1 week 'till Cuenca

We are one week away from our move to Cuenca.  Our landlady was sad, but understood our need to move on.  She asked us if we knew any other Americans that want to rent her house.  

This last week has been interesting as three days of it have been powerless.  That makes working on the computer, reading our Kindles, re-charging my scooter and seeing at night all a challenge.  We have candles, and a gas stove, so no worries, we won't starve.  I think there is a lot of infrastructure upgrading being done for future expansions.   Plus we have had three full days, and three partial days, of rain - downpour type rain.  The type where we wait for it to get down to a trickle to take the dogs out (Pepper refuses to go out in the rain unless he is at the end of a leash) and by the time we are at the end of the road to our South and start to turn back - we get hit with a deluge.  We get totally soaked - all four of us - by the time we get home.  We expect the rain here - but it hasn't helped us feel badly about our choice to move on.

I asked Brandon if he had any pictures of the condo we rented – and he did!

Here are some pics of our future home:

Front door/living room.  Door to left is Kitchen

Balcony off living room - that's a cabbage patch

Kitchen 1

Kitchen 2

Balcony off Master Bed

Another bedroom

Showers could prove interesting.

Lot's of built-in closets - now what do we do with the one we bought?

 There is a convenience store on the first floor along with a beauty saloon (Yea!) and a couple other businesses.  Parking in a garage in the basement for when/if we get a car or someone coming to visit has one. All entrances are security type.  There are several farmacias and a huge open air mercado/flea market nearby, and two supermarkets - one north, one south, about 6 blocks, a mall about 1 1/2 miles away and a large Home Depot type hardware store in the same area.  Cuenca is bustling with a ton of different things to see and do, so we should not have to worry about being bored. 

Cuenca

We are moving – and have a real address!

We just got back from a four day trip to Cuenca with our friend/driver/guide Jorge.   It was intended as a chance to get acquainted with and pay for a search team to look for a new home in that city.  Never having actually been to Cuenca, just relying on a couple years of research, we  made the quantum leap of deciding to move from small town Ecuador to the City.  We stayed at the only hotel that cleared both of our hurdles of allowing dogs and being handicap accessible right in the heart of the historic district.  That had its benefits and drawbacks.  Downtown historic area of Cuenca is very busy, very noisy and a lot of fun.  Poor Ginger had to learn quickly about walking on crowded sidewalks with lots of people wanting to pet her as she walked by.  Pepper was fine.  Not much bothers the old boy.

We started out with a meeting with of a couple from the states who feel that what is happening in Cuenca was just wrong for the native Cuencanos and non-wealthy ex-pats as housing prices are becoming out of range for many of these people.   Americans and others have come in, bought up land and homes, and are now renting at highly inflated prices.  So this family felt they had an obligation to help and started working with owners (shaming?) to get them to reduce their pricing to fair market so that the average person can afford to live there.   It turned into a marathon of looking at any homes that came even close to our needs.   The few places we had seen on-line were already rented.   We ended up working with their son, Brandon, who was personable and sweet and as gung-ho as anyone we have run across.  

Our parameters were the same as the hotel, plus a home on all one floor or at least one bedroom (or office) on the main floor with a bathroom that was accessible – even sort of - and a shower.   I already knew that was a long shot.  Most homes here are living space on the main floor – sleeping on the second.  We looked at a couple homes with an office, but they were either not something I could enter or the bath was a simple sink and toilet.  Jorge – being Jorge - found all kinds of ways to counter these obstacles but that would have been an additional expenditure by either us or the landlord. 

We had already talked about a condominium.  Not quite as nice for the dogs, though we already take them out for two walks a day just because they like that.  So we looked at several condos.  One was too uppity and dark.  A lot of dark wood.   The price was good, but I felt as if we should have to wear a three piece suit at all times and hire a butler, and they wanted us to confine the dogs to the kitchen.  Then we saw one that was bright and light and huge and dang near perfect.  Two great balconies, green area near-by for the dogs, three bedrooms (for those thinking of a visit) 2 baths – one of which I could get totally into, nice kitchen, good price - well you get the idea.  We took it.   So we had to stay an extra day to sign a contract which had the scrutiny of both Brandon AND Jorge, so it is good.

