We got into El Centro a little early for our spanish lesson this morning so we went shopping for an Ecuadorian shirt for Mike. He got a nice dark green one that fits him perfectly, and I got a pair of strippy multi coloured pantalones; Mike haggled with the girl and saved a whole dollar off the price. After that huge saving we went to our Spanish lesson during which I think I was insulted. Our teacher told me that my spanish was better than my english, at least grammatically speaking; my english must be really, really bad if that's the case!
Since Mike was in a shopping mood we decided to go buy him a Panama hat. We found the store where I had previously bought my ring (sometimes here it's difficult to remember where things are since all the streets look similar especially when the stores are closed up) and it was open. The guy who makes the products was at the store today and he helped Mike pick out a hat and get one that was just the right size. Then he had to pick a band to go on; he wanted something traditional (plain black) but with a little colour so he got a black stripe with a with stripe on it, very classy. We had to wait while the band was sewn into place during which mike tried to haggle the price down; he didn't have any success here but he got a cool hat anyway.

Who is that handsome devil?

After we had lunch we went directly across the street for hot chocolate and cake. We didn't really want hot chocolate at that time but Leka's was supposed to have the best hot chocolate in Cuenca and this was the first time we had seen it open since we have been here. When we first arrived in Cuenca we were told that this was the place to get hot chocolate and so we have been walking past it on an almost daily basis but it has always been closed - I think the owner was taking a long siesta. Anyway we finally got to have some and I have to tell you I wasn't impressed; it's unlikely we'll be going back there any time soon, what a disappointment.
The last thing we did before heading home was stop off at the mercado to get some chillis and avocados. We bought two giant avos for $0.40 each, a bargain, and then went to a different stall for the peppers. Mike picked out 4 that he wanted and asked the price. We were told $0.10 for all off them, but when the lady put them in a baggie for us she made us pick a few more as we didn't have $0.10's worth. They are really sweet and honest here and sometimes I feel a bit guilty taken the fruit and veg for almost nothing.

Mike: Can't imagine how many we could get for a $1. I think we got the gringo price
on the avocados anyway.

On our daily jaunt this morning I saw something for the first time since we've been here. There was a man who had just finished doing his laundry in the river; now this is nothing unusual although it is usually women. What was unusual was that after doing the washing he had stripped down to a pair off shorts and was basically taking a bath; he lathered himself all over including his hair, with soap and then rinsed himself off in the river. (I got a picture but he was almost done by this point). Not something you see everyday in San Diego. At least he kept a pair of shorts on, last week when we went to the Feria Libre I saw a penis. I have been too traumatised until now to write about it, but as we were walking to the market a man was taking a pee on the road below ours and I saw everything; I hope that's the last one I see for this trip.

Mike: I hope not!


After watching the bathing we walked along the Tomebamba river (I don't think I mentioned it but this means valley of knives) and went to a new place for lunch called the Inca lounge. It's a cool place run by an American and they have some excellent food. We both ate veggie tacos with fritters, and our tacos had about 20 different veggies in them, some of which I recognised others I have no clue what they were but they tasted good. We chatted to Mike the owner for a while (we were there a long time as the food takes forever to come out) who was really nice (for an american!), and we'll definitely be going back for more food, and maybe to watch the NBA finals as they have lots of veggie options.
We walked back up the other side of the river after we ate and stopped at a little shopping center that we'd never been in before. They had some neat little crafty shops full of things that are made here in Cuenca like pottery and wooden items. As it was such a hot day we decided to have an ice cream at the little heladeria in the center and it was just lovely sitting outside and watching the world go by. Cuenca I think has more ice-cream shops than it has churches, and that's saying something. Having an ice-cream shop on every corner is definitely a good thing on a hot sunny afternoon, especially when the ice cream is as good as it is here.

Mike: Ummm! Nice Ice cream!

We went to get Mike's panoramic x-ray done this morning. We found the dentist without too much trouble, walked through the front door, told the dentist what was needed and he took Mike straight in. He was literally in the chair for half a minute, we waited about ten for the x-ray to be developed, paid $20.00, and left with the x-ray in hand. Super cheap and super efficient; we have been really impressed with the dental care here so far.
After lunch we went to visit Sandy at Appulacta to see about booking a tour for next Sunday. We are now all set to visit the Cajas next weekend, plus we are waiting for an email from her as she is putting together a little trip for us for later this month to go visit the coast and the poor mans Galapagos; or to give it its proper name, Isla de Plata.

