Too much to cover

It has been too long since I last posted, and there is no way I will cover everything, so I won't even try. Instead, I will talk about a few specific things that I find interesting.

First, when I was out at the Mall del Rio several days ago, I saw the setup in the picture below. It consisted of a wading pool perhaps 12'x20', with about a foot of water in it, and two large inflatable balls of clear plastic. The balls are ~5' in diameter, with a zip-lock kind of opening perhaps 30" long. They would open the seal, let a kid climb in, zip it almost closed, and then stick in the exhaust of a vacuum cleaner and inflate the ball with the kid inside. When inflated, they would finish closing the seal and then the kid would have 3-5 minutes to run, stand up, fall, and otherwise play. Watching them, it was evident that they were getting intense exercise and having a blast. I don't know if such would be allowed in the US. I can think of half a dozen or more issues that might get them shut down, but it looked like a blast.

It was obviously very difficult to maintain your footing inside, but that was part of the fun, as it also looked like it would be very difficult to hurt yourself when falling. And given that it was apparently limited to kids less than 4 feet tall, who can generally fall with impunity anyway, it looked safe to me.
Then yesterday I got invited to go out to a piece of land that is on the market to see if the water looked usable. When we got there, it was socked in with fog, and my GPS showed that it was at about 11,200 feet of elevation. The guy who currently owns the land took me down into a gully to show me where the spring water first surfaces, and then on down to where we hit the road again. He said the forest in the picture was primary forest, and had never been cut. I could feel the organic debris under my feet was probably several feet thick.
He also has a garden, where he raises potatoes and radishes, among other things. He told me that these radishes had been planted as seeds only 28 days earlier.
When I got back, I was hungry, so I went to a place a few blocks away where I had seen a sign advertising roasted chicken. The two skewers on the grill are mine, along with a couple of the potatoes and some mote [it would be posole in New Mexico, or hominy in other places]. Anyhow, the coals had died down some, so the woman preparing my chicken grabbed a blow-dryer to fan the coals and generate more heat. I thought that was very creative. Everything together cost me $3. Next time I will just get one skewer, as I really ate more than I should have.

Parque Valladolid

Our apartment is at the end of a small gated cul-de-sac just across the street from the Parque Valladolid, or Valladolid Park. Here is a view standing on the street near our apartment looking through the gate and at the park.
This is the corner of the park nearest our apartment. I like the plants and the way the rocks are used to create different sections of the park. It is worth noting here that apparently there are no provisions to water the park. It is watered by rain, or not at all. I have been told that Cuenca gets about 40 inches of rain per year, and the park seems to be doing just fine.
It also has playground equipment in three different places. It may not be obvious at first glance, but one of the items included here is a zip line. Not very steep, and not very high off the ground, but a zip line nonetheless. Some day when no one is looking, I'm going to try it out.
Then this is looking back from the park into our cul-de-sac. Our apartment is at the far end on the left.Then, just because I probably won't get this picture in if I don't include it now, this is a man that was selling rockets in one of the markets. These are slightly larger than the bottle rockets that I grew up on. I asked the price, and he said "$12 per dozen" which even I can figure out is a dollar each. I didn't get any, but I may go back.
We had a beautiful day today, probably the nicest we have had since arriving. The temperature was up in the upper 70s, with lots of sunshine.

Samuel and Ben are back

Yesterday we saw Samuel and Ben off at the bus station, where they were going to ride through the night to Quito, to catch a flight this morning back to Albuquerque via Houston. Just a little while ago we got a chat message from Ben that he had safely reached White Rock, so we expect that in another couple of hours we should hear from Samuel as well. It is always a relief to hear from them that they made it back fine.

Ben did note that they arrived in Quito at about 1:00 a.m., which was a couple of hours earlier than we expected. The bus evidently made very good time. Then the plane didn't leave until 7:45, rather than the 6:45 that was originally scheduled. Thus, they had a rather long wait at the airport, but that sure beats missing a flight.

Susan is starting to teach piano lessons, which is a real challenge as she is probably learning more Spanish than her students are playing the piano, but as long as everyone is making progress, it should turn out OK. We have borrowed an electronic keyboard so that they actually have something to take lessons on.

I should also note here that Samuel is writing science fiction in his spare time, and he has posted a few of his short stories at

underfallingskies.blogspot.com

if anyone reading this cares to take a look. He says that his site doesn't get much traffic, so any visitors are welcome.

