The mystery deepens

Today I noticed that the pedestrian gate is also bricked up. Thus, these homes and courtyards now apparently have no simple access to the outside world. They could put up a ladder and climb over the fence, but that is hardly practical. My theory is that the gates were bricked up by the new owner, as a means of driving out the folks who refused to give up possession. If they were locking their gates and refusing to come out, this is a way of saying, "Fine, two can play this game."

However, a weak spot in my theory is that Susan says that the pickup that was used to haul the bricks is the same one that used to be parked in the courtyard that is now bricked off. This would tend to indicate that the folks living inside bricked up their only means of leaving. As I said, the mystery deepens, but I will continue to observe and see if I can figure it out.

On another note, Susan and I had tuna steaks for dinner today. I bought a piece of tuna at the market yesterday, since I learned that fresh seafood is brought up on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tuna costs $2.50 per pound and we really like it. I cut the piece in half to make two steaks, as shown in the picture below. Unlike every other fish I have ever eaten, the only bone in this piece was the big piece of spine in the center.We cooked them on the hotplate, with a little oregano. It turned out really well.It came apart when I took it out of the pan, but that didn't hurt the flavor at all.After eating this, Susan suggested that we eat tuna every Sunday until we go home. I think that is a really good idea.

And as I wrote this, I realized that there is something else that I have noted that is worth mentioning. Ecuador is officially a metric nation, but there are still a lot of things that are measured in English units. For example, if you go in a supermarket, anything sold by weight will be priced in dollars&cents per kilogram. However, for the same items in the open market, all the prices are per pound.

Distances are always in metric, and water, soda pop, etc., are always in liters or fractions thereof, but gasoline is priced in dollars per gallon [$1.48 per gallon, everywhere, all the time]. And the other day I saw a set of scales at the market where the owner was charging people ten cents to weigh themselves, and the scale was calibrated in pounds.

I'm not sure why things are mixed up as they are, but it is interesting, and I am glad that I am comfortable in both sets of units.

A Mystery

When we look our our kitchen or living room windows we overlook a house [houses?] and courtyards to the west. The people who live there work on buses usually, and trucks occasionally, in the courtyard farthest to the left, but they often park other vehicles in the other two courtyards. Apparently no more, however. This morning I glanced out the window and saw people at work bricking up one of the gates.
Note that the gates behind the bricks still appear to work just fine, except that now they open onto a blank wall.After they finished one of them, they started on the second one.And finished it as well.We are baffled as to what is going on. We talked to our neighbors, Kevin and Kathy, who live two floors below us, and they were speculating as well. They told us that about a month before we arrived there was some sort of confrontation across the street, and as they understood it, the Honda dealer to the right had bought or foreclosed on the place, but the people refused to vacate, and a bunch of police showed up in riot gear. However, when the police left, the folks were still in possession, and are still there.

It is not like the bricks blocking the gates are a serious obstacle. They have no reinforcement, and I think a good solid push would collapse either one, unless they did something to them that I don't know about. However, as long as they are in place, the courtyards are not as useful. The one to the right has a pedestrian gate, but the middle courtyard now has no access at all, except for stairs down into it at the back. Or, I guess you could just drop things over the edge. Getting them out again could be fun, however.

This is part of the fun of living in a foreign country, and staying in one place long enough to begin to fit into the local rhythm of life. We will be watching to see if we can gain any further insights as to what is going on.

And here's another strange thing I saw today. There was a beautiful carriage being towed down the street by a truck, with a horse in the back of the truck. I don't know if it was used for a wedding or what, but it was quite a sight. I barely got my camera out in time to get this shot.

Inca Trail

Today I went back to the mountains with Perry. He has land out there where he is planning to build a house, but to build a house, he needs a potable water supply, so I am trying to get a slow-rate sand filter built there before I leave. I don't know whether I can get it all done before I leave or not, but I'll do my best. Anyhow, I was concerned about whether we could get gravity flow of water into the top of the filter, so we went back out with a level and I found that I have plenty of elevation. Now I need to draw up detailed plans and find the tanks, pipe, etc., that we will need for the actual construction.

