A LONG WAY HOME

6:45 AM - Sitting at LAX waiting for the last leg of our journey home. Jim is having a triple latte and watching a Quantas jumbo jet preparing to leave.

Every flight and connection has been smooth and the airlines we dealt with efficient and friendly. We took LAN for the first time, from Cuenca to Guayaquil. Very comfortable plane - nicer (newer?) than Aerogal. However, Aerogal excels at the snack part of this 25 minute flight - they serve a little sandwich and a box of juice. LAN did have an inflight service - we received a butterscotch candy! We were on the same flight as Lee who was overnighting in Guayaquil and then heading on to North Carolina in the morning. It was nice to chat with him one more time.

On the ground in Guayaquil we had only an hour to claim our bags to re-check them, pay our exit tax and go through immigration. This all went without a hitch, though we were chided for being "very late" by the COPA airline clerk. Also, our checked bags were a titch over weight, but she didn't say a word.

The COPA flight from Guayaquil to Panama City is only a 2 hour flight. Jim and I were in the exit row so we had lots of leg room. On this flight we were served a sandwich (with the crusts cut off!), a 4 pack of Oreos and a beverage. COPA still understands about feeding people and there were no charges for the food or for any alcohol.

In Panama City we were to have a 1 hour lay over but our plane landed way far away from the terminal and we were taken on a bus to our entry gate. This ate up at least 15 minutes and by the time we got to our exit gate they were boarding our next flight. In Panama flights going on to the US have to go through a security check at the gate as airports in South America don't care if you bring liquids (or bombs in your shoes) through security. The boarding gate security check in Panama City is a joke. There is a team of pink clad women wearing rubber gloves who make a big show of opening everything and half ass poke through stuff. (Last year I brought two bottles of rum in a backpack and through this same check point with no problem). This security line had passengers backed up well into the lounge area. Jim and I were laughing because the reader board for the flight read "last call," as though the passengers could do something about getting there faster.

We finally got on board (Jim had to take his shoes off for security and I didn't) and found we were in the exit row again - aisle and middle. Luckily no one else came into our row so I got to move to the window seat. This is a 6 hour flight, from Panama City to Los Angeles. I can't complain at all about the leg room - very ample. After handing out customs forms for the USA, they fed us a very decent dinner (ravioli or meatloaf) and another 4 pack of Oreos, then started a dumb-looking animated movie about meatballs. Even though we had blankets and pillows I couldn't get comfortable because the plane was just a bit too warm for me. I looked out the window quite a bit and could see that we were flying due west, as the big dipper was to my right. The rest of the time I spent reading an excellent book (10 hankies) called "Annie Freeman's Amazing Traveling Funeral," by Iris Radish. I highly recommend this women's roadtrip book which is basically a big love story about a beloved friend who died.

We arrived at LAX at 10:45 PM PST last night and were dreading going through customs, as this was one of our worst ever several years ago. We were pleased to see that the international area of LAX had improved tremendously. No lines. We nearly got held up at passport control because Jim, being chatty, told the Homeland Security agent that his passport had a mistake on his birthdate. I wasn't sure he was going to be allowed to come into the country. The agent was able to pull up Jim's original passport application on-line but told Jim he was mis-representing his identity by traveling with the wrong birth date. He did state that Jim should be able to get a new passport issued at no charge, since it was erroneously issued. Phew! We made it through there and were pleased that our luggage came within a few minutes. We were heading for the hotel shuttle by 11:25 PM. Several years ago on this routing we (and everyone else on our flight) had to wait in this same terminal for 2 hours for our luggage to arrive. We considered this trip through LAX a big success.

We had to wait too long for our hotel shuttle because I am cheap and chose Travelodge instead of the Marriott or Hilton. In any case, our room was fine and we managed to get about 5 hours of sleep.

So, now we have 45 minutes until we board the last leg of our journey - Horizon airlines from LA to Santa Rosa. This is a 1 hour and 45 minute flight and is very scenic. We had a lovely experience on checking our bags, both of which were over weight. Not only were we not charged for them being too heavy, we also didn't have to pay the normal baggage fee because we were coming from an international flight. And, the check in agent was very friendly and fun.

Can't wait to get home and hug the cats.

Audrey

OUR LAST SUPPER

For our last dinner in Cuenca I wanted to return to the wonderful restaurant, Tiestos.

We had such a wonderful experience here last week and we were anxious to try the seafood. The interior of this restaurant is so lovely that it totally adds to the total experience.

