GREAT SHOPPING ADVENTURES

During our time here in Cuenca we have developed some nice relationships with local merchants. Most small shops in town or stalls at the market are run by the owner-merchant, and sometimes artist. One example of this is the jewelry shop we often visit near Carol's bookstore on Hermano Miguel. The lady seems to live there with her husband and small son and the room that opens to the street is where she sells the jewelry. She makes lots of it herself and is a superb macrame artist. Many of her pieces incorporate seeds or shells. She showed us one elaborate necklace that she "wove" out of macrame, which took her a month. This woman always has a smile and a cheerful disposition. She even spotted us on the street one day, as she was walking with her son, and stopped us to say hello and let us know that she had many new and beautiful things at her store. Since we are leaving soon, we stopped in today to get her photo (and yes, bought the earrings she is holding up).

Her husband is equally nice. Last time we were in the store I was looking at some lovely silver jewelry in a pelican design. We struck up a conversation asking what the Ecuadorian name for pelican was and after this the husband went in the back room for a design book and told us that this particular design was very ancient from a tribe on the coast, north of Guayaquil. Every time we visit this store we have long conversations with these two, even though our understanding isn't great. They are so warm hearted. I never did find out her name, or remember the name of the shop!

Another favorite merchant is in the Casa Mujeres artisan market. She is the woman we bought rugs and a poncho from (see Textiles blog here http://ajstephens.blogspot.com/2008/12/textiles.html). We went back to her this week and she lit up with a big grin. Of course we came away with another rug and a wool scarf!

One day Jim and I were walking downtown on Avenida Tarqui. He was wearing his Panama hat, as always. As we passed an indigenous hat shop (these are the hats you see the ladies wearing - they are tall Panamas in the Fedora style and are treated with something to make them very stiff) an older man grabbed Jim's arm, pointed to his hat and to a sign on the stairs that said "Panama Hats, 2nd floor." The man was quite insistent that we go up and I thought to myself, "if this was Mexico there is no way I would follow a complete stranger up a dark stairwell." However, this was Cuenca and we followed him. It became apparent that the man couldn't talk (no voicebox). He led us up a steep stairwell and onto a small landing where there was a locked door. He unlocked the door and led us into a small showroom of lovely Panama hats. He tried to get Jim to try some on, but Jim prefers the Optimo style and this man only had the Fedora style. Once we got this point across, the man picked a hat off the rack and set it on my head. Not only was the hat EXACTLY what I would have picked out for myself, it fit me perfectly. It's a FINO quality hat - so fine that it feels like soap and you can't see any light through it. As we carried out the transaction, Jim had me ask the man how old he was. He wrote down 83 on a scrap of paper. Jim had me tell him that he was 73 and the man laughed and called him a baby. He took out a nice little box and showed me how the hat would roll up into it. He wrote my name on the box and "in memory of a beautiful lady."

Later that afternoon as we were relaying this story to Carol at the bookstore she told us that he was the most famous panama hat maker in Cuenca. He is featured on posters and in the paper all the time. His name is Roberto Pulla. He had lost his voice to cancer, not from smoking but, they think, from the fibers in the panama hats. He is obviously much beloved, as we saw many people greet him and embrace him.

One of my favorite artists in Cuenca is Eduardo Vega, one of Ecuador's most famous artists, whose medium is ceramic tile. Last year when we visited Cuenca we visited his workshop in Turi, a hillside town near Cuenca. I was so impressed with some of his designs that I had the workshop make some tiles specifically for our shower enclosure back home. This year we discovered a pottery factory not far from Chuck and Nancy's condo and learned that most of the dishes were designed by Vega. We toured the factory and discovered the "seconds" department. Although we spent some time in the seconds department, it wasn't enough, so Nancy and I went back another day on a hunt for cappuccino cups (and whatever else caught our eyes). We couldn't tell why most of these items were seconds but appreciated the great prices! Nancy found some wonderful cups in a cheery orange red pattern. Here she is smirking about the excellent deals she got and imagining how great cappuccino was going to look in her new cups. (Update - Nancy went back today and got 2 sizes of plates, a lovely platter and some more cups in this design. We christened them for dinner and they worked just fine).

