Mike woke up this morning to no electricity anywhere in the apartment so he went back to sleep. When he finally got up the electricity was back on but only the ceiling lights, none of the electricity points in the walls were working and there was nobody in the office yet. He decided to take a shower only to find that there was no hot water and still nobody in the office to change the gas. Just after I got up, around 8.30, he went to the office again and both Sarah and Angelita were there so the gas was changed and we had agua caliente once again. I was getting ready to shower when Mike stopped Angelita to ask her about the electricity and whether the breaker had blown. The conversation was hilarious since she speaks not a word of English and when Mike showed her that the lamp that is plugged into the wall wasn't working she wanted to change the bulb. It took them about 5 minutes to get on the same page but they eventually did - it definitely made me smile.
Then it was off to Spanish and afterwards we found a new restaurant that we have been looking for but couldn't find the street it was on on our map. It's called El Maiz and the food was lush. I had Quinote Chiclo, and Mike had Quinote Champinon; they were both a kind of Quinoa risotto with corn and mushrooms, served with vegetables. It was a little more than we normally pay for lunch, the meals were $5.00each, but well worth the extra few bucks, we'll definitely be back. In fact we are going to come back next week for Fanesca which is a 12 grain soup only served during Santa Semana or Holy week.



After lunch we decided to walk back into the old city to Parque San Blas where we bought ice-cream and sat in the park. About 3 minutes after we sat down the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. We headed back to the ice-cream shop and sat inside and watched the storm; there was awesome thunder and lightening to go with the rain. It eased off after a while but it was too wet to walk all the way home so we got a taxi. Sarah was at the front when we got here and chastised Mike for not having a coat, and it's definitely true what they say here, Abril Agua Mil.



Tomebamba had started to go down when we left this morning but after the storm this afternoon it's roaring again and is the colour of chocolate milk, no washing clothes in the river for a few days I think.



Mike: The girls take good care of us!!!