Jan.22 to 28- Final Week in Cuenca...until next year.

This week we finally went to a Panama hat store ( please remember these are actually made in Ecuador) so that I at last could buy my hat- Uwe wants to wait until next year.
                        I only wanted a very cheap one as it was for the beach.
                                  Here I am in my very becoming panama hat

And here is the store with many many styles and sizes, none labelled

We also went to an Artisan Mall along Av General Torres just north of Calle Larga. There were many many stalls, two stories worth, and we did buy several things for our condo, some key chains for rental keys and an Ecuadorian doll for my niece's little girl, Taylor. Here are some of the store fronts.

And more regular type market stalls just outside

There isn't anything that you can't find here.

We also had our last two lessons- 1 1/2 hours each- of Survival Spanish. Our class started out consisting of 8 people with 3 more joining in during the month. This course was very basic but we learned all the immediate needs- going to a store, ordering in a restaurant, telling time, giving directions etc. The course was taught by Kathy- see the link to her BLOG under my EXPAT heading to the right.

Here is Kathy instructing

We highly recommend her course- it's fun, non-threatening and you'll definitly learn enough Spanish to survive-see her email below:

 survivalspanishcuenca@gmail.com

We also had a farewell lunch at the Inca Bar with new friends Brent & Boushra- sorry no pictures. He is originally from Canada and she is from Michigan. Just to reiterate how very small this world really is, they own property on Manitoulin Island and spend their summers there. Needless to say, plans have already been made for a visit this summer when we are all back in Canada.

On Saturday night we went to our last dinner at the Secret Garden which has become one of our favorite restaurants. http://jardinsecreto.webs.com/thissaturdaysmenu.htm

We always seem to run into old and new friends there.

Here are our wonderful hosts- Joe & Joseph

And some of our fellow guests socializing until dinner is called. It was a beautiful evening so everyone was in the garden. The format is much like a dinner party at a friends' house- first drinks and chatting and then Joe rings the dinner bell.

And Paula who collects after the meal.

 

So all in all what do we think of Cuenca? We had given ourselves 3 months here because we wanted to have time to learn to like it. We had heard it was cooler and rainy and since living in Arizona, we really liked hot and sunny. We found the weather perfect, mostly sunny mornings with an afternoon shower and with tempuratures great for our favorite past time- walking and exploring. So , as far as our plans right now, we will definitly come back next year.

Jan.26- Getting an Ecuadorian Bank Account

When we first arrived a few months ago, a dear friend warned us that unlike in the USA or Canada, you are very lucky to get at least one planned thing done in any one day, especially if it involves business or government. Things just move slower and require more paperwork than back home.

So on Thursday what do we do? We plan on going to the bank to open a new account at 9AM, getting a ride to our friends Kay and Jim in Chullabamba ( a suburb of Cuenca) for lunch and then sharing a taxi with them to our Spanish class for the afternoon- WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!!

Let's start at the beginning- getting a bank account in Ecuador. Angel , our driver and friend, knew an officer, Omar, in the Banco Pichincha who dealt with extranjeros ( foreigners).
The Bank of Pichincha is one of the main banks in Ecuador and the only one that will give an account to gringos who do not have a cedula ( permanent residency card). We were told we needed the following items:

Application which we filled out along with
2 color copies of our passport picture page
2 color copies of our Censo ( Ecuador identity card if you stay more than 3 months)
Letter of recommendation supplied by Angel- thankyou
A copy of a Utility bill less than 60 days old
Some proof of our bank accounts in our home country- I took copies of our bank statements of both our USA & Canadian accounts
$300 minimum cash deposit

The only reason we wanted an Ecuadorean bank account is because we wanted our rent checks from our future renters to be deposited here rather than mailed to us whereever we might be. Both our USA and Canadian ATM cards worked well for all the cash we needed to live here especially after we found two bank ATM's that did not charge us the usual $1.50 per withdrawal. These banks were the Banco De Austro and Banco de Machala.

