter and the next several months will be somewhat cooler. It still can reach 70 degrees during the day but can drop down to 50 or below at night.

Sunday we changed our usual routine of staying home and we spent the afternoon with friends who are heading back to the States for vacation in a week. We ended up eating at a restaurant in Challuabamba which was very busy with Ecuadorian families.

Two Weeks and Counting

2010-04-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

The saga continues on in our interminable residency quest. We are making progress in micro millimeters. Since March 19th our mantra has been "only two weeks more" but the two weeks have turned into almost a month and a half and there is still no end in sight. Our best estimation is it will take another two weeks until we are finally finished with our residency process but this is only guess work as all our previous two week estimates have come and gone. This week we waited for the instruction letter from immigration to arrive from our attorney in Quito. We thought we would have it at the beginning of the week and when the letter didn't arrive we called our attorney. He told us that first he was advised by the immigration department that they were waiting for the checks that we had issued on April 13th for our government fees to clear. Once the checks had cleared our attorney was further advised that the letter that immigration needed to issue wouldn't be ready until Wednesday and our attorney advised us that he would pick the letter up and overnight it to us at that time. We received the letter on Friday morning and headed right away to the Santa Isabel property registrar 1 3/4 hours away from Cuenca. There are now two documents that we need. The letter prepared by the immigration department requests that the property registrar prepare a letter confirming that we are the owners of the property for which we are applying for residency based on investment, and we also need an additional Certificado de Gravamenes letter which we have previously provided immigration when we first submitted our application. This document states that the property is free of liens. At the property registrar we were advised that these letters would be ready next Wednesday. The property registrar also found some errors in the letter from immigration and they are requesting that immigration prepare a corrected letter. We don't know if this will further hold us up if we don't have a corrected letter from immigration. Stay tuned.

Monday Andre had his acupuncturist appointment. We then had lunch and headed to Mega Hierro and Kywi to look for household items for our house in Yunguilla. Each week when we drive to the house we load up the car with purchased items and bring them to the house.

Tuesday we went to an alarm company store to discuss having our alarm at the house monitored. They are supposed to send someone to the house to check out our system. Next we did our shopping at SuperMaxi and Sukasa and then returned to our apartment in the early afternoon so Andre could watch a soccer match.

Wednesday morning we had an exterminator come to the apartment. When we moved into the apartment and were putting away items in drawers we noticed that there were some bugs in the lower kitchen drawer and we would sometimes see these same type of bugs at night on the floor. Coming from Florida, the bug capital of the United States, we were used to seeing many different types of indoor and outdoor insects and had battled various insect invasions over the years. We regularly have an exterminator come to spray and haven't had issues for a number of years. These bugs in our Ecuador apartment were different than those we were familiar with in Florida and we had no idea what they were. They would only appear late at night and looked like little black worms with whiskers with an inner white shell like a tiny shrimp crustacean. We couldn't seem to get rid of them on our own so we decided to try an exterminator. The exterminator advised us that we had to empty out all our cabinets, closets, etc. so they could spray throughout the apartment. We made an appointment for the exterminator to come on Friday morning. The exterminator also mentioned that most Ecuadorians have a different mentality when it comes to bugs and bug protection. Most Ecuadorians will not readily call an exterminator to get rid of bugs nor will they put screens on windows to prevent outdoor insects from entering. We then went out and Andre saw the acupuncturist and then we had lunch. We next went to several appliance stores to price TVs. We have decided to buy a TV for the house now rather than when we return. I have been doing a lot of research on the different brands and models that we have seen and we have decided to buy a Sony LCD TV. The model is brand new and only a few stores in Cuenca presently have it. We did find a store in Cuenca with this model and the price was pretty good. We also stopped at the store that is making us a painted glass window for the bathroom. Of course this was supposed to be finished weeks ago. When we arrived at the store the painting was only 1/8 done but the owner says it will be finished tomorrow. Any bets?

Thursday morning I had my dentist appointment. We next went to the appliance store where we bought our apartment appliances to check out the TV model we're interested in. They don't have the size of the model we want but should be getting it in another week or so. Their price was slightly better than the other store where we saw this model so we will probably wait. We then went to the alarm company store which is only a few stores away. They said that they may not have to go to the house and may be able to start up the monitoring process through our telephone connection. We then had lunch at Good Affinity. In the afternoon we had made up to meet a friend who lives at the Palermo Building near us and take him with us when we did our shopping at the bread store and Co-Op since he didn't know where these stores were located. When we were about to leave our apartment to meet our friend we couldn't lock our door. It would not close fully. After struggling for 5 minutes we telephoned our friend and he said he would come up to our apartment to take a look. Meanwhile we finally figured out what was wrong. The door plate was loose. We tried to tighten the screw but could not. Our friend, who is handier than the both of us, inserted a piece of aluminum foil in the plate hole and then was able to tighten the screw. We then walked to the bread store and we and our friend picked up bread and snacks. We then continued on to the Co-Op which is close by and did our weekly produce/meat/cheese shop. Thursday night we emptied all our kitchen cabinets and second bedroom closets in preparation for the exterminator.

Friday morning we were up early and emptied our bedroom drawers and closets and the bathroom cabinets. It's a good thing our apartment isn't huge as the whole apartment was in total disarray with clothes all over the beds, pots and plates all over the dining room table and bags of food items and staples on couches throughout the apartment. The exterminator spent about 1/2 hour spraying throughout and we left all the windows opened to air out the place. The exterminator said we could return in the afternoon. The extermination cost $30 and is warranted for 8 days. Hopefully we won't have any bugs returning on day 9. We then drove to our house in Yunguilla. The architect was supposed to be there installing our painted glass window but wasn't there. We assume that the glass was not ready. Our traditional Ecuadorian brick oven was almost complete and should be finished by next week. The first of the lettuce from the garden was ready and the caretaker gave us a package to take containing a lettuce, a cucumber and a papaya. We then headed to Santa Isabel which is about 15-18 minutes south. We had lunch and then went to the Property Registry. We will have to return next Wednesday or Thursday to pick up the necessary documents. We arrived back to our apartment after 5:00 and then had to start cleaning up and putting everything away. We worked for a few hours and then decided to rest a bit and have dinner at the Oro Verde deli. There wasn't much left to eat as it was late and there was also a dental convention staying at the hotel and the restaurant was very busy. We did however manage to get the last two salads that there were and were just glad to be sitting and relaxing for a bit. We returned to the apartment and finished up putting away everything. We were both tired and hope that this is the end of our bug problem. We don't want to have to do this all over again.

Saturday we went to Boyaca and bought two small area rugs, one for the living room and one for the bathroom. There was a Chinese restaurant across the street and we decided to try it. As previously mentioned in our blogs we love the food in Cuenca and have found many great dining places. The one thing we hadn't found was a good Chinese restaurant. We had only eaten at one Chinese restaurant in our seven months in Cuenca and it was okay but nothing special. This restaurant is not fancy but the food is excellent. There were lots of people there and all the dishes that were brought out looked good. I had a special wonton soup. The wontons were dumplings and were very tasty and the dough wasn't too thick or doughy. There was an assortment of additional meats, chicken and shrimp in the soup and the meats were very tasty and seemed to have been grilled before being put into the soup. Andre had a thin noodle dish with assorted meats, poultry, shrimp and vegetables and this was tasty as well. We will definitely return to this restaurant and are pleased to have finally found a restaurant for good Chinese food. We stopped off at SuperMaxi to pick up some items we needed and also picked up cleaning items for the house. Saturday night we met friends at La Parillada Restaurant and had an enjoyable dinner and evening.

Sunday once again we stayed home.

No End In Sight

2010-04-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

This week we continued to play our favorite game in Ecuador-giant steps. We managed to take 2 steps forward but eventually ended up taking one step back. The week started off promising enough. On Monday we received an email from our attorney telling us that we were approved for our residency visa. We were both excited and started thinking of possible return flight dates to the States. We needed to go to Banco Internacional and deposit the government fees of $700 into the government account and get a receipt from the bank. We then had to overnight the bank receipt along with our passports to our Quito attorney. We took care of all this on Tuesday and our attorney received our overnight package on Wednesday. Next step was for him to get our passports stamped with our new visas, but instead of an email from him with a copy of our stamped passports we received an email from him that there was yet another document that we needed to provide. We will need to provide an additional letter from the Property Registrar in Santa Isabel stating that we are indeed the owners of the property in Yunguilla. The deed, proof of tax payments and proof of no liens isn't enough. They require this additional document. We are now waiting for our attorney to send us the format for this letter so we will be sure to have the necessary content in the letter we will need to bring to Santa Isabel. We will have to wait until we receive the letter and then will have to go to Santa Isabel to have it signed and probably notarized and stamped. We will then have to overnight the letter to our attorney in Quito and he will have to present it to immigration. We now think we will not be able to return to the States until the very end of April at best. More next week.

Monday Andre went off to his acupuncturist appointment and I went to my dentist appointment. Andre returned shortly thereafter as the building where the acupuncturist is located was closed because of a holiday. We had previously mentioned that all during April, Cuenca is celebrating its anniversary but the 12th of April is the actual day for the founding of Cuenca and all the schools were closed as well as many businesses. We wanted to go to the ceramic pottery store Artesa and we telephoned to check if they were opened. They were so we went there Monday afternoon. We have previously written extensively about Artesa in our May 30, 2009 blog called "A Trip to a Ceramic Factory" so if you want more information on the store please refer to that blog. At that time we had decided that we would purchase their handmade, hand painted ceramic dishes if we ended up living in the Cuenca area. We spent a few hours at the store picking out various sized dishes. We decided not to get a set of one particular pattern since Artesa has so many interesting and colorful patterns. We picked out individual dishes so that each dish pattern will be different. We got service for 8 and each of our dinner plates is a different pattern. We also got smaller dessert/salad plates, bowls, mugs and serving platters. We might eventually add some additional pieces but this is a good start. After we returned to our apartment Andre went to the Oro Verde Hotel to meet with a man who is a neighbor at our house in Yunguilla. We have not met any of our neighbors because we are not yet living at the property and are only there a few hours a week, but our caretaker gave us the telephone number of the man and Andre wanted to talk to him about some water issues. It turns out that this man lives in the Oro Verde Hotel during the week and since he is still working only goes to the property in Yunguilla on weekends and vacations. He and Andre had a nice get together which lasted close to 1 1/2 hours. This man was the original land owner in our area and bought a considerable amount of land 28 years ago. He told Andre that at that time there were no paved roads at all from Cuenca to the property and it took 4 hours to travel there. He has a house with 21 acres that borders our property. He was in fact the person who sold the land to the man we bought our house from. Andre had no luck with the water issue but it was a nice meeting and Andre said we would stay in touch.

Tuesday was one of those rare days when everything goes right and we are able to accomplish everything we set out to do. First we headed to the Banco Internacional to deposit the government payment for our visas. At the bank Andre was asked to take off his hat and since this was the second time that this had happened in a bank we curiously asked why. It seems that it is because of the cameras that are located in the bank. I guess they want to be sure to get a good photo of each person. Next we went to a store to print out documents and make copies. We then headed to DHL to ship out our passports and bank receipt to our attorney in Quito. We then went to a shop to meet with an artist that had been recommended to us. We have decided to paint a mural in the house of one of the photos we have taken at the house. We showed him copies of the photos so he could get an idea what we were looking for. He gave us a price and we decided to get one of two more prices as we were told that he is expensive. Next we had lunch at the German bakery near Colineal furniture store. We had gone there before for bread or desserts but had not had lunch there. We didn't even realize that they had a whole back area where you could eat, but we were glad we stopped there as the food was very good. I had a vegetarian empanada and a slice of shrimp quiche and Andre also had the vegetarian empanada as well as a meat filled empanada. The dough was very light and flaky like a puff pastry dough and the filling was tasty. We topped off the meal with a piece of chocolate nut cake and coconut cookies. This place is definitely recommended. Next we found a store where they were able to scan documents for us. Then we went in search of an outdoor market that we had previously been to but couldn't remember what street they were on. Up and down the blocks we walked until we finally located the market. We wanted to purchase 2 hammocks for the house and fortunately this market had them and we bought 2 lovely hammocks. We finally headed to Coral Center where we shopped for items for the house and picked up several things such as silverware, pots and pans, etc. We finally returned to the apartment tired but content that we had accomplished so much.

Wednesday we drove to the house with all our packages that we had purchased the last few days. We also met with the alarm company person who was finished installing and upgrading our system and wanted to show us how to operate our system. We then received our weekly produce package from the caretaker with the available current produce. Our bag included various types of oranges, granadillas, bananas and beans. We stopped off for lunch at a roadside restaurant not far from our property. We decided to stop at the bread store and Co-Op market to do some shopping before returning to our apartment since we were very low on produce.

Thursday after the cleaning girl left we headed to town. We had an 11:00 A.M. appointment with another artist. Andre had spotted his shop when we were at the Art Festival last Saturday. It was actually a studio where he taught art to students. We showed him a photo of what we had in mind and he said he could paint the mural for us. He would have to do it on 2 consecutive Fridays with a helper as that is the only day his art studio is closed. His price was much less than the other artist and his paintings seemed good so we might use him. We won't do anything until after we return from the States. We then headed to Banco Pinchincha to take care of a few things. We then had lunch at a restaurant called Rincon Mar y Tierra which we happened to pass by chance. It's cafeteria style where you choose what you want, pay for it and then they bring you your meal. We both had seafood dishes and their prices were very good for what we had. Next we went to some appliance stores to price televisions and freezers. We then stopped at Tutto Freddo for dessert and cappuccino. Next we headed back to the outdoor market where we had purchased our hammocks. When we were at the house yesterday I tried hooking up the hammock and it wasn't long enough. I was able to reach both hooks but the hammock was so high off the ground that nobody could use it. We wanted to see if we could get the hammock lengthened. The girl who sold us the hammocks said she would speak to her father and that we should come back tomorrow. We arrived back at our apartment at 4:30 and there was a telephone message from friends of ours wanting to know if we wanted to go with them to a contemporary Mexican dance performance at the Banco Central later this evening. We said we would go and we all decided to meet at 6:00 to go out for dinner first. We went to Bapu for Indian food but the owner was in India and they weren't serving food so we then went to Saucilitos Parilladas which was pretty close to where the concert was being held. We had been there before and the food is good with the meats being imported from Argentina. We all had steak dinners. The concert was fun and different. We had never seen a dance troupe like this before. There were 6 performers and they combined dance movements with acrobatic movements and performed to the sounds of flutes and drums.

