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41 Años!

(en English = 41 Years!)

Today was our 41st anniversary.  Hard to believe, but it was 41 years ago today that we skied between those ski patrol poles to the flash of the newspaper camera, and said “I do” over The French Way of Skiing at Kirkwood Meadows. (I posted details on the wedding on our 40th anniversary blog posting last year — you can read more here, along with photos).

Last year we tried to have our anniversary dinner at Casa Alonso in the Mansion Alcazar hotel, but were unable to, due to a private party taking up the restaurant.  We went back this year, and were able to get in. This is one of those rarified luxury restaurants, with luxury pricing that means we only come here for special occasions.

The meals tasted better than these low-light pocket camera photos do justice too I’m afraid.  Evelyn’s lomo fino above (basically steak) was tasty, but honestly not as tender as Tiestros — the current reigning champion in Cuenca lomo fino.  My shrimp encrusted corvina (sea bass) in the lower image was truly excellent.

The earlier part of the day was spent with physical therapists, a repairman coming to look at our brand new stove that broke the first day we used it (post later — when it is hopefully fixed), and other routines of living in South America.

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Let The Baking Begin!

We bought a condo earlier this year, and moved into it in October. We have loved the unit and its location, and one of the advantages was that it came fully furnished.  The prior owners were returning to England after decades in South America and left us everything. Most of the stuff they left is quite good, and has made us realize we brought too many things from California.  However, the oven has been an exception.

 

Original Indura oven

This was an Indura oven — an Ecuadorian brand that is ubiquitous here. Unfortunately, the main reason it is so common is because it is so cheap — in all senses of the word… It requires pressing a starter button for one full minute to get it lit. (That is no exaggeration — release the button in less than a minute and the fire goes out)  And when was the last time you saw an oven with no temperature controls?

Indura oven controls

Look closely at that photo above.  The far left dial is a timer.  It doesn’t actually control the oven at all. It is simply an old fashioned “turn all the way to the right, then back to the time you want — it will buzz when the time has counted down from there” rotary kitchen timer.  The button on the far right is a fan control (for convection heating), and a starter (hold down for a minute, as mentioned above).  The middle button is ‘off’ if up, ‘broiler/grill’ if to the right, and ‘bake’ if to the left.  No way to set or control the temperature. It is on or it is off. Period.

We know people who use this exact type of oven to make pizza or bread, or other baked items.  We found it took more than twice as long to bake as our California oven, and with no temp controls, it was too hard to tell what was going on.

Doing some research, we discovered there is a General Electric store about six blocks away.  Evelyn went over there yesterday, saw an oven she liked, and bought it.

GE oven fits in same cabinet slot as the Indura

They promised to bring and install it this afternoon, and they arrived right on time. Remember when I said the store was six blocks away?  The installer said there nobody was in the store to help him, so he carried the oven the entire way (with a hand-truck, of course) on foot, from the store.  The box was too big to fit into our elevator, so he then carried it up five flights of stairs too.  Somehow I can’t see any installer from Home Depot in California going to such lengths — he would have just decided he couldn’t get it to us and not shown up…  We continue to be impressed with the quality and fortitude of Ecuadorians.

  

The GE oven has temperature controls!

After he was done installing it, he went over the controls in detail with us.  It was particularly helpful that he spoke English, so we could ask more detailed questions and get answers we fully understood.  With this oven, we dial in the temperature we want, then press start.  The digital LED shows the current temperature of the oven, so we know just when it has reached full temp.  No need for an extra internal oven thermometer (which is what most people use for their Indura ovens).  There is even a meat probe that can be used, and the front indicator will then give a constant readout of the meat’s internal temperature.

It also has lots of controls for broil, convection bake, normal bake, defrost (I’ve never seen that on an oven before), steam clean (another new one to me), programmed start, etc.

Let the baking begin!

PS: Part of the agreement in buying this, was that the installer would cart our old Indura oven away.  True to their word, he put it on his had cart and took it down the five flights of stairs.  Edison (our building security guard) happened to see him about to leave the building and asked if he could have the oven.  We would always rather have someone use an item, and that saved the installer from having to carry it back to the store, so we agreed.  Edison was last seen reading over the instruction manual (which the people who sold us the condo were smart enough to keep and leave) and seeming quite happy to get a free oven. ☺

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Joys of Ecuadorian Internet

Last year when we were in Cuenca for three months, we had multiple times when our Internet access disappeared — sometimes for a few hours and twice for multiple days.  Once we had control over our own condo this time, we chose to connect two different Internet providers.  We now have both ETAPA and PuntaNet.  If one goes down, we just switch to the other for the interim.  ETAPA is the faster connection, and therefore the one we use by default.

