CUENCA!

With our flight to Cuenca leaving at 6:00 am, we got up at dark-thirty to start our day (4:00😱). Our taxi driver friend Manuel was there at 4:20 to pick us up to take us to the airport. We aren’t sure he ever sleeps. But I definitely wanted to share this pic of what I saw from the plane. One of the pics below is the Cotopaxi Volcano, an active volcano located 50km south of Quito.  At 19,347 feet, it is one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world.  We could see it from Quito and I was glad to get a pic from the air.

We arrived in Cuenca about 7:00 am and took a taxi to our home for the next 2 1/2 weeks. I couldn’t believe that we were able to check into our room that early in the morning, and with a smile on the lady’s face. This is another enclosed compound that has apartments and a running river behind it. We did a bit of walking around to get our bearings, and these are a few pics of what we saw.

This next pic made me laugh.

Why would someone associate Sesame Street with a lounge and liquor?

When it came to find a place to eat, we chose Moliendo Cafe, a Columbian restaurant. Anthony was pretty excited to find a whole meal just costs $2.50!! They started out by bringing a banana 🍌 in with the basket of silverware (did they know him already?). And then he got a bowl of potato soup, then a plate of chicken, rice, and a salad, with some sort of a fruity drink. That was a big plate of food, even for him. I had roast beef over something that I wasn’t sure of, but it was good also. Mine was $4.00.

We did a little bit of grocery shopping and met our first retired American Expat. He had been living in Cuenca for six weeks but had visited three times before. He was from Minnesota, but had lived in New Mexico before that and spoke Spanish well, so I know he is having an easier time than I am. When I paid for our groceries with a credit card, the cashier asked for my ID and phone number, and here I am trying to count in Spanish in my head telling her the numbers, but ended up letting her count my fingers as that was much faster.

We ended our day at a restaurant next door to us and ordered a milkshake and vanilla ice cream. Little did we know that their whole menu was vegan. Our “ice cream”was made out of yucca, and it was pretty good.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting Incan/Cañari ruins. Looking forward to this adventure, and taking public transportation is always an adventure, especially when we don’t speak the language. Ya know, I have missed out on so much not being able to communicate with people we meet, like Manuel, our waiter today, and the receptionist at our hotel. Anthony is so much better than I am and is encouraging me to try.

Hasta mañana:)