THE ROADRUNNERS SAY ADIOS TO CUENCA

Full Circle
How do you pack after being away (and shopping) for 3 months?  Easy, you buy another piece of luggage.  Now we only have 2 suitcases each to haul, plus a carry on each.  I have rather large purse and John has the computer bag.  Whew!  We are already tired and we have yet to get it into the terminal.

After church today, we packed everything, walked a block (our street was closed off to traffic) carrying everything and hailed a taxi to the hi-rise condo of our friends from Center, Texas.  We are staying the night here.  They are south in the mountains building their 'get away' place.  Tomorrow morning we are meeting the apartment rental agent to check out by noon.  Out flight doesn't leave until 9:30 p.m. so we will go back to the condo and hang out and rest until time for a taxi to the airport.

We have spent the last 10 days walking around town, riding the buses, visiting and eating out with folks we have met here.  We still had a couple of restaurants we had heard good reports of and had not been to.

We have been so fortunate the last few days with good weather.

 

We had dinner last Wed. night at Roux with Mike and Lessie Frank who have just moved here from North Carolina.  He is originally from Brooklyn and she from another state.  They met when he was in the Navy.  Both attended ETBU in Marshall, Texas (small world).  Mike and Lessie are so much fun to be with.  We enjoyed the times we were able to spend with them.

 

Roux became one of our favorite places.  Mike and Abby met in culinary school in SC and very recently moved to Ecuador.  Their restaurant opened in August of this year.  Soooo delicious.

 

 

This is precious Abby.  She really took to John.  But then, who wouldn't?

 

 More Food

We had the pleasure of having lunch at our  pastor's home  Thursday.  The other couple is Greg and Brenda from Florida.  They are moving here in January.  He is with Campus Crusade.  They departed Cuenca this morning.  We had a delicious lunch, precious fellowship and great laughs.

 





Left:  Brenda & Greg
Right:  Sue & Gary Gaither

Dixie This is For You

This Sunday morning was a very special time for us.

 

 

Hey All, its me, ole' John Boy.  Just a few more photos as we bring our trip to a close. We love cooking as you know and when we find something good we go for it.  This is a dinner we made a few days ago.  We grilled fresh rainbow trout and Jean made fabulous stuffed mushrooms.



 

 

I sent you photos of the Guinea Pig lunch with the guys, so I must show you my Jean at the "Cuy" restaurant picking out her own little roaster on the grill.

It was really tasty again and Jean enjoyed it too.  Crispy and juicy.  She won't be eating it often but at least she tried it.  What a trooper.

 

They have a unique way here of handling rain water run off.  Instead of a solid gutter downspout they use "chains" to channel the water down the drain. Works very well and efficient.

One morning we were out for breakfast and heard these pipe songs and went out and discovered this Incan piper playing his different handmade flutes and dancing in full headdress.  We bought a CD of his music.  Very mellow and haunting.

While out and about you may run on to many things.  This shot below was one of them.

Remember this place "Where everyone knows your name"!

And of course we can all use a one stop shopping spot like this.  This small kiosk had rods, reels, lures, knives, shoes, watches, clothing, etc., etc.  What a find!

We really like the family attitude here and like to watch the many kids we see everywhere.  Here are a few shots from our jaunts on the bus and through the parks.

I don't know why we waited so long but Jean and I found a shop that does embroidery

and had these hats made to celebrate our adventure.  Since we started wearing them people have begun to recognize us.

And this is how we spend some of our afternoons.  Tough life but someone has to do it.

It is entering what can only be described here as "spring".  Everything is sprouting out and blooming.  There has been a profusion of what we believe are local Crepe Myrtles blooming out.  They are so thick and cover the tree so as to hide the leaves.

This is one of my favorite fountains in Cuenca.  We walk past it most every day and I stop and watch the water play over the Hummingbird.  Very peaceful.

 

Well this just about brings our time here to a close.  What a time we have had.  What great friends we have made.  What a wonderful experience this has been.

We are looking forward to gathering with all of our loved ones at home and sharing with each of you about our time here.

Our bags are all packed and tomorrow evening we will board our plane for our 9:30 pm flight home.  We ask for your prayers for safe travel.

We love you all and hope to see you soon.

 

 

We are the Cuenca Roadrunners signing out - see y'all in Texas.

 

 






 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God".  1 John 3:1







ONE MORE "LOOK BACK" AT FUN TIMES! FROM JOHN

Hey to all our Peep's out there.

Well, we are rolling on down to our last few days here.  Will be heading back out on the 30 th of September.  We have had a grand time here and it is all very alluring to us both.  We still have a long list of "to do's" here that we didn't get to.  But, that can wait til later.  Right now I need to catch you up on just some of the fun times we are having.

We have talked a lot about all the good food here many times.  We are probably boring you with it but I must tell you more.  We love our avocado's and have found some that are really, really good.
Take a look at these cuties.....

 

Never seen an avocado like this.  They call them "dedo" or, fingerling avocado's.  They have a small sliver of a seed.  Comes out really easiely.  They are very tasty and creamy and the skin just peels right off.  These are the best eating avocado's we've ever had.  We still buy the large ones to make up our guacamole which Jean has now perfected down here.

We also are enjoying the eggs here.  We buy ours at the local SuperMaxi but they are in all the little Mercado's all over just out in big baskets and you can buy as many or as few as you want.  The ones we get are in a perfect box of 15 eggs.  They are each washed and inspected and individually stamped with the date.  I don't know how they do this and package them and deliver them for the $2.00 we pay for them.  They are so very rich and the yellows are dark and very tasty and when you break the egg into the pan they just sit there and never run. Fantastic.