ETAPA waiting room to resolve technical issues

Two days ago ETAPA Internet went down.  We switched to the slower PuntaNet and kept working.  After two days, ETAPA was still offline though, so i figured I better talk to the company about it.

I have read several blogs where people had trouble with ETAPA. They all had one common element — they advised going to the office and not trying to handle the issue on the telephone.  Since my Spanish is not really up to any complex telephone conversation anyway, I decided to go to the ETAPA office and see what could be done to fix the problem.

I did a Google search for the ETAPA office, and found it was about 3 blocks from our condo — right next to Parque Calderon.  I walked over there, and had a conversation (in Spanish) trying to explain my problem. She finally told me I was in the wrong office, and had to go to another one about six more blocks away — on Tarque y Gran Columbia.

I therefore walked there, stopping along the way at a roasted chicken place to get a great chicken lunch (chicken, fries and coke for $4.00).  When I reached the ETAPA office, I was herded to an information desk.  Again, I tried in Spanish to explain my problem.  I was given a ticket number (140) and told to go sit in the waiting area.  Ticket 129 was being served, but with six agents, I figured it wouldn’t take too long.

Unfortunately, I had gotten there at 12:45, after taking my lunch break.  Promptly at 1:00, five of those six agents got up and left.  There was now only one agent handling the 13 people in the waiting room, and the ‘serving’ sign was only up to 130.  There was a lot of grumbling in the room when this happened, so it was clear I was not the only person dismayed to suddenly have a much longer wait.

At 2:00, one more agent returned, and she pressed the button to bring up #140 — me.  I sat down and first asked “habla English?”, figuring this would be a lot easier (for me) in English.  She said ‘no’, but talked to the other agent and told me to go there instead.  That agent said she spoke “a small English.”

It took 10 minutes to get her to understand that the Internet account was in Evelyn’s name and not mine.  She kept asking for my passport, and then saying there was no account.  I kept saying “es en nombre de mi esposa” (is in my wife’s name).  Finally I wrote down Evelyn’s full name and passport number and passed it to her.  That was the breakthrough I should have done first, because she then found the account.

She then said (in pretty good English) — “you have no Internet because you did not pay. You owe us for two months.”

Huh??  We had set it up for automatic payment via credit card. She could not understand my English at that point, so I finally slowed down, thought a bit, and said “quiero pago automáticamente con American Express” (I want to pay automatically with American Express).  I was rather proud when she clearly understood me — though she said I first had to pay the existing bill today by standing in another line…

ETAPA waiting line to pay outstanding bills

After waiting for more than an hour to be told I owed money, I now faced an even longer line to pay the outstanding bill ($100 for two months).  After a brief expression of dismay, she said that was my only choice if I want to get Internet activated again.  It seems that most Ecuadorian offices and banks model themselves after the California DMV…  ☺

After that was taken care of, I was told that Evelyn had to come back (I am not allowed to do it because the account is in her name) with a form filled out, along with a copy of her passport (or cedula, if we had that yet).  She gets to enjoy the office lines next week…

On the bright side, by the time I had returned home, our ETAPA Internet service was back on line.

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Business Card Printing and Spanish Presentation

I finally got around to creating a new business card with my Ecuadorian information on it this week.  I asked for recommendations from a couple of local people, and they directed me to a small print shop about 2 blocks from our condo.  I went in with a Photoshop version and a JPG version of the card seen above.  200 cards cost me $20, and I could pick them up 24 hours after I placed the order.

I got them today.  The photo is pretty washed out, and the card cutting is ragged.  i designed it with plenty of bleed, so the photo would go to the edges, yet many of the cards show slivers of a white edge.