Bananas and pineapple

I happen to like bananas and pineapple mixed together in bite-sized pieces. Both fruits are available here, fresh and inexpensive, so I try to eat them every morning for breakfast. Here is a picture of the pineapple that I bought yesterday at a nearby fruitstand. I weighed it after I got home, and it tipped the scales at 6 lb. 10 oz. I paid $1.50 for it. Although they are not in the picture, I also like their little bananas, locally called oritos, which are likewise very inexpensive.
And here is a shot of the pineapple on the breakfast bar, with Susan at the sink in our little kitchen. It really is small, but we are getting settled in, and generally are able to find what we are looking for with a minimum of searching.
Today was mostly overcast and cool, with intermittent rain. It was the wettest and coolest day we have had since arriving here. We'll hope for more sun tomorrow.

We are doing well, and despite the cool day, Susan and I went for a walk for nearly an hour this afternoon, just exploring the area around our apartment here. It is interesting to see the variety of homes, ranging from beautiful modern homes, to old buildings, apparently made of unplastered adobe, that look like they are close to falling down.

One difference here is that nearly all homes are built without any offset on the sides, much like what we would consider town homes in the US. This has a lot of ramifications, but it is late, so I may address some of these another time.

Busy, busy

Today is January 6 and the last time I posted was on New Year's Day. I am behind, but I have several excuses, some of which will undoubtedly come out in the course of this blog, although I will try not to be obvious about them.

We are living in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that has about 550 square feet of floor space. It is really quite adequate for us now, and will be plenty large when Samuel and Ben leave next week, but it will NOT be large enough to accommodate the stuff that we will be shipping down here in a few months. I am starting to think about how we will deal with that, but there are other things that are more urgent.

For example, I just got back from the Coral Central, which is kind of like a WalMart, where I bought a mop, a funnel, and a few grocery items. On the way there I dropped off a bag of dirty clothes at a lavanderia (laundry). It will cost me $3.10 to pick them up, and no other work required on our part.

I made a list the other day of things that I need to get done, and I checked it again today and found that I have done most of what I can for now, regarding those particular items. We got new glasses for Samuel, I called the credit union and got my internet log-in reset, I got my cell phone working again, and we picked up some things for Ben to bring back to friends in White Rock. I still need to get a post office box here, but I did visit the post office, and I know where it is and what I need to bring them in order to rent the box. I visited a bank about opening an account, and it will be a couple of months before I can actually open the account, because I have to bring them my most recent two months of utility bills of some sort - telephone, electricity, etc.

This evening Samuel, Ben, and I went out to eat. We had seen the sign for a buffet about three blocks away, but when we arrived, around 6:45 p.m. there were no people seated, and the buffet had almost no food in it, so we turned around and left. Instead we went to a pizza place across the street and had a very good pizza, family size, probably 18" across, and all that the three of us wanted to eat.

Yesterday Susan and I stopped in to visit a friend that Susan met when we were here last year in her crafts store. While we were there, we heard a commotion outside, and saw that there was a small parade/procession passing by. Here are four pictures that I took.

These riders were leading the parade.
Like the Fourth of July parade in White Rock, passers-by appear to feel free to join in.
These girls were really decked out.
At the end of the parade was this float, commemorating Moses leading the children of Israel through the Red sea.
And with that, I think I'll close for tonight.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day was beautiful here, with temperatures in the low 70s, and bright sunshine. Most stores were closed, but I did buy some fruit and vegetables at the little store around the corner, so we will have enough to last until Monday.

This afternoon Juan took us around to help us get oriented, and then we stopped at a park that sits along the Rio Yanucay. I don't know how large it is, but there were people out there playing and picnicking, and it still was not close to crowded. Here is a picture of everyone else in our party sitting on the grass and enjoying the day. After taking the picture, I also lay down on the grass and almost fell asleep.
We also had difficulty with the internet connection last night and earlier today, but I think we now have it resolved. I hope so, anyway.

Last night Samuel went to a New Year's Eve party with the Cabreras, but the rest of us stayed home. Ben and I went out about 11:30 and watched the fireworks, and then came home and were in bed before 1:00. They were not as impressive as last year, but still a lot of fun. The difference may have had more to do with location than anything else, but this time we are living in a very quiet location, and that is just the way we like it.