Mike: Wow, $20 bucks. I want more!!!!!!!!!!!

We had arranged to go on a tour today to Ingapirca which are the most important Incan ruins in Ecuador. Sunday is a good day to get out of Cuenca and see some of the surrounding countryside as everything here shuts down on Sundays and there is absolutely nothing going on.
We were getting picked up at 8.15 so we got up around 7, not my favourite time of the day and it was made even worse by the fact that we had no hot water to take a shower; Mike had to boil the kettle and fill the bathroom sink so that I could wash.The day obviously couldn't get any worse from that point on and it didn't, we actually had a really good day.
We were picked up exactly on time and there were only 2 other couples on the tour along with our driver and a guide named Diego. Ingapirca is about an hour and a half from Cuenca but we took a little detour on the way to make a couple of other stops. Along the way we saw more dead pigs along the side of the road. Now this is nothing new in Ecuador but in Canar they cook them a little differently. They are killed and put on sticks, then they are blasted with a blow torch until the skin is brown and crispy. The skin gets cooked this way and is then cut off in strips, but the rest of the pig doesn't get cooked and so then has to go in the oven or the pot. We took a picture of a half cooked pig, the brown is done, the black parts not so much.



The first stop we made was in a place called Biblian which is in the Canar province, which is the next one north east from the Azuay province that Cuenca is in. We visited a church there that was so high up the side of the mountain I wasn't sure our driver was going to get us there. But, I guess he's done this once or twice before and had no trouble. The church was fantastic, not very big but still pretty amazing although Mike almost died climbing all the steps to get into it. It was well worth the climb, and the views from it were unbelievable. The reason that the church is so high is that someone from the village was walking in the mountain and apparently saw an image of the Virgin Mary in/on the rock, so the village decided to build a church at the place where the 'miracle' took place. The church is built on and into the rock, behind the altar and at other places through the sanctuary the walls are actually the rock face. It's very cool and is called the Santuario de la Virgen del Rocio. Coming back down the steps was much easier, and I think the van driver free wheeled all the way back to the town; at least he was much quicker coming down than going up.










After leaving Biblian we headed to the city of Canar in the province of the same name - funny that. Here we visited the mercado. It was very similar to the markets in Cuenca except that the ladies, and some men, here were wearing a different style of hat. The hats here are rounder and not as tall as those worn in Cuenca, and they have cotton balls hanging off them. Apparently, if the cotton balls hang from the front of the hat that person is single, and married people wear the balls at the back of the hat (you have to look really closely at the pics). Pretty easy to see who's free. We walked around the market and Diego pointed out some of the products available to buy, it was mostly fruit and veg, but also big chunks of sugar, meat, and other weird bits and pieces.






After the market we headed directly to the ruins. Even though this is a tourist place, if you didn't know where you were going you'd never find it as it was not signed until we got there and the roads to it we only partially paved. We got to the place and bought tickets and then toured the area. I'm am really glad that we went with a guide as otherwise we wouldn't have had a clue what we were looking at. Diego was awesome, very knowledgeable (he had to go to university for five years to be a guide, plus he has a passion for archeology) and willing to give the official info plus what he considered the more likely story about the ruins. We spent a few hours walking through the ruins, learning about the Incas, and what each part of the ruins would have been used for; it was most likely an area where the ruler of the area and his family lived, along with his army. We went room to room learning the purpose of each and how they were built before getting to the place that was most complete which was the temple of the sun. It was all very cool, from the stones that they used to read the stars, to the manner in which the buildings lined up with the sun for different times of the year. This ruin is important as it's the only Incan ruin that contains an ellipse. The Incans worshipped the sun, hence the temple, but the elipse was included in the design here to 'appease' the Canari people who the Incas 'conquered' and who worshipped the moon.












