We were invited to a day in the country by a Peruvian family now living in Cuenca.  Alberto Soriano is a well known Peruvian artist that Evelyn took painting classes from on our first trip here in 2012. He speaks almost no English, which means we get to practice our Spanish when talking to him.  Maite, his wife, is also an excellent artist and speaks English well, so she often steps in as an interpreter when we (frequently) get stuck.

While they were painting, a group of four children gathered around. Evelyn often has young kids gravitate to her, but today Maite became the center of their attention — likely because of her ability to speak to them in Spanish. The oldest girl also liked to draw, and very studiously drew her youngest sister’s face.  She then told Maite, “we have decided that I will be Evelyn and my [next oldest] sister will be Maite” — adoption was now complete! ☺

While the three of them were painting, I went off to experiment with some photo techniques.  I started with seeing how well my ring flash would work on field macro shots, and went in search of insects.  I was surprised to see many flies apparently pollinating the plants.  In fact, I only saw two bees and at least 100 flies.  When I returned home, I used Google (a favorite friend of mine recently!) and discovered that flies are common pollinators at higher altitudes.  Since we were at 8400 feet, it appears to be normal here.

I also attempted a new technique I had read about recently — daytime stacking of photos for a dramatic image.  Unfortunately, this works best with a colorful sky and a few fast moving clouds.  Today was completely overcast and uniformly grey.  As a result, I was able to test the technique, but none of the resulting images were worth keeping.

After a few hours of painting and photographing, Alberto and Maite invited us to their home for lunch. They put my best kitchen efforts to shame with freshly made ceviche, spinach soup (unusual and delicious!), and spaghetti with shrimp sauce.  I picked up a few tricks just watching them cook, and the meal was better than almost any restaurant could have presented.

Three other friends of theirs joined us, along with their two children, and the table was flowing with fast Spanish for the next several hours.  I was able to keep up when they spoke slowly and one at a time, but when the conversation ran faster with multiple people speaking, I became completely lost.  At that point, Maite probably saw the glaze over my eyes and jumped in to translate just enough phrases to keep me almost in the loop…

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday.  We have now been invited to spend a few days with them in Peru at some time in the future too, so the adventure continues!