Cuenca - Day 6

We decided last night that our goal today was to find an English speaking taxi driver to drive us around town to show us different neighborhoods.  Besides riding the bus a bit, we have only have been exposed to the El Centro area of Cuenca.

Dana found a list of recommended English speaking drivers on the Ecuador Expats Facebook page.  But since it costs $2.50/minute to use my cellphone in Ecuador, we decided to try a pay phone that we saw across from Park Calderon.

Now, I have to admit that it's been a while since we have used a pay phone, but this one drove a little bit differently.  This pay phone had a digital readout and after poking around for a few minutes, we found a way to toggle the text to English.  But even after that, every number we entered seemed to be invalid.  Finally Dana when into the TUR office (Tourist Info) office and asked and turns out that sometime recently, Ecuador    changed all of it's phone numbers to 10-digits from 9-digits.  So, we had to take each phone number that we had and add a "9" to it.

So Dana added the "9" to the first number and it was valid.  Then the display asked to drop .05 to connect the call.  So we dropped the nickle into the phone and the phone dialed the number.  Success!   Well not quite yet.  Turns out that the nickle dials the number and gives you about 15-seconds to say what you need to say - so our first conversation was cut off quick.  Turns out that we needed to be dropping quarters into the phone - and as you talked, a digital countdown clock was ticking away.  I can't remember, but it seemed that I had to drop in a new quarter just about every minute.

Dana had a list of 7 English speaking drivers.  We called them one by one and each one of them was already booked for not only today, but Saturday as well.  We were about to give up after six calls (and we were about out of quarters) when there was one last number that we had not tried.  Dana called Patric and he did have an opening Saturday morning for a couple hours.  His rate is $10/hour.  So we have him booked from at least 10am to Noon on Saturday.

You will also see the amount $188.16 written on the sheet above.  We decided to go ahead a pay our hostel bill, which was that amount for the 7-days.  Pretty good deal!

We then walked to Don Colon's restaurant for lunch.  Today is Fish and Chip day for $5.95/person, which is a pretty expensive lunch in Cuenca.  But Don is a great guy to talk to, so we chalk-up the extra expense to "entertainment value".  Each time we eat here, he sits down with us and talks.  It's like dining with the Godfather.  We did get a photo with him today!

 

Today's choice of fish was Tilapia or Corvina.  Dana had the Tilapia and I had the Corvina.  It was very, very  good!

 Fish and Chips - a little better than Captain D's!

After lunch, we walked about a mile or so to the Museum of Modern Art that we had heard about.  It was housed in a very, very old building that was once a church or monastery - and later some type of military facility.

It had over a dozen rooms of displays.  You have to remember that "Modern Art" is sometimes a little wacky.  Here are some photos of what we saw.  And if you say to yourself, "what the heck is that?", the answer is:  It's Modern Art!

 Modern Art!

 Yes, a plate, spoon and fork made from plates, spoons and forks

 Interesting Hallway - Must of had skinny Monks here

 There were some paintings as well

Later in the afternoon back at the hostel, we received an email from Gringo Tree that it was "Gringo Night" at a little pizza place a couple blocks away.  So, at 7pm, we took off to Fabiano's Pizza and when we got there it was standing room only - all Gringos!

We finally grabbed a table and checked out the menu.  While waiting for a table, we saw people leaving with "To Go" orders - and the large pizza was VERY LARGE.  Even the medium was too big for the two of us.  So we decided on a small bacon, ham, and mushroom pizza and an order of garlic knots.  I had a large Pilsner and Dana had a Coke. Total was $8!    Here is their menu and the food...

 Garlic Knots

 Some Great Pizza!

Gringo's Everywhere!

Tomorrow is our last day in Cuenca and Ecuador.  After we ride around with Patric in the morning, we are going to head back to the room and try to pack everything back into our two carry-on's and backpack.  Our flight from Cuenca to Quito leaves at 8:40pm.  Our flight from Quito to Miami leaves at 12:15am.  We arrive Miami after 4am and have a flight to Atlanta at 6:30am.  Hopefully we will be back at the house around 11am Sunday morning!