Right on the border of Perry's land is a right-of-way that dates back to the time of the Incas. It was a foot-path at that time, and has continued in use to the present. It is a legal public right-of-way and people travel on it on foot, on bicycle, on horse, and possibly on ATVs. It is not really of a size that a regular 4-wheel vehicle could travel it. Here are a couple of shots, one looking north and the other south, along the trail.

As we were looking around up there, a young woman came galloping up on horseback, and I got the following picture of her after she dismounted. There are a number of cattle grazing up here, as Perry invited the locals to graze their livestock there to keep the grass down. He plans to get some cattle of his own eventually, but in the meanwhile this works.
And not just cattle. This mare and colt were also staked out on his property. The mare doesn't look in very good shape, but I thought that was just due to the colt being so hungry. However, Perry said that they had just recently been brought in from elsewhere, where the grazing had not been so good. We'll see how the mare does up here.Also, I found this walking stick in the grass. There are a lot of them here, but in the grass they are almost impossible to see. This one shows up better on a hand.

This evening we went back to the church, where Susan practiced on the piano while waiting for a student who didn't show up, and I went with a couple of other men to look for a couple of families that they hadn't seen in a while. My presence was not essential, but I was available, and I enjoyed going with them. We didn't find anyone we were looking for, but I still had a good time.

My Spanish has improved a lot, but when they were talking to each other, I could understand from 50-80% of the words, and yet not have any idea what they were talking about. It is amazing how much our understanding depends on catching the general flow of ideas, and how hard that can be in another language. I am getting better, but I still have a long way to go.

Water balloon

Susan taught a piano lesson at the church this evening, and just after we left, as we were walking down the street, a pickup with a couple of kids in the back of it went by and they threw a water balloon that hit Susan in the back of the head, with a generous amount left over to soak the back of my head as well. They were gone before we even realized what had happened, and we had to admit that it was an amazingly accurate shot. Anyhow, we have dried out.

People warn us though that it may happen again. The season from now to Mardi Gras is full of fireworks, water balloons, and other practical jokes and fun. More fun for some than others, I suppose, although we were able to quickly laugh off our incident this evening.

Almuerzo

We didn't do a lot today. I went to the grocery store for a few things that were not available at the market, and had a typical Ecuadorian almuerzo lunch, for the typical price of $2. Here is a picture of my lunch, after I had consumed the soup. The glass contains jugo de naranjillo, or naranjillo juice. Naranjillo is a fruit that is grown here, but not generally known in the US. The chunk that's left in the soup bowl is a bone. The rice comes with beans and meat, and a couple of slices of cooked banana.Then Susan and I went to the church this evening so she could teach some piano lessons, and I worked with a young man who is trying to improve his English. Actually his English is very good, except that he needs help with learning correct pronunciation. I am so glad that I learned English first.

Oh, and I am not going to say anything more about power outages. After my comment yesterday that we appear to be past them, we had another one today, with power going off about 3:00 p.m. I used the time to sweep the apartment out, and to mop the kitchen, both of which needed doing.

A bowl of cherries

We were out of a lot of things this morning, so I went to the market. If you are not clear on the distinction yet, the "store" is the grocery store, much like a grocery store in the US, while the market is the open market about a mile up Remigio Crespo, the main street that our apartment is just off of. It covers several acres with a mixture of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, clothes, barbershops, and a miscellany of other things.

One of the things that can be hard to get there is change, that is, if you offer someone a $20 bill, they will just shrug and send you on your way. However, there is a change machine in the walkway under the Avenida de las Americas [yes, a continuation of I-25, all the way down here in Ecuador, except that here it has become highway 35], where I was able to put in a $20 bill and get a whole pocket-full of change. 15 Sacajawea $1 coins, and a bunch of quarters, dimes, and nickels. Anyhow, with these, I was ready to shop.

One of my first stops was for onions and carrots. Then I picked up two pineapples, and on an impulse I bought a pound of beautiful Bing cherries for $1.50. Half of them disappeared this evening, and the other half will go tomorrow. A month ago a pound of cherries was $4, but now we are apparently into the glut part of the season, and prices are way down. The cherries are better too, but I don't know how much longer they will last [in the market that is - the ones I have will not see another sunset.]I then added a large head of broccoli, a large bunch of Swiss chard, a dozen eggs, and four large avocados, and called it a day. I had at least 20 pounds of groceries in my bag, and I had spent a total of $7.45, not counting 25 cents each way for bus fare.