The area that the ruins are in is really strange as there are peoples houses almost right on top of it. The local people here are not much into the preservation of their past, in fact Diego told us that he was on a project that discovered a tomb not far from Ingapirca but since it was on private land the owner claimed everything in it for himself and there was nothing they could do. The people around the area find things on their land and just sell it to the tourists, we passed a woman who was selling off pottery and weapons that she had found from the Incas. She had a double headed axhead that she wanted $800.00 for but Diego told us she would take $100.00 or less, plus she had some gorgeous intact pottery pieces. It's a pity that there is no trust that could purchase it from her to preserve it here in Ecuador. It is illegal but if any police came she would just close her doors and wouldn't have to let them in.
After visiting the ruins we trekked a little way down into the valley to see the Incan face that has been carved into the mountain; this was so that people coming from the next valley over would see the face before they saw Ingapirca and know that they were in Incan territory. It was pretty cool and very imposing.



When we were all done with Ingapirca we headed off for lunch to the Ingapirca Inn just up the road. It was a lovely place, really nicely renovated and taken care off, and the food was really good. We started off with some kind of warm pink alcoholic drink that I managed to take two sips off. It was a little powerful and it was only around 2 in the afternoon. According to Diego anymore than two glasses (and they were shot glasses) and you would wake up in the morning with the worst hangover ever - not anything I wanted to experience. Mike enjoyed his though, as did our driver. While we waited for our meal we had popped corn and salsa picante which was different, then we had Quinoa soup to start which was excellent. Mike and my main course was rice, potatoes and a variety of veggies including asparagus, palm, beets, and a bunch of others. It was all really excellent and in a beautiful location.





We headed back to Cuenca after having a leisurely lunch and the drive took about an hur and a half. The driver took a completely different route on the way back but we saw some stunning views and I didn't have to look at any pigs.
We got dropped off outside the apartments late this afternoon and we had a really good day out, Ingapirca is definitely a place for anyone who likes a little history, but a good guide is a must.

Mike: Amazing place! I don't think the ladies appreciated me checking out their bobbles!

we didn't do anything too exciting today, mostly cos I woke up in a grumpy mood and it took me till noon to get showered and dressed. We went for a walk on the way out of the apartments i finally got a picture of the dog that lives her. Her name is Tormenta and she is an absolute doll. She belongs to the owners of the apartments and she just hangs out here most days and watches all the comings and goings. Mike bent down to smooth her on the way out and he lost his balance and fell over, it was so funny I couldn't get my camera ready quick enough to take a picture until he was getting up. But trust me, he looked like a dying fly, on his back with his legs in the air, hysterical.



The only other remotely interesting thing that happened today was that we stopped at a pharmacy to buy something containing lots of fiber. Since neither one of us was inclined to mime constipation I got out my trusty little phrase book and thankfully the word, which I now know is estrenimiento, was right there. All is now tight with the world!

Mike: Bad mood and constipation, what a combo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary honey, nine years today - if I'd only known then what I know now. Just kidding, I love you more today than then, and almost as much as I love Tal-y! seriously I love you, and I hope you had a good day today.
Today we had arranged to go on a walking tour of the city of Cuenca with a guide. We had seen most of the city that we walked today but it was nice to have some information and history about the places that we see everyday. Our guide picked us up in his car at our apartment at just after 9 and we headed into El Centro from the west end. After Juan finally found somewhere to park (it's not the easiest thing to do here) and had a little help with the parallel parking from a security guard, we headed off on foot to learn about Cuenca. We began at the church of San Sebastian and learned that in the square outside the church is where the bull fights used to take place. Thankfully bullfighting is no longer legal in Cuenca, and later this year the whole country of Ecuador will be taken a vote on whether to outlaw it across the country.
We wandered all through the western part of the city and Juan was full of interesting info that is too much to relate here. We visited a little workshop of a man who makes things out of metal and watched how he decorates each piece. It's quite an art but unfortunately there are fewer and fewer people here who are learning the art form as the younger generations leave for the US and Europe. It took him about a minute to hammer the decoration into this piece of metal but some of the pieces he had in his store he told us took him more than a week just to decorate.