Cuenca - Day 5

Thank goodness Windhorse Cafe was open this morning!  I've been wanting their fruit salad, yogurt, granola breakfast for 2 days.  It was good!  Today I'm going riding in the Andes Mountains with Sabastian at Centro Ecuestre Bellavista.  Sabastian picked Jeff and I up at 9:30AM in front of our hostal.  We squeezed in his little pickup truck and headed out of Cuenca.  His facility was only about 8K out of town so not very far.  Sabastian speaks excellent English so that's very helpful.  In the course of our conversation today I found out he has 41 horses and teaches about 40 young riders show jumping.  He also rides and hosts Endurance events.  Really great guy and a pleasure to ride with.  There were 2 other riders, Suzannah and Raphael from Guayaquil Ecuador.  Suzannah also spoke excellent English, so I enjoyed my typical ride - great horses, great conversation, and a great time!

 See girls, I DID wear my helmet!

 This is where Jeff hung out while I rode for 2 hours.

 Here's Sabastian!

This is my horse, Eclipse.  Notice the western saddle.  I was REALLY glad I wasn't riding English!

 Suzannah and Raphael.  She had a great laugh and he had a very good sense of humor!

Dang these long American legs!!!

 This was our view heading down the drive.

 Dairy cows!

 Up we go!

 We took a break for pics.

We rode the ridge of a mountain for quite a while.

 I tried to get a panoramic view so you can see how awesome this is.  This is the right side.

 Right middle.

 Left middle.

Left side.  Beautiful, isn't it.

 Pretty much straight down on both sides.

 The Three Caballeros!!!

 See that little church?  It's on top of the ridge. 

Now we're on our way down.

 Jeff and Raphael rode in the back of the truck back to Cuenca so the ladies could ride up front.  

Had a great time and would definitely do it again!  We were really hungry when we got back so we went to Windhorse Cafe again for good eats.

 Sub sandwich and fruit cup.

Sea Bass sandwich and cole slaw.

After lunch we took a nap in our room.  Then more walking and sightseeing.  We had a great time today at Centro Ecuestre Bellavista.  Jeff had a beautiful quiet place to read and I got to ride with great people!  Thanks again, Sabastian, for the wonderful time and thanks to Suzannah and Raphael for the great company!

Cuenca - Day 4

Woke-up this morning and decided to try the yogurt with fruit again at Wildhorse Cafe around the corner.  But we forgot that they are closed on Wednesdays.  The yogurt sounded good to us because we both are still a little sick.  We don't feel bad, but our digestive systems are not back to normal.

We decided to hit some of the pharmacies (there is one about every other block) to see if we could find a Pharmacist who spoke a little English.  Once again, we feel fine, but it's been 7-days since we have not been "right".  We did find an English speaking Pharmacist and we received another round of medicine to take.  We take this for the next 5-days.  A box for each of us was $7, so another $14 for medicine.  I bet we have spent close to $40 on drugs on this trip.

We also dropped our laundry off, which is next door to the hostel,  They weighed our dirty clothes (9lbs) and somehow that equated to a charge of $5.05.

As I said, the door to our hostel (La Casa Cuencana) is just a couple doors down.  The portion of the hostel that we are staying in is pretty incognito.  There is no sign, just a locked green door.

 As soon as you unlock and open the door on the street, there is a second locked door that takes another key.

 Then you enter an open area that they are still working on as a common area.  They are adding a kitchen at the end of the room around the corner.

 Then we head upstairs, where there is another door that has a lock, but it is not used.

Our room us on the 2nd floor, behind  another locked door.

Our room is nice, clean and evidently safe.  With tax it is $13.44 per person per night.  There are only three rooms per floor and  it's been pretty quiet - until someone comes or goes.  It sounds like cell doors at a prison latching every time one is unlocked and open.

One thing that has given us great piece of mind has been our Pacsafe.  It is a metal meshed bag wrapped in canvas.  It has a carbon steel cable that allows us to pad lock our extra money, passports, laptop, iPad, and Kindle up while we are out.  Someone with bolt cutters and a cutting touch could get into it - but for a normal evil-doer to take it, they will need a pipe wrench and various other plumbing tools to get it removed from the bathroom sink..

