Slow Down!

For the last few days, we have been trying to do less outside the apartment. Instead, we took a walk around the river by crossing it at the bridge a quarter of a block from us. We then followed it down until the path ended. 

We are impressed with the locals who wash their clothes in the river on the rocks. We are horrified at the tiny children that are running freely far from their parents. Not only could someone grab them, but the risk of drowning or otherwise causing harm is a red alert. 

At the end of the river path, we found some small shops where locals shop. Then we came across the over-sized Feria Libre Del Arenal Mercado. However, with warnings about going there with only enough money to buy what we needed, we stayed on the outskirts, not daring to venture in too far. We found the avocados 

Sharpening his knives?

cheaper here than the Mercados in the city center getting five for $1 as opposed to three. Mangoes and tomatoes were also less. Ron likes the pepino dulce, so we bought five for $1 of those too. 

This child could not be older than 4 years old.

With our bags full, we continued down to Sweet Affinity, a vegetarian restaurant. Having been there before, we knew the $2.75 lunch special included four choices of hot vegetable dishes, a bowl of soup and a drink. We needed the walk home to work off the food. 

On Thursday, Howard and Mike invited us to go out to dinner with them. Barbara and Bill Wolfe, our former exchange hosts wanted to join us to meet us for the first time. Ron and I had gone to the city center early to catch an art exhibit that had just opened. It is the work of Francisco Delgado Suarez, a Cuenca raised and university educated artist, on exhibition at the Galeria de la Alcaldia de Cuenca. We thought we would have time to take in a photography exhibit that opened yesterday too, but it would have been too much of a rush. 

Our building from across the river

We stopped at the flower market to get some posies for Bx2 from Rx2. When we got to the apartment, Howard buzzed us in, but we ran up to B & B’s for the flower delivery. All of us went down to Mike and Howard’s for a glass of wine before heading out to dinner. B & B are just delightful. We started talking as if we had known each other for years. There was an instant comfort level with them. 

Dinner was superb. We returned to Caesar’s where we had dinner with the 22 gay guys. The place was rather empty, so we did our part to keep Caesar going. 

I specifically brought my camera to take pictures of Howard and Mike, since I rarely do photos of people who are not strangers. It was not until we arrived at the municipal building for the art show that I realized the camera memory card was still in the laptop. Darn it!

Leaving dinner, we decided on a taxi home rather than the bus due to the hour. After we were in the taxi and on our way, we realized he was not using a meter. It came to $3, but it was worth it getting back faster.

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