Friday Andre and I went to our respective appointments with the acupuncturist and dentist. We then met back at the apartment, had lunch and took the bus downtown. Once again we headed back to the outdoor market. We were advised that they didn't have any ideas for extending the hammocks but another vendor at the market suggested that we should try another market where they sold rope additions that we could use for the hammocks. It took us all afternoon to finally arrive at the right place where yes indeed they had many vendors selling rope extensions. We bought 4 and will try them next week when we go to the house. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around that market.

Saturday we drove to the Mall Del Rio. We wanted to do some additional shopping at Coral for household items. We dropped the car off at the car wash located at the Mall as the car really needed to be cleaned. We also had lunch at the Mall. We picked up several additional items we needed for the house and then prepared to leave the Mall. In Ecuador when you go to a Mall by car you are given a ticket when you enter and you need to give them the ticket back when you depart. There is no charge for parking but the ticket is an essential part as we were unfortunately about to find out. When we came to the exit gate we could not locate our ticket. Andre doesn't know if he lost it somewhere or if perhaps he left it in the car and it was thrown away by the car wash people but nonetheless after much searching it was nowhere to be found. The girl at the exit gate told us we could not exit the Mall. We had to back up and return to the parking area and then go to the administration office in the Mall with our identification card and our driving registration card and then pay a fee of $5.00 in order for us to be able to exit the Mall. Needless to say next time we will be 100% sure where that ticket is. We met friends for dinner at Tiestos. I have previously written about this restaurant in our March 7, 2010 blog titled "Up in the Air". At that time I stated that this was our favorite restaurant to date. Well once more I confirm that this is still our favorite restaurant. The food is delicious, creative, original and the desserts are a work of art. We will continue to go to Tiestos and try different dishes because each dish is a unique blend of different taste sensations. This time I also brought my camera to capture some of the food items and will post them to this blog.

Sunday as usual we stayed in the apartment. We decided to use the beans that had been grown at the house as a part of our dinner, and of course never having grown anything before we were surprised by the beans. Of course if we logically thought about it we would have realized that the beans wouldn't come like the packaged dry beans we purchase in the stores. They are similar to string beans except larger and you need to open them and take out the beans within. Each string bean like pod contains anywhere from 2 to 5 beans. I am also including some bean photos on the blog. Andre remembered that one year ago today on April 18, 2009 we commenced our retirement and left for Ecuador. Of course it doesn't feel like we are really totally retired yet because we have been going non stop for a year but it does feel as if we've entered a new stage in our lives. We are very happy with our decision to choose Ecuador and with several months of living in Ecuador under our belts we even like the country more than we did a year ago. We are looking forward to finally getting our permanent residency visas and moving into our house in the near future. We will then truly feel retired.

Progress Of Sorts

2010-04-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

The saga continues in our quest for permanent residency approval. All in all we've made some progress this week but of course not as much or as quickly as we would have liked. The attorney said that he convinced immigration officials to accept our apostilized marriage certificate as is which is a great relief. The two documents we overnighted to Quito were received by the attorney on Tuesday afternoon and he filed them with immigration on Wednesday. He believes that our approval is imminent. After all the previous delays, lack of information and then misinformation from our previous legal representative we are cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately we will not be able to return to the States in time to file our taxes. We will have to file for an extension but may end up having to pay penalties and interest because we are unable to estimate our tax due for 2009. All our paperwork is in our Florida house. 2009 is considerably different as far as tax owed since we retired last April and then commenced to receive Social Security. We have both regular earnings and Social Security earnings and do not have a clue as to how much we will owe. Just one more problem our prior legal representative created for us. The Alban chronicle will continue in next week's blog with the latest updates.

As far as the rest of the week it was pretty good. The weather pattern has changed with daily downpours, sometimes heavy and continuing throughout the day. The rivers are full. We were told that April is a rainy month and we are hoping that it will be enough to avoid any future blackouts during the dry season which will commence in another month or so.

Monday was a typical Monday with a visit to the acupuncturist and shopping at the bread store and the co-op.

First thing Tuesday morning we received a phone call asking Andre if he wanted to go to the soccer match at the stadium on Wednesday evening. Andre of course accepted. A few minutes later we checked our email and there was an additional invitation from someone else to go to the soccer match. Andre will truly be in soccer heaven here in Ecuador. Tuesday I had my dentist appointment. Andre wanted to watch a soccer game in the afternoon but when he turned on the TV he couldn't get any channels. Once again we called TV Cable and we were advised that we weren't on the automatic deduction plan even though TV Cable had previously indicated that we were. Off Andre went to the bank to pay for this month's cable TV. We will have to stop at the TV cable office next week and get this straightened out. In the afternoon we received another phone call indicating that the wives were also going to the soccer match and did I want to go. I am not a soccer fan but decided to go.

Wednesday Andre went to the acupuncturist and then went over to the Palermo building near us to help translate for some friends of ours who were having issues with their shower. We received a phone call from a man who was selling lobsters. We had previously mentioned to our Ecuadorian realtor that we had been unable to find lobster since coming to Ecuador. He advised us that he knew an Ecuadorian who delivered lobsters to Cuenca from time to time and that he would give this man our phone number. The man came over to our apartment with a insulated container containing live lobsters. Of course they are not like the Maine lobsters we eat in the States. They are similar to the spiny lobsters they breed in Florida. We decided to try them and bought 3 lobsters from him. They cost $6.50 each. He killed them and we refrigerated them. We then got ready for the soccer match. It had been raining hard all day but thank goodness the rain stopped by the time we were to leave for the match. We met our friends and the whole group of us took a limo to the stadium for the match. The match started at 5:30. We had great seats right near the field and under cover from the rain but the seats were the most expensive ones sold and cost $30 each which I found high. The women chatted throughout the match while the men paid closer attention to the match. Unfortunately there was no scoring in the match for either team and it ended up 0-0. We all ate a traditional Ecuadorian meal that they were selling at the stadium during half time. After the game Andre and I stopped for cappuccino and dessert at the Oro Verde gourmet deli.

Thursday we were out all day doing chores. We went to the lamp store in the La Cuadra shopping center to buy a wall lamp that we need for the house. We then went downtown to some photo stores to find out about blowing up a photo. We had lunch in town and then went back to the lamp store to pick up our lamp which we didn't want to carry around with us. We also found a craft shop nearby where they make various pottery items. We liked several items and will go back at a future date to purchase some. Next we went to Sukasa and Supermaxi to do our weekly shopping and we finally took a cab back to our apartment with all our purchases. We had our lobster dinners and we both enjoyed it a lot. We would definitely purchase the lobsters again. It does not have as much meat as a Maine lobster as it is missing the large claws that the Maine lobsters have but it does have a large tail area and the lobster meat was very tasty.

Friday we went with friends to Yunguilla to show them our house. We drove there in our car, and we are now starting to bring all the items we purchase for the house during the week with us. We are storing these items at the house so that we will have less to purchase when we return to Ecuador. We spent a few hours at the house and then went to have lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant. Upon our return to Cuenca we all went to Oro Verde for dessert and cappuccino. A fun day was had by all.

Saturday we went to two craft fairs. April is a celebration month for the city. Cuenca was founded on April 12, 1557 and there are festivities throughout the month celebrating Cuenca's creation. One craft fair was held in the Parque de la Madre and there were handmade crafts, jewelry and paintings for sale. We ended up buying coconut candies. Next we headed to another art exhibit near the University of Cuenca. This was more upscale and was mostly held in the various shops on the premises. The ceramic works of Eduardo Vega, one of Ecuador's most prominent artists, were on display in his shop and various other art works were on display in the other shops. Once again we ended up purchasing something to eat- this time organic Ecuadorian chocolate covered cacao beans which were really good. We bought 2 boxes and I ended up eating one whole box yesterday. We then found a very good seafood restaurant called El Puerto next to the Santa Ines Clinic and we had lunch there. We both had a crab meat salad which was very good and plentiful. We next headed to a third craft fair that we had been told about but it was closed. We'll try to go there next week. It was a nice day. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were out. Reminded us of outdoor fairs we would go to in Florida.

Sunday was stay at home day and blog day.

A Roller Coaster Ride

2010-04-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

We've been on an emotional roller coaster ride for the past week and a half. We didn't write about it in last week's blog because we still had no verifiable information. We know a little more now but the total picture is far from complete. In a previous blog two weeks ago I had written that we were approved for our residency. On March 19th our legal representative emailed us that we were approved and stated that he would contact us early the following week regarding the necessary final paperwork. We heard nothing further from him and so contacted him by email the following Thursday. He emailed back that in fact we were not approved, that he had been misinformed by the attorney that was handling our file and that she was now fired. He informed us that he would go to immigration on Friday, March 26th and find out what was happening. We heard nothing further from him despite our emails and phone message. This is a person who always responds to our emails immediately. Now we were worried. I spent Friday evening online trying to locate other Quito firms that handle immigration and Andre managed to speak to someone on Saturday and explain our situation. We wanted this firm to go to immigration and check to see if our application for residency had ever been filed and if so what was the status. It was very difficult having to wait from Friday to Monday, but we had to actually wait until Tuesday because the person who does the checking at the new firm wasn't in on Monday. On Tuesday, it appeared as if nothing had been filed. Unfortunately the best way to check an application filing is through the filing number but we didn't have this information. We had been emailing our legal representative and also leaving phone messages for him and for the actual attorney who handled our file without any response from either of them. Finally after a particularly threatening email to our legal representative we received an email back from him. He blamed everything on the attorney who was handling the file but of course this attorney was his employee. He said he didn't know the number of the file and would not answer any questions on the status of our file except to say we would be getting our residency approval soon. Did I also mention that he was paid in full based on his information that we were approved. We will be dealing more with him in the future and will be initiating legal action against him. Right now our main concern is our residency approval. We also finally were able to speak with the attorney who had handled our file and she claimed to have not been working for our legal representative for a longer period than he stated. She was able to provide us with a file number and we immediately provided this information to the new law firm in Quito who were going to once again go to immigration on Wednesday. On Wednesday we found out the following from the Quito law firm: Our residency papers were filed but probably much later than we were led to believe. On March 19th a letter was issued by immigration suspending our application process because 3 documents that were submitted were not acceptable. We have 30 days (from March 19th) to submit the necessary documents or our file will be archived and we would need to start the residency process over again. We went to Santa Isabel, the town near our house, on Thursday and were able to get two of the documents which we sent by DHL to the Quito law firm and which they shall have by next Tuesday. The other document in question is our apostillized marriage certificate. There is some kind of problem with it but we are not sure yet what it is. Unfortunately we knew nothing of this letter and we are already in April. With the Easter holiday long weekend we will not be able to learn anything further until next week, so we are worried about our dwindling time. In retrospect we are asking ourselves if there is anything different we could have done to avoid this situation and unfortunately the answer is no. The legal firm we chose was recommended on several respected websites. There were no negative comments about the firm. The owner of the firm is an American who has written many articles on obtaining residency and has been extremely responsive to our questions and emails. Our expat friends who also obtained residency from several different firms didn't have any more knowledge about the process than we did. They too relied entirely on their representative who did everything for them. Nobody told us to ask about a filing number because none of the expats knew about this. When you put yourselves in the hands of a legal representative you are totally at their mercy, even more so in a foreign country. We will have additional information in our next week blog.

As far as the rest of the week we tried to carry on as best we could. On Monday we continued on our eating fest. For lunch we ate at Good Affinity and for dinner we went out with a few of the couples we had dinner with on Sunday evening. We took 2 cabs over to Tiestos restaurant but unfortunately the restaurant was closed. We walked around the area and ended up going to Sankt Florian on Calle Larga. We had previously been there for lunch and the food was good. However we were sorely disappointed in their dinners. Andre had Hungarian goulash and thought it was just fair. The meat had no taste, the dumpling was cold and the portion was small. We expected more from a German restaurant. As far as me I ordered a shrimp and hearts of palm salad. What I received was a salad that was 90% iceberg lettuce with some shrimps. They completely left out the hearts of palm and I had to inform them of this. In addition the salad was bland and uninteresting. Unfortunately we can't recommend this restaurant. Maybe it is okay to just go for lunch but dinner is a no no. The rest of the day was filled with trips to the notary to pick up a certified copy of the deed to our house and trips to the telephone office and the acupuncturist.

Tuesday we stayed in the apartment most of the day emailing and telephoning back and forth attempting to get information on our residency papers. Our only chores were to go to the Co-Op and bread store for our weekly shopping.

Wednesday we had a handyman come to the apartment to seal a leak around our toilet bowl. I then had an appointment with the dentist and Andre went to the acupuncturist. The afternoon was once again spent emailing and making phone calls regarding our residency situation.

Thursday we headed to our house. Our blinds were scheduled to be installed and we also had an appointment with an alarm company. For the first time we drove to our house in our car and while the drive took us much longer than our usual drive with the speeding Ecuadorians we arrived safely and without incident. I stayed at the house waiting for our appointments to show up while Andre and the caretaker drove to Santa Isabel. Andre went to the municipal office and notary to get two of the documents we need for our residency. We had previously gone through this process late December-early January but now we were informed by immigration that we needed the documents notarized and stamped. Of course our attorney never informed us of this fact before so we were forced to get these documents again. Hopefully they will be acceptable this time. When we go to our house we usually take a package back to our apartment with us containing whatever is ripe. Usually this includes mandarin oranges, lemons, avocados and whatever fruit is currently ripe. This time we also brought back radishes, scallions and cilantro from our new vegetable garden. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch before returning to Cuenca.

Friday was good Friday and just about everything was closed so we stayed home.

Saturday we went to DHL to ship the documents we obtained in Santa Isabel to our new attorneys in Quito. We then went to the Mall Del Rio where we first had lunch. We then did a large shopping in Coral Center picking up blankets, towels, a telephone, lamps and additional items for our house as well as food items for our apartment. We are starting to bring the items we purchase for the house with us when we go to the house. When we drove on Thursday we brought linen, mattress pads, pillows and bed coverings with us. We will bring the newly purchased items from Saturday with us next week.

Sunday we remained in our apartment. Andre watched a lot of soccer and tennis and I surfed the web and wrote our blog.

Eating Our Way Through Cuenca

2010-03-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

We eat out often, sometimes due to necessity, sometimes due to not wanting to cook and sometimes to enjoy dining with friends. I would say on average we eat out 5-7 times a week. We usually have lunch out every day during the week because we are out of the apartment running around from after breakfast until dinner time. This week we outdid ourselves eating out on Sunday alone 3 times. We enjoy trying new restaurants and also returning to the ones we really like. Food is fresh and tasty in Ecuador and you really can't go wrong eating anywhere. The top restaurants in Cuenca, although not inexpensive, are considerably less expensive than their counterparts in the States and every bit as good, and if you want to be thrifty you can enjoy the typical Ecuadorian full course lunch for $1.50-$3.00, probably less than it would cost to cook your own lunch. Below I will enumerate our dining adventures this week.