So, these are just a few of the fun shopping experiences we have had. I will miss some of my favorite merchants in Cuenca, as well as the one of a kind shopping experiences.

I hope you enjoyed shopping with me.

Audrey

FUN FRUIT

One of the things I will really miss when we leave Ecuador is the fruit. I just love going to the market and standing in one place and taking it all in.

Nancy is doing a market blog today - check it out at http://www.watsontravels.blogspot.com/

There are so many wonderful fruits we just don't have at home. Some of my favorites - Maracuya, which is passion fruit. I had fresh squeezed Maracuya with my lunch today (60 cents). Another favorite is Naranjilla, literally "little orange." It tastes way better than oranges - somewhat like a cross between orange and tomato and nicely acidic. It is the size of a large cherry tomato and makes an excellent ice cream flavor. Then there is one of my all time favorites - Tomate de Arbol (tree tomato). These are shaped somewhat like a Roma-type tomato, with a pointed end, but are dark reddish maroon and grow on short trees. They are not related to tomatoes but do have a bit of a tomato-orange flavor. Another excellent juice or ice cream flavor!

One of my favorite salad ingredients when I am in Ecuador is called Uvilla (little grape). This fruit looks just like an orange cherry tomato. It grows inside of a papery husk and is also called Cape Gooseberry or Ground Cherry. The fruit is firmer than tomato and the flavor is somewhere between pineapple and tomato. Here is the batch I put into our salad for tonight's dinner.

One thing I love to do when I go to the market is to ask the merchants about fruit I don't know. That's how we came home with the Sapotes below. (Also known as Mamey Sapote and grown in Florida). The woman at the market told me that it was yellow inside and tasted rich. I aksed if they could be eaten raw and she said yes. As they were 3 for $1 I thought it worth a try. We also bought this pineapple from her for 50 cents. It weighed nearly 5 lbs!

Sure enough the Sapote was rich. The inside was so unusual - at first there was a 5 petalled star design but as I cut into it I discovered that each petal design hid a mango-like seed that went nearly the length of the fruit. So, there wasn't a huge yield after peeling and seeding these brown fruits. They had a texture of pumpkin and a slight taste of pumpkin, combined, perhaps with papaya. They were an excellent compliment to the very delicious pineapple.

It just won't be the same going back to apples and grapes.

Good eating!

Audrey

I LOVE TO TRAVEL

One of the great things about travelling is the unexpected. I am endlessly amused by things that we would never find in our country or our culture. For example, today I was walking back from the museum of popular art, (CIDAP) along the Rio Tomebamba, and I saw this:

I can tell you, this made my day.

Another thing that always amuses me is interesting signs, especially when maybe they are a play on words or maybe the person doing the sign just didn't know English all that well.


Hot dogs are big here. They are usually called salchichas and are often served with french fries, which makes them into salchipapas. Here are some examples:

Richard and Mark, this one is for you:

And, note item 7 on this menu. This is a combo you would NEVER see at home (and yes, those are US Dollars on the prices):


Sunday we took an outing to a nearby town called Paute. This is about 1 hour by regional bus and is at a lower elevation. Sunday is a large market day in Paute. Here is one of the things that delighted me there - "piggy" bank sheep (and one elephant).

We decided to ride home in a Mixto, which is a pickup truck that takes passengers inside and out. This turned out to be a BAD IDEA because the driver was a real cowboy. However, he did have a really cool gear shift knob.

Nancy is doing a whole blog on our grand day out in Paute, the fabulous restaurant we ate at and the scary trip home. Please check it out at http://www.watsontravels.blogspot.com/

I find it interesting to observe marketing in different cultures. This is especially fascinating as it applies to clothing and fashion. Here is a typical Cuencan clothing store.

And here is a typical way to display jeans for sale. I have never figured out the thought behind the 2nd pair of jeans over the 1st.

The other day when Jim and I went to the convent museum all the exhibits were fairly sobering and some things downright grim. And then we came across this amusing sight -

No, we did NOT put those sunglasses on her, honest!

