We´re Getting Really Comfortable Now...

Sunday, May 8, was Mother´s Day in the USA and in Ecuador. ¨Dia de la Madre.¨ It was also a bit cool and a light mist fell all day, often turning into slight drizzle. In spite of the weather, we planned out a day that, like many, doesn´t go quite the way you think it will.

The Museum of Modern Art is in a part of town we hadn´t visited as yet, near the San Sebastian Plaza in the old part of the city ("old" typically means the buildings may date back to the 1700´s). So with umbrella in hand we headed off for the museum, walking about 10 blocks, only to find that it was closed -- in contrast to what all the guide books said about its Sunday hours. Oh well. San Sebastian plaza is a beautiful little area; Becky said she wished we had such in Atlanta and I agree. Here are a few pics:

No doubt about it - a picturesque little quiet spot in town. Seems like every park or plaza also has a motorcyle cop stationed there all day and into the night, just to keep things safe.

Next we wandered over to the flower market, which seems to be open every day.  Becky picked up some carnations for the apartment. The choices are endless and flowers are very inexpensive. I think she paid about $6 for a huge bouquet. 

Since the vino supply was exhausted we shopped around town, including the SuperMaxi, to buy a bottle of wine. But alas, alcoholic beverages could not be sold on Mother´s Day. So while at the SuperMaxi we picked up some fresh veggies.

We´re finding everyone here just so accommodating and friendly. The language barrier is falling away to a small extent too. With the Jibbigo on the iPod framing the questions I want to ask people, and then listening carefully and using lots of hand gestures, it´s all coming into place.  When we watch HBO and Cinemax on DirecTV at the apartment, all the program descriptions are in Spanish. But both of us are getting pretty good at reading the descriptions and figuring out what the movie or show is all about.  (Fortunately, the movies themselves are in English with Spanish sub-titles.)

What can I say? Life here is just as complex and challenging for everyday people as it would be for any of us anywhere. But as retired people, it´s just downright fun to head out for the day and see what develops.  It´s fun to walk around town and be aware that "pedestrians don´t have preference over cars" here -- so looking every which way before crossing the street is mandatory. It´s just one more little thing that tells us we´re in a different place, and one that we´re enjoying.

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OK, on Monday we decided to hit a couple of the museums. The Pumapungo Museum is the city´s best. It has an entire floor of colorfully animated dioramas displaying traditional costumes of Ecuador’s many indigenous cultures, including Afro-Ecuadorians from Esmeraldas province, the cowboy-like montubios (coastal farmers) of the western lowlands, several rainforest groups and all the major highland groups. The grand finale features five rare and eerie tzantza (shrunken heads) from the Shuar culture of the southern Oriente. Sadly, taking pictures was forbidden, so we can only reference a couple from the web.

From there we went to the CIDAP museum, which is the museum of "arte populares."  They did allow us to take pictures, but there wasn´t much to see and we walked the entire museum in about 10 minutes.

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That brings us up to today, Tuesday. We´re going to a gringo trivia gathering at the Inca Lounge this evening, and then maybe to another gringo confab at DiBacco´s restaurant. We´ve been invited by a British Columbia couple to join them at Baños, about 2 miles outside the city, to enjoy the hot springs that rise up from a nearby (inactive) volcano. So we´ll take the city bus over there (25-cents each way) and soak in the mineral rich waters for a while on Thursday. Then Sunday a UK couple has invited us for dinner at their new apartment, which is in a former mental asylum building LOL. Finally, I´m taking Becky on a ¨"chocolate tour of Cuenca" Wednesday, we´re going to check out the health club here; look up the Sheltie breeder in town; buy our American Idol tour tickets for Gwinnett (if you´re gonna do that, do it at the exact moment of 10AM on May 12, or they´ll be sold out). And finally, we´re going to investigate a zip line that runs over the canopy here, supposedly about 7-8 km outside Cuenca. That should be a rush.

Here's a recap of my early morning walk-about today.