Monday I had an appointment with the dentist for a cleaning. The main difference was that the dentist did the actual cleaning rather than a dental hygienist. After the cleaning the dentist scheduled an additional appointment to finish the cleaning. Total cost for the 2 part cleaning-$20.00. We then went to the rustic furniture store where we had ordered our bedroom sets and paid the owner in full. The owner does not deliver furniture but made arrangements with a delivery person to have the furniture delivered on Wednesday. Then it was off to the acupuncturist. Next we had lunch at a new restaurant we just found by chance called Restaurant El Bogavante. The restaurant had a large menu of fish, seafood, meats and poultry. The food was tasty and we enjoyed our meal. We then headed to a few mattress stores to price out mattresses for the house.

Tuesday we went to the house with the architect and brought along a person from the drapery store who measured our windows. We also went through the list of items with the architect that still need to be completed at the house. Andre and I then had lunch at Puerto Bolivar, a very good seafood restaurant near the house. We took the bus to Santa Isabel afterward because we needed to pay our phone bill and transfer the phone into our name. When we bought the house it came with a phone line. However the cable needed to be repaired in order for the phone line to work. Even though we don't have a phone in the house yet and the line is non functioning we still needed to pay for the phone number itself and this is what we took care of in Santa Isabel. We will need repair people to come to the house to determine how to get the line functioning. We were also advised that we will need to take care of transferring the phone into our name in Cuenca. We then took the bus back to Cuenca and did our shopping at the Co-Op. By the time we returned to our apartment it was 6:30 and we had not taken out any food for dinner so we ended up eating dinner at the Gourmet Deli in the Oro Verde Hotel.

Wednesday Andre met the delivery driver at the rustic furniture store and drove with him to our house with the bedroom furniture. I didn't go as the cab in the truck only seated two. I went to a nearby mattress store to price out mattresses.

Thursday I went back to the dentist to finish my cleaning. We then headed to town to order our blinds. The store had given us a price but it turned out they didn't have the material we had chosen so we needed to go to the other drapery store where we had gotten an estimate. By the time we arrived at the other drapery store it was 12:30 and they were closed for lunch and wouldn't reopen until 2:30 so off we went to Good Affinity for lunch. We returned to the drapery store at 2:30 and ordered our drapes. We had an appointment at Maderamica at 3:30 for our kitchen cabinets so we decided to go for dessert to kill some time. At Maderamica we finalized the order. It has taken some time to finalize everything as they actually prepare drawings of the kitchen with all the cabinets and measurements included and we had to wait to receive this information. We needed to choose the number of shelves and the spacing between shelves for our pantry and one additional cabinet and we completed this today. Since everything is custom made the measurements must be exact. The cabinets should be ready in two months. We then stopped at the mattress store near our apartment and ordered all the mattresses for the house.

Friday we went to the acupuncturist and then had lunch at Marisqueria de Pedro. When we were in Ecuador last year we were taken to this restaurant by friends and had enjoyed the food and so decided to return. The seafood is very good. Andre and I both like seafood a lot and eat in seafood restaurants quite often. Seafood is fresh and tasty throughout Ecuador. The only thing we haven't had yet is lobster and we are still looking for a restaurant that serves lobster. We then went to Mega Hierro where we picked up mattress pads, sheet sets and pillows for the house. We then took a cab back to our apartment and dropped off our packages and then went out again to Sukasa where we found a bed cover and pillow set and then to SuperMaxi where we did our shopping.

We usually stay home on Sunday and go out shopping on Saturday but Andre had several soccer games he wanted to watch so we stayed home Saturday during the day. At night we met friends for dinner at Mansion Alcazar. Our friends had previously been there and raved about how beautiful the place was so we decided to go there. The place is an upscale hotel and restaurant and looks like a fancy European establishment. There is an outdoor garden area and well as several indoor dining areas. Our group had their own private dining area. The price of the meal came to $41 per couple so this is on the expensive side but is a nice place to celebrate a special occasion. The food is good but I had a scary experience when a piece of meat became lodged in my throat and I couldn't breathe. Other than that it was a fun evening.

Since we stayed home during the day on Saturday we decided to have brunch at Kookaburra Cafe on Sunday. We had omelets which were good. While at Kookaburra we ran into someone we knew and spent some time catching up with him. We then decided to stop off at the Oro Verde Gourmet Deli to pick up dessert and a cappuccino to take back to our apartment but once inside we met friends who were there with 2 other couples whom we didn't know and decided to join them. A fifth couple also came by and joined us. We had such a good time chatting that everyone decided we would meet again later for dinner at Balcon Quiteno. Once again 5 couples met for dinner and afterward we went back to see the apartment of one of the couples who lived near us.

Making The Most Of Our Time

2010-03-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Since our arrival in Ecuador in the middle of December we have been on an extremely hectic schedule. In our first week alone we were in Quito to meet with our attorney for our residency papers, traveled to Loja to close on the sale of our land in Vilcabamba, moved into our rental apartment in Cuenca and traveled to La Union in Yunguilla Valley to see our house during its renovation phase. While we have not kept up at the same frenetic pace during the rest of our stay, each week is busy and filled with numerous tasks to complete. Typically we awake, have breakfast and then leave our apartment not to return until late afternoon-early evening. Lists of "things to do" are constantly written, revised, crossed out and added to. We had three main priorities- Get the house into move in condition, purchase a car and purchase an apartment. We have accomplished the purchase of the car and apartment and have made significant progress on the house. Due to a delay in obtaining our residency papers we had to postpone our March 13th return flight to the U.S. This extra time in Cuenca is giving us the opportunity to take care of additional items on our to do list and to get to things we didn't expect to accomplish on this trip. In our first extended week here we made the most of our extra time and had a busy and productive week.

The car that we purchased has been sitting in our underground parking space. We've done all the transfers and gotten all the necessary stickers and papers, but we needed to do a tune up on the car and change the tires. On Monday Andre dropped the car off at a service station to have the necessary work done. We had planned on getting two new tires but were advised we needed all the tires replaced. We then headed to the acupuncturist and next to Movistar. Last Friday evening our internet connection was disconnected several times. We called our service provider Movistar on Saturday and were advised that this signified that we had used up all our megabytes and if we wanted additional time we would have to purchase additional megabytes. We purchased an additional small amount for the weekend and headed to Movistar Monday morning to get an explanation of what was going on. We were advised that we have 5,000 megabytes of capacity per month on our plan and if the megabytes are used up before the month is over we need to purchase additional megabytes if we want internet access. The strange thing is that our month commenced on the 8th of the month and we were being disconnected from the internet on the 12th of the month. We couldn't understand how we used up 5,000 megabytes in just 5 days. Our customer service representative said she would investigate to see if there were any problems with our service. We went to have lunch at Raymipampa on the main square in the center of downtown. This is a well known restaurant due to its great location. They have a very large menu but unfortunately my first two choices were not available, so maybe they should cut back on their menu and make sure that they have the advertised items. The food was good but nothing exceptional. We then headed to two different blinds and curtain stores and made up with one store to come to the house on Thursday to measure for verticals. We also stopped at Etapa. Now that we have transferred the apartment phone number into our name we could also add the option to call cellular phones from our apartment telephone. Previously we had to run out to a Cabina every time we needed to call a cellular number. This will be a great convenience to us. Finally we returned to the car servicing shop to pick up our car.

Tuesday we did our weekly shopping at the Coop and bread store. The only difference was that we went by car instead of walking. Slowly we will get used to driving around Cuenca although we're not quite ready for downtown traffic and heavier traffic areas yet. We next went to a seamstress because I needed to do alterations on several clothing items. Next we went to Maderamica (the furniture store that's constructing our kitchen) to see the finalized plans, but after waiting a half hour we were advised to return tomorrow afternoon as the plans were still not ready. We then went back to Movistar to test our modem which we had brought with us. We were advised that the modem was working properly and that we still had 4,000 megabytes remaining on our monthly quota. Nobody knew why we were being disconnected from the internet or why we had been advised that all our megabytes had been used up. Unfortunately we have an 18 month contract with Movistar so we're stuck with them. They also advised us that currently they do not offer unlimited internet access plans but might do so by the end of the year. We now need to conserve our internet access and so will disconnect when not using the internet plus not use the video on Skype which we were told uses up a lot of megabytes.

Wednesday Andre went to the furniture store where we had ordered our living room furniture in order to pay them in full as we will either get delivery on Thursday or Friday. He then stopped by the agronomist to pay in full for our water system for our vegetable garden which is now complete. Andre then went for his acupuncture treatment. Meanwhile I had an appointment with a recommended dentist near our house. I will need to replace several old cavity fillings that have been wearing away plus fill in gum areas that are eroding and exposing more tooth. Next week I start with a cleaning. In the late afternoon we went back to Maderamica to go over our kitchen plans and we ended up spending 2 hours going over everything.

Thursday we went with the architect to the house. We had 2 or 3 deliveries scheduled plus appointments with 2 people scheduled as well. Actually everyone showed up except for the living room furniture delivery which was only tentative and they called to say they would deliver Friday morning. We now have our outdoor furniture and our recliner couch. Additionally our house was measured for vertical blinds and we met with an alarm company to discuss upgrades to our system. The house is now 90% done (minus the kitchen cabinets and granite which will not be done until the middle of May). We still need some additional items completed in the bathrooms and we need to go over a long list of minor items that the architect needs to complete, but all and all we were very pleased with our day's accomplishments. We took the bus back to Cuenca.

Friday morning we received more good news. Our attorney emailed us that our residency papers had been approved. Of course it will still take a few weeks to complete the entire residency process, but we are now thinking that we will be able to return to the States in 2-3 weeks. A friend emailed us information regarding a vitamin store in Cuenca and we wanted to check it out. We haven't found any quality vitamin stores so far in Cuenca. This store is definitely a cut above the many natural stores there are in Cuenca. They import vitamins from Germany and the U.S. They however have a limited supply of vitamins. The interesting thing about this store was that they have a room for people to get vitamin C drips and this seems to be their specialization as there were several people sitting in chairs receiving IV vitamin C drips. We then went to the store that measured our windows for verticals to pick out the actual vertical so that they could give us an estimate for the work. We want to get one additional quote before we decide. Next Andre continued on to the acupuncturist while I returned to our apartment as we were expecting our cleaning woman. Normally our cleaning womanl comes at 7:30 A.M. on Thursdays but we switched our schedule since we were going to be at the house on Thursday. While I was in the apartment the doorman buzzed us and I could not quite make out what he was saying so he said he would come up to the apartment. It turns out they were looking for Andre to translate but since he was still out I was recruited. There were Canadian renters downstairs in the administrator's office and they only spoke English while the administrator only spoke Spanish. It was fun translating except a few times I forgot who I was talking to and started translating in Spanish to the English speaking couple. Anyway I started talking to the couple and learned that they were only here for 10 days currently, had been to Cuenca previously and were considering moving to Cuenca. I showed them our apartment and they showed us theirs. Friday late afternoon we went to SuperMaxi for our weekly food shopping.

Saturday we went to Radio Shack. We had previously purchased an answering machine but it was not working properly so we brought the answering machine plus our phone and the salesperson helped get the machine to work properly. We needed a back up battery for the machine so we would not lose our settings every time we turned off the machine. Additionally we found a small battery for the remote control garage door opener for the apartment building which we had been searching for all week. We also purchased a 2 pronged 3 plug extension cord so we can operate our DVD. We had a quick lunch at the mall and then went to pick up our clothes from the seamstress. Unfortunately, after waiting for half an hour for her, we had to give up. Saturday night we went out to dinner with friends at Saucelitos Parrilladas. Our friends had previously been there and had enjoyed their steak dinners. They once again had lomo fino which they enjoyed. I had lamb chops and Andre had a mixture of pork, beef and chicken kebabs on a skewer. The meal started with bread with two dips, followed by a salad. This was the best salad I have had in Cuenca. The main course was served with a few sliced and roasted potatoes. The owner speaks English well and told us that the beef comes from Argentina and Uruguay. He also said the lamb was from New Zealand. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys grilled meats. They also serve chicken and shrimp. It wasn't that late when we got back to our apartment so Andre decided to turn on the TV. Andre has been in seventh heaven since we got our cable service as they show soccer matches all the time. However I haven't watched TV as I haven't found anything interesting that is in English. While flipping the channels Andre found American Idol. It turned out to be a current show that had just been shown the other day in the States so we watched it, followed by the half hour results show. I guess I'll have to check out the TV programs more carefully as there are some current shows in English being shown.

Sunday once again was our stay at home day.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

2010-03-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

This blog should have been written from the U.S. We were supposed to fly back to the States on Saturday but our flights had to be delayed because of our residency issues. Nothing has transpired with our residency approval and we have no idea when everything will be completed. We are just advised that everything is backed up with immigration and we should get our approval “soon”. We had no choice but to extend our stay and leave our return flights open. We will need to contact our international carrier, Avianca, when we know our return date and will have to pay a $75 penalty each plus any additional differential airfare cost. There is no additional charge for our national carrier change with Tame Airlines. Additional time in Ecuador will however prove beneficial in many ways as there are still many things we need to do, and we will take advantage of our additional time here to complete many items we had not gotten around to doing.

Monday we went to the appliance store to order our appliances for Tuesday delivery. We need the appliances in place in the house so that the kitchen company can take exact measurements for the kitchen cabinet construction. We had lunch at a Russian restaurant but their menu was the standard Ecuadorian lunch. We next went to a glass shop to get an idea of the cost of creating and installing a painted or stained glass window for our bathroom in the house. We then met the architect and went with him to the metal shop we had visited last week to get prices for the table and chairs we will be making for our kitchen area. We next went to a fabric store to pick fabric for our chairs. This was a huge store with thousands and thousands of different materials which made choosing that much harder but we decided on a material we liked. We then returned with the architect to the glass store he had taken us to see last week. With a comparison price from the other glass store we decided to use this store as their prices were lower. We finally went to several stores in search of a kitchen faucet but couldn't find what we wanted as whatever we liked exceeded the price the architect had given us.

