Be (Lated) My Valentine

Realizing I have taken a vacation while on vacation, I will do a little catching up. Being out of the center has been a very different experience. Having the river at our doorstep has been the ultimate relaxation experience.

We took a walk along the river on the path to the very end. What is stunning is that along the way, there are dozens of flowering plants all well maintained. On one side, you have the river rushing over rocks like rush hour traffic in a hurry to get somewhere. On the other side, you have grassy areas cushioning your feet like green foam rubber while you feast your eyes on the varieties of fauna.

After one mile of river walking, the path ended so we were going to take a cross street and return to the apartment

walking down the major road. What we did not expect when we started on the cross street was to find a small field with two cows and one bull tethered in their respective spots. Surrounded by high-rise apartment complexes, in the midst of all, there is a patch of country living.
 Roses may say, “I love you”, but here they also say you are cheap. Ecuador grows over 60 varieties of roses, with the multitude exported to the US, Canada, Italy, Germany, and Russia. They have over 5,000 acres of land devoted to roses and this is a (pardon the pun) growing field. Needless to say, browsing the flower market each time we are around the center square is a must thing to do. Strangely, we have not bought any for ‘home’ only because we never intend to return ‘home’ for hours.

Other surprises included seeing booth after booth appear on the side of the new basilica peddling Valentine’s

paraphernalia. Items ranged from helium balloons to stuffed bears that would dwarf me in size. Significantly, the flower market is directly across the street; gorgeous bouquets of assorted flowers are available for $3.
 

Carnival in Ecuador started on Thursday, February 12. Of course, we again were in the wrong place at the right time. I stopped at the tourism office to check on festivities as we had read this was a major celebration. It is, but not in Cuenca. Tourism informed me that all celebrations would be held elsewhere.  The one tradition that they do maintain here is squirting others with colored foam and

spraying them with water. With the advent of technology the spraying has progressed to powerful water guns, but for those financially challenged, buckets of water suffice. 

For days now, we have been relaxed, not doing much at all. We seemed to have visited all of the museums that are open for business. Being outside of the city center has been a deterrent for getting out early in the morning and going somewhere. Now, we laze about thinking about getting a bus to the center, and then laze some more. 

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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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