We went into El Centro a little later this morning as we had booked to go on a real estate tour this afternoon with Cuenca real estate. We walked along the river so that Mike could stop of at a dentist that had been recommended to us so that he could make an appointment to have his two teeth fixed. The first appointment available was for tomorrow at 11 but he remembered that we had our Spanish lesson at that time so he made an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. How can he remember a spanish lesson but not my birthday!
We tried a new restaurant today. I had wanted to eat there on previous occasions but Mike always made a face for whatever reason, but today he was fine with it. It's called Raymipampa and it's right on Parque Calderon, and since it has an open balcony upstairs we sat and watched the people coming and going while we ate. We tried a new dish called Locro de Papas which is basically potato soup but it was lush; it's a traditional dish of this area. It has big chunks of spuds in it plus a hunk of soft cheese and a half an avocado. I never ate avocados in the US but since we've been here I can't get enough of them, I'm going to have lovely shiny hair by the time I get to the UK.
Anyway we ate a lovely hearty lunch (we ordered other food too which was a big mistake as the soup is super filling), and then had a wander around for a while as the tour wasn't until three o'clock. As luck would have it about and hour before we had to be at the real estate office the heavens opened so we had to go sit in a cafe and drink hot chocolate - my life is so hard! I'm not sure whether mike was feeling the chill from the rain but he ordered a coffee with brandy in it - I know his life is worse than mine.
When we arrived for the tour it turned out that there were three couples in total going, and all three men were called Mike - freaky. We started off looking at a condo in a gated community on the outskirts off the old part of the city. It was downstairs but it had a garden and a beautiful view of the city; apparently it's a little unusual to find a place with a garden in the old part of Cuenca. It wasn't a bad place, three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, a huge living area and kitchen with a maids quarters, all for $105,000; it was nice, and all newly renovated.
The next stop on the tour was a total contrast to the first as it was a penthouse in a 17 story building. It was a fairly new building with every amenity you can imagine, gym, sauna, movie theatre, the works. The penthouse obviously was on the top floor and the views of the Cajas mountians were absolutely fantastic, but that was the only feature that we really liked. The biggest problem was that it was in a multi floor building and the building was full of gringos - if I wanted to live with a bunch of Americans I would stay in the US! The penthouse was okay although it was unfinished; if you buy it you get to decide how it is decorated. It was a nice size, on two floors for a little over double the price of the first condo, but not anything we would be interested in buying.
Whilst driving from place to place we got to see a good portion of the outskirts of Cuenca; we seem to spot something different and new every time we drive around the city. We viewed a few places from the street as they were in the process of being built or renovated, and then we visited a cute one bedroom house. It was way too small but nicely put together and ideal for just one person. The last place we looked at was lovely, again unfinished and way the other side of the city from where we are now, but a lovely medium size house right on the river (so no chance of anything being built in front).
It was interesting seeing some of whats available, although we saw only a minute portion of what's available as there seem to be for sale signs everywhere. It's way too early for us to decide whether we want to buy something here, especially since we haven't really even decided if we are going to move here permanently, nor has Tal-y had a chance to give us her opinion on the city.

Mike: It's hard to believe these prices! Tal-y already voted-she likes the UK and her new home! Oh, sooo many sausages and sooo little time!

Since we didn't go to the Feria Libre yesterday we went this morning as when we got up it was a beautiful day with the sun shining brightly. While I was asleep Mike took it upon himself to check out the map and decided that it was fairly close to our apartment and so we could walk to the Market; I guess that'll teach me to lie in. As it turned out it wasn't too far away, it only took us about 20 minutes to get to it and it was a nice walk along the river.
The market itself was very disappointing; I'm not really sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what I got. The first part we walked through was inside and was basically stalls selling clothes, shoes and household products but it was all junk. When we got outside there was fruit, veggies, meat and fish everywhere; it's a lot like the market in town but on a much bigger scale, but once you've seen one banana you've pretty much seen them all. The smell was gross too, very, very fishy, and I discovered how they keep the fish 'fresh', they throw cold water over it at intervals, super fresh! We wandered around for a while and saw some live animals, dogs, cats, chickens and others, and then it was time to leave cos I was too sad to stay. The poor animals were out in the heat in teeny tiny cages, it was horrible.
I thought there were going to be crafty things there, like at the markets in Quito but we didn't find any, i can't think of any reason that we have to go back to this place.
When we got home I made lunch, just a sandwich. We almost walked into town to get pizza but decided not too. Sunday is not a good day to go into town since almost nothing is open. It was a good thing we didn't go out walking as at about 1.30 the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down; we had thunder and lightening too. It lasted for a while and the river rose a good ways, but not as much as right now. It's about 11.30 now and the river is absolutely roaring past our apartment. It's not raining outside anymore but it must be storming good further west of us where the river is coming from. It's easy to see how it can do damage in a good storm as it's rising up the bank a few feet tonight and it is making loads of noise as it does so. It'll probably be as though nothing has happened by the time we get up in the morning, although after just looking out the window I'm not so sure.