Ciao for now ^_^

Sunny Wednesday

Allan wrote ...

We're getting used to the early sunset and the sleepiness it beings much earlier in the evening than we're used to. Becky sacked out early last night and I wasn't far behind. We're not big night people, so it's not likely we'll be looking for the hotspots after dark.  So that leaves either early to sleep, or finding a DirecTV show in English.  Actually the apartment has HBO and Cinemax, so there are some good movies on in English (with Spanish subtitles).  But to give us a few more options we went out to a bookstore run by a North Carolina expat who has been here for several years. We stocked up on a few books to while away the hours between 6PM when the sun goes down and sleepy time.

Today, on Wednesday, we went out to Calderon Park and had a delicious lunch there on the square. Tomorrow we're meeting another couple who are visiting from Mexico for six weeks, and in the afternoon, heading out with Ana Loja to the orchid farm and further exloration at the University.

Still having little luck with wifi here and it's hard to get things posted and emails read/sent, short of going to an Internet cafe, which I am doing now. Our landlord is looking into a possible solution for us, but he did explain that Internet in Ecuador is not as fast and robust as in the States.  I ran a few speedtest.net benchmarks and we're getting about 800 kb download and 400 to 500 kb upload.  So we may be totally unable to post some of the fun videos we've made due to their large size.  Shucks.  However there are some new still pics at this Picasa address:  http://goo.gl/ngZcF

We signed up for a guided tour on Saturday to a couple of artisan villages.  Should be fun. It's an all day trip. Becky got her authentic straw hat today, so now she can keep the sun off her shoulders, which is important because she got sunburned the first day here.  I guess at 8200 feet the Andean sun can be a bit hotter than even in Hotlanta.

That's all for now.  I'll continue trying to get some pics and videos loaded up.  Ciao for now ;)

Getting There and Enjoying Our First Day

On 4/30 Becky wrote...
Well, it was hell getting here, but now we are beside the river and have been out walking the town today.  No one wants to cash our Amex travelers checks, so we'll try again Monday.,.hrmpph.   What I keep laughing about is the way our taxi driver pronounced our hotel, which is the Villa Nova Inn.   When he was asking other cabbies where the hotel was located, he would say to them, "Donde es de Bee-No-Bean!"  hahaha.  

The drive from that awful Guayaquil city was terrifyiing for 3 whole hours....the driver sped and passed everyone in front of him on a two lane road all the way, and even did it in the thick white fog!!!  I prayed a lot and somehow we got here without sliding off of a 300 foot drop off and past the mud slide blocking the road.  In addition to all that, the driver played latino rap and rock all the way, you know, that continuous shrill beat that never stops?  Oh and yes, the air conditioning in the van was set at I'm sure 40 degrees.  No way will we go that route back to the airport in Quaya-Kill!   Also, that city is devastatingly impoverished, lined along the roadsides in the city and outside the city were tiny rotten wood shacks where they sit all day and sell their farm produce every day of the week.  Some houses on stilts had no window glass and they were about large enough for two small rooms for the whole family.   A sad sad scene to pass on the road.  And the city is huge with this kind of setup.

Cuenca had some of that on the outside skirts, but it got better as we drove into the city.  It's pretty, quaint old buildings, lots of good food at little restaurants, nice friendly people.   The language was quite a problem in the Quayaquil airport, but we're getting used to communicating now, especially with Allan's IPod language translator.  It works great for immediate on the spot translation of Spanish to English and vice versa.  So when we had lunch today at Kookaburras (English speaking), we breathed a sigh of relief, whew.

Tomorrow we go to our little studio apartment just around the corner and we'll stay there for I'd say about a week.  I'm voting for flying to Quito for the remainder of our trip, as it is more U.S. like and north of it are a group of villages where artists, craftspeople, and artisans gather to market their wares.  Each village section makes a particular things, such as copper pots, another does baskets, while another section does weaving and so on.