Tuesday we went to DHL as we had to take care of a delivery to the U.S. since our trip is extended. Just as a side note we were shocked when the recipient of our DHL envelope advised us that they received the envelope the following morning. I guess everything doesn’t operate at a snail's pace in Ecuador. Next we went to the appliance store to pay for the appliances which were already on their way in the delivery truck to our house in Yunguilla. We then took the bus to Yunguilla. Bus transportation in Ecuador is excellent. You can take a local bus just about anywhere in the city for 25 cents and regional bus transportation is also very good and reasonable. We take the bus to the town of La Union for $1.25 each. It takes around 1½ hours on the bus. We then take the truck service (there are no cabs in the outlying regions) for the last 10 minutes to our house and this costs $2.50 which is as much as we pay for the two of us for our one way bus fare. We had given the phone numbers to the appliance store for the caretaker and architect who were both at the house in case the deliveryman got lost. We were a little concerned about deliveries to our house. We were sure that the driver wouldn't be able to find the house, but our fears proved unfounded as the appliances were waiting when we arrived. The only issue was that the truck couldn’t fit through our gate because the truck was too tall but the architect transferred the appliances to his truck and brought them to the house. We stayed for awhile at the house going over the items that need to be completed by the architect. We then took the bus back to Cuenca. We were invited to dinner at a friend's house so off we went once again. We enjoyed a nice evening and a delicious dinner. We started off with homemade salsa and assorted cheeses with crackers and chips. For our main course we had a delicious chicken curry with rice and peas and broccoli and a fruit cup. Dessert was a potent homemade rum cake.

Tuesday evening our television was not working properly so Andre called to find out what the problem was. He was advised that we owed $6.00 for February. We were confused as we had signed up for automatic deductions when we got the service. TV Cable informed Andre that they only deduct for a full month and not for a partial month and since our service started in the middle of February we would have to go to a bank and make a deposit for that amount owed. First thing on Wednesday Andre went out to a bank to make the small payment for our TV service. We then went to the bread store and the Coop for our food shopping.

Thursday we once again went to our house to check on the progress made by the architect. We were driven by the architect’s friend as the architect was already at the property. The weather was rainy and foggy and I was really nervous during both the trip there and the return. After our near mishap a few weeks ago I am even more nervous driving in bad weather on the curvy roads. Additionally we drove in a regular car and not in a 4 x 4 which is our usual mode of transportation. Even the dirt road up to our house was difficult to navigate. I was extremely happy when we arrived back in Cuenca. Progress is being made on the house but there is still work to be completed by the architect. Andre had a 6:00 o’clock Doctor appointment but the Doctor didn’t arrive until 6:30. For those of you wondering about the late hour of the appointment, Doctors have morning and evening hours with a large break in the afternoon for lunch. By the time we finished with the Doctor we realized it would be too late to go home and cook dinner so we went to the nearby Milenium Mall and had dinner at the sports bar Sports Planet. The food was good but comparable to U.S. prices and our meal cost nearly $30. Let me explain in more detail restaurant pricing. In your typical $2.00 Ecuadorian lunch everything is included. This is your total price and there are no additional costs or tips. In an upscale restaurant the price on the menu is not the final price. Usually it will state on the menu that the price doesn’t include IVA and Servicio. IVA is the government tax of 12% which is added to the final bill and Servicio is a service charge of 10% which is added to the final bill and covers the tip. Your final bill will increase by 22% due to these additional charges. Additionally I have been to restaurants where they add the IVA but don’t include Servicio. In these cases you need to add a tip to the final bill. It can all be confusing at times and you need to pay close attention to what and what is not included in the menu price.

Friday we first went to the furniture store where we ordered our living room furniture to advise them that we are extending our stay in Ecuador and will probably want the furniture delivered in the next few weeks instead of waiting until the middle of May. We then went to the acupuncturist, followed by the agronomist who said that he should complete the irrigation water system on Saturday. We stopped by the attorney’s office to pick up the returned signed and notarized letter regarding our apartment phone transfer. We then had lunch at a restaurant that made Chilean empanadas. Next we went to the furniture store where we ordered the beds for the house to give the owner an additional deposit. We also advised him that we would want delivery in the next few weeks. Finally we headed to the glass store to see a sketch for the proposed decorative glass project and approved the drawing. By the time we arrived back at our apartment it was after 5:00 o’clock, we both were tired and we decided to stay in the rest of the evening.

Saturday we went back to Etapa to transfer the apartment phone to our name, armed with the additional paperwork that we needed. Afterwards we went to a department store where we ordered outdoor furniture for our house. We then went to Colineal to advise them we would want delivery of our recliner couch prior to May. For lunch we went to Good Affinity restaurant and then did our food shopping at SuperMaxi.

Sunday was our day of rest.

Up In The Air

2010-03-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

The title of our blog this week is the same as a movie which is competing for best picture honors in the Academy Awards presentation this evening. Our title similarly involves flying. We are scheduled to return to the States in a week but our plans are now "Up in the Air". More below.

Monday morning the handyman crew was scheduled to do some work in our apartment for several minor items- installing a mirror in the guest bathroom, installing a shelf in the master bathroom, removing nails in the walls and patching and painting those spots, caulking and sealing the tub and wall in the bathroom, replacing a shower head, installing an additional door lock, fixing a lock on a window, adjusting the door in the master bathroom, installing a new bell and hanging a paper towel holder. Andre went out to take care of several things while I remained home for the workers. They arrived at 10:15 A.M. and stayed until 12:15 P.M. In that time they managed to complete 3 out of the 11 items on the list and said they would be back the following day. I now know why it is taking so long to complete our house. Andre meanwhile met with our realtor and the attorney involved in our apartment purchase regarding the missing phone information in our Deed. Since the seller lives in a different area of Ecuador, the attorney said he would prepare a letter to be signed by the seller and send it to her for her signature. Andre also went to the acupuncturist and attempted to complete some of the items on our car transfer list. He went back to one location that he had gone to last week with all the requested documents only to be told that they need a copy of his passport in color and not in black and white. He went to another location to take care of another item on the list only to be advised that the office had relocated to another location.

Tuesday was more of the same with me staying home and Andre circumnavigating the city trying to complete items on the car list. Once again the handymen came around 10 A.M and stayed for around 2 hours. This time most of the items were completed but they still had to return one more time. We made up for Thursday as we were going to be out of the apartment on Wednesday. Andre accomplished a bit more today and returned around noon. We had lunch and then went shopping to the Co-op and the house/store where we pick up our bread. Once again I must note how good this bread is. We picked up 2 loafs and froze one since each loaf only lasts a few days.

Wednesday we went to our house with the architect, stopping first to look at granite with him and then to pick up the cabinets for the master bathroom walk in closet. We spent some time with the architect going over all the items that still needed to be completed in the house. We then had him drop us off in the town of Santa Isabel where we were going to look for appliances. We had been advised by the Yunguilla guru that we could find appliances in Santa Isabel that were less costly than in Cuenca. We however had no luck in this regard. The two places we found had limited inventory and none of the models that we were looking for. We took a bus back to Cuenca and had lunch. We then went to the furniture store to meet with the manager who had prepared a proposal for the kitchen cabinets. Andre and I were expecting a proposal considerably higher than the price the architect gave us to construct the cabinetry as this store has high end cabinetry with a unique design. We were therefore shocked when the proposal turned out to be less expensive than the proposal from the architect. It was a no brainer. We had always loved these kitchen cabinets and the architect was going to try to duplicate them but of course it wouldn't be the same. We quickly decided to have the furniture store construct and install our kitchen cabinets. Wednesday evening we went out for dinner with the realtor and his girlfriend. The realtor did a terrific job for us and we wanted to show our appreciation and take him out to dinner. We decided to go to Tiestos. We had never been there but had heard so much about it from friends that we had to try it. We are certainly glad that we went there as it is the best restaurant we have been to in Cuenca. Tiestos are clay platters on which food is cooked and served and this is what they use in this restaurant. Opened within the last several months, this restaurant already is well known and the restaurant was packed. The chef prepares what he calls a traditional Cuencano and fusion menu. To start, bread is served with several different garnishes such as marinated eggplant, chimichurri, fruit chutney, chilis and marinated onions. The menu is priced for parties of four but you can downsize the portions for 2 people as well. We decided to try 2 different dishes- a fish dish in a seafood sauce of shrimp and mussels and a steak dish with tomatoes in a cream sauce. Both were delicious and were served sizzling on a tiestos platter. Several small side dish accompaniments are served as well, which include roasted potatoes, salad, rice and semolina. We also shared a few desserts which were both a work of art and delicious. To top off the meal we enjoyed a complimentary homemade almond liqueur. We can't wait to go back to this restaurant again. Additionally we enjoyed the company of our dinner guests. I was a little worried about everyone speaking Spanish, but I did get the gist of the conversation and was even able to decently participate in the conversation.

Thursday, Andre had made up to go with one of the guards from our apartment to Cuenca Aire where inspections of the car and exhaust measurements are done. They both left at 7:00 A.M. and Andre didn't return until close to noon, but the trip was successful and we now have a sticker on the car good for a year and are one step closer to completing the transfer process. Meanwhile I stayed in the apartment for the handymen and finally the work was finished. We then headed to town with stops at the bank and one of the larger appliance store. We were advised by the furniture store that we would need to have all the appliances in the house so that they could get exact measurements for the kitchen cabinets. We need to purchase and have the appliances delivered by next week. This store gave us the best prices so far and we will probably order from them next Monday.

Friday we split the troops once again with Andre heading off before 8:00 A.M.to try to finish the remaining items on the car list and with me waiting for the architect. The architect came around 11:30 A.M. and we went to a store to pick out bathroom accessories. We then went to a glass store to look at painted or stained glass designs for a wall in our master bathroom. By this time Andre called to say he was finished and could join us and we picked him up by the acupuncturist. Andre was successful in completing the remaining few car items although it required him to stand in line for a few hours. We wonder how most Cuencanos manage to take care of this yearly chore. It can take several days to complete, and we don't see how the people from Ecuador can do it unless they use vacation days to complete everything. Next year we will complete everything in the country in a town about 1/2 hour from our house. We are told the process is much simpler and quicker. We went to a few other places with the architect but need to return on Monday as the owners were not in the store in two places and we couldn't get prices for any of the items we were interested in. Friday evening we went to Eucalyptus. There had been a seminar through International Living in Quito the prior week which was attended by 370 people. After the seminar there was an optional real estate tour in the Cuenca area and approximately 40 people went on the tour. The people were taken around for a few days in two buses to various areas and properties to view available real estate. We met several of these people at Eucalyptus. They were scheduled to return to Quito on Saturday. Some were planning to return to Cuenca in the future, others had seen properties they liked and wanted to pursue further and still others were planning for the next International Living seminar in Panama. We ended up eating dinner at Cuatro Rios. We had eaten there on New Years Eve and were impressed with the food but it had been a fixed menu. We were curious to see what the regular menu was like. The food was good and the setting elegant but after Tiestos it could not match up.

Saturday we did our food shopping at SuperMaxi. In the evening we met some friends for dinner and to supposedly say our goodbyes. We went to Otabe for hibachi Japanese food and then went to a dessert place to finish up. Everything was delicious and we had a great evening with our friends. We are supposed to fly to Quito next Friday and then take an early Saturday morning flight back to the States, but we may have to postpone our flight for up to two weeks. We have not yet received approval on our residency applications. We have been in contact with the attorney for the last few weeks and he says that everything is backed up at immigration, but he keeps saying that we should be getting our approval soon. We previously scanned and emailed him our return flight information so that it could be presented to immigration to try to speed up the process but we still have heard nothing. We would be willing to extend our stay in Cuenca if it is productive but don't want to extend our trip and then hear the same assurances in two weeks that we should be getting our approval soon. We are trying to get more precise information from the attorney to be better able to evaluate our situation. In any case we will have to make a final decision by the middle of next week.

Sunday we stayed home.

Chasing Our Tails

2010-03-01T06:25:00.000-08:00

Most of you must remember the game of Giant Steps we played as children. You were allowed to move forward with either baby steps or giant steps if you followed the proper procedure but sometimes your progress forward was halted and you even had to retreat if you didn't follow the proper steps. This is what our week has been like. We've been able to take giant steps forward in some areas, while in other areas we've either remained stationary or had to take some steps backwards. We have been like our dog Lucas this week, going around in circles chasing our tails but never quite catching our tails. Additionally we barely escaped a potentially deadly accident on the road which I will detail further below.

Monday morning we went back to see the car we saw and liked last week so that we could all take the car to a mechanic to inspect it. We had to go to two different auto places as the first was too busy to inspect the car. The car seems to be in good shape mechanically with only minor items that need adjustment. We need to replace two of the tires that look worn out, get a tune up and adjust the air conditioning which is not that cold. Total cost should be between $250-$300. The owner would not budge on his asking price and we told him we would telephone him a little later in the day and let him know if we were going to buy the car. We decided to purchase the car. We have been looking around and following the newspaper ads for awhile and we liked this car the most. It is a green 2005 Hyundai Tucson 4x4 with approximately 33,500 miles. It is an automatic with the option to push a button to convert it to manual drive without having a manual gear shift or pedal. The advantage of this is a smoother ride with more power and better traction and a savings in gas usage. The owner has maintained the car well and is the original owner, and the car was mostly used by his wife for local shopping and also for trips to Yunguilla where interestingly the owner has a house right near our house. The price of the car is expensive, probably twice the price of a similar car in the U.S. We will be paying more for this used car than any new car we ever bought in the States but these are the prices in Ecuador so we really don't have a choice. We telephoned the owner to let him know we would be purchasing the car and made up to meet him at 2:00 p.m. and then went to the bank to get a check for the car payment and to pick up our new checks for our checking account. While at the bank we heard a couple talking in English and mentioning Yunguilla. It turns out they are an English couple who are moving to Yunguilla and will be constructing a bed and breakfast resort right near our house. Next we continued our usual Monday routine with stops at the acupuncturist and the water engineer. We then had a quick lunch and went to meet the car owner. We had to go with him to the notary for everyone to sign the necessary legal document for the sale of the car. This took a considerable amount of time as the notary's office is always busy. Finally we finished and we all headed back to our apartment in our new car. The owner lives only a few blocks from us so we dropped him off and continued to our apartment where we parked the car in our underground parking spot. It was close to 5:00 P.M. and we were going to go out again to make a few telephone calls when it started to pour. It turned into a 2 hour storm with an intensity reminiscent of a Florida summer storm. Hail pelted our windows while lightning and thunder flashed and sounded nearby. It rained with an unrelenting intensity for 2 hours, flooding surrounding streets. We've never seen a storm of this magnitude in Ecuador and so were quite surprised.

Tuesday we headed to the property registrar to pick up our recorded documents for the apartment purchase (Escritura) but were advised that there was an error in the document which needed to be corrected by the notary and that we would need to bring the document back to the notary for the correction. Off we headed to the notary office and they made the necessary correction. The property registrar's office was closed for lunch so we decided to have lunch in the interim. We ate at a very nice seafood restaurant called Casa del Marisco and the food was tasty. We then went back to the property registrar and were advised that the corrected document wouldn't be ready for another 3 days. Next we took care of a few car related items. Buying a car is easy compared to all the paperwork that is involved in order to register and transfer the car. We were given a list of several items that need to be completed. We were able to complete two of the items today. The first was to pay the 2010 car fees at a bank. The next item was to purchase the compulsory car insurance required called SOAT. The insurance cost $54.15 and covers car accidents involving death and injury. If a person died in a car accident the family would receive $5,000 and $400 would be paid for funeral expenses. For permanent incapacity either partial or total each incapacitated individual would receive up to $3,000 and for hospitalization expenses up to $2,500 would be paid. These of course appeared to be woefully insufficient but of course we're dealing with a different cost structure. We will have to find out if we need additional private insurance coverage and what our liabilities are if we are involved in an accident. We had been trying to contact our architect since Friday without success and had left both email and phone messages giving him a Tuesday evening deadline to contact us. Since we didn't hear from him we sent him an email telling him that we were no longer going to use his services and were going to look for someone else to complete the job.