Mike: I'll keep my new found super mercado!

We woke up this morning to rain; I think it's the first time since we've been here that we have had rain in the morning, it usually doesn't start until late afternoon. We had intended to go to the Feria Libre today which is a giant mercado, but since it was raining fairly heavily we decided to visit the mall instead. We flagged a taxi down outside the apartments and had him take us to the mall which was about a 5 1/2 minute ride from where we live but too far to walk in the rain. The mall was kind of like thise in the US but on a much smaller scale; we visited one in Quito and this one was about 1/3 the size of that one. We weren't really after anything we just wanted to take a look around, and it's a good job since there wasn't a whole lot at the mall. It had loads of clothes stores and shoe stores and that was about it really. It had a food court and we ate lunch at, wait for it, Burger King. There were about 10 different places to eat, and besides pizza, Burger King was the only place we could eat at as everything else had meat. Even at Burger King we only had fries and onion rings, lovely healthy lunch, and they were just like those in the States. In fact if I had closed my eyes, and ears, I could have been in San Diego. The mall wasn't too busy, but there were lots of 'American looking' Ecuadorians there, people (mostly women) with American clothing on and their hair dyed blond; you don't see too many people looking like that in the old part of the city. We saw some people we had previously met at the book store and Mike inquired with them about visiting the dentist. They have a lady they recommend to everyone who apparently does excellent work but doesn't speak english. We are going to go see her about getting an appointment to have Mikes tooth fixed on Monday; it should be interesting trying to explain to her what he wants done, I imagine there'll be lots of pointing and miming.
The mall did have a huge grocery store that sold literally everything, from toilets, to car tyres, to household goods to food. We spent a lot of time wandering around and did some food shopping so we won't have to walk to the store tomorrow.
We got a taxi back home after we were done with our shopping and saw a horrible thing just outside our apartments, a poor dog all squashed on the road. It's actually the first we've seen which is really surprising considering that most dogs here wander around with a lead, and the folks drive like crazy people. It wasn't a nice way to finish our afternoon out I can tell you. I just hope someone gets it off the road soon.

Mike: Yeh, I found a Super Walmart (Supermercado Coral)!

We decided that this morning we would take the double decker bus tour around Cuenca; It was supposed to leave from Parque Calderon at 11 so we headed into town after breakfast. When we got to the Parque Calderon there was some huge parade going in that seemed to have every child from Cuenca in it. I'm not sure what it was for but it seemed that all the different schools from the area were marching through the city dancing and playing instruments. It was nice to watch, there were all ages from little ones who just marched to probably 16 and 17 year olds who were parading proper.
Some of the roads were closed for a while for the parade so the bus was delayed but it finally showed up just after 11 and we managed to get a top deck seat even though it was pretty full. The guide was speaking in both english and spanish but I couldn't understand either one so I didn't get a whole lot of info about Cuenca on the tour but it was good to see the city from a different perspective, especially the new cathedral. It has three blue and white domes but they are on the backside and it's hard to see them from the square when you are looking at the front of the cathedral. We drove around the old town and since we were fairly high up we got to see inside some of the apartments along the route; they looked lovely with super high ceilings, there seems to be a lot of renovation going on around the city though.
After heading out of the old city we drove through the metal workers part of Cuenca and then up the hill to Turi where we stopped for 20 minutes or so before driving back to Parque Calderon. We got back just in time to have lunch and as Mike didn't look to excited about having potato soup (I want to try it sometime) we went to eat yummy Mexican food instead.
we got to talk to Tal-y on skype today too (and mam and dad), although it took a sausage bribe to get her to talk to us, she just kept running away. Has she forgotten about us or is she still mad at us about the plane ride? We'll be home in less than nine weeks gorgeous girl.