I was bitterly disappointed that we didn't get to try the KING OF SEAFOOD because we were ready to eat at 7 PM and the restaurant didn't open until 8:30 PM. (However, that night we did have an EXCELLENT Tapas dinner).


I laughed out loud when I saw this sign for a card shop in downtown Cuenca, especially since Jim and I are from Peanuts territory (Santa Rosa is Charles M. Schultz country).


And I loved the sentiment of this carpenter shop:

But the crowning glory happened during the most amazing thunder and lightening storm in downtown Cuenca the other day. But first I have to set the stage - There are several guys in Parque Calderone who have lots of little horses set up around the square. Kids put on the sombreros and pose for their picture to be taken. Unfortunately my only photo of the horses is a little fuzzy but you can get the idea:

So, back to our rainstorm. It was raining so hard that the streets were flooded. We tried to wait out the storm while drinking coffee, but the rain wasn't letting up. So we made a bee line for the covered area near Parque Caldarone to get a taxi. As we were waiting we saw this guy taking his horse to shelter on what looked like an overgrown skateboard:

Does it get much better than this?

Until next time,

Audrey

ART & ARCHITECTURE IN CUENCA: A LOOK AT BUILDINGS & A DAY IN THE LIFE

As I tour you around Cuencan architectural style, I'll give you an example of a typical day for us. Yesterday Jim and I set out on the bus for the bookstore to leave off fabric for Tom to take to his in-laws who are tailors. They will make 5 shirts for Jim and 2 for me by using existing shirts as patterns. The bus we caught (#3) took us through the neighborhoods on the other side of the Rio Tomebamba. As we approached the roundabout at the Totems, where a few weeks ago the conductor would have jumped off the bus and run about a half a block to punch the timeclock, a man with a clipboard got on the bus and filled out some paperwork after chatting with the driver and then checking his watch. Then, surprise of all surprises, he turned to the riders and asked us if we had any problems with the bus. A couple of women up front gave him an earful about the bus cards (which are not in use yet) but the rest of us stated, "no problemas." Then, a few blocks later, near the main boulevard of 12 of Abril, we came upon a police barracade. The bus turned down a side street and went up river a ways, then cut back to 12 of Abril. Unfortunately, ahead of us at the bridge we needed to cross, there was a HUGE crowd gathered (we later learned it was 5,000 people). The bus driver took one look at that and did a u-turn in the middle of the boulevard (this involved backing up several times) and headed to the next bridge downstream. I looked at Jim and said, "It sure is going to be boring when we get back home." As we headed up the hill above the area where the demonstration was, we could read the sign indicating that it was about financing for the University.

Near there, on the river, is the historic area called "Los Barrancos" or hanging houses. Here are some examples. Notice the stone one that has used large millstones as part of the walls.



We went to a bakery before going to the bookstore, so we could have some cookies with the coffee Carol so graciously provides. At the bakery we often go to, the main door was closed but the little door was open. I went in the little door (Jim couldn't fit because he had the box of fabric under his arm) and saw that the reason for the main doors being shut was that the bakery owners were being filmed (for TV?). The cameraman was just finishing up with one of the owners, who was sitting in a chair, and was moving on to film some of the baked goods. We got some yummy churro-like things and went around the corner to the bookstore. There, I finally got to meet Carol's husband Lee, who, every other time, has been in the USA when I was here. We also had a pleasant conversation with Jeremy, a young man in the Peace Corp who is an excellent classical guitarist. To my delight, he was practicing some Bach 'cello suites transcribed for guitar. Of course we ran in to a book we had to buy - an Umberto Eco that we had never seen called "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana." After being sated by enough coffee, cookies and conversation, we set out, in general, for a store on the other end of downtown. (We arrived there some hours later, but we'll get to that story soon).

Here are some of the lovely buildings we passed on the way. This first one is a bank building.


The style of the wrought iron balconies on the second floor reminds me a bit of old New Orleans. It certainly creates a charming affect.
Before we had gone two blocks, we came upon the Museo de las Conceptas, a museum made from a small portion of the convent of Conceptas, which takes up at least a city block. The building construction was started in 1682 and finished in 1729. As might be imagined, much of the museum was religious artifacts. It was fascinating to see some of the items, mostly toys, the young girls brought with them as novices, as well as dowry trunks elaborately carved of wood.

