New Day in Cuenca

Becky wrote...

Today is Tuesday in Cuenca and it just started raining as it does almost daily for short periods. We enjoy walking in the rain, no problem.   Allan has placed a current blog entry video showing his walk along Calle Larga this morning, and I feel it is necessary to clarify the beauty that lies behind all the plaster and stone block walls.   This town area is constructed like a fortress in that each residence is constructed behind the plain walls visible from the street.  The average town walker cannot see what´s behind those walls unless they have keys to get through the doors of the residences.   I have peeked through some of the doorways when they are briefly opened and voila! lovely eye candy!  Fancy hardwood rails on staircases, elaborate wrought iron terraces, gold and white stucco, and courtyard gardens of exotic flowers with stone benches for seating.  I have also witnessed people parking temporarily on the street to access their private parking spaces behind locked gates.  All this is a very good idea for preventing theft and burglary, but tourists like me don´t have the privilege of noting the view of lovely homes from the streets. 

In other areas, business and marketing takes place and is in the open, thankfully.  Flowers, food, native arts and crafts, and even open market clothing for families are displayed beneath yellow umbrellas or in the open air around the market squares.  The low costs are amazing for USA citizens!  The vendors are nice and polite.  The children also have excellent manners in public (you know, seen but not heard).   I have wanted to take pictures of the colorfully dressed natives wearing panama hats, hand woven shawls, and thickly gathered skirts at their market displays, but they respond adamantly no by hiding their faces with their hats until I walk away.  The little children, however, are thrilled to have their pictures taken, and then to be shown the images from the digital camera.  Their bright smiles are beautiful.

Included in our meager $400 a month apartment rental is maid service on Mondays.  The sweet, quiet senora replaces all linens and paper products, empties trash, mops and dusts, and sees that there are no dishes left in the sink.  All of the linens change color week to week, so that we are certain that these indeed have been changed, at least it´s my guess for the color and pattern changes. 

This evening, we will visit a local gringo hangout at five, and then the Inca Lounge at eight for trivia night.  It is a fun opportunity to find a gathering of English-speaking visitors and residents sharing conversation, and to have a bit of genuine laughter over fellow gringos´ world travel stories.  While these travelers love gadding about on the planet with no home base, others prefer…home sweet home… that just-right pillow and our usual spot on the sofa for reading or TV that speaks your language.  I have become fascinated at the number of globetrotters who speak both English and Spanish fluently and therefore feel no communication barrier here.  The language is interchangeable sentence to sentence according to the receiver, an amazing travel tool,--to be multi-lingual.

Chaio!  Becky