Also, since I did not post last night, I want to include this picture of the sunset that we saw here. This is taken at the park just a block or so from our apartment, where Sunday evening is a favorite time to get out and enjoy the park. This evening we had a thunderstorm that gave a little rain, and quite a bit of lightening and thunder.

Before I say anything about today's activities, I need to mention that I may not have internet access tomorrow evening, so if I don't post tomorrow, don't worry. I'll be back on Monday.

This afternoon Susan and I took another bus exploration tour, this time on the #18 bus. I had ridden this bus once before, but I wanted to show her the sights along the way. It goes past the market where we usually buy our produce, and there were these women out front by the bus stop selling fruit out of wheelbarrows. The fruits were cherries, grapes, mangoes, and another fruit like small cherries that is grown here. They are all locally grown.Shortly after passing the market, we crossed the Rio Yanucay, the second largest of the rivers that run through Cuenca. There are a total of four rivers, so there is a lot of riverfront property. However, this is not entirely a plus, as we have been told that it is not uncommon for the rivers to flood, and there are some houses that can become islands. Although it is too small to really see in this picture, there was woman washing clothes in the edge of the river.Here is another thing you don't see in the US. This looks like a funeral home, but actually all they do is sell coffins. I am not sure, but I don't think that funeral regulations here are anything like we have in the US. I suspect that most people are buried without being embalmed. When someone passes away, the family goes to a store like this, buys a casket, and arranges for a funeral at a church, and a burial plot or crypt at a cemetery. Regardless, I have seen several stores around Cuenca selling coffins. Also, when we were here last March, we saw a group of people carrying a body out of an apartment building, which leads me to believe that there is much less involvement of the professional medical and funeral people here.Then this evening, after we returned, I went out to buy a little bread, and the whole street was already Party Central. Lots of young adults, in small groups all up and down the street, with music and beer. This was almost four hours ago, and we can hear music non-stop, and it will probably go on until 1:00 a.m. or so.And here is a picture of a Toyota Land Cruiser, probably close to 30 years old, but in almost new condition. It has obviously been well cared for.

Expat gathering

Every Friday evening here in Cuenca there are a couple of locations where expats, mostly American, get together to visit and keep in contact. Susan and I went to one of these the first Friday we were here, and that is how we made contact to find the apartment that we are renting. However, when the boys arrived, we spent our time with them on Fridays [and every other evening] rather than attending the expat get-together.

However, now that Samuel and Ben have returned to NMSU, I decided to go back. Last week I went, but I arrived after most people had left. I thought that it started at 7:00 p.m., but actually it is scheduled to run from 5-7 p.m., upstairs in a bar named Zoe's. Susan decided not to attend, since some people there smoke, and the noise level is such that it can make it difficult to converse at a distance of more than 2-3 feet.

Tonight there were 40-50 people there, but I only wound up visiting with half a dozen or so. Some I knew from previous visits, or other contacts, and I met a few others for the first time. Conversational topics range all over the place, but always start with what brings one to Cuenca, and how long you have been here, and how long you plan to stay. There is also a lot of information exchange about things to do, or things you can find in Cuenca, as well as a lot of rumors and such. I take what I hear there with a grain [or more] of salt, but I will probably continue to attend, unless I have a conflict.

Dentist visit

This morning, as I was eating my bowl of pineapple and banana, I felt a hard piece of something that certainly wasn't pineapple or banana. When I got it out of my mouth, I could see that it was a piece of tooth, and a quick exploration of my tongue verified that a cusp on one of my upper right molars was missing, leaving a sharp edge. It didn't hurt, so I finished eating my fruit, but then after breakfast, and reading my e-mail, I walked over to the same dentist office where Samuel got his teeth cleaned.

When I walked in, the dentist [female] was talking to the receptionist. I explained my problem, they filled out a patient visit card, and before I could ask for an appointment, I was seated in the chair with my mouth open. I asked the dentist if she spoke English, and with a wry smile she said, "Poco", so our conversation was entirely in Spanish. Of course, with drills, picks, cotton wadding, a vacuum tube, and fingers in my mouth, I wasn't exactly talking a mile a minute.

