Bully, shopping and cedulas

I have heard from Bully's adoptive parents.  He is doing well and has accepted his new people into his life.  They love him and I sure do miss him.

All is well,  We have both had bouts of intestinal what-evers, but they clear up quickly with camomile (manzanilla) and oregano tea blended together (a local cure we learned from the hotel) plus acidophilus.  Even Pepper had some distress, but the same cure and he is healthy again.

We are planning our next mini-adventure in the midst of the big one.  There are many places we can get to within a day of here, such as Loja, Cuenca, and many towns in between so a 3 or 4 day tour with trusty Jorge is in the future.   Our only real complaint about staying here indefinitely is the fact that it is frustrating trying to buy things.  Each item seems to have its own little store.  The only "supermarket", for example, does not have dog food, except in little tiny bags, and is woefully inadequate in the fresh fruit/veggie department.  For those, we must go to another store - the veterinarian's for the dog food, and a fruit/veggie stand for those.  We don't buy much in the way of meats, but there again - at its own store.    We have managed to find what we need, but it usually means going to three or four stores just to get the groceries.  On the plus side, this is a great excuse to walk to town just about every day.  We often walk and roll to town, end up with way to much stuff, and call a taxi ($1.50) to get home. 

The MegaMaxie we went to in Quito had almost everything - like Walmart but no such thing here.  SuperMaxie is like Mega only smaller, but again, none to be found here or even in Macas.  So we are considering a slightly more urban setting in the next 6 month to year.  But who knows, we might find everything here by then, or they will build a larger Maxie for the probable influx of people from Cuenca.  The Pharmacias have most of what we look for, but not everything.  Part of that is trying to describe what we are looking for.  We’ve learned it is best to bring in the scientific name. I had a feeling we would have difficulty finding my anti-depressants, so I started tapering off.  I have been off of them for several weeks now and doing and feeling great - so obviously I do not need them anymore, but I did check and the pharmacia didn't carry them.  I think with a prescription from a doctor, they are obtainable.

That said, the neighbors are wonderful, and we love the area.  Except for the mosquitoes.  The temperatures fit me just right.  No cold feet at night.  No blistering hot days, though the sun can feel quite brutal when the sky is clear in the middle of the day.  Shade is the answer, in the form of  hats and/or umbrellas.

Jorge has been very busy this week with one of his other businesses (he does cleaning for institutions) so he hasn't been by, and since he sent our passports to Quito, they will be returned to him.  I have been trying not to bug him too much, but I talked with him today (Friday).  He said he checked on Wednesday and they weren't back yet.  He will check again tonight, and we will see him tomorrow, hopefully with the passports/cedulas.

Update on passports and cedulas:

From the very beginning my paperwork has been a challenge.  Michigan had no record of my birth, nor did Mom or myself, except for the hospital certificate which isn't legal proof, although it did have necessary information such as doctor and hospital.  I had to apply for a delayed certificate of birth.  I thought that we were good to go, but then the passport people told me that it might not work because on the hospital certificate, someone entered my birth date, in pen, and then changed it, which constituted some kind of forgery or something.  But the passports finally came through. Mine showed up a couple weeks after Steve’s so that was really scary. So, again, I thought we were done.  Not.  In applying for residency, Steve’s sailed right through, but my birth certificate became a problem again.  The Michigan delayed birth certificate wasn’t the right document.  They wanted the one that doesn’t exist.  We finally got through that, then all the paperwork had to go through a notary in Quito to get the cedulas.  Steve's was fine and he was approved immediately, but the notary made three errors on mine, misspelling a name (Stouffer), a space in the wrong place, and I don’t recall the other problem – it was even more trivial. Ismael, the young man helping us (and Nora's cousin) argued with the superintendent of the cedula process, and finally got them to overlook the mistakes as they had nothing to do with me directly - only long gone parents and ancestors.  So we were both approved and had our fingers printed, pictures taken, signed an oath to be good people and we thought that we were finally done.

Then they changed the process by which you actually got the cedulas. 

They had been mailing them to the address on the application, in our case, the Bonanza Hotel.  Now, they have decided that you must pick them up in person with your passport in hand, and we are an 8 hour ride away.  We thought we had that covered by having Ismael pick up our cedulas with our passports and a letter giving him permission to do so.  Again, Steve's cedula - no hay probelmo.  Mine - problemos.  Something wasn't right.  I don't know what the sticking point was this time, but Nora told me this morning that Ismael fought with them all week and finally has both passports and cedulas and we will get them next week.  So typical of the workings in Ecuador.  For some reason, I have not felt panicky about all this.  I just figured it would happen when it happened.  Thank goodness, Nora and Ismael, whom I trust, have been getting it done, in spite of a bug running around Quito making everyone miserable.   

So - maybe Tuesday.