Well, Spring is here in Colorado...at least today. I'm quite certain we'll get at least one more snow storm. We returned from our yearly jaunt to Ecuador the end of February. The weather was a little cooler this year with a little more rain, however it didn't snow like Colorado or get down below zero. Nights were still around 50 degrees and the days averaged 65 to 70.
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| Iris and a Neighbor |
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| Ecuadorean animals are never stubborn... |
Ecuador's economy seems to be doing darn good. There is construction going on everywhere...roads, houses, apartment and business buildings. We are always amazed at the little indigenous folks who live in stick and mud houses with dirt floors who all have cell phones. We were very pleased...well, Mike was, to find Ecuador's version of Home Depot ( Mega Hierro) in our favorite small town of Paute. It's really not anywhere near the same as Home Depot but much better than the traditional Ecuadorean hardware stores.
Our beautiful home survived just fine during our 10 month absence. Few repairs were needed even though there are always those little tweaks needed any time a house is left sit empty that long anywhere in the world. We repainted most of the floors this trip just to have something to occupy a day or two. As always we read several books while relaxing on the front porch enjoying our view of the Andes Mountains.
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| Patrice and Rose, yes that's a wheelbarrow full of cherries |
We had visitors this year. A new friend, Rose from Oregon and her daughter, Patrice came and spent a week with us in January. We really enjoyed showing them the City of Cuenca with its' historic buildings and many shopping opportunities as well as taking them to our favorite little city of Paute. We also took them to the small town of Banos just north of Cuenca to the Hosteria Duran, an awesome natural hot water spa. We so love sharing our little piece of heaven and our adopted country with others. Then in February we had friends from Evergreen, Colorado, come and spend a couple of days. We really enjoyed their company and got to spend "Carnival" with them in Paute. What a grand celebration it was. Tom and Suzanne have been living in Cuenca since October and feel that Ecuador is where they are going to retire.
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| Iris, Tom and Suzanne |
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Love those Panama Hats
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Speaking of Carnival, some of you may know that cuy (guinea pig) is a special delicacy in Ecuador and it is always prepared on holidays and special occasions. Well after having our home in Ecuador for going on 7 years, Mike finally decided to give it a try this year...no, he didn't care for it. It was tough, not really much meat and good roasted chicken is much better. Iris agreed with his assessment. We happened to be sitting next to a wonderful Ecuadorean family who were more than willing to receive the cuy as a Carnival gift. They couldn't quite comprehend how those goofy Gringos could not just love such a special delicacy. The mother broke off one of the crisp cuy feet and began munching it as soon as she got it on her plate.
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| Yum!!...NOT! |
Not long before we left we met another lady from Canada who recently retired to Ecuador. She bought a beautiful hacienda on a large piece of property down the canyon from us towards the city of Azogues. What a wonderful person she is. We shared lunch with her a couple of times and she took us into Azogues in her nice new little SUV for shopping. She also got us lined out with a business that can provide our house with wireless Internet so we look forward to getting connected next winter.
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| Elenore's Hacienda |
Of course we spent a few days with our good Ecuadorean friends, the Morocho family. We even left our rather antique laptop with the two Morocho sisters who just started University this year. Computers are so expensive in Ecuador and they will really enjoy and utilize it to its' fullest. We also met some new neighbors who recently bought a house just around the corner from our house who are professional people from Cuenca. We went to lunch with them and spent one Sunday riding with them to the town of Chordaleg...we've never seen so many jewelry stores in one little town. Chordeleg is famous for its' gold and silver jewelry as well as a plethora of other Ecuadorean crafts. We bought our good friend, Larry, a very nice Ecuadorean made hammock while we were there.
So, we're making new friends all the time and enjoying our visits to Ecuador more all the time.
We can hardly wait until our next trip south.
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