The interior courtyards were very peaceful and we marvelled at the ancient stone floors.

After the convent museum, we wandered on up the street (only a few doors) and found an antique store, usually closed, was open. Of course we went in. They had lots of little things, as well as ancient books (some from the 1600s), pictures, jewelry, etc. No big furniture but lots to look at. We even saw a manual on the Secret Service of the USA in Spanish. It was pretty well thumbed.

Leaving the antique store we ran into "our" jewelry lady and her son on the street. She informed me that she had many new and beautiful things. Finally, maybe an hour or more since we had left the bookstore, we got out of that neighborhood and headed toward downtown. Now we were looking for a place for lunch and a place to get cash. On one particular street in downtown Cuenca there are many banks with machines. The first one we tried wasn't working so we went to the second one. While Jim was extracting money, I took more photos of buildings.

We found a hole in the wall for lunch and had the "menu," which consisted of Jugo de Pina (pineapple juice), popcorn appetizer, sopa (this soup had corn still on the cob, plus hominey and chunks of meat in a rich broth), "plato fuerte," which in this case was a big pile of rice with a small portion of grilled corvina (fish), red onions and a stew of lentils and green peas. Our "postre" (dessert) was, we think, whipped egg whites, sugar and guava jam. This filling meal was $1.50. After we rolled out of there, we headed up town some more to locate a ceramic store I wanted to see because I thought it was a gallery for ceramicist Fabian Alvarez who had done this fabulous mural in the Hotel Crespo.

Before we got too far, we needed to use a restroom. Knowing there was a really nice one at Frutiadas we decided to stop in for a cup of coffee. We settled out on the large covered patio, which is our favorite place to sit, and got our coffees. Immediately the temperature dropped and there was a tremendous clap of thunder and the rain pelleted down on the corrugated plastic patio cover more than 2 levels above us. We could see the street from where we sat and saw the volume of water pounding down. It obviously wasn't going to let up for quite some time so we ordered more coffee and some of their excellent cookies. Several of the lightening strikes were followed by thunder barely a second apart. This was quite exciting! (As I am writing this we are having another thunder storm. I am glad I am snug indoors). Maybe 20 minutes later it was all over and the streets started drying. We set out again for our ceramic shop. On the way to the store, more great buildings.


We found the ceramic store (had to ring a bell for entry) but were grossly disappointed that it was not what we had expected. (When we got home I learned that it was my error - the store was ceramics of Alfarero, not Alvarez). So, we headed over a few blocks to go to Cafe Lojana to pick up my coffee beans that I had ordered a few days before. (They only had sugared coffee beans the day I wanted to buy some and she had told me she would have the regular ones for me Friday). Alas, there was a story and she didn't have the beans. She stated that her husband would be bringing some more on Monday and they would be fresh.

Empty handed, we headed to Parque Calderon, the central square of downtown Cuenca. Here Jim has "his" bench, where he settled in for a cigar, while I went shopping at Galeria Toucan, a store that sells a wide variety of handicrafts. More great buildings near Parque Calderone:


When I came back to Jim he was just finishing up his cigar and it was nearly time to meet Chuck and Nancy for ex-pat night at Zoe, a new restaurant only 2 blocks from where we were. The ex-pat community is loosely organized into having a get together every Friday at a designated restaurant. This was the first time the group had meet at Zoe. We found the decor surprisingly modern, the mojitos not so good and the food pretty decent. The four of us had dinner with 4 more ex-pats and then decided to go to our favorite Spanish restaurant for dessert. We went to Akelarre and had Spanish Chocolate, which we subsequently decided was way to rich not to share.

When we got home after 9 pm, Jim and I had been out and about for 12 hours. That's a day in the life in Cuenca.

Until next time (will it be church architecture or art work?)

Audrey

ART & ARCHITECTURE IN CUENCA: BUILDING ORNAMENTATION

Cuenca is a city of art and artists. In some ways it reminds me of Florence, Italy, because of all the beautiful ornamentation on buildings. It is not unusual to see exquisite painting like this high up on the building, near the roof.


