Now that we have been in Cuenca for two years, we are going on a Random Walk of thoughts about living here.  Part 1 of this walk was posted yesterday.  We’ll open today with a collection of mosaics on walls around Cuenca, shown above.

Perhaps one of the largest changes for us in coming to Cuenca is our social calendar.  I rarely mention this in our blog, because I don’t want to put guests on the spot, and doubt you are interested in who was over for dinner last night.  In California though, we would have guests over for dinner maybe 3 or 4 times per year.  Last week, we were with guests 5 times in 4 days (one lunch and four dinners) within a single week.  Though that was a particularly busy week, we have had guests over 97 times in the two years we have been here (yep, I keep a list, with what we serve, so we don’t cook the same meal if they come multiple times ☺).

I had expected to get more involved with volunteer activities once I retired. We have done some, but so far only photographically, providing publicity photos for the Alliance Francais Music Festival, CinterAndes, Madre Tierra Festival, and the Cuenca Art Walk.  We have recently agreed to start working with a local orphanage as a guest chef, and we will see how that goes.

Which brings up the next big change.  I started cooking in 2002, when Pauline (Evelyn’s sister) jokingly gave me The Four Ingredient Cookbook. After Evelyn had done all the cooking for 30 years, it seemed fair for me to start that chore.  Though I found I was reasonably good at cooking, it was just that — a chore.  Now that we are retired in Cuenca, it has become more of a passion.  I now try at least one new recipe each week. Not all are winners, but a surprisingly large percentage are quite good and are then made multiple times.  I have posted a few of our favorites in my blog over the past couple years.

Perhaps the largest surprise is that I have not really done very much with photography since arriving here, other than for posting in this blog.  Without the constant high level competition of the Berkeley Camera Club, I find I have little motivation to do highly creative photography anymore.  There is a camera club in Cuenca, but their quality is nowhere near the level of the BCC, and they generally don’t like Photoshop, which is used heavily in all my creative efforts.

Our Spanish is definitely improving, though much slower than we would like.  We both take classes each week. We can now hold basic conversations with taxi drivers, or with our few Cuencanan friends that do not speak English.  It will be a long time, if ever, before we can have a free flowing rapid discussion in any language other than English though.  Fortunately, there are a lot of expats in Cuenca, and we meet new friends every month.  A few are also leaving.  One couple moved to Ireland earlier this year, and another friend is moving to Portugal soon. A couple others have returned to the States.

Which brings us to our travel.  When we were working, we traveled a lot, but always 3 weeks then rush back to work, and only once per year.  Now we are free to spend more time when we wish, and to travel more than once a year.  In the two years here, we have made separate trips to California, Florida, Peru, Manhattan and New Jersey, Iceland, Argentina, and throughout much of Ecuador.  We have been partially constrained by Ecuadorian immigration law for our first two years of our resident visa. In January, when our visa 2nd anniversary occurs, we will be allowed to be out of the country for longer periods.  We already have plans for trips to Colombia, Turkey and Europe in the coming year.

I can’t very well talk about our experience in Cuenca without mentioning our apartment.  We are in probably the best part of town, on the Southern edge of the Old Town, known as El Centro, in a spacious 4 bedroom penthouse.  We estimate there are roughly 30 restaurants within a two block radius (a future blog will actually count and report on them), many of which are quite excellent. We are only three blocks from the main square (Parque Calderon), half a block from the Jazz Society, four blocks to the local mercado (where I buy enough fresh fruits and veggies to fill two large bags each week for about $6), six blocks to SuperMaxi (where I get milk, meat and other items weekly), etc.  No need for a car, when the bus costs 12 cents or a taxi costs $1.50 anywhere in town.

We did have a frustrating period earlier this year when our elevator broke down.  After much negotiation and payment up front, we finally got it working again… after three months of needing to take the 5 flights of stairs to get to our penthouse apartment.  We were thankful the building was not higher for that three months…!  Our internet connection is also maddeningly slow. Even though we pay for 10 Mbps, there are days when it is only 30 Kbps — slower than the dial-up lines we used 30 years ago.  We have been told that fiber optic cable is supposed to be laid to our building, but it was to be here last February, and it is still not available.  Neighboring streets have gotten it in recent months though, so we still have hope.