All in all, not very professional, and not something I would accept for a true business card in the states, but I guess it will work as a personal calling card, for those numerous times we meet new people who ask for our phone number, or email, or the url of my blog or gallery.  In other words, good enough for now, but I will use a different printer next time…

Last year we learned about El Pase del Nino Viajero, which is a parade that carries a small statue of Jesus from church to church each week.  There is also a major such parade on Christmas Eve, where an estimated 50,000 people participate (out of a city population of 400,000).  We had been trying to get more information on the smaller weekly parades, with only marginal success.  We heard of a presentation being given tonight on that very topic, so we decided to go.l 

The presentation was in the “Old Cathedral” on Parque Calderon.  That church was replaced with the “New Cathedral” across the other side of the park. Fancy names, don’t you think? ☺

We picked up a program booklet when we walked in.  As we had kinda expected, it was all in Spanish.  Indeed, we were the only gringos in the room.  I read through the booklet, and was pleasantly surprised that I could understand most of what was being said.  Unfortunately, the book only referenced the weekly parades in passing.  The entire content of the book was referring to the big Christmas Eve parade.  About 2/3 of the book was photographs, and I found it interesting that I recognized every scene, and have photos of them myself from last year.

Once the speakers began, things went downhill fast.  They spoke in a monotone, while reading from a fully written prepared speech.  If I understood it, I am sure I would have fallen asleep.  As it is, our language skills are not up to being able to understand conversational spoken Spanish, so our only clue of the content was the knowledge that it probably related to the parade.

We left after the first speaker…

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Rockets, Dancing, Waffles and Birds

Before we get into today’s adventures, I thought I would give a quick rundown of the progress of my broken ankle.  I have been free of any crutches or cane for three weeks now, and can walk unassisted.  Progress the first couple weeks was so fast that I thought I would be walking fully normally again by Christmas.  Unfortunately, last week saw some setback as my ankle becomes very painful after walking only one or two kilometers.  My physical therapist told me Friday that the metal plate in my ankle will take a long time to gain flexibility, and that I should expect full recovery to take roughly three months — and that is if I keep up the exercises and pushing it daily.

So the bottom line is that I can walk normally for short distances now, but it will likely be February before I can walk 10 to 20 kilometers a day without extreme pain again.  At this point, I am glad to be rid of crutches and cane, and am walking each day until the pain forces me home.  Looking forward to February and complete freedom…

Park Madre had a mini music festival today

We woke up this morning to a steady stream of rockets blasting a few blocks away.  We couldn’t see where they were being fired, because it was on the blind side of our condo (no windows).  We decided to try a new Sunday brunch location we had heard about through Trip Advisor, and to start out by finding the source of the rockets. They are the usual way of drawing attention to various festivities in town.

Within a couple blocks, we could start to hear music.  A couple more blocks and we were at the Parque Madre — the newly renovated public park that opened earlier this summer.  Sure enough, this was the source of the rockets being fired every few minutes.  As we arrived, there was a young band playing, with the singer not more than maybe 12 years old.  The singing was such that only a parent could love…☺  The crowd was fairly small, and did seem to be mostly comprised of friends and family.

There were also about a dozen young people probably aged roughly 6 to maybe 18 dressed in what appeared to be African garb, with festive African inspired paint.  They were from Esmeraldas — a city in the far NorthWest corner of Ecuador, and were prancing around the square and posing for anyone with a camera.  After the boy band was done, they took center stage.

Esmeraldas dancers put on an enjoyable show

We watched a rather entertaining series of afro-ecuatoriana dances that lasted roughly 20 minutes, then started walking towards our chosen brunch location.  The top Trip Advisor Cuenca restaurant was Waffles de Belgica, listed as being next to the bird park of Parque Pumapungo.  We went to that park last year and didn’t remember any restaurant of that type there, so were curious to check it out.

Delicious Strawberry (or Banana or Ice Cream) waffle breakfast for $2.00

We walked all the way to the very end of 3 de Novembre and found an entrance to the park (last year we had entered from the other side of the park).  Just inside the park entrance was a tiny stand with 4 bar stools and outside bench seating for another 8 people.  A chalkboard gave the entire menu, which basically was waffles with your choice of topping, and a possible side of orange juice or coffee.  While our waffles were cooking, we talked a bit with Jan.  He informed us that he is from Belgium, came to Cuenca about a year ago, and just opened this restaurant (probably better to call it a “waffle stand”) about six months ago — that explains why we didn’t see it there last year.

The waffles were cooked to perfection, were light and delicious.  Two waffles for the two of us set us back a grand total of $4.00.  Gotta love Cuenca! ☺

The “bird park” consists mostly of one round building with half a dozen cages

After brunch, we walked the 40 feet or so to the bird enclosures. A circuit of the single building does not take long. The collection of South American birds is small, and probably doesn’t warrant a special trip, but is a nice stroll when already here for the waffles or the adjacent museum.