We walked along an area known as El Vado which apparently around 10 years ago was too dangerous to walk through as it was full of 'gangstas' and 'bandits'. It's all been cleaned up and is now undergoing some serious restoration. All in this area are the craftsmen who the locals take their hats to when they need to be repaired. We walk past doorways leading into small dark rooms all the time that have bunches of hats hanging on the walls. We thought they were all for sale but apparently not, they all belong to people and are just in to be repaired; the tags on them are not price tags but the names of the owners. If the number of hats on the walls are anything to go by it's a thriving business, although it'll kill you as they use sulphur to get the white colour of the hats - not the most user friendly product.
After we walked along a super muddy area where the restoration is taking place. The workmen didn't seem to mind that we were walking through their building site. We discovered that there is a Dutch-Ecuadorian museum here and the owner has a gorgeous golden retriever who took offense to Mike ignoring here and jumped on him with two muddy feet. Also, right next door to this place is a Satanic museum; it is not called that but when we looked in the window there were skulls and weird stuff everywhere.
Even though we have been in there plenty of times Juan took us into the Mercado 10 de Agosto. It's cool to go with a local as they can explain what we are looking at. We got to try Rambutan which looks like a spiky strawberry but tastes nothing like one, the inside actually looks like a Fox's glacier mint. We also tasted chirimoya which is a custard apple and it was lovely, very desert like, smooth and creamy; we got to spit while we were eating it, we had to get rid of the big black seeds somehow. After the fruit tasting we went to check out all the medicinal plants and heard how Juans grandmother can cure anything with herbs and plants. He pointed out the hallucinogenic trumpet looking flowers that people here still use, not really to get high for the sake of getting high but to allow them to take a spiritual journey. Apparently the Incas used them to allow them to make the long journey from here to the coast in a short time, they gave them strength or something.


While we were upstairs in the market we saw something we hadn't seen before even though we've been in the market loads of times. Under the stairs were a couple of older Chola Cuencanas that were 'cleansing' some children. They had eggs in their hands and were rubbing them all over the kids from their heads to their feet. They did this for a little while before cracking the egg and showing the inside to the child's mother. Apparently what happens is that all the bad energy in the child gets pulled into the egg, and when they crack it they can see the badness in the egg. After the egg bit they 'drank' something that Juan said was alcoholic and then spat it over the child before marking a cross on the head and belly of the child with ashes. i have no idea whether this actually works, but there was a line of people waiting to have their child cleansed.

After the market we walked through the flower market and discovered that a bouquet of about 36 roses here costs $5.00. There is a gringo price of course but it's still nowhere near the cost of flowers in the US or the UK, and they are absolutely beautiful; they even smell like roses. just behind the flower market there is a door that we had never been through and I assumed it was to a store; I was half right, it actually goes into a church (there are 52 churches in cuenca, one for every Sunday of the year) where people go to light candles for whatever they light candles for. But it is also possible to buy certain products from the nuns that are cloistered within. There are 99 nuns (sounds like a lot but it's what we were told)living inside and they belong to the Carmenite order and since they are cloistered no one ever sees them. To pay for their living expenses they make wine and honey and different desserts as well as lotions that they sell to the people in Cuenca. They have a revolving shelf that the people put the money on and then when it is turned back the product that they requested is on the shelf. Mike and I will probably never be able to buy anything from the nuns though as there's a secret code you have to know before they'll sell you anything. They say something to you about whether you are a good catholic and then you have to respond appropriately. Juan told us the code but it was in spanish and I can't remember it, and besides, is it right to lie to a nun?
Besides the products that they sell inside there is also a little doorway outside where someone sells something called Agua de pitimas which literally means a bit more cos once you've drunk the water you can ask for a top up. According to Juan it's also known as dirty water and the nuns make it with flowers, herbs and other things like Valium. It was pretty good and kept us mellow for the rest of the afternoon.
Afterwards we walked to Parque Calderon and actually went inside the new cathedral which was spectacular. believe it or not, we sit in the park most days and this was the first time we'd been inside. The cathedral is not actually finished and never will be as the architect made a little mistake when it was built. The cathedral he designed was made with marble from Cuenca but when it was built they brought the marble from Italy which is more dense and thus heavier. The cathedral is therefore missing it's two towers which would have been placed on the flat sides; if they built them the cathedral would collapse - nice planning!

Juan went to get the car while we sat in the square and then we headed off to the Panama hat factory. Along the way we found out where the red light district of Cuenca is, it's on the same road where all the car dealerships are; if Mike tells me he's going to look for a used carro I know exactly what he means! Unfortunately we arrived at the factory just as all the workers were heading off to their siesta so we didn't get to see them actually working but we looked around the museum and learned how the hats are made. The basic form is made out in the countryside by women, and then the unfinished hats are brought into Cuenca and finished off. We tried on a number of hats, depending on the quality of the work they can cost anywhere from $20.00 to $2000.00. The longer it takes to make them and the finer the fiber that's used the more they cost; some of those suckers can take 8 or more months to make. We didn't buy a hat here even though Mike does want to get one cos the owner yelled at Juan when we first arrived, he was quite rude.
Later took a ride up to Turi (which means brother in Quichua) and viewed Cuenca from on high before being dropped off in time to have Locro de Papas for lunch. We had a very fun and informative few hours with Juan.