She got busy with the drill first, and cleaned out all the decay. Apparently the cusp fractured where a previous filling had weakened the tooth, and there was a time or two as she cleaned the tooth that I could tell that it was about to hurt, but it never got any worse than that, although my jaw did get awfully tired from being open so wide for so long.

Once she had it cleaned out, she applied some sort of ceramic filling that she cured with a UV light, and after about 45 minutes she was done. It still feels a little rough to me, and I may go back just to get it smoothed off a bit, but it sure feels better than it did this morning.

She cautioned me not to eat for at least an hour, and to be careful about eating anything that was very hard, and we went back out in the front office. I asked what the bill was, and the receptionist said that it was $21. I thought I had misunderstood, so I asked again. She wrote it down and handed it to me. $21. OK. I got out my wallet, gave her $21, got a receipt and left. Dental insurance doesn't seem to be very common down here, but with prices like that, I can see why.

For some reason, I forgot to take pictures while all this was going on, so I don't have any to add to the blog today. However, one other thing happened that amused me. As I was leaving the building, there was a woman, kind of a receptionist for the whole building, who I had greeted as I arrived, and once again I greeted her, in Spanish, as I was leaving, and she replied with, "Buenas Dias," and then added, "Auf Wiedersehen." I'm not sure what my accent sounds like to the natives here, but apparently I don't sound like the standard North American Gringo.

Mountain property

I spoke too soon yesterday about an end to power outages. The power went off again this morning at about 7:25, but came on again about 8:10. Since almost all previous outages started just after an even hour, and ran for either two or three hours, this was an anomaly, and we hope that future outages are rare, but we can deal with whatever comes, we hope.

In any case, late this morning I received a call from Perry, who has his office on the first floor of our apartment building. He is an American from Ohio, living here with his wife and five-year-old son, McKay. I had offered some time back to go with him out to a property he has out in the boonies, to look into setting up a slow-rate sand filter for use as potable water there.

He finally was ready to head out, as he had purchased a backhoe, and it was ready to go. The folks he got it from had it loaded on a truck, and we met them where he turns off of the highway to go to his property. Here is the backhoe being unloaded from the truck.Perry drove the backhoe from here up to his property, and here are some pictures from along the way. It is an area with spectacular scenery.


These horses ran along side our car at one point as we headed higher into the mountains.Here is the pond on Perry's property. It is at an elevation of about 9500 feet, and at the very end of the road. We plan to head back out in a few days with a level and rod so I can get some elevation measurements to help with planning the filter.As we left, we passed these three girls on horseback. It looks like a very patient and sturdy horse.Here is another shot of the mountains and valleys looking back in the direction of Cuenca. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the area. In many ways it looks like the mountains of Colorado, but here the weather is always summer.

Updates

This morning Susan and I went to meet with the lawyer about extending our visas, and after a bit of confusion, it appears to be in process. We were told that it should be complete by Friday, so if we do not hear from them by Friday, I will be calling for a status report.

One interesting note was that we had to go get two passport photos each for our applications, and they referred us to a Fuji store about a block away. At the store we told them that we needed two passport photos, and they took them, telling us that the cost would be $3 for each of us. And when we picked up the pictures 20 minutes later, they did indeed charge us $3 each, but they gave us 8 photos each, so if we need other passport photos, we are now set.

The only other thing I will mention tonight is that we have not had any power outages yet this week. We hope that this continues, as it is really annoying to cope with them. We have had some bit of rain recently, so maybe we are out of outages for a while, so to speak.

Plans

This morning I called American Airlines to find out what it would cost to change the date on our return tickets, and the answer was $246 per ticket. Then I called a lawyer here in Cuenca who specializes in visas, and he said that it would cost about $160 to get a 90-day extension on our visas, so this is now our plan. We have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow morning, so we should learn more then. If this works out as planned, we will come home on February 24 as originally planned.

I also went to the market today to pick up more groceries, onions, broccoli, chard, squash, carrots, etc., but I didn't take any pictures. Then this afternoon, our friend, Cumundá Cabrera, came over and gave Susan another lesson in Spanish. These lessons are intense and exhausting, but they really do help her improve her Spanish.