So now, we have to deal with the telling our current landlady that we must leave.  Jorge (bless his heart) is going to help us through that, too.   I have started the process of locating a moving company, so we should be moved by October 5.  I will send the address once I am sure I have it correct. 

Frogs and Toads and Lizards, oh my!

Frogs, Toads and Lizards come to call from time to time.  

 

This cute little guy joined us last night.  We have a 3/4 to 1" opening under our outside doors, and these critters find their way in.  We hustle to capture them and get them back outside for fear that Ginger will hassle them.  We have tried to find what we called "door sweeps" in the states, but nobody knows what we are talking about.  It was suggested that we take an old inner tube and cut it into strips, but we don't happen to have any inner tubes around here.  It is one of those things we need to talk to the Land Lady about. 

As promised, Steve finally got some pictures of the flowers and foliage around our house:

Questions Answered

We have been asked what we do with our time here in Ecuador.  Well, we do here pretty much what we did in the states. 

 We read - a lot.  We are both bookworms, and with our Kindles, the supply of books is endless.  

We research anything that crosses our paths– such as the foods available here, or plants, or animals…even the people.  The Schuar people are the original inhabitants around here.  I still follow the politics of the world, the US and Ecuador. 

We continue our attempts to learn Spanish.  We try to practice as much as we can.  We greet the neighbors and try small talk, but we are both a bit too shy to try out much too fast.  One neighbor, Washington, is trying to learn English.  When we meet him while out walking, we are never sure if we will be speaking English or Spanish - sometimes both.  One of the draws to a larger community such as Cuenca is the abundance of formal and informal Spanish classes for ex-pats that we both feel we would benefit from.

We walk and roll - Partly out of necessity and partly because we like it.  We never have to deal with it being too cold, though it can get pretty warm at midday.  Rain is the only thing to keep us indoors, and even that is a warm rain. We have been caught out in it more than once, arriving home drenched, but none the worse for wear.  One concern is that my little scooter is taking a beating on the cobblestones and bumpy paths to/from town.  It wasn’t designed to be cross country.  Sidewalks would help a lot.

We like to go to the Mercado to find new and interesting things to eat.  Our latest find (well, re-find – we had it once before, but forgot) is the pitayas.   

They are wonderfully sweet fruit that have some great health benefits, especially for me.   If you are interested, here is a link about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya.

We also buy yuca, pina, and sweet potatoes and whatever else tickles our fancy.   The sweet potatoes are different from what we are used to.  Steve peeled some for dinner one night and ended up with sticky, waxy goo all over his hands that he couldn’t wash off.  We did get it off, and the potatoes were great.  The sweet potatoes they have around here are known as waxy.  Now we know why.  Apparently that wax disappears as they cook. 

And we plan.  Our next adventure to be the trip to Cuenca (erroneously stated earlier as the end of Aug/early Sept) but instead end of Sept/early Oct).  The more we talk about it, however, the more it seems we are both inclined to try Cuenca next, then Loja after that.  Cuenca has a large community of expats, which is both good and bad, but it also has the benefit of a couple of web sites that these expats use to exchange ideas and suggestions.  GringoTree.com has a huge database of tried and recommended services from restaurants to veterinarians.  It started out as a small site and has boomed onto a huge information exchange.  Another site is gringosabroad.com, a blog by a couple from Canada and their daughter.  They share all sorts of information as well. 

Steve and I both have the drawing bug.  Steve has been sketching when he thinks I don’t notice – and his sketches are great.  I want to get some charcoal, conte crayons, etc. and decent paper – none of which is available in Sucua – to start again as well. 

When we the itch to get out of Sucua for a bit, we call our friend, Jorge.   He will be taking us on our trip to Loja/Cuenca and before we leave, I want him to take us on a one day tour of the Amazon (by car), and to the chocolate growers.  I want to see the process of the cocoa beans becoming chocolate.

I still maintain my friend’s web site and write this blog.

               

One of the major items on our list of reasons to move to a more urban setting is that there are a very limited number of things for us Gringos to do here in Sucua.  The community is very family based, which I think is a great thing.  But there are no theaters, concerts or classes.   Not even a radio station or newspaper to let people know if there is going to be a celebration or parade or whatever.  Something is always going on in Cuenca.