Mike: I keep boiling the trumpet plants but can't even get a buzz!
Happy Anniversary to you too babe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off for our spanish lesson this morning and then lunch. The spanish is coming along nice and slowly, but I am enjoying the lessons alot; it's very entertaining listening to Mike trying to pronounce some of the words, as I'm sure it is for them when I get going on things like dolares and television (you have no idea how difficult it is for me to get these two words right).
We dossed around for a while after lunch as Mike's rescheduled dentist appointment wasn't until 3.30 this afternoon. We did a little shopping and I bought my first Christmas present; don't panic people, I'm not early for this year, I'm late for last year. I figured I should finally get started and now I have, and I saw a bunch of others that I want to get before we leave her in May - every one's getting handmade Cuenca chocolate and aguadiente!
We had to wait outside the dentist office for a little while, I guess she was running late after her siesta. Actually there is no such thing as running late here, the Cuencanas just arrive when they feel like the time is right, i suppose that's why they have little stress in their lives. Anyway we finally went in to see 'la dentists' around 3.45; I got to go in too, I think she thought I might need to hold Mike's hand. She is a really sweet lady who speaks little english, but between her and Mike they managed to figure out what needed doing in his mouth. She got started on him straight away with removing his broken post, cleaning out his cap, and inserting a temporary crown. Mike had taken his crown that came off with him and she managed to save it and is going to use that one rather than making us pay for a new one - would that ever happen in the US? He was in the chair for about 2 hours and when he got out he had a tooth in the place where the gap has been for the last months (I practised my spanish while I waited). He has to go back in 10 days to get the permanent tooth put in place and also to have the other broken tooth looked at. The total cost for all the work he had done today, $70.00; you have to pay that in San Diego just to walk in the office door.
Before he goes back we have to head into El Centro to visit another dentist to get a panoramic x-ray done as Mike's dentist is pregnant and can't do them. She works alone and so off to Dr. Hugo Aguirre we will go - I wonder how much that will cost.
While we were in the dentist office it absolutely poured down but fortunately it was all done by the time we had to walk home.

Mike: La dentista es muy bonita! As long as someone has to work on your teeth they might as well be nice to look at.

It's my birthday, happy birthday to me, I'm officially old today, well not as old as some people but older than I was yesterday. Mike got me a card that says Feliz Cumpleanos on the front, and con mucho carino inside. It doesn't say much else, I think he bought the one that had the least words in it so that there was less of a chance of him buying one that wasn't a birthday card. (By the way Jo, please have a boy as I can't find a card that says congratulations on your baby girl!)

I had a nice relaxing morning before we took a stroll to another new restaurant called Good Affinity. We've being hearing good things about this Chinese vegetarian place since we got here but hadn't visited it as it looked like a super long way outside El Centro. As it turns out it is quite a walk from the old part of Cuenca but only about 15 minutes from our apartment along the side of the Tomebamba. The food was excellent, I'm not sure what i had other than that it was the dish of the day, but it was all really good. For $2.50 I had soup, I think lentil, and everything else you see on the plate, along with a cup of homemade lemonade. mike had soup lemonade and 'chow mien' for the same price; we'll definitely be going back.


Afterwards we wandered around a new shopping center that we found and looked at some furniture and appliances that we would probably have to buy at some point if we moved here. The cookers and fridges we not badly priced and most other things are comparable to the prices in the US; I guess we'd have to figure out whether the cost of shipping our stuff here would be cheaper than buying everything new - not something we have to worry about for a while I guess but it's nice to have an idea of things.

Since Mike had made his dental appointment for this afternoon (hopeless husband), we headed back to the apartment before heading to the dentist. Just as we were getting ready to leave the dentist called to cancel his appointment as she had no hot water. As penance for making an appointment on my birthday Mike cooked me a lovely pasta dinner.

Mike: What do you mean penance! I did it for love!!!!!!! Feliz Cumpleanos!!!!