Wednesday we went to the furniture store where we are purchasing our dining room set to give them the balance of the purchase deposit. This store also constructs kitchen cabinets and we have always loved their kitchen cabinets and wanted our architect to model our cabinets after their cabinetas. We advised them that we wanted an estimate for constructing our kitchen cabinets and made up to go with them to our house on Friday morning to take measurements for our kitchen. We then did the acupuncturist- water engineer routine and gave the go ahead for the engineer to do the water system installation for the vegetable garden. We then had lunch at the Millennium Mall near the engineer's office. We have been in contact with our attorney in Quito regarding our residency application as we are due to leave for the States in a little over 2 weeks. He told us that the residency process was backed up in Quito due to many pending applications and advised us to scan and email him our return flight information and that they would present the flight information at the proper office to try to speed up our residency processing. We scanned and emailed the documents to our attorney and then went to the location where car transfers are handled. There was a line of about 200 people waiting. Andre went into one of the offices to get some information and came back with another list of items that were necessary in order to transfer a car. There are now 2 lists totaling 15 items that need to be completed prior to being able to transfer title to our name. We received a telephone call from the architect with a story as to why he hasn't called us and we told him we would need proof to back up his story. He promised to drop by on Thursday evening with the proof.

Thursday we went to the downtown area and met with the gurus of Yunguilla. This is an expat couple who moved to Yunguilla 18 years ago and were perhaps the first expats to live there. They know more about the area than anyone else and we wanted to find out about other possible options to complete the work on our house. They had come into Cuenca for a day or two and were staying at a hotel. We met with the husband as his wife was taking care of her yearly medical checkups. We found out a lot more about the Yunguilla area and were also given the names of some possible contacts. We had lunch with the husband at the hotel and talked some more and finally his wife returned and we met her. We thanked them for the information and continued on to another furniture store where we wanted to buy a three sectional recliner couch for the house. I had my credit card and censo but was advised that was not sufficient and I would need to bring my passport as well. We then stopped into an appliance store to start pricing appliances for the house. The architect came over in the evening and we spent almost 2 hours talking. He did bring us proof of a valid reason why he hadn't responded to our calls and emails for almost a week but we are also unhappy with the progress on the house. Our contract calls for completion within 85 days and we are at twice that amount. Additionally he had assured us that everything would be complete by the end of February and that we could order and have furniture delivered the beginning of March. The house is nowhere near ready for the delivery of furniture. We told him that we were going to explore a few other options for the completion of the house and we would advise him what we wanted to do next Tuesday.

Friday morning we went to the furniture store and 5 of us were to go to Yunguilla to measure and take pictures of our kitchen. It was Andre and I plus the store manager and 2 other store workers. We went in one of the store worker's vehicles. It was a slightly rainy day and the roads were slick. The driver was going too fast and he lost control of the car on a curve. The car skidded, spun around went into the opposite lane all the way to the edge of the road and then spun some more back to our side of the road and off the highway and onto the grass at the edge of the mountain road where he was finally able to get control of the car and bring it to a stop before it plunged off the edge. Needless to say all 5 of us had pounding hearts and had been seriously scared. We had barely avoided a major disaster. I don't know how far of a drop it was off the road as the side windows of the car were fogged up and we couldn't see out of them but if the car had plunged down at best we would have been seriously injured and at worst would have been killed. We were all grateful that a calamity had been avoided, and the driver slowed down the rest of the way. Measurements and pictures were taken and we made it back to Cuenca safely. It was still early so we went to the Property Registrar to pick up the corrected property document. We then spent about 1/2 hour trying to find the office where we needed to complete one of the many items on our car list. Up and down we climbed and descended the stairs in the municipal building in the center of downtown only to be directed to another spot on the same block. Finally we found the exact location only to be told we could not complete this step until we first completed various other steps on the endless list. When we are finally settled into our home in Yunguilla and have lots of free time, I will write a guide to Ecuador for expats which will describe in detail all the necessary steps expats have to go through and how to accomplish each step successfully. We have no language barrier and are still finding it difficult to take care of necessary tasks because there is little information as to how these tasks can be successfully completed. Since we were unable to take care of any car related items we then went to make copies of the Escritura, passports, censos and various other documents which we would need in order to transfer the telephone and electricity into our name. We had lunch and then went to Porta, the phone company. We wanted to transfer the phone in our apartment to our name but when we met with the telephone company agent she couldn't find the information in our Escritura giving us the right to the phone number. Andre and I both looked through the document and sure enough the information wasn't there. We both remember seeing it in the Escritura and in fact we have a copy of the Escritura that has the information in it. We're not sure what happened but somewhere either at the attorney's office or at the notary it was mistakenly deleted. Naturally we were unable to transfer the phone to our name and telephoned the realtor who also couldn't believe the information was deleted from the final document. We will have to resolve this next week. Next we went to the furniture store Colineal that we had gone to yesterday, passport in hand. This store is probably the most upscale furniture store in Cuenca and carries real nice, expensive furniture and caters to gringos and well to do Cuencanos. You would think therefore that our transaction would be easy and quick, but nothing was further from the truth. First they needed to make a copy of my passport and credit card. They had no copy machine in the store and so the sales woman had to take the documents to a copy store to make a copy. Next we had to pay in full in order to place the order. Finally the sales woman had to fax the main office my credit card information in order to get an authorization number from the office. Once again the sales woman disappeared from the store for at least 1/2 hour. What should have taken 5 minutes to complete took an hour. We didn't get out of the store until 5:00 o'clock. We then went to two appliance stores. We were advised by the furniture store that measured our kitchen in the morning that they would need the exact measurements of our appliances so we got some measurements and prices at the stores. By this time it was 6:00 o'clock. Originally we were not planning to go to Expat night since we had been out of our apartment since 8:30 in the morning and also because we had been through a harrowing day. We felt it was too late to go home and start shopping for dinner so we decided we would go to Eucalyptus and have dinner out. The restaurant was not very busy but we met some people we knew and joined them at their table which kept on expanding as new people came in. We stayed there for about an hour and then ended up going out for dinner at an Italian restaurant with a group of 8 other people. Our day ended much better than it had started out.

Saturday we added another $5.00 each of fare money onto our bus passes as we are using up bus fare like crazy. We first went to the appliance store where we purchased the appliances for our apartment and we got measurements and prices. Next we went to a department store where we could get measurements for the kitchen sink. We then had lunch at our favorite vegetarian restaurant, Good Affinity. Afterward we went to SuperMaxi to pick up a few items. While there it started to storm like the rainstorm we had on Monday. It didn't rain as long as the other day but the storm was even more intense. Soon the supermarket had accumulated a lot of water on the floor and one aisle was totally shut down as the water was already a few inches deep. Employees were mopping and sweeping but there was similar flooding as well in the center of the mall and in each of the other individual stores. We had to wait out the storm until it almost stopped raining and then took a taxi back to our apartment.

Sunday we went to see our house with some friends who had a car and then ate lunch at a local seafood restaurant.

Settling In

2010-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

This week we continued to settle into our new apartment and continued to shop for the rest of our necessary apartment items. We also went out to our house not once but twice. We are pretty much finished with the apartment and can now focus our attention on the two other areas of importance right now- our house and a car purchase.

Monday continued in the same way as our previous week, with more shopping. We were now officially in the middle of the Carnival holiday. It started on Friday and continues through Tuesday. This is the same holiday as Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Brazil but with not as much festivities. Of course there are always parades in Cuenca but these don't compare in magnitude to the New Orleans or Brazil festivities. In Ecuador people throw water balloons, squirt you with water guns or spray you with foam. Since mostly everything closes down in holiday mode from Friday through Tuesday, many Ecuadorians leave the cities and take a mini holiday on the coast or in the mountains. Most stores are closed through Tuesday, but we had found out that Coral Center was scheduled to be opened all day on Monday so off we went. We first stopped at nearby Super Stock to look for household items and bought a few things there. We then continued to Coral Center and were in the process of getting items on our list when we were advised the store was closing. We said that we had heard that the store was opened all day but were advised that this was at the Coral Center at the Mall Del Rio. This Coral Center closed at 1:00 P.M. We checked out whatever items we had and headed back to our apartment. We were already planning to stay home on Tuesday as everything was closed but our forced inactivity commenced a bit earlier. This was not a bad thing as we definitely needed a little rest. We relaxed the rest of the day and spoke to our kids.

Tuesday I had a chance to catch up on the blog and to surf the web. Since our TV cable hadn't been installed yet, Andre, the soccer fanatic, went to Balcon Quiteno to watch some soccer matches. We managed to avoid any further water balloon incidents during Carnival after Andre's initial pelting with a water balloon a few weeks ago.

Wednesday everything was back to normal. We went to the bank to pick up our checks for our checking account but they were not in yet. We also found out the details about the car that the banker had showed us last Friday. It turned out to have too many miles. We then went to the acupuncturist. Usually we don't have to wait very long but because of the holiday on Monday and Tuesday there were several people ahead of Andre. It took about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. We then continued on to see the water engineer. We had received a loose proposal from him but he needed to see the property to firm up the proposal and to take the necessary measurements. We made up that we would go with him next week to the property. We then went to a hardware store called Mega Hierro that friends had recommended. This actually turned out to be a good store, and we will return to buy things for the house here. There are 3 floors which contain household items, hardware, furniture, outdoor items, gardening equipment and various other items. We bought more pillows and sheets and a scale since we hadn't weighed ourselves since arriving in Ecuador. We then went to Radio Shack which was nearby and picked up an answering machine for our phone. We had looked all over but this was the only place that carried an answering machine. We had to forgo lunch and hop in a cab as Andre had a 3:00 o'clock appointment with the dentist and I had to be back at the house to wait for the TV cable installers. I finally managed to have a lttle lunch at our apartment. Andre returned around 4:30 P.M. and said that the doorman told him that the TV cable installers had come to the building around 1:00 o'clock after we had been advised that they wouldn't come until 3-6:30 P.M. Andre called them and they wanted to reschedule for Thursday but Andre convinced them to come a little later today. Andre is now officially finished with all his dental work and his bright smile showed off his lovely set of pearly whites. He had 2 root canals, four crowns, 3 implants and a bridge done. Total cost for all the work $6,400. While this isn't cheap it's probably half of what it would have cost in the States and the dental care in Ecuador has been first rate. Finally the TV cable installers showed up and we had to rearrange our living room furniture in order to install the cable wires in a spot they could reach, but we now have a working TV.

Thursday we went to look at some granite stores. We have already seen some granite for the kitchen that we like, but the architect said it was too expensive so we continued our search. We found granite that cost less than the previous granite but higher than our granite budget so we will need to look some more. We had an early lunch as we were to meet someone who had advertised a car for sale in the newspaper that sounded interesting. The person lived near us but we could not find his house and so had to call him again. Finally we arrived at his house and saw the car which we both liked. There was also another couple looking at the car so it took awhile until we finished up there. It was too late to go to town so we went back to our apartment where we were expecting a handyman to come to give us an estimate for some minor work we want done in the apartment. He showed up on time and said he would email us a proposal. Next we were waiting for the architect to show up but we got a phone call instead saying that he had been out at our house all day and hadn't eaten and would see us tomorrow morning instead when he would come to pick us up to take us to the house. We called the granite place that we had been trying to see for awhile that is always closed and were told they had a retail shop in town and could go there. We rushed off there and saw a few things we liked. A married couple own the business. The wife runs the retail store and the husband works out of the outdoor warehouse that is always locked. The wife said her husband would be there at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow for around 20 minutes and we could go there to see all the granites.

Friday, the architect was supposed to pick us up before 8:00 A.M. and we were supposed to go with him to the outdoor granite warehouse. By 8:05 he still wasn't there so we took a cab to the warehouse and left instructions with the doorman that if the architect showed up he should meet us at the warehouse which is only about 5 minutes away from our apartment. We found granite that we liked but we needed the architect to okay it and we needed to match it with the tiles and bricks which the architect had. We tried to call the architect several times but there was no answer. Finally we returned to our apartment and were told that the architect had showed up around 8:10 and then left. We tried to call him again several times without success. We decided to take the bus to our house as we hadn't been there last week and didn't want to miss another week. The bus ride takes around 1 1/2 -1 3/4 hours and from there you need one of the trucks they use in town like taxis. It takes another 10 minutes to get to the property in the truck. We spent a few hours at the house taking measurements, seeing what still needs to be done and talking with the caretaker. Lucas, our inherited dog was doing much better. He had been run over by the architect as he was chasing the architect's truck a few weeks before, and we hadn't seen him since but he was up and about and walking pretty well. We then had a truck take us back to town and had lunch at the Bambu restaurant before heading back on the bus to Cuenca. It was already 5:00 o'clock by the time we got back to our apartment. There was a message from the engineer that he was driving to Yunguilla tomorrow and that he would like to go with us to the property. We called him back and he said he would pick us up Saturday morning. We then headed to Eucalyptus and met some friends there and spent the evening catching up with them.

Saturday we went to the property and the engineer spent around 1 1/2 hours there taking measurements and putting stakes in the ground at sprinkler points. Our caretaker has already started sprouting some plants in little seedling containers so we are anxious to have a working garden. The engineer was going to stay in Yunguilla for the weekend so we took a bus back to Cuenca. We had lunch at a restaurant near Coral Center and then went back to Coral Center to finish up our shopping. Coral Center is much like a Super Walmart where you can buy most everything including groceries. We like the Coral Center in the Mall better as it is newer, better stocked and also has escalators and elevators to get to the two different levels. We've been shopping at the older store as it is closer to where we live but we've encountered some problems at this store. It is also on two levels but there are only stairs to get to the different levels. This means that when you shop on the first level and have a shopping cart full of items, you need to leave it at that level when you go to the second floor. There are no shopping carts on the second level so you need to gather the items you are interested in and place it in a pile. A sales person will then put it aside for you, ask you your name and tell you that when you check out you need to request the items being held for you on the second floor. You are not allowed to carry these items down to the first floor. Additionally if you need items in different departments on the second floor you have to go through the same thing with additional sales people. You can end up with several stacks of different items being held for you by several different people. If this sounds disorganized, it is because when it was time to check out it took at least 1/2 hour to check out. First every single box is opened and every item is inspected to make sure everything is correct and not broken. If anything electrical is bought the sales people will try it out for you to make sure it works. This all may sound great but the reason that this is done is that it is almost impossible to return anything once bought. After all this is done the sales people call upstairs to have your items sent down and once again everything is opened, inspected and tried. Your checkout can end up taking almost as long as your shopping.