Mike: Nice view of the city from the height of a double decker!

Since it was St. Patricks day today we decided to head into town early and have breakfast before our Spanish lesson. We went to Bananas cafe and had pancakes with fruit and coffee. They were proper pancakes like the ones at IHOP only better, but they were so filling I needed to nap after eating them. They were good but I think I'm done eating breakfast out now for a while, I'm going to stick to my healthy breakfast of fruit, granola, runny yoghurt, and juice, yummy.
At 11 we had our spanish lesson. I really enjoy them although we have such a long way to go yet. It is starting to make more sense the more we do and the more I try and converse with the locals. This afternoon Mike made me buy my own cookies; if the number of cookies I am eating is anything to go by I'll be fluent by the weekend and next week this blog will be in Spanish!
After we were done we walked towards home and found a store that we haven't seen open before. It's a little museum place that has sombreros, jewellery and woven things that are all made in Cuenca. Mike almost bought a hat but couldn't quite pull the trigger. I tried on some silver filigree rings that were all handmade and beautiful. We asked the lady how much they were and I thought she said $81.00, turns out she said $11 (I know I said the spanish lessons were going well but I have a real hard time with the numbers); the prices here are crazy. Anyway, Mike bought me one but it's not a birthday present, it's just a Thursday sorry I've been sick present. i even got to choose a little handmade basket to put it in.
This evening Mike made beans; they were lush, even after adding the cardboard looking and smelling fake meat to them. We haven't had beans since we've been here even though they are supposedly a staple of this part of the world (they usually have meat with them). I wanted tortillas with mine and since we don't have a microwave I had to heat them in the oven. Stupid flipping oven, the first flame went out so I tried to light it again and singed all the hair on my left arm when the flames shot out at me. I smelled like burnt something or other for the rest of the night, Mike is going to have to light the stupid oven from now on.

Mike: I'm sorry you can't use the mod cons! Hey, I was sick, how come I don't
get a present?

I knew as soon as i opened my eyes this morning that Mike was feeling a lot better as he was shadow boxing his way around the bedroom, completely naked. Sorry for the mental image, be glad I didn't have the camera nearby!
I think he slept well last night, at least he didn't wake me with his coughing, so this morning we walked into the old town and got some fresh air while we wandered around for a little while. We went into a pharmacy and had to mime coughing so that we could get some medicine; we got something although I'm not sure what it's going to cure.
We didn't spend too long out and about as Mike is pretty weak having not eaten in a while and I don't want him to do too much and then have to spend the next week in bed. So we came home and Mike napped to get his strength back. Hopefully he'll be fully fit by the end of the week.

Mike: Nap is good!

Well the past three days have not been the most fun that we've had here in Cuenca. Mike got up Sunday morning and was feeling a little under the weather but we took a walk to the Supermaxi anyway; Sunday seems to be grocery shopping day as Supermaxi is pretty much the only thing open here on a Sunday. We did our shopping in record quick time since there were no long lines like last week during Carnaval, and then took a taxi back to the apartment. By this time Mike was no longer feeling just a little under the weather but more like he was buried under ten feet of snow. The cold from last week came back with a vengance, and brought his friend the stomach bug with him; at least I hope it's just a bug. He spent the afternoon in bed trying to sleep in between taking trips to the bathroom (TMI??)
Sunday night was the worst night I've spent with Mike ever I think as he just culd not stop coughing; every time I'd get clost to falling asleep he'd have another bout. i know he couldn't help it but it was really annoying, and also a little amusing as when he coughed he made a kind of rasping wheezy noise - I know it's not nice to laugh at the invalid.
Yesterday we didn't/couldn't go anywhere so we just hung out. I sat out in the garden with the residnet puppy for a while and read as it was much quieter out there than in our apartment. Mike sat out too for a little while until Angelica had cleaned the apartment and then he went into bed and spent most of the day there.
Today has been more of the same with a little less coughing and fewer trips to the loo - I think he might be on the mend. We didn't go to our Spanish lesson this morning and I know Mikes really sick as he hasn't eaten since Sunday, nor has he had any coffee. I can't remember the last time Mike went three whole days without coffee, heck I can't rememeber him missing one day.

Mike: Ugh! Double Ugh!