The People: Part 1

We are leaving Cuenca in a few weeks, so we are feeling more reflective. We are beginning a series of posts about people we have come to know in Cuenca. 

Our Conversation Group

Luis

First of all Luis is Vladmir Putin's biggest fan. You might be asking yourself, "why is an Ecuadorian enamored with the president and former leader of KGB of Russia?" Good question...well Luis actually used to be wrestler for the Ecuadorian National Team. He wrestled a number of Russians at championships and came to admire Russia in general. Naturally, the next step is to love the man with the steely blue eyes, who can wrestle bears,  supress all kinds of freedoms, and steal super bowl rings all on a typical Saturday morning. Don't get the wrong impression of Luis. He is a lover not a fighter. He is vegetarian due to his love for animals. More than once naive older gringo women have fallen to his charms and found themselves in our conversation group. One time a woman even said, "I don't know what I am doing here...I just met this guy (referring to Luis). I'm not ready for a Spanish immersion group (responding in English to all of our Spanish inquiries)." She paid and left. One last note. Luis and Andy have begun a personal revolution to change the Spanish language. In Spanish, it is not OK for a man to call a man handsome. Andy has made this mistake more than once. Luis and Andy are ignoring the norms of Spanish and pushing through calling various men handsome. We will miss Luis.

Mayra is in the hat with the yellow purse.

Andy once said that Mayra is the star of our conversation group. She comes every week smiling and giving sweet salutations to the people in our group. People light up when they see her come through the door. One thing I noticed about people who live in Cuenca is the way they say "no".  They extend the "N" sound and hold it like a person singing the last note of a song. Then they throw the "O" at the end with finality. It is something like "Nnnnnnnno!" When I brought it up to Mayra, she denied this saying "Nnnnnnnno!" It was so funny. Now she exaggerates her "no"s for me.  She is also a great help in our group. She speaks English very well and has lived in the United States. She is always willing to help us with our pronunciation while looking and dressing beautiful. I am impressed with her shoes and her scarfs. I love her accessories. We will miss Mayra. 

Sandra and Wayne are in the middle. 

Sandra and Wayne are the founders of our Conversation Group. I started talking to Sandra in a coffee shop one day and she told me about the group. Since then, we have been seeing them almost every week. We want to be like Wayne and Sandra when we group up. Wayne is a genuis. No really. He has a PhD in, I think, micro biology (if not micro biology, it definitely has an "ology" at the end). He also computer programer, tai chi practitioner, and a future barista. His hobbies include thinking and refuting bad arguments found on facebook. 

The city of Cuenca should hire Sandra and give her backpay for all the times she has informed people of all the events happening in Cuenca. If you ask Sandra "what is happening tonight?" she can usually tell three options with each having a sub option or two. She knows more about what is happening in Cuenca than the mayor. We kneel before her Spanish ability. She tells interesting stories in Spanish (and English...and French?) with grace and accuracy.  She continues to edit PhD theses and is in an constant state of revision in order to exploit Wayne for mugs of coffee and dinners. She finished revising a paper yesterday, but don't tell Wayne. We will miss Sandra and Wayne.

To be continued.....

We Won't Get Fooled Again?

A wise man once said, "fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me." A less wise man once said, "fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me...you can't get fooled again." O that Brigitte and I would learn to heed these less than wise words. We did get fooled. And then we got fooled again. We are starting to wonder if we are in need of a name change of our blog. Are our "misadventures" simply a self-fulfilled prophecy? Does any of this actually happen or are we just staging pictures and fictioning our way throughout "Ecuador" while really living in suburban Ohio? The world may never know....

This time we were in Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba reminds me of Sedona in Arizona. Lots of New Age folks in a small area. Lots of yoga (we said "hola" to one woman and received a namaste yoga greeting straight out of India....really? Couldn't you just give me a fist bump or a hello or a guten tag or a handshake... a high five? Brigitte and I froze with indecision and uttered Spanglish nonsense). Lots of retreats. Lots of nature as well. Brigitte and I don't really qualify for New Age spiritualists. But we do qualify for mountain and nature appreciatists. 

Vilcabamba is famous for its water and the longevity of its residents...allegedly. Even our taxi driver boasted of a 97 year old father who is actively continuing to  actively enjoy his life taking regular walks, bench pressing 250 pounds, and solving multiple sodoku puzzles a day. 

We arrived on Friday afternoon. We went to a nature reserve called Rumi Wilco. We rented "rustic" cabins for $26 a day. We thought it ironic that these "rustic" cabins had more kitchen tools than we currently do in our furnished apartment. Or that they had an oven...which we do not have as well. 

So many beds we didn't know what to do. We ended up rotating throughout the night in 15 minute intervals. We also invited a stranger from the village to use one of the beds so that they would all be occupied.

Note the pans below the sink. We were overwhelmed with options.

That is what greatness looks like when it comes to breakfast preparation.

The neighbors. Not sure if they were Ewoks or the Swiss Family Robinson.

The part underneath is the bathroom. Hot water. Hot tub. Sauna. OK there wasn't a sauna.

Getting Lost Part 1
Saturday we got up early for our hike. Our goal was to hike to the top of the "Cara de Mandingo". This is translated loosely as make sure you get up early to hike so that it is not in the heat of the sun and also remember that it is an "in and out" hike and not a loop so do not take the loop because you might get lost...or it could mean "face of the Incan"...I cannot remember which.