The wait staff (and chefs) all wear hats, which also adds to the ambiance.

The restaurant still retains features of the old building, which add to the charm.

Last night we were planning to have the shrimp but when we got there we asked what the chef recommended...and it was the shrimp (shrimp for 3) and the lomo (beef) for 2. Here's what our wonderful shrimp dish looked like.
These were the WHOLE shrimp and the chef showed us how to suck out the meat from the heads.

We knew we were in trouble when the beef for 2 arrived.
This was deliciously prepared with thyme. We had to get a doggie bag.

Here is one of the many interesting side dishes.


Even though we were really full, we decided we had to have one of each dessert, just to see what it was like. Here's our chef preparing our desserts. A picture can't possibly convey how charming he is.

And, the desserts. One was a chocolate mousse/log with chocolate ice cream and passion fruit sauce

and the other was a praline cake. Yum!

As this wasn't enough, our friendly chef brought us an after dinner drink made of rum and oranges, which he called "misterioso." He told me that when the Spaniards came here in the 1500s they made rum from the sugar cane but the women thought it was too rough, so a new drink was created from the rum by adding sugar and orange essence. It was definitely sweet!

If you're in Cuenca and reading this and you haven't been to Tiestos, you must go. It is the best dining experience we have had in Cuenca and is not that expensive - our wine was $16 a bottle and the desserts $3 each. The entrees are listed as "for 4" (generally $34) and the chef will cut down the quantity (and cost) for fewer people. It's a true gourmet experience in a lovely location with really nice people. A great way to end a really wonderful vacation.

A big thanks to Chuck and Nancy for putting up with us for a month.

ANOTHER GREAT SUNDAY

On Sunday Rich and Nancy, Chuck and Nancy and Jim and I took our usual walk from home to downtown for breakfast. I was disappointed to not see the jogging goat this week, but we did, once again, see the group of horses and riders coming out of the side street onto the Ave. de las Americas. This week, though, we did not see the parade. BUT, we did see a surprising thing for Cuenca - Ultralights in the sky. (Remember, we are at 8,000 feet here).

Along the way we saw more wonderful architectural features on buildings.


The rest of our walk was fairly uneventful (compared to last week) and we ended up at our breakfast destination - Hotel Crespo on Calle Larga - in a decent amount of time. This hotel is quite lovely inside. At the reception area is a huge tile mural by the local tile artist Fabian Alvarez.

This hotel has lots of other lovely artistic touches, such as this column treatment.

We were the only ones in the lovely dining room (with a great view).

They offer all kinds of different breakfasts here - Continental, American, Cuencan, etc. We were amused by this menu item for hash browns.

We didn't know then, but know now that everyone at the table gets a plate of fruit (really good - papaya, pineapple, melon, banana) and they put out two huge baskets of bready products. We didn't really need to order breakfast too, but we all did. Quite a groaning board.

The item in the foreground of the above photo was a pancake. This was sort of like corn bread in cake form, and served with "cane honey" (miel de cana) - sort of like molasses. None of us were able to finish our one pancake. This restaurant has the best hash browns in Cuenca.

More lovely touches in the dining room, which reminded Jim and me of the Paris Metro.

After all this food, we decided to walk to the Parque Calderone to see what was going on. Sundays are family days in the park and there is always some sort of entertainment, often indigenous dance groups.

On our way, we spotted this young man riding a horse with crates attached.

Yes, they were geese or maybe ducks. (If you click on the picture to enlarge you can see the webbed feet sticking out of the crate).

Once we got to the park, we spotted our Canadian friends Brian and Shelley, with their dog Fredi.

They were there with other Canadian friends, Brian and Holly, with their new puppy who may be named Doyle. They are waiting to see if he grows into that name. Here's Holly

And Brian (in back)

and a very photogenic Doyle

Doyle was endlessly amusing as he was interested in everything. Here are Rich and Nancy watching his antics.

Passersby were quite interested to know what breed of dog Doyle was. This handsome young man and his wife were walking their husky puppy and the two dogs played for quite awhile while the young couple struck up a conversation with Holly and Brian.

As always, people watching is best at Parque Calderone. I loved this woman's hair.

and, am always a sucker, as you know, for the photo op ponies.

We were treated to this hummingbird feeding on the fuschia right behind where we were sitting.


After awhile we spotted Bill and Loretta, with little Johnny, who also enjoyed Doyle. We spent a long time hanging around talking to each other

and playing with the dog.