I could keep going with more random thoughts about living here, but I think this post is already getting too long.  For summary, we are quite happy here — more so than either of us really expected to be.  We may not live here forever, but for now, this is home, and we like it that way.

Today marks the two year anniversary of when we first moved to Ecuador.  We had visited Ecuador four times prior, and Cuenca specifically twice, but Oct 23, 2013 was the date we arrived with the intention of staying as residents.  Many people since then have asked if we expect this to be our last move.  My answer has always been the same — we did not move here to die. This is just the “next adventure” in our life, and it seemed like a good way to kick off retirement.  Some day we may find another place that calls to us, and we will move again.  It might be Europe, or another South American country, or even someplace back in the US. We do not have any long term plans, and that is exactly how we like it at this stage.  That being said, we moved to Berkeley, Calif in 1988 with the expectation of living there three to five years.  We did finally move — 26 years later, when we retired and came to Ecuador.  Who knows? We might be in Cuenca for the next 26 years too! ☺

I thought I would wind up our second year with a collection of mural photos from around Cuenca.  I will also go on another “random walk” of ideas and thoughts about living here.  I haven’t done that in quite a long time.  The following is no particular order. It is largely “train of thought,” and if you think my train gets derailed sometimes, well, that in itself may say something about learning to live and love a South American city…  [Note: It turned out my Random Walk got a bit long, so I have broken it into two posts.]

First up. We had an earthquake last week. Woke both of us up at 5:10AM. We laid in bed feeling the building sway… then stop… then start to sway again.  Lasted a total of roughly 8 seconds. Felt like the building would fall over.  When it was done, we discovered it was a 5.6 quake centered about 50 miles from us.  No damage anywhere in the city.  I am surprised and impressed that a city built well over 100 years ago holds up so well to shakes like this.  Coming from California, I have been in several big shakes, but this felt as bad as anything I ever experienced there, and the damage was no worse (or even better) than in California.  I think Cuenca was just trying to make feel at home…

Second, politics.  I have heard lots of comments from those still in the States, wondering if Ecuador is about to explode with political turmoil, or implode with economic collapse.  Yes, there have been a few political protests lately, but nothing as violent as many in the States in recent month. And no mass killings here…  There are many challenges facing Ecuador — falling oil prices, two volcanoes likely to blow soon, el Nino looking like it may hit our coast with a bulls-eye.  I could write an entire post on the politics and economics of Ecuador, but the short story is that they will likely survive.  And if they do collapse under the Perfect Storm of problems?  We can easily pick up and move to our next adventure somewhere else.  In other words, I don’t spend a lot of time or anguish worrying about it.

Before I get off that topic though, President Correa is immensely popular in this country, and for good reason.  After 12 presidents in 15 years, including two that only lasted three days we finally have stability here.  Unlike other South American (and elsewhere) heads of state, Correa spent the money on improving schools, roads, social security, and improving the lives of the people here.  I can shake my head at some of the seemingly stupid things he says, or his occasional paranoia, but there is no denying that he has improved the country dramatically in his tenure, and there is nobody else obvious to take up the reins and continue his progress.

Back to what makes Cuenca and Ecuador special. Celebrations. Always. These are people that will celebrate almost anything at the drop of a hat. Starting next weekend, we will be celebrating Cuenca independence. After a two day battle, Cuenca became independent on November 3, 1820.  Though the battle only lasted two days, the celebration will go on for five days!  You can see an agenda listing more than 300 events over that weekend by downloading here.  With links to my blog posts from prior years, in the next couple months, we will have Dia de los Muertos, a massive Christmas parade, a very unique take on New Year’s Eve, Fiesta de los Inocentes, and of course, Carnaval.  That doesn’t even count the numerous parades and fireworks that are unannounced pretty much every week.  It is a rare week that we cannot see fireworks from our apartment windows.

And then there are frequent music activities.  The Jazz Society is less than a block away, where you can have a decent Italian meal while listening to jazz four nights a week. The music is free, though they ask for a $5 donation, to pay the musicians and provide musical training to students.  The Cuenca symphony plays roughly a dozen times per year, in various concert halls and churches around town, and is always totally free.

Tune in tomorrow for more of a rapid-fire conclusion to this Random Walk around Cuenca.