Now back to our banking adventure. We arrived on time and were shown into Omar's modern office . We hit our first snag when it was impossible for Omar to enter our Canadian passport numbers into his computer- only numbers were accepted and Canadians have two letters as well. We would have to return in one hour while he got special permission from head office in Quito to change our letters to '00'. As well, we had brought our condo maintenance bill ,rather than a utility bill,  which was not acceptable .

Back to our apartment we went to wait out the hour plus try to hunt down a recent utility bill for our rental. It took 2 more trips to the bank plus one trip to our rental admin people for a more recent utility bill before we finally met Omar again at 1PM for our final meeting. We had cancelled our lunch date with Kay & Jim during one of the many back and forth trips- hopefully next year!

Everything was now set- we signed many forms , gave him our $300 cash and a check from our USA bank for deposit.  For our Canadian readers- Canadian bank checks are not acceptable- don't ask why, he gave us no explanation. There is good advice for getting a USA account at one of my other favorite BLOG sites, please see http://www.gringosabroad.com/how-to-do-your-banking-in-ecuador-for-canadians/

We arrived at our last 2PM Spanish lesson class slightly late but thrilled that we had accomplished yet another feat on our list.

Jan.15-21- Week 12 in Cuenca

We had a farewell dinner with a few of our friends. Uwe and I are returning to Salinas at month end, Fred and Shirley are travelling on to Argentina and Michael was going home to Denver. Only Cody was staying.We had a wonderful time and many vinos at the California Kitchen. Until next year, my friends!!!

On Tuesday we hired Angel again to take us to yet another scenic place outside Cuenca. This time we travelled south towards Loja & Machala for those of you who are following our trip on Google Earth. We took the turnoff towards Machala and went as far as the town of Giron.

This is a view of the town from the road leading up to the waterfall at El Chorro.

Once we got to the parking lot, a well-defined if very muddy path lead up to the Falls.

Please wear rain gear if you get a chance to visit. Even though there was no rain when we went up, the mist from the fall got me totally soaked. As well, wear proper hiking shoes- I wore my hiking sandals and returned with very wet, muddy feet.

Our first view of the Waterfall

Absolutely beautiful. Like a fairy land or like Avitar according to my Facebook friends.

And a very wet & muddy me with Angel returning to his car.

We went on further to the mountain village of Santa Isabel past more wonderful scenery which I had every intention of photographing on our way home- NOT!

While we were having a nice almuerzo lunch- $7.50 for 3 of us- the sky opened up and it rained until we returned to Cuenca.

Later in the week we finally went to Parque de El Paraiso- a huge urban park in Cuenca. We took a bus part way and walked approximately 45 minutes- we wanted to save our strength for actually exploring the park.

While in the park you can't even tell that you are still in the city.

It was huge and very green

And a large section had all these wooden pathways

And finally a picture of Uwe- I'm sure I've mentioned how much he likes to be photographed.

Jan.9 to 14- Week 11 in Cuenca

In and around Cuenca there are many food and artesan type mercados/farmers' markets/ craft stalls. We had passed by one in town while taking a bus one day and were anxious to visit it again. After checking our Cuenca map- available at the tourist info places and very well laid out showing all kinds of places of interest including mercados- we figured out where it was and decided it was a manageable walk.

I believe that I did mention, maybe more than once, that we are walking one to three hours almost every day.

It took us a little over an hour to get there and since it was the weekend, lots of other people had the same idea.
                                           Here is the plaza just  before.

And then many many stalls of merchandise

Lots of wooden stuff- bowls, utensals, mortar & pestle, knitted scarves, purses,ceramics

We had a great time exploring- and buying- all the interesting stuff for sale

Even several stalls selling hand made furniture

After several purchases we walked back home and saw this llama ready to give rides

At a large intersection close to our apartment, a large construction project started approximately one week ago. This intersection was a large round about/ traffic circle and was a crossroad of roads leading out of the city. Huge traffic tie ups were always happening. So the government decided to make one road tunnel under the other- a supposedly 9 month project completed in November.