If you look at the formation in the mountain you can see the forehead, a nose, lips...Brigitte was reminded of the sleeping Ute in Southwest Colorado.

On this hike there were two crosses. We found them both before we busied ourselves with getting lost.

Cross 1. Brigitte and I getting about the business of selfies...does this count as a selfie if it is two people?

Brigitte was inspired by the crosses and the vista of the city below. She jumped.

We then proceeded to take a wrong turn and eventually had to bushwhack a path following the barking dogs, the mooing cows and squishy cow pies back to a road to successfully make it back (we were never really that lost...we could see the town the whole time. We just had to "make" a trail).

If only we had a Dolorian to go back and tell the Andy in this photo, "You're going the wrong way!"

Getting Lost Part 2

The second day we learned our lesson and got up early and did not get lost. Psych. We slept in. Our goal on our second day of hiking was to find a waterfall. We talked to a variety of people and had the impression that it would take us about 2.5 hours out and back. But 2.5 hours in we still had not seen a waterfall. We had run into a group of Ecuadorian women who had mentioned something about going left...but we never saw a place to go left...until we were on our way back...(and yes, it was marked in red with an arrow pointing at it. But it also looked like private property) 3.5 hours into our hike and with our dreams of waterfalls shattered. We were not to smell the spray of water cascading over cliffs. instead it was a day of dust and dirt. That said it was really a nice hike.

You can see Vilcabamba in the distance. This is before we knew we were lost.

Still do not know we are lost.

OK we are probably lost. Instead of taking pictures of waterfalls here are some leaves.

We were defeated...but can you really be defeated when you have a lunch of brown bread from a French bakery and two delicious Ecuadorian apples?

Vilcabamba. A great place to get lost. Next time we will definitely take that first left.

And the Winner is...

First thing's first. We know that many of you are dying to know the answers to last week's questions about the words in the old Incan language of Quechua.  The correct answers are in bold.

1. Choose the correct meaning for wawa

a. one who is a baby
b. hungover
c. really cold 
d. none of the above
e. all of above
f. only a and c
g. only b and c       

2. Choose the correct meaning for achachay

a. one who is a baby

b. hungover

c. really cold 

d. none of the above

e. all of above

f. only a and c

g. only b and c       

3. Choose the correct meaning for chuchaki

a. one who is a baby

b. hungover

c. really cold 

d. none of the above

e. all of above

f. only a and c

g. only b and c       

Speaking of wawa's we could not escape them last weekend. Last weekend was the equivalent of the "Day of the Dead" here in Cuenca. People make bread in the shape of babies. Then they decorate, and eat them. We were bombarded by wawas. Friday featured wawas for the afternoon snack...

These guys were ecstatic about eating their wawas! Juan Carlos is in the front...he does not like to do his homework.

Last Friday we were thankful to experience our first symphony. It was incredible. Why was it incredible you ask? Well let me tell you why. First, it was free. Free is good. Second of all it featured fireworks and mariachis. How can you beat that? The piece featured was the 1812 Overture (if you follow the link you will recognize the part at minute 4 and other intermittent parts) by Tchaikovsky (I just looked his name up on the internet)...which we didn't know that we knew, but turns out we know...you know?

Awkwardly close and incredibly intense fireworks mid symphony!

Saturday we enjoyed the celebrations of Cuenca's independence day. Ecuador is not satisfied with just a one and done experience a la Fourth of July. No. They have independence days for nearly every major city. Imagine if we had a different independence day for New York, Philadelphia, and Boston? That is what it is like. So it was the perfect storm of celebrations. The "Day of the Dead" meets independence day. So big that Marc Anthony himself came down to sing a few songs to the good people of Cuenca (on a side note, the ineffable Bieber was in Quito last week...we so wanted to go but just could not justify the tickets...but who knows...maybe another time we will make it...never say never). During our wanderings of the celebrations we encountered some paintings by our salsa teacher Francisco (he teaches us the same steps every week and every week we promptly forget them...he is very patient) who as it turns out, is quite the artist.

Sunday we had a great day which featured many competitions and many "wawas de pan". We have been going to a small church here in Cuenca. The church features a few different families, some American and some Ecuadorian. After another englightening sermon in Spanish from pastor Michael, the competitions began. Which kid could memorize the 23rd Psalm the best? Which mother knew her family's love language the best? And lastly, and most importantly, which family could decorate the best "wawas" (the winners of each competition received gold medals). The last competition involved multiple counts and recounts...and unlike the good folks who do not live in swing states, our vote counted! 

Last place. Sorry guys. 

Suit and tie for the man and a dress for the woman. Second to last.

4th place.

A ninja "wawa de pan". 3rd place. Their children did not vote for them. Michael is the pastor of the church. 

2nd place.

These were the gold medal winners. 

Oh! One more thing. Last week we finally consumed cuy. Cuy is what we call guinea pig in the United States. 

Our cuy being prepared.

The conclusion of the matter? Cuy is good, not great. The legs taste better than the other parts. Brigitte sampled an ear, which was in her words, "crunchy." It was almost like the dark meat of chicken with a muskier taste. When it comes to Ecuadorian food, at this point, we still prefer salchipapas...

Translation...salchipapas without shame, or shameless salchipapas. This poster is hanging in the room of our teacher.

One last note. We are thinking and praying today for our three year old nephew Simon who today is having a "little surgery to remove a Thyroglossal duct cyst in his neck, "a common anomaly" according to my sister-in-law Ginelle.

Simon is just another one of the guys!