O:K, enough for now on eating. We do..do other things here.

Like taking a trip out to our friends Ed & Tresa's place down by La Paz.  As you may know, we met Ed & Tresa last Febuary on our first trip down.  They are from Center, TX and have been here about 4 years.  They have family in Tyler so we hit it off right away.  They own the apartment we are renting here and keep it available for family visits.  They have also bought acreage about an hour and a half south of Cuenca.  It is on the side of a mountain.  Pretty rough terrain bout they are building a small home by themselves from the ground up.  They have local water and electricity right by that they will eventually connect up to.  It is in the middle of nowhere but they love being out there. It will be like and adobe building when finished.  Ed is a very talented craftsman and wood worker so he is doing a nice job on their place.

Here are a few shots out at the "El Campo" as they call it.

They have literally carved this place out of the side of the mountain.  The views are breath taking and the weather is sublime.  We weren't there at night but Ed told us that you can see about a billion or so stars and they have tracked many constellations as they go thru their course.  A couple of months ago when we had the big "super moon" he was able to sit outside and read a book as if it were daylight.  They will spend most of their time out here when it is finished and go to the city maybe once a week.  They have some really good local Ecuadorian friends as neighbors.

Another couple we met in February had been dating for 5 years and they got married here and we were invited to the wedding.  David is from Florida and his wife, Chela, is from Cuenca.  He has been here for 7 years.  He's a journalist and still writes for the Miami Herald.  They are good friends of Ed & Tresa also.  Here's a few shots.

Yes, that's Ed & Tresa.  She's smaller than Jean, ha, ha.

 

David & Chela at the reception.





The bride and her court doing a traditional dance before the "throwing " of the bouquet.

 

This was a real treat for us.  They served us a three course, sit down dinner that you wouldn't believe and all kinds of little sweets and a big wedding cake.  They kept pouring as much wine as you wanted as long as you were there.  Wow, we were glad to be riding with Ed & Tresa.  The dancing started shortly after the dinner and was going when we left.  It was a noon wedding and the festivities started about 1:00 pm and we left about 6:00pm.  David picked the music for the first half and it was good ole' American oldies. Then they got into their Latin favorites and fast and sassy and this cute little Aunt of Chela's was teaching Jean the salsa as well as she could.  Jean kept looking down at her feet and Auntie would grab her chin and tell Jean to look at her and just "go with the beat".  You know Jean is short so see how tiny this precious woman was.  She was a hoot and could dance up a storm too!  We went home exhausted and happy to have been included.  And yes..I danced a lot also.

 

So, are you still with me??

Last week I was on my way to lunch to meet some guys from church and I came upon this ruins of a old "grist meal" dating back many years.  It was built in stages over time and different tribes.  This place was a central market for the outlying indigenous villages to bring their grains to be ground.  There are still remnants of the mill stones used to grind the grains.  Very well preserved.

This section dated back to 1507 AD when the early Canari's were the main tribes. Very interesting.

Oh, about our "guy lunch".  They have here a delicacy known as "Cuy".  In English this means.....
"Guinea Pig".  Yes, you read it right.  Some of us guys were wanting to try it out and none of the girls wanted to go. So, we met up at the best Cuy house in town for the treat.  And I mean it is a treat you don't do very often because it cost $ 22.00 USD for each Cuy.  Of course with side dishes also.
Get a load of this..

   Aren't these the cutest little things you've ever seen!

Some of the guys opted for more conventional plates as is shown.

More food than you can possibly eat at one sitting, wow.

I had the cuy and some side dishes and I can tell you it is very, very good.  It is basically fresh roasted "pork" tasting with just a tiny hint of wild game.  The skin is crispy crunchy and is exactly like pork skins. The meat is succulent, juicy and not greasy.  I loved it and have talked Jean into going back for one more B-4 we leave.  Wonderful dish just a little pricey.  What a find. Hey, don't we raise guinea pigs in east Texas???  I have a plan.............

 

 

Everywhere we go here there are many green areas all along the rivers and the parks.  They are always expertly cut, pruned and manicured.  Picture perfect.  I got to thinking about this and I never saw a lawn mower one anywhere.  We have been to all the major large stores and they don't even sell lawn mowers.  How do they do such a great job?  Well, here ya go...



 

Yes, they weed eat everything and it looks like a carpet when they finish.  They rake up every last blade of grass and bag it up and take it off.  Also prune all the bushes and plants.  These are roving work groups that continually go around town cleaning up the parks and green areas.  They never stop this. And being that everything grows year round here they have what you call the best job security you can get.  They just retire young cause they are woren out after a few years.  You will see them from their teen's to their 60's. What a great "work ethic" they seem to have here.

 

 

Well, we just got this photo from from Dixie with a note saying, "Where the heck are you two and when the heck are you coming home".  She also said we "owe" her big time when we get home.  She really knows how to work mama Jean for all she's worth, ha, ha.

 

We hope to get to see a few more things before we leave like the Ingapirca Ruins which are the biggest in Ecuador.  They are to Ecuador what Machu Pichu ruins are to Peru.  Not too far from Cuenca so maybe we will make it.

 

We are close to coming home and getting together again.  We continue to miss each of y'all and we do love you very, very much.  We still covet your prayers for us and ask you to keep our new church here in your prayers.  It is really beginning to grow now. Pray for Cuenca Christian Church.

 

Ephesians, 3:16-17 ~I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power thru His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

 

Many, many blessings to all,

John & Jean