Sunday we went to the Coopera as we hadn't had a chance to go earlier in the week and we didn't want to spend time food shopping in the next few days as we already have a lot of things to do. The store was packed. You couldn't even move your shopping cart up and down the aisles as there was gridlock throughout. It also took quite a while to check out as the lines were very long. We stayed home the rest of the day.

Moving Week

2010-02-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

It all came together this week with the new apartment purchase, but this increased our already busy schedule and made it an extremely hectic week. It was as though someone shouted on your mark, get ready, get set, go and off we were racing through the entire week nonstop. Our days started early and ended late. We both ate out and took more cabs this week than at any previous time during our two stays in Ecuador. On Friday alone we took at least 7 cabs because we were in such a hurry. We also had to give up going to our house this week because of the lack of available time. The end result- we're moved in and mostly settled into our new apartment which is a small 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment of 760 square feet.

On Monday we got up early and were out by 8:00 A.M. We had to go to the bank to get some checks issued for the closing and for our furniture. We had called the bank and there was a recorded message saying the bank opened at 8:00 A.M. We took a cab to the bank but once we got there we had to wait as the bank hours had been changed in November, and the bank didn't open until 9:00 A.M. It took time at the bank to get everything done and we didn't get out until a few minutes before 10:00. Off we were in another cab heading for the notary office where we were to meet our realtor and do the closing at 10:00 o'clock. Once there the realtor told us the person signing on behalf of the seller couldn't make it until 12:00 P.M., so we were told to come back then. The building that the notary was in was right next door to the building with the acupuncturist, so we decided to go to the acupuncturist but it was a little early as his office hours didn't start until 11:00. We were walking around the area to kill some time when we saw a water system store that installed water systems for horticultural purposes. We went in and talked with the engineer since we need to install a water system for the vegetable garden we are creating at the house. He uses a different system than the hoses we had previously been shown. He uses PVC piping and it is a sprinkler type of system. It sounded interesting so we asked the engineer to give us an estimate. It turns out that he actually installed the water system at the house when it was built 10 years ago and he said he still had the blueprints and information and would be able to give us a rough estimate without seeing the property. We then went to the acupuncturist for Andre's treatment. After the acupuncturist we went back to the notary's office for the closing. It took awhile as there were many people in the notary's office but all went well. We called the furniture place where we had bought the apartment furniture and made arrangements for them to deliver the furniture on Tuesday morning. We also went back to the appliance store to place the order for our appliances and to arrange for delivery on Tuesday as well.

Tuesday we once again went to the bank to get a check for the appliances and then went to the appliance store to give them the check. We then headed to the new apartment to wait for the 11:00 o'clock delivery. Sure enough much to our surprise and delight they showed up right on time. They had to deliver the furniture in two trips as the delivery truck was small so in between deliveries we had lunch at the Oro Verde Hotel deli. We came back to the apartment for the second delivery and were finished by 2:00 o'clock. Since our appliance delivery wasn't scheduled until 6:30 P.M. we decided to do some shopping for the apartment and headed off to Coral Center which is similar to a Super Walmart. We had a huge list of items we needed such as dishes, silverware, glasses, linens, towels but 3 hours and $525 later we were only half done. Since we were short on time and space we decided to call it quits for the day and take a cab back to the apartment. We barely fitted all the items into the cab and arrived back at the apartment just before our next delivery was due. The second delivery also arrived although slightly late. By the time everything was done it was after 8:00 o'clock and we were tired and hungry. We had dinner at a nearby sandwich shop the realtor had told us about and then headed back to the old apartment. We had told the owner of the apartment that we would move out on Wednesday so I stayed up until 2:00 A.M. packing half the stuff.

Wednesday morning we were up early once again as the cleaning woman comes at 7:15 A.M. Since we had 8 suitcases and about 10 shopping bags to transfer we decided to do it in two trips. Andre took a cab with half our luggage and brought it over to the new apartment. We were to meet with the owner of the rental apartment at 10:00 A.M. to finalize everything, but she called to say she was running late and wouldn't be over until 11:00 o'clock. We decided that Andre would bring the rest of the luggage and bags over to the new apartment and that I would wait for the owner at the rental apartment. Andre would then continue to his acupuncture appointment and we would then meet up at the new apartment. In the afternoon we met the architect and went with him to some stores to pick out tile and bathroom accessories. We then had the architect drop us at the TV Cable office to find out about getting cable and internet access. They told us they would send someone to our apartment on Thursday afternoon to discuss our options. We then took a cab to a granite place I had seen on Ordonez Lasso going towards the Cajas mountains but the store was closed. Once again we had dinner at the Oro Verde deli and then returned to our new apartment for our first night there. Neither of us had a good night sleep as the pillows were way too full and hard and we both had stiff necks when we awoke at 6:00 A.M. on Thursday.

On Thursday morning we again went to the granite place but once again it was closed. There was a sign with some phone numbers so we called. They advised us that they were working on a big job and were out all day, and we would have to catch them when they were in the shop either early in the morning on later in the evening. We then walked to Avenue of the Americas stopping along the way to fill our bus passes with more money and stopping at Sukasa to look over some items. We then continued to the Remigio Crespo area where we had a 12:00 o'clock appointment to meet the manager from Maderamica furniture store. This is the furniture store where we want to order our dining room furniture for our house that has been in the process of moving for the past 1 1/2 months. We went to their new store which is not yet opened to the public and were able to order our dining room furniture which will take 2 months to complete. We then went to a computer store on Remigio Crespo that friends had recommended, but the owner was not there. We had lunch at a restaurant on Remigio Crespo and then returned to our apartment as we had an appointment there with TV Cable. We were informed that we could install TV Cable in our apartment for the TV, but the building didn't have the necessary connections for the internet and we would have to use another company for the internet. We signed a contract for TV but the representative said they wouldn't be able to hook up our TV until the following Wednesday because of Carnival. Of course we weren't happy as the apartment right now has no radio, internet or TV. We spent the rest of the afternoon making a dent in unpacking. The appliance installers were due between 3 and 6 and arrived after 6. They were able to install everything but the dryer. We were told we needed to buy some additional hose for the connection and we rescheduled for Friday. We were so exhausted in the evening that we didn't feel like going out to dinner and decided to order in. We called and ordered from Balcon Quiteno which has home delivery. For those unfamiliar with home delivery in Ecuador it is different than in the States. The restaurant usually contracts with a cab service and the cab picks up the food, pays the bill and then delivers to your residence. The cab driver adds in the cost of their cab service and you pay the entire bill plus cab fare to the cab driver.

Friday morning Andre had a 9:00 o'clock appointment with the dentist, but when we arrived there we were informed that the dentist had already started his Carnival holiday early and had left the city. The dentist office had tried to contact us at our old phone number but were told that we had moved. We rescheduled the dentist appointment for the following Wednesday and then continued to our next chore which was to stop in a hardware store to pick up the hose for the dryer connection. We then continued to the Movistar office on Remigio Crespo. We had asked the management office in our building about internet connections and they recommended Movistar which has a plug in wireless modem. It took awhile to complete the paperwork for our contract which we had to guarantee for 18 months and which will have the cost deducted monthly from our bank account. We had a choice of two options, one for $20 a month plus tax and $20 for the modem and the other for $30 a month plus tax with a free modem. We chose the higher option because the internet speed was much greater and since we download a lot we thought this would be a better option for us. Normally you get the modem immediately but they had a glitch in their computers and couldn't do the required credit check. We were told to check back with them later in the day. We then headed to the bank. We currently have a savings account but wanted to open a checking account as well. We started the process when we were there on Tuesday but needed to bring additional documentation in order to continue. Meanwhile we had contacted the realtor who told us that the escritura was ready and that we should meet him at the notary's office, and he would take us to the Property Registrar in order to register the property. We didn't have time to complete all the paperwork at the bank and made up that if we had time we would return to the bank later on in the day. Also in our conversations with the banker we had indicated that we were looking for a car. He advised us that he had a client who was selling a car that met our requirements and that the client would bring the car to the bank for us to view it if we returned later that day. We met the realtor at the notary office and we drove to the Property Registrar but the office was closed. The realtor wasn't sure if the office was closed for lunch or was closing early because of Carnival and so he said he would drive by there around 2:30 to see if the office was opened and that we should call him around that time. Off we went in a cab to the acupuncturist's office for Andre's treatment. After the treatment we went to the engineer's office to see if he had prepared a quote for the sprinkler installation and he told us he had emailed it to us. Next we took a cab back to the bank where we completed our paperwork for the checking account and the banker showed us his client's car. The owner had left it with the banker and the banker didn't know the price or mileage information. We called Movistar and they said our modem was ready to be picked up so we took a cab back to their office. We then called the realtor who said the Property Registrar was open so we took a cab there and paid for registering the property in our name. I must say that this realtor has been very good about handling things for us. He is prompt for all appointments, keeps us informed of what is going on and even managed to get us discounts for all our charges since he does a lot of business with the attorneys, notary and the Registrar. I would definitely recommend him except for the fact that he doesn't speak English. However if someone is reading this blog, has a working knowledge of Spanish and is looking for a good realtor email us and we will give you all the information. After finishing with the realtor we took a cab back to our apartment. We were expecting the service company to return today to install the dryer. In the meantime we tried to install this simple plug in modem which didn't turn out to be so simple for us. The instructions were in Spanish so I gave it to Andre to figure it out. Andre is a great cook as you have gathered from previous blogs but when it comes to installing anything he struggles immensely. He doesn't have the patience to read the instructions and he can barely manage with rudimentary tools. After about an hour and a phone call to Movistar he finally figured out how to install the modem. I then realized that we were missing the electrical outlet plug for the computer. I realized that I had left it at the rental apartment along with a brush for our juicer. I called our rental apartment and the owner was there as she is busy getting the apartment ready to sell. I took a cab over to the apartment, picked up the missing items and took a cab back to our apartment. It was now after 6:00 o'clock and the service company for the dryer installation had not shown up so we called. They said they would come the following morning. Once again we went out to dinner at the Oro Verde deli. For those who are wondering why we're eating at Oro Verde so much, it's due to the convenience as it's half a block from our apartment and only a 5 minute walk.

Saturday we continued to unpack as we waited for the installer who did show up this time. We then started our day of food shopping. We went to the Coopera and picked up all our produce and some fish and meats. We took a cab back to the apartment and unpacked everything and then walked to Avenida de las Americas and Gran Colombia where we had lunch at Good Affinity. We then went to the SuperMaxi shopping center. We stopped in at the Eljuri store and Andre found a radio/CD speaker system that he liked. We also found a stainless steel bowl set there. We then went to Sukasa where we found some pillows that seemed more comfortable than the ones we have. We also bumped into some friends in Sukasa and chatted for awhile. We decided to buy the SuperMaxi discount card that gives you a 5% discount at SuperMaxi and various discounts at other stores, such as a 10% discount in Sukasa. It costs $44.80 and is good for a year. We used it to purchase the pillows at Sukasa. We then spent a long time at SuperMaxi picking up more cleaning and household items and some food items as well. It was after 6 when we returned to the apartment. Andre was anxious to set up his stereo system right away and of course it took him a long time to set up, so we didn't eat until after 9 o'clock but we were happy to be cooking our first meal in the apartment.

Sunday we were invited to a pot luck party. Everyone was to prepare and bring a dish and also bring their beverage of choice. We really looked forward to a day of rest, relaxation and socializing after our hectic week and we enjoyed the day very much. Andre made vegetarian chili. There was a nice spread of food with such items as smoked salmon made by someone who has a smoker, turkey, chicken, lasagna, salads,guacamole,cheeses, desserts. We knew about half the people there and had a chance to meet and talk with the other half we didn't know. The party started at 2:00o'clock and about half the people left by 6 P.M.. We were getting ready to leave at that time but there was an interesting discussion going on with the 6 remaining people and before we knew it it was after 8 o'clock by the time the party broke up. We then walked back to our apartment with another couple who live across the street from us. They invited us to see their apartment which was very nice. By the time we got to our apartment it was after 9:00 o'clock, and we were glad that this frenetic week was over.

The Beat Goes On

2010-02-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Now that we're done with ordering furniture for the apartment we decided to once more turn our attention to furniture for the house. We had done a lot of the leg work on our previous visit to Cuenca and for the most part knew what we wanted and where to purchase our furniture. The problem was that two of the stores were either closing down or not at their previous location. One store that we went to was actually closing on the day we went there and relocating to another area. Of course the store was empty when we went there and has not yet reopened at their new location. We are hoping that we can still order from them since we know what we want. We tracked down the other store at a new location. We have decided to order all our house furniture now, hoping but not expecting that the house will be finished prior to our leaving Ecuador the middle of next month and that we will be able to have all the furniture delivered there. We have been told that the renovations will be finished by the end of February. Of course we were also told that all the work would take 3 months to complete and in a week it will be 5 months since work started. If the house is not ready for the furniture to be delivered before we leave next month at least the furniture will be ready for delivery upon on our return to Ecuador in May, so we feel that either way we can't lose.

Our week as usual was busy with lots of running around all over town. Monday morning started with a visit to the dentist for me. This was my last visit to the root canal specialist and she finished working on my second root canal. Now I will have to start with regular dental work, and I have been given the name of a dentist who is supposed to be good, gentle and inexpensive. After the dentist appointment we went to the furniture store that had relocated and ordered our living room set. We then went to an acupuncturist. Two of our expat friends recommended the acupuncturist that they have been using with excellent results, and Andre decided to try him for a few different issues. Neither of us have tried acupuncture before so this is a new experience. The acupuncturist is an Ecuadorian who has trained in both China and the U.S. and has both an Ecuadorian and expat following. Andre will need to go for several treatments so we will have to defer evaluating this modality at present. After the acupuncturist we went back to the rustic furniture store that we had found on Calle Larga and we decided to get our bedroom furniture here. Andre describes the furniture as the Flintstones revisited, but we both love the rustic look and it will go beautifully in our house. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant we passed often but had never been to called Sakura Sushi. It is a nice restaurant and the food is presented beautifully and is tasty, but we found the prices high and the portions small. In the afternoon we did some food shopping at SuperMaxi.

