Wrapping Up a Full Week

Allan wrote...

Time is flying by and we both realized we´ve been here at the Equator for a full week.  On Thursday we met with a  fascinating married couple, both Brits with military backgrounds in nursing. They have no home that they admit to, but do carry Canadian passports.  They have lived all around the world for several years -- Indonesia, France, Mexico and more.  They teach English where ever they go, often via Skype with their established customers in the Ukraine and elsewhere.  For housing, they belong to www.housesitters.com, (I think that´s the right URL) and simply house sit for 6,7, 8 months at a time in various places as needed. Very neat!  So now they´re in Cuenca deciding if they want to settle down here for a while.  I expect we will spend more time with them.

Today on Friday, we went on a day long tour of three cities within about an hour´s drive of Cuenca.  One specializes in gold and silver jewelry and Becky was able to find a beautiful set of earrings and a necklace. Another city had a wonderful open air market with a 'food court' much like the one we found near our apartment.  They don`t do BBQ as we know it in the South, but oh yeah, you can definitely get some pork.

The open air market has every kind of  bean, of grain, of vegetable and fruit you could hope to buy.  Wish we had those at home instead of Krogers!

Another city we visited is known for its weaving and hand made textile artisans.  The fibers they use to create those wonderful shawls, scarves and clothing are still stained using things like indigo plants (makes indigo color), crushed lava rock dissolved in water (makes gray) and even a small worm that is dried and crushed and mixed with salt to create a bright red color.  Such talent. The guide said this knowledge, skill and artisanship has all been passed down from the Canari people of antiquity.


 

We made another short stop between towns to see a family that makes guitars. Each one takes about a month to make. They sell for a couple hundred dollars to nearly a thousand, depending upon what kind of wood is used.

You can see even more pictures at http://goo.gl/QIPtF

Now, in the meantime, I´ve been looking for an ISP here with enough reliable bandwidth. As I sit in this Internet cafe uploading, it seems to be working.  Hope to show you our apartment once this upload is done.  So while I wait, here´s a bit more on Thursday´s activities -- specifically, the trip to the orchid farm.

Ana Loja picked us up and drove us quite a distance to the research station where the university is trying to preserve species of orchids that are endangered by all the cutting down of the Amazon rain forest. Orchids come in perhaps hundreds of varieties, most of which don´t look anything like the orchids we see in the garden centers of Pikes Nursery, Home Depot or Walmart. They can be a small as a fly or as large as a grapefruit. Orchids are all similar to bromeliads in that they get most of their nourishment from the moisture in the air. Here are a few examples...

After our visit to the University, Ana took us out for a snack, then had to retire to her office and get ready to teach a 7PM English class.  We headed our to Zoe´s restaurant and had a fantastic meal. I only wish I could take the chef from Zoe´s back to some Italian restaurants around Atlanta so they could learn the right way to make eggplant parmesan!!! 

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Here´s a video showing our accommodations in Cuenca.  Enjoy!