The sign describing the project

Lots of big machinery- this was the start

After only 1 week the holes are more than 3 stories deep

In spite of this great progress, none of the Cuencanos we have talked to actually believe that completion will be in 9 months. The last traffic circle to tunnel conversion took 18 months!

 

Jan. 2 to 8- Week 10 in Cuenca

This week we finally started going to Spanish classes. Why did we wait so long since speaking some Spanish is a definite necessity in Ecuador? Well, we have been taking Spanish on Rosetta Stone for more than 1 year plus we had taken a night school course while still in Arizona so we knew some. We can order food in a restaurant, go to the mercado and pay what was asked , take taxis and explain where we wanted to go- in other words we knew enough Spanish to survive. This course was very basic, a lot of what we already knew and was also attended by three other expat couples much like ourselves. We go twice a week for 1 1/2 hours each time until the end of January. We've already learned several things that we had not known - so far so good.

Again this week, per usual, we went to the mercado near us- Feria Libre. We always seem to be the only gringos we see there, something we cannot understand as the bargains in fresh produce prices are so great. For instance, 5 mangos $1, 1 lb of strawberries $1, 4 bunches of radishes $1, 3 huge cucumbers $1, 1 very fresh large pineapple $1, and the huge bunch of bananas below $1

We walked away carrying 3 large grocery bags for well under $10- you gotta love it!

Saturday night we met three other couples plus one at an Italian restaurant downtown to celebrate Cody and Michael's 29th anniversary. We walked there, about a half hour and of course seeing that it was past 4Pm, the rain came down. Our umbrellas are getting quite a workout, especially after gathering cobwebs for 11 years in Arizona. Once there,we sat and chatted for some time, drank beer and vino. Uwe and I both ordered a personal pizza- WOW, huge and excellent. I had half left over for yet another lunch.

Our happy group

Total cost of meal for all nine of us including several large bottles of beer plus many glasses of vino was $115 including tip and then a $3 taxi ride home- one of our more expensive evenings-LOL

Dec.31- New Year's Eve in Cuenca

During the day we took our normal two hour walk around yet another part of Cuenca. On every corner there were the dummies for sale . For the best explanation, please read the attached web site from Cuenca Highlife
http://www.cuencahighlife.com/post/2011/12/29/Ecuadorian-tradition-the-New-Years-Eve-burning-of-the-dummy-clears-the-slate-for-2009.aspx

                        Here are some pictures of the many sales-the one at the right with blue   pants is the 'pres' of Ecuador- a popular item to burn on New Year's Eve- LOL

Many are without heads/masks so that you can customize yourself

We also saw many finished dummies sitting in front of shops/ banks decorated to look like the boss/ manager/security guard etc

In front of our apartment building, they had the effigy of our security guard

We had decided , per usual, to not go out anywhere on New Year's Eve but to have our normal romantic dinner at home and watch the festivities from our balcony.

We had a great dinner of stir fried veggies& shrimp with salad

And of course a bottle of wine ( or two...)

This year we decided to actually stay up until midnight, something we had not done since bringing in year 2000! And good that we did as the constant fireworks would have kept us awake anyway. And what a celebration it was when midnight finally came. We watched some of the best firework displays right from our balcony. It wasn't just in one part of the city- we have 180 degree view- but from EVERY direction. You didn't know where to look first and this seemed to go on forever! The Latin people- especially the Cuencanos- definitely know how to bring in the New Year.

As well, we watched some of the effigy/dummy burnings on the street right below.

When we took our daily walk on New Year's  Day, we saw little piles of ashes everywhere on the sidewalks, roadways, parking lots- some even in the shape of the dummy that was burned.