WHY I LOVE ECUADOR

It is so wonderful to be back in Ecuador, and more specifically, Cuenca. We arrived in the evening of New Years Day after over 24 hours of travel (with no bad incidents, just lots of connections and waiting time). The next morning my brother Chuck took Jim and me on a walk in the neighborhood to see some of the changes since last year. One really nifty place across the river from their condo is a Cooperative grocery store. It has many of the same things as the big farmers market but all the fruits and veggies are labelled so it's easier to learn about unknown things.

I knew I was back when I saw this sale on plantains:

Can't wait to get a bunch (50 cent's worth will be ample) and have fried plantains and eggs for breakfast!

I photographed this thinking it was a suckling pig but we had a heated discussion about it later and Jim was right - this is a naked cuy, or guinea pig (notice the claws instead of hooves):

Cuy is quite the delicacy here, especially at Christmas time.

Chuck pointed out this amusing package. Note that in Spanish it simply states "Smoked Dried Meat."

Today we took a walk downtown (that's another story) and, as always, encountered an impromtu parade in the making:



We all fell in love with this donkey who has his tongue out here trying to get the last bit of a popsicle:

I never tire of the local ladies in their wonderful velvet skirts and hats:

While we were having coffees in the courtyard at one of our favorite stops these cuties wandered in:

And, I still don't know what this is, but it sits outside in the sun all day, so I don't think I will ever try it:

I wanted to share these first few impressions with you and will have more adventures soon.

Signing off from the Southern Hemisphere,

Audrey