Today started off with routine. Breakfast at home, followed by taking laundry 3 blocks to our favorite Laundromat. We then walked a few blocks to make reservations for a van to take us to Guayaquil on Friday (first stop on our trip to Salinas). The van took a couple of stops, since the first couple wanted way too much money. Finally found one we felt would work out… through lots of broken Spanish and sign language, since nobody there speaks English, and our Spanish is still pretty basic.
We were pretty close to Mercado Arenal, so we visited it again. Pauline almost wore our her “oh… ah… how cute!” vocals as we passed stalls with puppies, kittens, bunnies, and all things cute to oohh over…
We did a double-take when we came across a food vendor that seemed to have a child in a cage for sale…!
After deciding this was a cheap baby-sitting arrangement rather than a kid-for-sale, we moved onto the seafood section. If these fish were on ice, I would be very tempted. As is, I think I will have to pass though. Nice photographs, but nothing I would want to take home and cook…
Moving on to the meat section, we again found chicken and beef sitting on a counter for hours without refrigeration, and thus no candidate for my personal fridge at home. Next was the series of counters with cooked pigs. And yes, I mean a whole roasted pig for display, much of which was already cut away as it was eaten. One woman was handing out free samples, and she won us over. We ordered a plate of delicious pig… I mean pork…
There were several woman and pigs in a row. Pauline said she thought they were working together. I told her no, that this was strictly One Woman, One Pig.
We then grabbed a taxi to the airport, so we could pick up Pauline’s lost luggage. NOT!
We found the LAN office closed. Next we went to the LAN gate, where we were told that the flight we had been told the luggage would be on did not even fly today. Nobody will know anything until the office opens… at 5PM. Huh??? On Wednesdays, there is only one flight from Quito to Cuenca, and it arrives at 8PM, and so the luggage department does not open until 5PM.
After scratching our heads a bit on that, we decided to head to the Panama Hat factory just down the road from the airport. We had to wait until they returned from lunch at 2:30, but then had a rather interesting tour.
There was an amazing variety of straw Panama Hats made here. Pauline and Evelyn both try on berets, then a saleswoman talks to Pauline about the hat she eventually does buy.
We then decided to head over to Eucalyptus for dinner, since this was one of our favorite high-end restaurants we wanted to show Pauline. Wednesday is ladies night, and both women got two free drinks each. I won’t go into how much fun it was to be with two slightly intoxicated women… 🙂
We shared two dishes (Sea Bass with mashed potatoes, and Pad Thai) plus a glass of Merlot for myself. The whole bill came to $20. Hard to eat at home when we can get meals like this at top-notch restaurants for these prices!
After dinner, we called LAN again, for Pauline’s luggage. A storm had come thorugh the area, and it had been raining for a couple hours. The flight was Quito was delayed, and wouldn’t arrive until sometime after 9PM.. but the LAN offices close at 9PM. Sorry… we will try again tomorrow…
We ain’t in Kansas any more… 🙂