One day when roaming around Nancy and I discovered excellent "mochachinos" (cafe mocha) at the Baccus Cafe at Hotel Santa Lucia. And added bonus were these decorative tiles on the walls.
This is a particularly lovely door in downtown Cuenca; only one of many.

One evening we ducked into a roasted chicken place (these are ubiquitous in town) for a refresco and were delighted to see this exquisite floor. Can you picture anything like this at KFC?

I never tire of lovely tile work, whether on the floor in a utilitarian position or on the wall just because.


Yesterday Jim and I were walking along downtown, as usual, and spotted a lovely entry way that advertised European Antiques. The sign, in English, stated that if one wished to view the antiques, one should ring the bell three times. However, there was a pack of beagles bugling in the courtyard and this didn't encourage us to enter the place. I didn't need to see antiques anyway with this gorgeous wall treatment in the entryway.

And look what was on the ceiling!

We found another great ceiling treatment at the Modern Art Museum which is a fabulous building and grounds, never mind the excellent art. The building was owned formerly by the church and was used to get the drunk priests off the street (literally from out of the gutter). Subsequent to that time it was used as an orphanage. Now it is this wonderful museum which is FREE. More about the museum and exhibits will be forthcoming on other blogs. Meantime, this is the ceiling that we saw in the auditorium at the museum.

On my next blog I'll take you on a brief tour of some of the outstanding architecture in Cuenca, particularly on the older buildings and churches.

Hasta Luego,

Audrey

JIM'S BIG ADVENTURE

After I went back to Santa Rosa on January 1st, Jim set out on an adventure to the Cloud Forest to see birds and flowers. He had learned about a nature preserve called Bella Vista from Carol at the bookstore. This preserve is north and slightly west of Quito. To get there, Jim took the bus, which is normally a 10 hour ride. He broke this up by staying at a half way point, in RioBamba. One day as he was reading his book he happened to look up and see this vision of a snow capped volcano with a huge caldera. What an eruption that must have been! A few moments later this vision was lost in the clouds again.

On the bus again from RioBamaba to Quito, the terrain was very high with few trees. Jim was sitting next to a very small nun who took newspaper from a plastic bag and wrapped it around her legs to get warm. Jim got his nice wool poncho down (see blog on Textiles) and spread it over his legs and hers. Later she shared some of her food with him.

Once in Quito, Jim stayed at the Hotel San Francisco in old town. He loved this place as it was in the old style with a central courtyard. The next morning the Bella Vista folks picked him up at the hotel in a van which made a few more stops then headed for the preserve. They crossed the equator 4 times! Upon arrival Jim noticed HUMMING BIRDS EVERYWHERE.
These guys with the white leggings are called Booted Racket-tails.

Bella Vista, a reserve of 700 hectares, supplies guests with rubber boots, rain ponchos and walking sticks. Guests stay in cabins and have great meals together in the dining room. Here is Jim with one of the guides and several of the guests.

Not only were there birds everywhere but the variety of plants and flowers was astounding, including some very alien looking fuchsias.

I have dubbed these the pink fuzzy fuchsia.

Jim took daily walks through the clouds (and it rained every afternoon) often hearing bird calls but not often seeing the birds doing the calling. It rained so much that there were lots of earthworms on the paths. One day Jim saw one that was 4' long, but his camera's memory card was full. Here's a "little" one.


One day at lunch Jim saw this masked trogon 20 feet from the dining hall, eating a huge moth.

Here's his back, What a dude!

The plant life in the cloud forest is as stunning as all the colorful birds.


Another type of fuchsia.

Jim discovered that there were bromeliads in every tree,


mosses and ferns in abundance, and the usual insect chewed leaves.

Jim found that the hummingbirds tended to land on the same branch everytime making it a little easier to get their picture.


Still, the feeders were the best place to be sure of getting photos of this very flighty Violet-tailed Sylph.

What a lovely place this is.


I can't wait to go, but it may have to wait until our next trip to Ecuador. So much to do and so little time.

For further information on Bella Vista go to www.bellavistacloudforest.com.