Nature's sendoff

We are in the middle of a tremendous thunderstorm, or more likely now, approaching the end of it, I hope. It is, without question, the fiercest thunderstorm I have seen here, and there have been only a few more fierce that I ever experienced in the US. And we actually have naturally occurring ice on the ground here, as there was a lot of small hail in the storm, enough to make the street in front of our apartment partly white, as you can see in the following picture.
It started around 4:30, and now, at 6:20, it is still raining pretty hard, although nothing like it was earlier. I would guess that we have had at least a couple of inches, and maybe somewhat more. Depending on how widespread this storm is, it may make a real difference to the water reservoirs here.

We spent the day mostly cleaning, although I did make a quick run to the market for some more broccoli, avocados, six eggs, five small bananas, and some green beans. While there I took this picture of goats for sale out front. I have seen goats there previously, but today I took the picture.Tomorrow morning we pack our things, including some that we are leaving here, and tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 we fly to Quito, where we will spend Tuesday night and catch our flight back to the US on Wednesday morning. We expect to be back in WR on Thursday afternoon, and I think we now have all our reservations and such to get us home.

We are sad to be leaving Cuenca, but plan to return. It is difficult to write this, as we know that many of you want us to stay in the US, but we really feel that Ecuador is likely to be our home for a while, at least after we get our affairs settled in the US. We will still plan to return for visits to family and friends in the US at least once a year, but Ecuador will be our base.

At the same time, it is unlikely that we can get things arranged and get back here in less than 6-8 months, and possibly longer, so our departure is not imminent.