February 1 to 7- First week back in Cuenca

For the month of February we are doing a home exchange with another retired couple who live in Cuenca. We advertised on Gringo Tree  http://www.gringotree.com/cuenca/ and received 6 different replies. We ended up exchanging with a couple from Texas who lived in a similar condo to ours in the area of Cuenca that we were familiar with after having spent 3 months there last year.

Their driver, Rodrigo, drove them to Salinas on Thursday, we all went out for dinner at a nice restaurant on the Malecon and then Rodrigo drove us to Cuenca the next morning. The drive took approximately 6 hours plus a stop for lunch. It rained almost the whole way until we went over the continental divide about 35 minutes from Cuenca where we finally got sunshine.

Their condo was very lovely, also on the 16^th floor with a wonderful kitchen.

                                                  And a great living  and dinning room

                                                              Nice bedroom

                                        And excellent views towards the historical center of Cuenca.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner at the ‘Secret Garden’ Restaurant http://jardinsecreto.webs.com/ . We hadn’t been since we left Cuenca a year ago and were looking forward to reconnecting with old friends plus the excellent food. Although we didn’t see a single person we recognized from before (except of course Joe & Joseph the owners), we made 8 new interesting friends.

                                            Here are some of our dinner companions

                                                 And Joe & Joseph with another new friend

                                                And the excellent main course- Seafood Pot Pie

We walked home with another couple from Texas who live down the hall from us- small world! We also went to their condo for cocktails & snacks Wednesday night.

Now of course the only downside to this apartment and our own in Salinas, is that our Ecuadorian neighbors in the houses near our condos insist on Saturday night parties. This one went from 11PM until 4AM with a loud DJ and very loud music! No sleep for these gringos.

The next day we took a walk along one of the four rivers that flow through Cuenca, one was only a block down the road. Walking here is almost like being in the countryside as you can’t always hear or see the city traffic.

                                                                      Very pretty!

                                                        The Cuencanos washing clothes.

We are approximately a half hour walk to the historical centre in downtown Cuenca. Lots of pretty churches

                                                           And the very nice Calderon Park.

Of course, we had time for a nice lunch and cerveza in a pub with an outdoor garden.

The very large Mercado, Feria Libre ( think humongous farmers’ market) is also within walking distance. There are lots of fruits and veggies.

 

And almost everything else you may want to buy- clothes, meat, baskets, goats, live chickens, puppies and kitties.

Now normally I only post good things about my adopted country but I do have to mention this. On Fridays  all the little restaurants serve roast pig. Everywhere you walk you see these giant roast pigs cooking outside. It was something we definitely wanted to try one of these Fridays- we love roast pig! Up the hills behind our condo are several homes that raise pigs, cows etc. On Friday morning while I was working on my computer, I heard this horrible screaming! On checking out our balcony, our Cuencano neighbours up the hill were killing their pig- by bludgeoning it to death! The screaming lasted at least 5-8 minutes. How horrible but then are we aware of how the animals die in our slaughter houses back home before we pick up the packaged meat in our local grocery stores?