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| Diana and Doug Ham - from Vancouver - at Fiere Libre market |
While in Cuenca, we really enjoyed the company of Diana and Doug. They were fun to meet and we want to stay in touch to learn about their travels and eventual move to Ecuador. Doug says some of the banks in Ecuador are paying as much as 6-7% interest on deposits - far more than any US bank will even dream about. That's just one great advantage expats have in Ecuador. Plus, depositing in an Ecuadorian bank apparently simplifies the visa process. We wish them the best in their exciting cross-continent venture!
On Sunday we were glad to get together with Colin and Janice who we'd met in Cuenca. They have an exciting life as what I'd call "professional house sitters" who have lived all over the world: most recently in Alamos, Mexico; with they're next house sitting stop on the island of Grenada, just north of Venezuela. You can see their blog and pins in the map at www.wanderingstrays.com.
They had spent a couple days in the coastal resort town of Salinas, and another in Montañita, further North on the coast. The travel agent we talked to had recommended against Montañita because it's a "party town" and we wouldn't get any sleep there. Sure enough, Colin said the entire place was filled with surf shops and surfers, and "We were the oldest people in the entire place. One bar was handing out shots of rum but they didn't even offer us any!" LOL. Read that as: Montañita is for young people to party full time. Colin said the loud music didn't end until 7 AM. (Wish I had been there 40 years ago!!!)
We talked and walked the Malecon, then had dinner. Colin showed me many pictures of their life in Alamos, Mexico and I found it alluring. The drug wars on the border with the US don't seem to have penetrated that far south, so between the warm friendships Colin said they developed and the overall slow, friendly lifestyle, Mexico sounds like it could be a nice place to spend some time. Finally, we parted company as they headed back to Cuenca for a couple weeks before flying to Grenada.
Here are a few minutes of video showing our walk through the gardens.
We've put a bunch more pictures of the gardens in a Picasa album at: http://goo.gl/jA5lE
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| You can get your bottled water here "Con Gas" or "Sin Gas" - which means "with" or "without" carbonation. I prefer "con gas". LOL |
I like mine with gas.
Well, speaking of gas, I got some more from American Airlines today. We were thinking of stopping off in Miami for a couple days to hit the beach. I made a direct call to the AA agent in the USA (using gmail's "call a phone" service) and - once again - it took about 15 minutes to get a ticket change fee. Once again, the agent had to put me on hold for several minutes and consult some kind of "ticketing fee" office. What's the deal with AA? Anyway, they finally came back and said the change fee to stay a couple days in Miami and then finish the trip back to Atlanta would be $150....each!!! "Why so expensive?" I asked. "That's our standard fee for the change." Hmmmm..."So if that's the "standard fee, why did it take 15 minutes to find it?"
Oh well, times have changed and AA isn't the airline it used to be. So we'll head out for our very own hacienda, turn the water and A/C back on and get a good night's sleep in our own beds.
The next trip...well, we're not quite sure yet, but we're already working on it!<hr>
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