He's an English Bull Terrier with attitude.

Me, Nancy and Nancy.

We finally were able to say goodbye to everyone and the 6 of us wandered off for coffee. We had a date for paella at Akelare at 3 pm and none of us were hungry. We managed to eat some of our paella, though we all agreed it wasn't the best we had had (it seemed old - the shellfish overcooked).

After all this eating, we rolled on home via taxi around 5 pm. Another grand day out with friends.

Audrey

ANOTHER FINE MEAL IN CUENCA

Chuck and Nancy kept talking about this great restaurant which was closed for remodeling for most of our stay. Finally they opened and we went for dinner. The restaurant is called Tiesto and as soon as we were through the doors I knew we were in for something different. This restaurant is in a very old building with the original floors and huge oven which used to be in the outdoor kitchen. This isn't the greatest photo but it shows the old oven with the hood which was so low everyone had to duck to get around it.


The staff were very solicitous, including the chef, who greeted us warmly. The two waiters were dressed in chinos and panama hats - a very good look. The restaurant had purchased their dishes from Artesa, our favorite pottery place, and they got one of each pattern.

Lots of the items on the menu here are dishes for 4 people. We had a hard time deciding because everything looked so good. We decided on the Lomo (beef) in merlot, blackberry and ishpingo. Of course I had to ask what ishpingo was and the chef described it as "flower of cinnamon." He then brought to our table a sample of what it was.

Sure enough, it smells of cinnamon. (Later I was able to find a bag of these at the Coop. There the name is spelled slightly differently).

We had decided on a pinotage from South Africa (for $17) for our wine, but the chef wouldn't allow it - he stated that as our sauce was made with merlot, we needed merlot to drink. So we asked him to recommend a wine and he recommended a merlot from Chile. As it turns out, he was exactly correct - the wine was delicious and perfect with the meal (and when the bill came I noticed it was a dollar cheaper than the one we had picked out).

While we were waiting (and not very long, it turns out) for our meal, we got bread and lots of fun condiments, such as a bowl of garlic, olive oil and parsley, a bowl of pickled jalapenos, a bowl of aji (local salsa) etc.

It was hard to restrain from filling up on bread with these wonderful condiments. I am so glad I didn't pig out at this stage because here's what the main dish looked like.

The sauce on this steak was so delicious, and there was a big pool of it in the middle to keep dipping into. I couldn't believe we could possibly eat all the meat, but we managed. Along with the meat came sides that were very interesting in their concept and variety. We had a dish like couscous, which was made with the local grain quinoa, and had another that was made of cucumber, tomatoes and pepper, one of potatoes and one I am not sure about, but maybe was white beans, garlic and ?? taro?? In any case, all were scrumptious and we cleaned them up.

We were so full we couldn't even bear to look at the dessert menu.

This restaurant doesn't even open until 7 pm. We were the first group in and had the staff all to ourselves for about 1/2 hour. As we were eating the place started filling up. By the time we left it was going full bore. Nevertheless, the chef made sure to greet us again before we left and was very concerned that everyone enjoyed their meal. This restaurant was a high point, not only for Cuenca, but for any place. Oh, and did I mention? The bill for 4 people was $54.

Getting ready to depart for home tomorrow, so I have some blogs to catch up on. Stay tuned.

Audrey

MISADVENTURES IN MACHALA

Chuck, Nancy, Jim and I set out for a trip to the beach on Wednesday. Chuck had learned about a resort on an island off of the coastal town of Machala. It's called El Faro. Here's the link http://www.elfaro.com.ec/indexingles.html We planned to stay there two nights. We started out on the Azuay Express Bus. Express means only that it didn't stop for long in the town of Pasaje. This sign on the bus didn't inspire much confidence.

Basically it says, if you are going to barf, use the bag. (Unfortunately, Nancy had a seat mate who had to use his bag).

As we left the bus station, the bus crept along Ave. de las Americas. At first I thought there was a lot of traffic, but no, everyone else was whizzing by us. I finally figured out that the bus was trolling for more passengers, as we had a very light load. I think I was correct, because as we got to Feria Libre, the huge market, we stopped for quite awhile and our bus "conductor" was leaning out the door the whole time urging people on.