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Random Walk Through Cuenca #3 (Dec 2013)

View through our condo living room window

Last year I wrote a “Random Walk Through Cuenca” post after about a month here, and another one a couple weeks later.  These were collections of random thoughts I had about Cuenca that did not warrant a blog post unto themselves, but were things I wanted to pass on.  The time has come to present another such set of thoughts.  These are in no particular order, but are the results of little notes I have jotted to myself in the past couple weeks.

Burt – It seems that my name is very hard for locals to say.  They always seem to stumble over it, just as I do with many Spanish words.  Evelyn has started calling herself Evelina for that same reason.  I haven’t come up with a good alternative for my name yet.  Any suggestions out there?

Garbage – There are no garbage cans in Cuenca.  People put their garbage into plastic bags — often the bags given at grocery stores or mercados, and place them on the curb after 6:00PM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Garbage trucks then come by late at night and pick them up.  The truck drives slowly but continuously, while three or four men dash to the curb grabbing the bags and throwing them in the back of the truck.  Other than having to walk around all the bags for a few hours on those nights, it is quite effective, and surprisingly quiet.  No garbage cans to bang around…

Push Every Button – Dishwashers, clothes washers, clothes dryers and the like all seem to follow some obscure logic that is foreign to us.  We have managed to get each one working, and now even know which buttons to push to do so.  Our first encounter with each was a “push every button until something happens” approach though.☺

Internet – The internet in Cuenca is nowhere near the Berkeley standards I have come to expect. The fastest connection I can get here is about 1/10 what we had in Berkeley (3Mb down vs 30Mb). Also, in the six weeks we have been here, our primary internet has gone down twice.  For that reason, we have two different ISP connections.  When one goes down, we switch to the other (slower) connection.  On the other hand, internet here is much cheaper than in Berkeley, and my two ISPs cost me less than the one I had before.

VPN – We have found it necessary to install a VPN so that we can spoof our location.  All the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) block their web access outside the US, as does Amazon Prime.  By adding a hardware VPN router, we can now appear that we are in the US and access those broadcasts again.

Taxi – There is no need to own a car in Cuenca. I can flag a taxi directly outside my condo door in less than a minute during the day.  At night, I have to walk half a block to flag one down — again usually in less than a minute.  I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes anywhere in town. They are everywhere, and it only costs $2.00 to go pretty much anywhere in town ($3.00 if really going from one edge to the extreme other edge).

Bus – Busses are almost as easy to catch, and only cost 25 cents to go anywhere in the city (12.5 cents via electronic pass once you turn 65).  The only trick with busses is figuring out where they go, as the maps are not very helpful.  What I did was stand on our corner for 15 minutes and noted every bus number that I saw.  Now, whenever I am elsewhere in town, I just wait for one of those busses to come by.  So far I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a bus either, though I think I have just been lucky so far.  They run every 10 to 15 minutes.

Every Man For Himself – Driving here is aggressive in the extreme.  It is “every man for himself” and it is rare to see a driver allow another person to cross, even if the driver can make zero progress himself for that duration. Stop signs are mostly ignored, with drivers (especially taxis) just barreling through.  Stop lights are a bit more honored, but I have been in taxis that just ignored red lights too.  Good thing there is no need to own a car here!

Smoking – Surprisingly (at least to me), smoking is very rare here.  Most days I will wander the city and eat in a couple restaurants (lunch and dinner) and see nobody smoking all day.  When I do see someone smoking, it is almost always a high school kid.  Hopefully they will outgrow the habit and stop like everyone else in the city seems to have done…

I have more notes, but I think this is already a long enough blog post.  I will continue to gather random thoughts, and will probably have another Random Walk in the future.

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Medical Care in Cuenca

Two physical therapists that are helping me walk again

I had not originally expected to have such an immediate interaction with the medical care capabilities of Cuenca.  After breaking my ankle the day before being scheduled to fly here, I found myself needing their care immediately upon arriving.  We had heard several stories about how good the medical care was here, but I must admit, I was a bit worried about having to really go out and try it myself.

Better, Faster and Cheaper

In software development (and probably in other fields), there is a very old saying: “You can have it better, faster, cheaper — pick any two.”  Well, I found that in Ecuador, you can get all three!