Since we missed breakfast, we decided to find a new almeurzo that we had read about that is located in a hotel.  We found it, but we were a little early, so we found a park to hang out in for a while.

Around 11:30am, we headed to Don Colon's and were greeted by the man himself saying in perfect English, "Hey, how ya doing, come on in".  Turns out that Don Corlon is an Ecuadorian who took off to American at the age of 18 to follow his dreams.  He ended up in the restaurant business and owned a famous seafood restaurant in Naples Florida - that is now a local chain down there.  He then moved to Cancun, Mexico and opened a successful restaurant there, but it was all blown away in a hurricane in 1989.  He then moved back to Naples and opened a popular Mexican restaurant there - totaling 40-years in all.  Last year he decided to move back to Ecuador and has this restaurant attached to a nice hotel.

Today's menu started with Carrot Soup and garlic bread.

Then we had a choice of a chicken or pork chop plate.  I had the pork chop and Dana had the chicken.  There was also fresh squeezed juice included.

Today's total:  $4 per person.  I left $8 on the table.  Pretty nice lunch and good company.  Don came over to our table as we finished our lunch and we talked for 30-minutes.  He asked if we could mail a check to his daughter who is attending college in Tampa.  We watched him write the check, seal the envelope and he gave Dana a fifty-cent piece for the stamp.  If he mailed it from Ecuador, it would take nearly a month to get to the States -  if it ever got there at all.  We plan to head back to Don's one night for dinner this week before leaving.  What a character!  I wish we would have gotten a photo of him.  He had a panama hat on and looked just like you would imagine.

Our next chore for the day is to find Dana some shoes to ride the horse with tomorrow.  All she has is sandal type shoes, which won't work when riding.  The riding place suggested that she buy some cheap rubber boots, which is a good idea - but as far as we can tell, the nearest place to buy rubber boots is about seven miles away.  The store that we are looking for is called Coral and it's a lot like a Wal-mart.

So we decided to hail a cab, which is not too hard to do - there are hundreds of them in the city.  The trick is negotiating a fare while the cab is pulled over.  Typically a Gringo gets a $1 surcharge because they usually pay it. I fully expected that we would be paying $4-5, but somehow we got him to take us for $3.50.  I know, what is the big difference between $3.50 and $4-5?  Well, it's a big deal here to get the best deal that you can for a taxi.  The fare around town used to be $2 for just about anywhere in town.  But as the masses started to pay a little more and a little more, the standard fare around town is teetering between $3-4.

Got to Coral and it was much like a 2-storied Wal-mart.  Some things were cheap, but many more things seem like they cost a little more than back home - especially anything name brand that had to be brought in .
Here are some things that we saw:

Laundry Detergent in Plastic Bags

All Milk is in Aseptic Boxes on the Shelf 

 And yes, there is Boone's Farm Wine.  The Beer display were just a couple loose bottles - no multiple packaging.

Cereals 

Eggs are also not refrigerated - just sitting on the shelf

We found the rubber boots - they were $9.25.  Instead of taking a taxi back, we decided to try the bus.  I read a little about the Cuenca buses online the night before and knew the #18 bus passed by the Coral and close to the Park Calderon.  All buses in Cuenca are .25-cents.  So you jump on, drop you quarter in and try to find a seat.  All went well, but once we got on the bus, we had to stand.  Every row had someone sitting in the aisle seat - and no one in the window seat.  So only half the seats are used.  But it all worked like a charm and we made it back to town for .50-cents.

Since we had to walk through Park Calderon to get back to the hostel, we decided to have some more ice cream.

Brownie with ice cream and Lime Sorbet - $4

We ended the day by walking along the river, which is down a set of stairs at the end of our street.  This is rolling water from the Andes Mountains and is one of the four rivers that flow through Cuenca.  Yes, there is suppose to be trout in these waters, but I have never seen anyone fishing.

Finally, Dana sporting her new rubber riding boots.  She is being picked-up at 9:30am in the morning for her ride.

Plans for tomorrow:  Dana rides and Jeff explores!