It is cool here and very comfortable, sunny days, cool nights, breezy, and the river runs fast over big boulders, a nice sound to sleep by.

...and Allan wrote...

Our first full day in Cuenca was all about walking around town, doing a bit of shopping, checking out a few restaurants and snapping some photos. Our hosts at the Villa Nova Inn are super kind and helpful, and they make a point of having an English-speaking person here 24x7.  Seems they are catering to norteamericanos and others of the English language persuasion. 

It is a relief to come back to the hotel and not have to try to figure out the right thing to say in Spanish.  I'd heartily recommend this hotel and its friendly staff.  Our daily room rate includes an American breakfast at the restaurant next door and the 22% IVA tax (which is, I believe, a VAT tax).  They're even providing the wi-fi we're using to post  blogs, check email, etc.  Not bad for just $49 / night.

As we walked around town today I had many occasions to use Jibbigo (software app on my iPod) to translate for us.  It really is neat to speak to the iPod and have it magically tell me what to say in Spanish.  "Is it made by hand?" I ask Jibbigo.  "¿Está hecho a mano?" says Jibbigo. I ask the question in Spanish and then...hope to understand the high speed reply from the merchant.  Until now I haven't asked the Ecuadoriano to speak to the iPod. I'm just winging it in trying to understand them -- which is actually working reasonably well.  It's a lot of fun trying to communicate and learn a bit of the language. Even moreso because the folks here are quite accommodating and willing to help the gringos out.  Plus, a good many Ecuadorianos do speak English.

We find that crossing a street can be like Russian roulette: make the wrong move and die.  Drivers here not only don't pay much attention to double yellow lines, lane markers and traffic signs. They have right of way over pedestrians. If you step out in front of a car and get hit, it's pretty much your fault. We're double and triple-checking each intersection we want to cross, first to see if it's a one-way or two-way street, and therefore how many directions we have to look to be sure of not getting run down and flattened to the cobblestones.  And while we're looking, a small boy maybe 8 years old riding a bicycle zooms by us on the sidewalk, just inches from the curb and passing traffic, with his 4 year old brother sitting on the handlebars.  Ouch!  I can't imagine letting a small child have the run of the sidewalk amidst all that traffic.  I guess he's used to it and probably has a better sense about him, and about staying alive, than a kid at home who is probably watched over continuously and carefully by mom and dad.

I've read that Ecuadorian law is based on civil law, not common law. The difference is that common law uses judges and "rule of law" precedent to determine guilt or innocence. Civil law though is basically a written collection of laws that judges can't interpret much at all; they're pretty much required to follow them. Juries are not much used in civil law countries either. The upshot of this is that laws on the books determine guilt or innocence, not the circumstances of an event. So if the law here says it's incumbent on the pedestrian to watch his step, that's it.  No arguing who's guilty because it's already been spelled out.  

At least that's my take on the issue. And it turns out to my surprise that our revered "rule of law" and common law approach is used only in Anglo-type countries:  USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The rest of the planet seems to follow one form or another of civil law.


Enough for now. Time for dinner! More pics at http://goo.gl/ngZcF

Poverty in Ecuador

Isn’t it wonderful, here in the 21st century, to have the Internet and all the technology that enables, supports and allows us to use it in so many ways. In preparation for our trip to Ecuador I spent months searching all kinds of websites for information that would be helpful, useful. On one of those late night journeys of a thousand clicks, I came across an article by University of Maryland student, Morgan Rich, that highlighted her volunteer work at a remote and impoverished school high in the wilderness of the Andes mountains.

It touched my heart to read her words and a description of the work she and her team delivered to local families and their children. I understand why tears flowed from her eyes on her last day with the locals, before coming back to the States. There truly aren’t many things more fulfilling than selflessly helping one’s fellow man, and receiving gracious thanks that’s so genuine and heart-felt.

About one-third of people in Ecuador live with poverty in 2011. The government has established a few hundred dollars per month as the minimum a family of four can live on. Esther, 38 years old and a grandmother living in Quito gives a voice to poverty, as evidenced by this short interview posted by the United Nations Development Program...