We finally got to the outskirts of Cuenca when a vendor/hawker got on with his briefcase. This man stood at the front of the bus, and in a voice which projected to the rear, spent the next 20-25 minutes orating about his wonderful product. He went on and on about all the things it would do in general, and then addressed his remarks to the men, regarding the prostate, and then to the women and girls regarding female problems. The part that caught my attention right away was when he opened his notebook to the page that said in big letters HECHO DE UNAS DE GATO. Translated this means made from cat's nails (claws). Well, my imagination took off. I was amazed that most of the folks in the bus were paying attention to this snake oil salesman. Here's a photo that Nancy took (I wasn't brave enough) showing how his wonderful product would take care of your organs.

In the way of vendors aboard buses in latin countries, once he got near the end of his spiel, he handed out a bottle of his product to each person on the bus. So, I had a chance to look at the label of ingredients. Sure enough, cat's claws...and also dragon's blood. Hmm. Meantime, the lady sitting next to Chuck was telling him that this was really good stuff. I shook the bottle and I could hear all those little claws clicking around in there and all I could think about was, how do they harvest the claws? And, are they domestic cats or big cats? I was tempted to buy a bottle but didn't. The guys sold lots and lots of bottles on that bus.

It didn't occur to me until MUCH later, that cat's claw and dragon's blood were probably the names of plants. Indeed, I did a Google search and learned that Cat's Claw is a plant which grows in the Amazon that has been used for thousands of years to cure the very things our salesman was talking about -immune problems, gastritis, ulcers, cancer, rheumatism, arthritis, pain, inflammation....I guess the guy knew what he was talking about. Dragon's blood is also plant which has been used for medicinal purposes since Roman times.

A ways down the highway we came to a real slow down. It became apparent what the cause was as we neared a bridge - a large truck was turned on its side, with the cab down a ravine. This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see some of the truck and the guy is looking down at the cab.


At this point in the journey, the bus was HURTLING down the Andes. Going around curves one had to hang on, and some luggage in the overhead bins fell out. All along the road we let people out and let people on. At one point there was standing room only. This bus company really got their money's worth out of that route.

3 and 1/2 hours later we arrived in Machala, which is known as "the beach" as it is on the ocean. It was HOT and HUMID (we saw one sign which read 31 degrees C, which is approximately 88 degrees F). Chuck tried to call the resort but it was lunchtime so they didn't answer. We took a taxi to a great seafood restaurant called Pepe's at Puerto Bolivar for lunch. Here was the view from our table.

We also could see three freighters in port loading bananas from cranes on the boats (no infrastructure of cranes or container loading from land).

Machala is a major banana port. Not only were these three freighters in port being loaded, but many more were anchored out waiting their turn, such as this one, which we assumed would be bringing bananas to Russia.

Also, lots of fishing boats like these shrimpers.

The restuarant's menu was in Spanish and English, which was a cause of much amusement. For example, what would you think Krub's Nails are?

Didn't guess, did you? One has to read the Spanish to know that these are crab claws. In fact, I ordered Pepe's Plate and I wasn't surprised that there was no crab because when Chuck ordered the crab with eggs item on the menu he was told, "crab are finished." In any case, even without the Krub's nails, my meal was delicious.

I had calamari, sea bass, clams and shrimp, along with "seafood rice" which was yummy too.

Here are some of the other dishes, all excellent.


These huge entrees were around $8 each.

It took awhile for our lunch to come, but we remained entertained by the unfolding tableaux in front of us. First, on the quay, there were more lonely horses awaiting their riders (for photo ops).
Then, we watched these two guys tie up their boats and go ashore in an unusual way.



Then there was kitty. He was mooching around the tables, getting orts off the floor. Here he is waiting patiently for something to fall.

I'm afraid Jim and I are softies when it comes to winsome kitties. We gave him some niblets from our lunch and he rewarded us by continually leaping up to Jim's lap to ask for more. He was so quick with his leaps that I couldn't capture him with a photo, but I did get him licking his lips

and asking for more.


After this EXCELLENT lunch we rolled out of the restaurant and Chuck tried to call the resort again. He was still unable to reach anyone. It wasn't quite three PM yet, so we figured the folks at the resort where still at siesta. We got a taxi to take us to the Yacht Club, which is where we were to be picked up by the boat from the resort.

A word now about the resort. It is an "all found" resort, including being picked up at the Yacht Club, all meals, and the use of an ATV. Here's the description from the web page, "We...have two fresh water swimming pools, open areas, outside fitting rooms with showers, a large restaurant for over one hundred people where it is possible to enjoy the exquisite gastronomy of Ecuador, a bar with variety of drinks, different type of music and sea front ‘Hamacas’ where you can rest and enjoy the view. Beach soccer and volleyball fields are part of El Faro Playa & Spa. In our resort you can walk along narrow paths inside a dry forest in which different types of endemic birds and reptiles live. Other sport activities as quadroons (bad translation for ATV), jet sky, kayaks are also available." As you can imagine, we had really high hopes for this resort.

