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 ^_^