The best thing in my life: Being with my family is the best part of my life. I have a granddaughter so I try to spend time with her and help my daughter and son with their kids.  
My biggest hardships: The prices of food and feeding my family. 
My best day: Every Saturday and Sunday, when I don't have to work, is good for me.  
My worst day: I can’t think of my worst day.  
My hopes and dreams for myself: That my children succeed professionally and have opportunities to do something with their lives.

Here in the USA the vast majority of us take a certain degree of wealth and plentitude for granted. Most of us don't have to worry about being able to feed our families. Yet ironically, many of us would not hesitate in explaining what constitutes a "worst day" -- whether it's fighting traffic, suffering an illness, having to postpone some kind of gratification or some other comparatively petty annoyance.


Thinking about the stark difference in lifestyles, opportunities and life-challenges between the 4.6 million Ecuadorians in poverty and what we in the USA are accustomed to, makes me think about getting settled there and finding some volunteer work to do. Yet there's some sage advice at the "Captivating Cuenca" website about visitors and expats moving to Ecuador:


"And then there are the "do-gooders," the transplants who want to "help" the less fortunate. Those warm and fuzzy gringos unwittingly disrupt the cultural and economic flow by overpaying, overtipping, and over-helping. Such actions result in altered expectations by locals, and the hidden feeling that gringos are both filthy rich and pretty stupid people."


I certainly don't want to fall into that trap, and I'm not filthy rich -- so it's clear that this trip will be full of new learning opportunities. I've often been amazed at how easily two opposing political talking heads from the USA can passionately put forth drastically different points of view on the same "fact," as happens moment to moment on Fox News, for example. If two of my own countrymen can have such disparate views, I'm sure an entirely different culture will give me reason to pause many times each day. Truly, I'm looking forward to the experience. I never have been an ugly American and don't plan to start now!


~ Allan

Best Place in the World

Yahoo and Google are different in interesting ways.  Google has that trim, slim, economical home page that loads up quickly, yet gives you many options such as News, Images, Videos, Maps and so on.  Yahoo, on the other hand, takes a while to load up all the ads, but finally displays all kinds of interesting factoids, stories and breaking news.  It's a more "social" place that gives one the latest entertainment business gossip, cute and entertaining videos on diverse subjects, as well as sections on news, dating, health, shopping, weather and more. It's even been reported that men generally prefer and use Google, while women tend more toward Yahoo.

Around June or July, 2010, Yahoo had an article on the Best Places in the World to Retire. We looked over the articles and found that Cuenca, Ecuador in South America had been voted #1 at least a couple years running. Subsequent searches found numerous mentions of Cuenca. International Living seemed to have the most info available -- downloadable PDF's, an "Owners Manual" for Ecuador (PDF) that cost somewhere upward of $60 and much more at their site.

Being just weeks away from retirement we began to study Ecuador and Cuenca in particular.  In retrospect it seems that International Living painted an idealistic vision of the city and the country. In fact some expatriates living in Ecuador have been critical of International Living's understating the cost of living; avoiding discussions of crime and the socialist left-wing government; of the 33% poverty rate among Ecuadorians -- all strategies to help International Living sell more trips and seminars -- or so it's said.

All that aside, we studied the country and eventually decided to visit for several weeks so we can make our own decision about Cuenca, Ecuador and its people.

So we're preparing for our trip. It will definitely give us yet one more adventure in the dream. We're excited about new places to explore, new people to meet and enjoy, a new culture to learn and become part of, the possibility of living there for a year (or a few years, or longer), perhaps having a place that family will enjoy visiting, maybe doing some volunteer work, being able to grow flowers, fruits and veggies all year around...and much more. A nice way to enjoy retirement.

Or not. We'll see.

So in the meantime this little blog can be our "diary" of preparation...the adventure itself...and our reflections on it.