Tuesday morning we got a call from the realtor for the apartment. The tenant had moved out and he wanted us to see the apartment. He had first called us yesterday to say that the tenant had moved out and we could close on the apartment immediately. However we wanted a lien search done which had not been taken care of yet and we said we wouldn't close until we had it. We did go with the realtor on Tuesday morning to see the apartment and everything looked okay. The lien search probably will not be ready until next week so we are hoping to close then. We stayed home the rest of Tuesday as we were having dinner guests over and Andre was in chef mode. The dinner turned out very well. To start we had tapenade with toasted french bread followed by avocado stuffed with shrimp. The main course was Coq Au Vin and the dessert was an intense chocolate fudge cake with whipped cream and berries. Everyone was stuffed and it was an enjoyable evening.

Wednesday was basically a retracing of our Monday activities. We had to return to the furniture store where we ordered our living room set because I found that the order showed the couch color and the pillows as the same color. It turns out that although one color is light brown and the other is dark brown they both have the same name. The salesman called the factory to indicate which color (light or dark) was for the couch and which for the pillows. We then returned to the acupuncturist and Andre had a treatment. Next we returned to the rustic furniture store to actually order the bedroom furniture. For lunch we tried a restaurant near the rustic furniture store called Maiz, and we both liked it very much. They don't have a fixed lunch and everything is a la carte but prices are fair and the restaurant is lovely. They have a large indoor dining area and an outdoor dining area as well, and we chose to eat in the outdoor area. The food is high class Ecuadorian and they use a lot of quinoa which we regularly eat in the States. We both recommend this restaurant. In the afternoon we went to the Coopera to pick up produce. We also stopped by the bread store we had gone to last week and liked so much, but they were all sold out. They bake bread on Monday and Tuesday and you need to go on those days to be sure of finding their bread. On the way to the Coopera as we were walking along the river Andre was suddenly pelted with a water balloon and was pretty well drenched. We just had recently been told by some of our Expat friends that Carnival was coming soon and that last year they had been doused with water buckets and hit with water balloons thrown by mostly young people. This is the custom during this time. However we were surprised to have been the target of a water balloon as the festivities don't start for another week or so. We decided we will have to take precautions during this time and wear our rain slickers.

Thursday we went to our house with the architect very early in the morning and were in fact already back in Cuenca by noon. In the afternoon we went to the Mirasol dealership to look over the used car we had previously seen. We had decided that this is the best used car we have seen so far. It is a 2004 automatic 4x4 Chevy Trailblazer with very low mileage( approximately 16 thousand miles). This Chevy dealership is also the only place that warrants their used cars (6 months). However they do not let you bring in your own mechanic to look the car over. The car although low in mileage is still a 2004 model and it is still quite expensive (by U.S. standards although seemingly quite fair by Ecuadorian standards). We still are unsure as to whether to buy it or not. We still can't convince ourselves to buy a used car that costs more than any new car we have ever purchased in the States. Right now we have decided to wait a little more since we will still be in Cuenca for over a month. We will continue to look and see if there are any better prospects. If not we will probably buy this car if it is still available, prior to returning to the States. If it has already been sold by that time our worst case scenario is to buy a new car.

Friday morning we went to a furniture store that sells antique furniture called El Viejo Almacen. It is actually owned by the wife of Andre's dentist, and she picks up a lot of her furniture on trips to Florida and ships it to Ecuador. Friends of ours had purchased a very nice dining room set there and we wanted to see what was available. They have some very interesting pieces but nothing that we could presently use. We then returned to the acupuncturist for yet another treatment for Andre. We also returned to the rustic furniture store to firm up some things. For lunch we went to the Kookaburra Cafe which some of our expat friends had mentioned. It is recently opened and owned by an Australian couple. It is more of a breakfast place than anything else and still needs to expand its lunch menu as it is very limited. It does seem to attract a gringo crowd as there were several people eating there. We returned to our apartment with the intention of going out later to Expat night, but we were both tired and we decided to stay home instead. Andre was happy as he got to watch a soccer game on TV. The Ecuadorian soccer season started today and this was the first game.

Saturday morning we went to Coral Center in the Mall Del Rio. Andre read that they were having a sale this weekend, and we wanted to see if there were any items on sale that we could use for the apartment. Most of the items that we need for the apartment weren't on sale so we decided to wait until after we closed on the apartment and could bring the items directly to the apartment. We did however buy two items on sale- a toaster and a combination all in one electric beater and immersion blender. We also stopped in at Colineal furniture store. We've had our eye on a leather triple seat recliner, massager couch. It's quite expensive and we've been looking to see if we could find something similar elsewhere. We did see a similar couch at El Viejo Almacen antique store but it is a used couch and the leather is worn out in parts. We would need to reupholster the couch and need to check to see what the cost would be. The couch at Colineal is on sale until the end of next week so we will have to decide by then. In the afternoon we went with friends to a pizza restaurant in Challuabamba. On our visits to the rustic furniture store on Calle Larga we had struck up a conversation with the owner. He mentioned to us that he had lived in Italy for several years and had worked in a pizza restaurant. He had built a pizza restaurant in Challuabamba that had a wood burning oven and he now ran a pizza business as well as the furniture store. The pizza restaurant is only opened Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday. It sounded like an interesting restaurant and we had mentioned it to friends who had a home in Challuabamba. They did not know of the restaurant but were also interested in going there. They first took us to see their home in Challuabamba which is presently for sale as they are now living in an apartment in Cuenca. The house is very large (5,500 square feet) and would probably be good for a large family as there are many rooms. Its proximity to Cuenca makes it ideal for people who want to live in a house outside the city but want to be within a short drive to the city. When we drove through Challuabamba on the way to the restaurant we saw a group of several dozen indigenous people gathered together. We weren't sure what was going on and mentioned possibilities of either a wedding celebration or a funeral. We later learned that once a year the richest person in town pays for a festive day of eating and gathering for the townsfolk and this is done through the church. A little further down the road we came upon an adobe house with a few indigenous people sitting out on the front porch dressed in their native outfits. I was sorry that I had not taken my camera as this would have made a wonderful picture. I could visualize such a photo in the National Geographic Magazine. We went a little further and we finally saw the pizza restaurant on the other side of the road down a dirt road. The pizza restaurant turned out to be a unique and interesting experience. The restaurant was in the front and another house in the back. We were shown around the place and it turns out that this is where they make the furniture. There were all sorts of tree trunks, logs, pieces of wood and furniture in various stages of completion. It was fascinating and we also found a table with chairs that we like very much and are considering purchasing. The pizza restaurant itself was made of brick on the outside and stone on the inside. The tables and chairs were all the creations of the owner. The pizza was absolutely delicious. It made a big difference being cooked in the wood burning oven.

Sunday we stayed home during the day, did our laundry and spoke with the kids. Sunday evening we went to the Balcon Quiteno on Ordonez Laso to watch the Super Bowl and have dinner. The food was good and since we were there for over 3 hours we ended up eating way too much including a delicious dessert with crepes, fruit, ice cream and whipped cream.

Connecting the Dots

2010-01-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Gradually everything is starting to make sense. Travel around Cuenca is becoming easier, shopping is better, we are enjoying different high quality restaurants and taking advantage of different activities offered in Cuenca. Instead of traveling to unfamiliar, isolated areas in buses with routes unknown to us we now are starting to understand the layout of the city and how one area connects to another. Mostly this has happened due to our walking all over the city and taking lots of different buses. We are getting the hang of things. We now have bus passes and no longer have to frantically search for change for the bus. Last year when we were in Cuenca we did most of our food shopping at SuperMaxi. Now we use SuperMaxi for canned goods, staples and items we can't find elsewhere. We have found wonderful produce markets, and good places to purchase fish and meats. There are hundreds of bakery and bread stores throughout Cuenca, but these have disappointed with their tasteless products. We have now found a few stores that produce good quality bread. Additionally there are several bakeries of excellent quality that we would rank with the best bakeries in the States. We feel we are assimilating into the Cuenca community and can now even offer some guidance to Cuenca newbies.

Our weeks continue to be busy with many different things on our plate. Monday, Andre had an early morning dental appointment. We then went to the airport/bus terminal area where there are several blocks of car dealers. We pretty much walked the entire area and stopped at some of the larger car dealers looking for used automatic 4x4 vehicles. We saw several but felt that most were overpriced (by Ecuadorian standards) for the mileage or car year. Monday evening some friends took us out to dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants called Bertuchis, and we enjoyed it a lot. The food was delicious and the restaurant had a nice atmosphere. We will definitely go back again.

Tuesday morning we got a phone call from the furniture store where we had ordered our apartment furniture. One of the colors of the materials we had picked turned out to be completely different from the sample in the store and they wanted us to come to the store to look it over. We went over to the store and decided to pick a different color material. Since we were right by the Mall Del Rio we did a little shopping at Coral Center. In the afternoon I had a dental appointment to work on my second root canal. Afterwards we went back to one of the appliance stores we had been to last week to more carefully look over the items we were interested in.

Wednesday we did our food shopping in the morning at the Co-Op and also went to a nearby house/store that was recommended for their bread, and the recommendation proved excellent as this turned out to be the best pan integral (whole wheat bread) we have had in Ecuador. Crusty on the outside and soft and moist on the inside, we really enjoyed this bread. Wednesday afternoon we went back to another appliance store in town to compare their products with the other appliance store we are considering. We then walked to a furniture store that had closed down in town and had relocated to the Santa Ana area.

Thursday we went to our house with the architect. We met with the same people who had been to the house previously with regard to starting a vegetable garden. They had prepared a proposal for us, but we didn't exactly understand what they would be doing with the land. The caretaker said his nephew worked at a nearby property where they had installed a similar system and we could go look at it. Six of us went in the architect's truck to the property. We had never continued on the road past our property, but this property was located even higher up than our property. We saw the system of hoses that is in place on that property. There are rows of plants growing and on either side of the row is a hose that runs along the ground. The hose has tiny holes in it and these are used to water the plants. We now have a better understanding of the proposal and will probably go ahead with the work once we have final costs for everything. On the way back to our property we stopped at the reservoir that supplies the irrigation water for all the nearby properties. It was quite large and deep. After we left our house we stopped for lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant that we had previously been to. I was looking forward to it because last time there I had one of the best seafood dishes I had ever eaten. Unfortunately it stated on the menu that they only prepare this dish on weekends. Upon returning to Cuenca we did some additional food shopping.

Friday morning Andre had a dental appointment. In the afternoon we went back to the two appliance stores we are considering to get prices on some additional smaller items we realized we would need for the apartment. We then returned to the furniture store we had previously found that made rustic furniture. We have found 2 rustic furniture stores and we are trying to decide which furniture we like better. We then went to Eucalyptus and this time there were people there. In fact by 7:00 P.M. the place was packed. We ended up spending the evening talking with a Canadian couple who lived in Mexico and who were renting in Cuenca for a month. It was very interesting to compare living in Mexico to living in Ecuador. They have lived in Mexico for over 10 years and are considering relocating to another country. So far they like Cuenca very much. They live in Lake Chapala and said that there are several thousand expatriates living in their community. They were surprised when we told them that there probably weren't more than several hundred expatriates in Cuenca (if that many) and that the expatriates were spread out all over the city. They also mentioned that by paying approximately $300 a year through the Mexican Social Security program they were covered for health insurance. They said there are 3levels of health care in Mexico, public, private and social security. The Doctors who treat private patients in Mexico also treat those covered by social security and so the health care is quite good. This turned out to be a very interesting, informative evening.

Saturday we stayed home as we were busy preparing for dinner guests. The menu was ratatouille with mini pita bread to start, cream of asparagus soup with crab meat, corvina with a potato crusted top and spinach and for dessert berries sabayon. The food was delicious and a good time was had by all.

Sunday we relaxed at home.

Pounding the Pavement

2010-01-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

Our week started out a little differently than usual. It has been our custom to go to our house with the architect on Mondays, but since we no longer have to go to Santa Isabel for any more documents we felt that we could go on another day since we had to get up at 6:00 A.M. on Mondays to leave very early. We made up to go with the architect on Wednesday. The blackouts also terminated this week so this was one less thing to think about.

Andre's eye was bothering him so he called an opthamologist on Monday morning and got an appointment for 1 1/2 hours later. The good thing about medical and dental care here is that you can get an appointment almost immediately. It turned out to be nothing but a minor dryness of the eye. Since we were around the stadium area we decided to go to a furniture store we had previously been to last year to check out furniture for the apartment. We then went to a small shop we had also found last year that custom built rustic furniture that we might want for the house. For lunch we went to D'Leon, a seafood restaurant that we had been to a few times before. After lunch we walked around Remigio Crespo stopping at some electronic stores.

Tuesday we had to take a cab to the electric company. We closed on our house on August 15th and the electric bill had not been paid since. This was not through lack of us trying to take care of the bill. We had left funds for the realtor to take care of the electric bill, but whenever we sent an email regarding the electric bill we never received a reply. When we returned to Cuenca we once again inquired about the electric bill and were told it hadn't been paid. We were told that we needed to get the code from the electric bill that the seller would have in order to be able to pay our bill. We had to contact the seller several times as he couldn't locate the bill but finally we got the code yesterday and called the electric company and were told that we had to pay $325 in cash for our outstanding bill and that they were getting ready to turn off the electricity to the house. It took a few hours there but we got everything straightened out at the electric company. Our payment is current and the electric bill has been changed to our name. We took the bus back and had lunch at Good Affinity. We like this restaurant and usually have lunch there once a week. Many of our friends had highly praised the Cooperative food store across the river so we decided to go there. We were very pleasantly surprised as we were told that they had many items, but that the produce was not organic. It turns out that the produce is organic (according to 2 people we asked who work there and some signs they have regarding organic products). We were thrilled as we try to buy organic whenever possible and had through diligent searching found two small outlets where they sold organic produce but had limited products. This store had a larger amount of fresh produce in addition to meats, chicken, fish, frozen products, dairy, grains and assorted other items. We bought quite a bit there and will be returning often.

Wednesday we went with the architect to our property. We met with an engineer whom we had previously talked with at the property. He brought with him another person as well. There was approximately an acre of our property that had not been cleared and we wanted to use this area for a vegetable garden. Our caretaker had since cleared the area with machetes first and then a tractor. We wanted a price from the engineer to create a vegetable garden for us and the engineer and his friend are supposed to prepare a quote for us. Meanwhile our caretaker said that he would have to rent 2 bulls for the day ($20.00) to level the cleared land. Andre and I both thought that we would love to be there watching the caretaker as he worked with the bulls, but this is not possible as we don't go that often to the property and the caretaker didn't know exactly when he would do it. It would have made a good photo. We then had a parillada lunch at Babmbu, one of the better restaurants in the area. When we returned to the city we had to do some more shopping. We had been looking for veal cutlet at several stores but nobody had it. SuperMaxi said they were getting it in but only had veal with bones. We had to settle for pork cutlets.