Yesterday at church the bishop's wife invited us to come over this evening for Family Home Evening, so they picked us up about seven this evening. It was really enjoyable to visit their home and family. They have three sons, Sebastian, Nicolás, and Matias, ages [my estimate, I forgot to ask for the older two] 12, 7, and 16 months. We had a lot of fun, and both of us had a real workout on our Spanish. They each speak a little English, but not as much as we speak Spanish, plus we feel more necessity to work on our Spanish. I don't know how long we would need to be here before an evening of speaking Spanish would not be noteworthy, but we are not there yet. I am worn out, and will head for bed shortly.

Not much

This morning we went to church, for the first time in several weeks without the boys. Then this afternoon Gordon went over to the Mall del Rio because his Internet modem had quit working. It turned out that when he bought 15 days of prepaid service, they only activated it for seven. So today they activated it for the rest of the days [we hope!]. It is not great service, but it sure beats doing without, and being here for only a short time, it is not worth the hassle of trying to get a DSL line set up, or something of that nature.

While at the mall, to make sure that the modem is now working, Gordon sent out yesterday's blog posting, which he had already prepared, so there really isn't a lot more to say this evening. We are doing great, and hope that the same is true for everyone following us here.

Azogues

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to post this tonight, but I will get it written off-line, and then if my connection starts working, it won’t take long to post it. [As it turns out, I couldn't post last night, but I now have my connection working again, so read this understanding that it was written yesterday.]

Today Susan and I went to Azogues, a town about twenty miles from Cuenca, and one that we have been wanting to visit. When we arrived there, we saw a tourist information office, so we went in and found them very helpful. There was a young woman who told us about enough things to do to keep us going for several days, but then recommended that we ride the bus up to the St. Francis Cathedral, as all the other sights she recommended were downhill from there. We liked that idea.

She also gave us a map with various attractions on it, most of which we did not see. I also took the opportunity to ask her what the population of Azogues is, and she estimated 30-35,000, which seems reasonable after our tour there today.

The first place we stopped was at a park that is dedicated to the Cañari creation myth. The Cañari were the inhabitants of this area for a thousand years or more before they were conquered by the Incas, which were then conquered by the Spaniards. Most of the people here are descendants of the Cañari, and are proud of that. Their creation myth appears to be related to the Quetzacoatl [sp? Without the Internet, I can’t even check] myth of Central America, as the two following pictures show.

After the park, we hopped on a different bus [#2, instead of #6], and made a complete loop on that bus route. There are a lot of the indigenous people here, as noted by how they dress. Here is a family of them in the park, with some of their children playing outside of the picture.Then when we reached the end of the route, we had to change buses. We started talking with our bus driver before the next bus left, and he told us about a scenic attraction less than five minutes walk up the road. We decided that we weren’t in any hurry, so we walked up to check it out. We were told that there was a place where we could see the little stream flowing out of the mountainside, but we did not find that. However, the trail alongside the stream was beautiful and peaceful.

It was not pristine, however. Here is a picture of a corn patch growing on the hillside above the trail. The steps are not there for decoration. It was steeper than it looks in this picture.
And here is the stream itself, with a little footbridge to make crossing it easier. It was sturdier than it looks.
Here is something strange. This tree had fallen across the stream, and I could see on the right side the roots and dirt where they were torn up as it toppled, but there were also a dozen or more branches growing out of the trunk that had obviously sprouted after it fell, and were now 10-15 feet high.Back almost to the bus stop, I looked inside this house. It is beautiful construction, but still unfinished. It has a few windows installed in the front, but no doors, and no windows on the sides. Inside, it is rough concrete. I was able to see that it is designed with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms upstairs, with a kitchen and a very large living room downstairs.I took this last picture as we headed back down the mountain. The crops in the foreground are corn and a variety of other things that I could not identify at a distance. It is a beautiful area, and we are very glad that we made the effort to visit Azogues.

Employment

Today I went to a nearby hardware store and bought some plastic and duct tape. I used them to enclose the gate and bars that separate our apartment from the stairwell. As it was, any smoke or fumes that got into the stairwell came right up into our apartment, since the wrought-iron grillwork did nothing to slow it down.

I got a piece of black plastic, just like I have used several times at home, that was about 3 x 4 meters [10x13 feet] and a roll of local duct tape, and brought them back to the apartment. I then cut a piece to cover the side bars and taped it in place, then I cut another piece to cover the door, and taped it in place. It is not airtight, but it reduces airflow up the stairs and into our apartment by at least 99% I figure, and Susan is feeling much better.

