Wednesday, June 29, 2011

With regret, we have spent our last night, of this trip, in Cuenca, Ecuador.  We wish we had planned for a couple of more days but, alas, we did not so it is not to be.  Being in Cuenca has been great and we've met some dear people, Ecuadorian and American alike.  Before coming up to our room tonight, we spent some time talking with the night clerk; she's a very sweet young lady who goes to college and studies in the morning, works at the hostal in the afternoon/evening, then goes home to get some sleep before starting the cycle all over again!  She has one day off each week (Saturday); she spends it with her mother and grandmother!  I'm sure that's the story of a lot of young people here because they want to succeed and have the work ethic for it!  We've "adopted" her as our second "Monica" (her name).

Now, our day:  Jenny slept in, we had breakfast in our hostal, then went to Curves for her workout.  We then took the long way back, going by SuperMaxi (I think I mentioned one when we were in Tumbaco - it's a grocery store.

Shortly after returning to our hostal, we hooked up with Gerard and went to lunch at Grecia's - lunch was $2.20!  We toured a little more of the city, where a lot of ex-pats live, then went for ice cream.

Gerard dropped us off at a Panama Hat museum (remember, I told you those hats are not made in Panama; they're made here)  We saw how hats are formed, then went upstairs for a scenic view of part of Cuenca.  We also had one of those "dress up, posed" pictures made, in authentic clothing with panama hats.  Jenny wanted to get a hat but they did not have the one she liked in her size.  They were willing to resize one for her but we didn't have enough time before we leave tomorrow, so no hat - this trip.

We made our way back to the hostal, met up with Gerard again (in case you don't know, Gerard's wife is currently in Montana, USA so he has lots of free time! LOL) and went to dinner at the Coffee Tree (Gerard, please comment and correct me if I'm wrong - not wrong, different!).

We did get some rain today; it also seemed to be the warmest day of our stay.  As we've discovered, even if the temperature is cool, when the sun shines brightly (after all, we are near the Equator), it feels warm to hot.  At least we shed our jackets and went around in shirt sleeves (long because we didn't bring short).

Our plane doesn't leave until 1:45 p.m. tomorrow so we'll have the morning to pack, try to find a scale to weigh our luggage, and relax before leaving.  BTW, Continental Airlines (and probably most other U.S. carriers allow carry on luggage to weigh up to 40 pounds; Latin American Airlines (LAN) allows them to weigh up to 17 pounds!

So, it's off to bed!  If Quito is this much fun and excitement, choosing where, if we indeed decide to, retire will be difficult!  We now count Gerard Tretton, Diane & Juan Moreno as our friends.  BTW, I tried calling Diane this morning but could not get through so I'll need to send her an email before we go to bed.