Thursday was a cooking day as we were having guests for dinner. Andre made bruschetta with toasted garlic and cheese bread slices to start. For an appetizer we had stuffed mushrooms and the main course was wiener schnitzel with red cabbage and roasted potatoes. A semi puff pastry apple tart was the dessert. An enjoyable time was had by all.

Friday we had an appointment with a Mirasol car dealership that sells used cars. We are looking to purchase an automatic, 4x4 car and this is not an easy task as 95% of the cars are manual. On our previous stay in Ecuador we were debating over whether to buy a car in Ecuador or transport a car from the U.S. While we were back in the States we found a brand new small SUV 4x4 that was reasonable in price, and we were seriously thinking of buying it and shipping it to Ecuador as part of our Menaje de casa. For those of you not familiar with the Menaje de casa it is a one time opportunity for new permanent residents to ship furniture, cars, etc. to Ecuador from overseas duty free. There are of course limitations with regard to time frame, items allowed, etc. We had no intentions of shipping furniture but we were interested in shipping a car. However, as I mentioned in prior blogs, getting accurate, up to date information in Ecuador is virtually impossible. Ask 9 different Ecuadorian officials and you'll get 9 different answers. Part of this is due to the fact that the rules and regulations with regard to importation and residency are continuously changing. It wasn't until we were in the States and had contacted a shipper out of Miami that we learned that we were ineligible to take advantage of the Menaje de casa. It seems that in order to qualify you cannot have spent more than 60 days out of the last year in Ecuador prior to applying for permanent residency. We spent 90 days in Ecuador on our last visit and it was less than a year ago. So it seems the choice has been taken out of our hands, and we will need to purchase a car in Ecuador. We will have to pay more for less. The Mirasol dealership had one automatic 4x4 car, a 2004 Chevy Trail Blazer. We are not sure of the mileage as two different people told us two different mileage amounts but it is fairly low mileage. The price of course is a lot more than the brand new SUV we saw in the States, but for Ecuador used price vehicles it seemed in line. We then stopped at other used car dealers on our walk back to our apartment but they either didn't have automatics or the ones that did were more costly for higher mileage vehicles.

After lunch we hit the road again, this time in search of appliance stores. We received a phone call Friday morning from the realtor involved in our apartment purchase, and he told us that the renter has found another apartment and will be out of the apartment by February 5th at the latest, so we will need to decide about furniture and appliances quickly. We went to several stores on appliance row in the City and got quotes. We'll look them over more carefully later and return to the best 2 places to see if we can negotiate a bit next week.

We always do quite a bit of walking every day and I was curious as to how much walking we were doing. I purchased a pedometer and brought it to Ecuador but had forgotten to use it until today. We walked over 4 miles today. Finally we decided to call it quits and go to Gringo night. We first walked over to Eucalyptus but there was nobody there so we continued on to Zoe's where there was a big crowd. I'm not crazy about the layout of Zoe's on the second floor. There isn't a good table setup like at Eucalyptus. Most people just stand around drinking and talking. If people want to eat there they have to go to a different area of the restaurant. It is also very noisy. Andre and I were both losing our voices by the time we left. There were a lot of people there but we didn't know most of the people. We talked for awhile with some people we knew and I talked to someone I had never met who lived less than 1/2 hour from where we live in Florida. We left around 7:00 P.M. as we were tired of standing and wanted to go somewhere to eat. We went to the Indian restaurant Bapu on Calle Larga where we had twice tried to previously go. The restaurant is no longer opened for lunch just for dinner.

Saturday was a repeat of our last Saturday's activities. We returned to the furniture store near the Mall Del Rio and spent a few hours there ordering all the furniture for the apartment. They are promising delivery for Febuary 6th, two weeks from Saturday. We will see how accurate they are. We then went to the Mall. While we were having lunch at the foodcourt we ran into some friends of ours and caught up with them. We then did some shopping at Coral Center.

Sunday was a day of rest for us.

Progress

2010-01-17T18:06:00.001-08:00

Our weekly routine has been to go with the architect on Monday morning to our property. He picks us up at 7:00 A.M. and then picks up some of the workers along the way. The workers remain at our property during the week and don't return to Cuenca until Friday or Saturday. We first drove to Santa Isabel with the architect which is about 15 minutes from our property. This is the fourth time we have been here trying to get the last document we need for our residency application. We got there before 9:00 A.M. and were told that the area was going to have a blackout at 9:00 A.M. and that we should return at 11:00 A.M. The architect drove us back to the town where our house is located but could not take us to the house as he had his 4 wheel drive truck in the shop and was driving a car that was not a four wheel vehicle and was unable to drive to the property. We used the form of taxi that they have there which is a small truck and the taxi driver drove us to the property. We met with someone regarding building a wood burning oven. Our caretaker and his wife had to go to Santa Isabel as well, and he had his cousin come over and drive all of us to Santa Isabel. Once more back to the municipal office. They said they would prepare the document that we need so we waited an hour. What we need is proof of payment of our property taxes. Last time we were there we paid the 2010 taxes. Now we were told that the amount wasn't correct and we needed to pay an additional
$73.00. Luckily we brought extra cash and were able to pay that amount. Finally after 1 1/2 hours we got the document we needed. Now we needed to take the bus back to Cuenca and made the 1:00 P.M. bus and arrived in Cuenca at 2:45. Andre had a dental appointment at 3:30 so we had a choice. Run over to DHL and send the documents to our attorney in Quito or have lunch. We decided on the documents. By the time we finished it was almost 3:30 so we took a cab to the dentist. Andre had a 2 hour appointment at the dentist so I decided to continue on in the taxi to our apartment. I forgot however that we were in the middle of a blackout so I had to walk up 7 flights of stairs with a large bag of fruit we had brought back from our property. Starved, I had lunch. Poor Andre had a banana at 6:30 A.M. and nothing in his mouth until dinner at 7:00.

Since we couldn't go up to the house with the architect on Monday we were supposed to go back with him on Tuesday and he was supposed to call us on Tuesday morning. However we had a blackout between 9 and 11 and couldn't get incoming calls. At 11 we walked to a cabina and tried to get in touch with him several times but were unable. We then did some food shopping at SuperMaxi. We paid a visit to a friend who recently had surgery in the hospital and he was doing very well in his recovery. It was then my turn for a dentist appointment. Afterwards we needed to do some scanning and printing and then did some additional shopping at Punto.

Wednesday we finally made it back to the property with the architect to discuss the layout and size of the kitchen cabinets they will be making. The tile for the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor is now installed and the bathroom appliances should be coming in next week.

Thursday we stayed home. We were having guests over for dinner and Andre was busy cooking up a storm. We had a guacamole dip with chips and veggies to start. For an appetizer we had seafood ceviche. The main course was osso bucco with mashed potatoes and asparagus and for dessert we had brownies and ice cream. Since several people in the group were music aficionados we made up to go to the Cuenca symphony concert the following evening.

Friday we went to the Parque Industrial to look for furniture. Our offer on the apartment we saw last Friday had been accepted, but we are still up in the air as to whether this deal will go through. Right now there is a renter who is living in the apartment who is supposed to be out of the apartment at the latest by the middle of February. However we have nothing in writing.

We also went to the Eljuri department store near the bus terminal and then to Calle Larga where we wanted to have lunch at Bapu, an Indian restaurant we had gone to several times during our last stay in Ecuador. Unfortunately, they are no longer opened for lunch so we went to Jordan instead. We then went to Camari, a store that sells organic produce. Friday evening we went to Zoe's and then several of us walked over to the concert.

Saturday we went to another furniture store near the Mall Del Rio and then went to the Mall where we had lunch and did some shopping at Coral Center.

Sunday we went to a restaurant in the Cajas with 3 other couples. The restaurant is called Dos Chorreras and I highly recommend it. The setting is stunning and the food is excellent. The restaurant specializes in trout and it was the best trout I have had. Be sure to wear warm clothes as it is located at an altitude of 12- 13 thousand feet and it was really cool there.

Not Enough Hours in the Day

2010-01-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

Since we've arrived in Ecuador on December 14th we've been very busy. There is a long list to things we need to do with three priorities at the top of the list. One is to obtain the necessary documents we need to provide our attorney in order to submit our residency papers. We are applying on an investment visa and we were given a list of three documents we need to provide the attorneys in order for them to submit our residency application. The first is the Compraventa or Deed which was in the possession of the realtor we were using in Cuenca and which we now have. The second is the Certificado de Gravamenes which is the tax lien search by the Property Registrar. This had already been done twice before our closing, but we were told by our attorney that they needed and updated Certificate that was done within the last 30 days. The third document we need is the Carta del Impuesto Predial which is a document that shows the taxes on the property have been paid. We have a copy of this document but need an original. The document we have is also in the name of the previous owner and we need to transfer it to our name.

Our second priority is to go with the architect and pick out tile, brick, granite, bathroom appliances, etc. for the house.

Our third priority is to find an apartment. We have decided to purchase a small apartment in Cuenca with the proceeds from the sale of our land. There are several reasons for our decision. Our architect is telling us that the house should be finished by the middle of February, but we have our doubts since he initially told us that it would take 3 months to complete the work and we are almost at 4 months now. With the blackouts and Christmas and New Years holidays, work has been progressing slower than anticipated. We will also need time after the house is completed to furnish it as well. We will be returning to the States in the middle of March for 1 1/2 to 2 months and then will return in May with our two sons. We are worried that we will not be able to move into our house yet and will need a place to stay with our boys during their visit. Additionally, we will probably be coming into Cuenca weekly for shopping, socializing, etc. The trip is about 1 1/4 hours and I've already described the windy one lane roads before. We will not drive at night on these roads and might want to stay over in Cuenca once a week. We also have our dentists and Doctors in Cuenca. All these facts convinced us that it would make sense to buy a small apartment with two bedrooms and two baths. We also need to get an apartment as quickly as possible as we are currently renting short term and want to be all set up in a new apartment prior to our return to the States.

Our first 4 days in Ecuador were spent in Quito starting our process towards permanent residency. Then our arrival in Cuenca on Friday, December 18th and a trip the following day to see our house. That Monday, December 21st we left on a 2 day trip to Loja to close on the sale of our land in Vilcabamba. On Wednesday, December 23rd we met friends for lunch and then met with our architect to look for tile, granite, brick and bathroom applianes for the house. Thursday, December 24th there wasn't much to do as everything was closing down early, so we watched the parade going on in Cuenca and also hit the streets walking to different apartment building and asking if there was anything for sale. On Christmas day we found out the mall was open so we spent some time there. Saturday we met with a few realtors to see two apartments and in the evening we met two couples for dinner.

The following week was similar. Monday we went to our house in Yunguilla Valley and then went to the municipality of Santa Isabel approximately 15 minutes away to try to get the necessary documents. We were told that since it was a short week and they were closing after Wednesday that we should come back next week. Tuesday we were supposed to go out with a realtor at 11:00 AM but he was a no show so we contacted a different realtor and were supposed to go out with them at 12:30. Things kept getting delayed and they didn't come until 2:15. The problem was that we were supposed to be at a friend's apartment at 3:00 PM for a get together with a few couples for some "nibbles". We ended up getting there late but were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon there. It proved difficult to contact a lot of realtors or to be able to view different apartments because we were in the middle of two weeks of holiday celebrations and many people were away for the holidays. We therefore hit the streets on Wednesday and Thursday walking in neighborhoods we liked and stopping by and asking if there were any apartments for sale. Unfortunately this didn't prove to be too successful as we only got to see 2 apartments this way. Thursday evening we celebrated New Years Eve with a group of
14, which I previously discussed in detail in an earlier blog. New Years Day we stayed in the apartment as everything was closed and there was no public transportation. Saturday we were invited to a "first annual trailer trash park scrambled dog bash" at a friend's apartment where they served gourmet chili hot dogs, and some of the guests were quite creative in their trailer trash dress up style. Sunday we went to a park that someone had told us about where they sold organic produce.

This past week was more of the same. On Monday we went to our house and met with someone who could help us with a garden. We have an area of maybe an acre or two that is undeveloped. We want to clear that land and use it for a garden to grow vegetables. We already have many fruit trees but there is no vegetable garden. The person we met with will prepare a proposal for us. We then went to Santa Isabel once again to pick up the two documents we needed. Neither document was ready. We heard excuses like blackout, previous abbreviated work week, etc. and were told to come back in a few days. Let me comment briefly on the Property Registrar location. We had a difficult time locating it initially. It turns out that it is located in a street shop on the third floor. The second floor is a furniture store. Tuesday we went to look at a few apartments. What is surprising us is that there are not that many apartments for us to see. Different realtors are now taking us to see properties we already saw. I think by the time we are finished we will have seen 18 apartments in total which isn't bad if all the apartments met our requirements but they haven't. Initially we wanted an apartment in an elevator building with security, but a lot of the apartments neither have elevators nor security. It seems that there is a law in Cuenca whereby you are required to have an elevator in the building if it is more than 4 stories tall. Many buildings are only 4 stories high so they can avoid installing an elevator. Our other requirement is a 2 bedroom/ 2 bath apartment but some of the apartments we have seen have 1 or 1 1/2 baths. Tuesday we also squeezed in a dentist appointment for Andre who will be continuing his dental work that he commenced when we were previously in Cuenca. Wednesday we did more apartment hunting in the morning and early afternoon with two different realtors and then I had a dentist appointment at 3:30 P.M. Finally we had a 5:00 o'clock meeting with the previous owner of our house to go over several questions we had concerning the house. Thursday Andre was going to go back to Santa Isabel to pick up the two documents we needed. He was going with the architect and was supposed to be picked up at 8:00 A.M. The architect then called to say he would be there at 9:30 but actually didn't show up until 12:30. Andre then had an appointment with the dentist at 5:30 P.M. I stayed at the apartment to catch up on some things and to get dinner ready. Friday we had appointments with two realtors, one in the late morning and one at 4:00 P.M. Our 4:00 P.M. appointment turned out to be just what we were looking for and we made an offer on the apartment. The realtor then dropped us off in town at a furniture store where we were to meet the architect. This store had kitchen cabinets that we liked very much and the architect wanted to see the cabinets. Unfortunately the store was in the process of closing down at that location. They will be relocating to another location in approximately a month. The current store was almost entirely empty and there wasn't much for us to see. We also wanted to go to "Gringo Night". The expats meet every Friday at 5:00 P.M. at one or two different restaurant locations. By the time the architect drove us to one of the restaurants it was 6:00 P.M., but a good number of our friends were there and we stayed at the restaurant until 9:00 P.M. Saturday we went downtown and looked at some furniture stores and appliance stores and then went food shopping. Today we are resting in preparation for another busy week ahead.