Here's a look a the Yacht Club where we were awaiting our boat.


Here are the yachts.

Hmm. I guess they just use the yacht club for dances and such.

A helpful women in an office stated that the boat would be coming at 3:25 pm. At 3:30 pm Chuck called the resort again and finally got ahold of someone who insisted that we didn't have reservations because Chuck hadn't deposited anything into their bank account. Chuck told her no one had ever called with their bank account number. The upshot was that the manager, who spoke English, would call Chuck back.

It was still HOT and HUMID and not looking good. The manager called back. No, they couldn't come pick us up today. They could tomorrow at 10 AM, which is when the boat normally comes. We could take the regular ferry to the island and they could pick us up from that, but not today. It didn't matter that Chuck told them we had come all the way from Cuenca and just arrived in the afternoon. It didn't matter that the website implied that one could get a boat from the Yacht Club at any time. It didn't matter that they were going to lose $500 worth of business. We all decided that we didn't want to go there the next day, for one night only. We didn't feel like they really wanted us there.

So, we took another taxi to the downtown area of Machala and got a room for the night in a basic hotel that had a pool and air conditioning, but no hot water. We were so hot and sticky that we didn't care about the hot water. After a bit of cooling off around the pool, Chuck, Nancy and I headed out to a place (air conditioned) which served food and had ice cream. We all had batidos, which are heavenly blended concoctions like smoothies, make of fruit and milk, but are thick like milkshakes. Yum! Then we went a block away to the Casino. Yes, slot machines from Las Vegas. The one I was playing said "Ballys" on the top. The noise and smoke in there was intolerable as I had a headache. Also, I wasn't doing well on my machine and wanted to cash out. It said I had to call an attendant to "hand pay." What a pain in the rear. She came over and wrote on a tablet the number of the machine and the amount, had me write my name, then took this over to another woman at a window who did who knows what with the paper. Then she took the paper to the cashier window. Then she took the paper to the back room to be signed. Then she brought the paper back to me and tore off a small part. I took this to the same cashier and got my $8.75 paid out. All of this took about 10 minutes. That did it for me at the Casino so I went back to the hotel. By this time it was raining pretty heavily, which did nothing to reduce the humidity or cool things off.

This morning we got up bright and early and decided to walk to the bus station, as it was only a few blocks. We got part way there and Chuck wasn't exactly sure where it was, so asked several women walking by. One didn't know but the other one said, "follow me." She was a hot chica with skin tight pants and a walk that showed her stuff. She was very nice and took us to a different bus station than the one we came in at. This turned out to be a really good thing! We got on the luxury bus back to Cuenca. It was AIR CONDITIONED - yay! Also, they showed a movie (too bad it was Adam Sandler) and served free Coca Cola. This was the Ruta Orenses line. Here is our conductress getting ready to air the movie.

On this luxury bus there was no luggage falling and the ride was smooth.

As mentioned earlier, Machala is a banana port, and Ecuadorian bananas are imported all over the world. This is what the area around Machala looks like.

Our wonder bus stopped in the town near Machala called Pasaje. These stocks of bananas were waiting to be loaded on our bus.


They were obviously quite heavy as it took two people to load them into the cargo hold.

From the bus we saw not only miles and miles of bananas, but also papaya and mango trees, among others.

I think we were all happy when the bus started climbing toward the Andes and the air grew less humid.

It's really beautiful terrain.


We had a short stop for snacks at a wayside place and I saw these unusual bumper stickers.

Lots and lots of Ecuadorian men move to New York and drive taxis, often many of them living crammed together in a small apartment so they can save money. After a few years of this they have saved enough money to come back to Ecuador and build a nice house.

We have one of these Angel Trumpet bushes in our front yard that barely survives in our climate. They are obviously happier at the equator.


Typical Andes scene.

Both Jim and I photographed this house going to Machala and coming back to Cuenca. It is typical of Ecuadorian construction to wait until construction is finished to put in the windows.

I felt really happy to see this neighborhood sight, Feria Libre, because it meant we were almost home.


We arrived home less than 24 hours after our arrival in Machala. We never got to our resort, but sure had a lot of adventures along the way (like we always do in Ecuador).

Audrey