And when I was at the hardware store, I noticed something again that I have seen over and over here. Stores here employ a lot more people than a similar store would at home. This was a large store by standards here, a few thousand square feet, plus the storage yards out back for rebar, pipe, tiles, and other such items. And when I went in, there was a greeter, young, probably mid-20s, just to direct people to the clerks who could help them.

And outside the store, they have two armed guards, even though the likelihood of anyone trying to rob a hardware store seems pretty remote. There are quite a few armed guards around, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to which stores have them. Banks always have one, but so does the grocery store where we often shop, and a cell-phone outlet that I pass on the way to the grocery store, and a random assortment of other places. These men [and all that I have seen have been male] also help with traffic control and answer questions, but wearing bulletproof vests and uniforms, and carrying night-sticks and guns, there is no question that they are primarily guards.

I don't know what guard duty pays, but it looks like a very boring occupation.

I have concluded that this is just one more way that employment is provided for more people, just as all the service stations are full-service. You pull in, and they pump your gas, wash your windshield, and check your oil if you want. I don't know what the unemployment rate is here, but in the US a lot of these people would be unemployed.

Building for expansion

This afternoon Susan and I went for a bus ride, just exploring, although it was a bus route that I had already followed, so I had some idea where we were going. Anyhow, as we watched houses go by, I started thinking about how they go about building houses here, and thus, the theme of my posting today.

Ecuadorians appear to be raging optimists, at least judging by how they build their houses. Many, and possibly even the majority of houses built here are apparently built with the expectation that they will be enlarged someday. Some of them expect to build upwards, as in this picture, where the rebar is left pointing skyward so columns for another floor will be easy to add.However, today we saw more houses that apparently expect to expand sideways someday. This looks like a nice house, but incomplete, like it was built, and then someone neatly sawed it off from top to bottom and bricked up the opening.
These are common in this area, but here is something uncommon - these folks are actually building an addition on to the side of their house. Of course, if someone has already built and finished an addition, it might be hard to tell at a glance, but in this case it is obvious.Then there are those that start construction, and then run out of money. [That's just my guess, but why else invest this much, and then leave it sitting?] Most real estate here is still sold for cash, and construction is the same way. The idea of getting a mortgage to build a house is not widespread, nor are mortgages for construction easy to get.Here is one that is somewhat farther along, with the roof finished, the walls plastered, but no doors or windows installed. I didn't get a look inside, but I would guess that the interior walls are still completely unfinished. I don't know how long it has been sitting, but there is no evidence of current on-going construction.And here is another, between the last two in terms of completion. These are not small houses, again leading me to contemplate the optimism of the builders, who probably wish now that they had a finished house half the size of these shells. We have been told that most of these homes are built by Ecuadorians who are working in either the US or in Spain, and sending the money back to Ecuador. However, they don't trust the banks to safely hold large sums of money, so they invest their savings in homes instead.Despite what I have showed today, there are some very nice homes here. I took the following picture as Susan and I walked down the street. This is a shot of the garage of a house here in Cuenca. How many garages do you know of that have tile floors? I'm not sure that I would consider this preferable to a finished concrete floor, but still, you have to admit that it looks nice!Given the economic conditions in the US and Spain, I suspect that it will be a long time, if ever, before the owners get these houses finished up, speaking of those that are truly unfinished. Come to think of it, a half-house that is finished might look pretty good to someone right now!

And I should note that only the first and last pictures today were taken in Cuenca itself. The rest of them were taken in the semi-rural areas around Cuenca, which actually look more appealing to me than the city itself. But of course, I am not really a city person. And now I am wondering what kind of a deal I might get at some point if I made an offer on an unfinished house, and then finished it to suit our tastes. Oh well, it's fun to dream!

Boys are home!

I realized as I was waking up this morning that I had not posted to my blog last night. No reason in particular, except I just forgot. Anyhow, yesterday morning when I got up, I had an e-mail from Ben saying that he and Samuel were back in Las Cruces. Later, I talked to Samuel over Google voice chat, and he said that the trip was largely uneventful. They were the last ones to board the plane in Miami, but then had a long layover in DFW.

Susan and I went to the market, took in some more laundry, and bought her another notebook for her notes in studying Spanish. Not much else to report.

Here is a cute picture. Seats like this are found in nearly all barbershops here. In addition to Tigger, I have seen horses, Donald Duck, and a number of other cartoon characters. Perhaps it helps kids look forward to their haircuts.

Adjusting

The apartment sure seems quiet without the boys here, but we are adjusting. We got an e-mail from Ben, sent this morning at 6:40 a.m., as he and Samuel were sitting in the Quito airport waiting to board their flight that was to leave at 7:30. They expect to get back to Las Cruces tonight, but long after I plan to be in bed.

Today was kind of a catch-up day, as we took the sheets off the boys' beds and took them to the laundry, and made a trip to the market to pick up some things that we needed. We went ahead and rode the bus the long way around to get back home, just to see more of the city. We got home just ahead of a thunderstorm, on top of the rain last night.

Oh, I didn't mention that, did I? It rained most of the night, quite heavily at times, enough to leave water on the kitchen floor this morning, and then more this afternoon. Not enough yet to declare an end to the drought, but our power outages are now down to two hours per day, rather than three, and still only on week-day, non-holidays.

This evening Susan and I went to the church so that she could teach piano lessons. She is now up to seven students, and I don't think she can fit in very many more, given that we don't have a piano in our apartment, but must go to the church for lessons.

We are doing well, but no pictures for today.

Fun and sadness

The apartment feels empty this evening. Samuel and Ben left this evening, and are on the bus heading for Quito as I write. They pulled out about 6:00 p.m. this evening, and should arrive in Quito at about 3:00 a.m., where they will take a taxi straight to the airport to catch a 7:30 flight. They could probably have caught a bus an hour or so later and still made it fine, but we decided that it was better to have the extra slack in their schedule, in case the bus had a delay of some sort.

They should be back in Albuquerque tomorrow evening, and are planning to head back to Las Cruces to sleep in their own beds tomorrow night. We hope that all goes well. I have been reading accounts of security checkpoints on international flights into the US, so it will be interesting to hear what their experiences are.

Anyhow, a couple of the young single women from church decided that they needed a proper send-off, and so took us out for lunch today, where we ate cuy, or as they are called in English, guinea pig. Indira and Karina are sisters, and their English is somewhat better than my Spanish, so we talked more in English than Spanish, but Susan and I also asked a lot of questions about Spanish words and phrases.

Here is a picture of roast cuy on a plate.And here is a picture of me taking a bite of cuy. It is quite good, but there is not a lot of meat on a single cuy. Fortunately, they also served it with lemonade, potatoes, boiled eggs, hominy, and a couple of other side dishes, and we ordered trout for Susan, as we agreed that cuy would probably not be good for her.Here are Indira [left] and Karina [right].And finally, here are Samuel and Ben just about to board the bus. We are so glad that they could come and stay with us for this time, and they agreed that they had a really good time, but the downside is that they have to leave. I am sure that in a couple of days we will be back in our routine, and things will be fine, but it sure seems quiet tonight.

Houses

Late this afternoon, while Samuel and Ben were over with some other young single adults for kind of a farewell party, Susan and I went for a walk. We just looked around some of the back streets near where we live, and we spent time looking at some of the houses. This is a nice section of town, or at least a mixed section with some very nice houses.

Here is a bench and front door on a nice house. Notice the ornate woodwork on the door as well as the bench, and the tile on the porch. Also notice the bars inside the windows. There doesn't seem to be a lot of crime around here, but at the same time, people appear to be concerned about it.And here is a house that also serves as a local store. There are houses on just about every block that incorporate a small store into the ground floor. Zoning ordinances would usually prohibit such in the US, but here it allows people, including children, to run down to the store without leaving the neighborhood.Here is an A-frame house. Typically I expect these to be built in areas with heavy snowfall, such that the snow slides off, but here snow is never a problem. I can only imagine that it was built this way because that is how the owner wanted it.And finally, here is a nice house on the corner just a block away from where we live. There are nicer ones around, but a lot of them are not designed to be obvious, and many of them are behind fences and landscaping that make them hard to see.There are a fair number of houses here that are for sale or rent, but I don't have a good feel for prices and such. I do know that most houses for rent are not furnished, and that furnished apartments cost somewhat more, simply because they are less common. And of course, because they are worth more.