When I arrived in Cuenca five weeks ago, I called to make an appointment with a GP (General Practitioner doctor) that I had heard of from other gringos. To my surprise, I was able to get in that very afternoon, only a few hours after my call.  I have already told most of the story of that appointment, so I won’t go into the details again here, other than than to note that the full cost of the doctor visit was about the same as my copay with Kaiser back in California.  (See the original blog post here).

A month later I went to an orthopedic surgeon, who told me I could now put full weight on my foot and no longer needed crutches. Again, I already wrote about that visit, which you can read here.

The next day I started physical therapy.  I had physical therapy on a couple occasions in California under Kaiser.  Each visit there cost me $20 co-pay, with each visit lasting 15 to 30 minutes, and consisting solely of the therapist giving me a set of exercises to do at home.  There was almost never any hands-on treatment in those sessions.

Here in Cuenca, it is a different story.  The visits still cost me $20, but that is the full cost of the treatment, since we have no insurance here in Ecuador.  Each visit lasts 60 to 90 minutes, and is comprised completely of hands-on therapy.  The session always starts with an ultrasound treatment for 10 minutes, followed by electro-shock and heat therapy for another 10 minutes.  Then the therapist goes to work on my foot and leg.

The main therapist that I work with has limited English.  I thought that might be a problem at first, but quickly realized that by just adding a few targeted Spanish vocabulary words, I could communicate quite well.  The last few days has had an intern do most of the work with me, and he speaks no English at all.  Again, I have found that to be an advantage, as it is helping me push my Spanish learning a bit faster.

The therapist pushes and pulls and presses with make it hurt like a sun-of-a-gun. As I got stronger over the course of a week, they started having me spend the last 20 minutes on balance exercises — I have a hard time balancing on a ball in the best of times, but this hurts with a healing ankle!

The progess has been remarkable.  Nine days ago, I was on crutches.  When released from those, I was told to use a cane for two weeks, yet I was able to abandon the cane after only 3 days.  When I abandoned the cane, I could walk two or three blocks before my foot hurt too much.  Now, one week later, I can walk two or three kilometers before my limp sets in again.  At this pace, I expect to be able to walk 10 kilometers by the end of next week.

 

  1. The physical therapy here is better than I ever got in California under Kaiser.
  2. I can get an appointment the same day for a new doctor here, and sometimes within a couple hours.  In California, I was lucky if I got an appointment in two weeks.
  3. My cost per visit here is the same as I used to pay for the co-pay in California, but there is no insurance premium to pay.  As such, this is cheaper than in California.

 

One more reason to fall in love with Cuenca! ☺

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Gourmet Ghetto in Cuenca

One of the primary requirements we had for any retirement location was that it be “walkable.” In searching cities, we found that word had very different meanings in different places.  Many US locations that we considered, talked about being “walkable neighborhoods,” when what they meant was “you can walk to a strip mall not too far away and get a Taco Bell lunch.”  Not really what we had in mind…

When we visited Cuenca for three months last year, we were impressed by how close everything is.  Within half an hour’s walk (from our apartment on the Tomebamba river), you could get almost anywhere in the central part of town, including dozens of good restaurants.  We had decided on living in a roughly circular area maybe a kilometer in radius, from behind the University of Cuenca into the Southern half of El Centro.  The condo we purchased is on that Southern end of El Centro, and we really hit the jackpot!

Berkeley, California (where we lived for the last 25 years) has an area known as the “gourmet ghetto.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourmet_Ghetto) This area is renown for the number of excellent eating establishments in a small area.

They are chump change when compared to Cuenca! There are six excellent restaurants on our one block! The photos above are each taken on our block (Luis Cordero) within 1/2 block of our front door.  TripAdvisor says there are 24 such restaurants within 1/4 mile of our condo — and we know of at least four good places that are not even listed.  Expand that search to include all of Cuenca, and TripAdvisor says there are 119 restaurants, most with excellent (4 star or higher) ratings.

We eat out every day for lunch, and have only repeated restaurants a few times — there are so many choices that it will be awhile before we have tried them all.  It is entirely possible to get a good lunch here for $2 to $3 by choosing the ‘almuerzo’ (fixed lunch plate of each restaurant), though we frequently splurge and spend closer to $5 and buy various meals off the main menu.

Originally we had planned on eating out for dinner 3 nights per week, and cooking at home the other 4.  Well, that pretty much went out the door once I could walk again (got off crutches). There are so many good choices so close that we eat out almost every night too.  Dinner for the two of us, including a glass of wine for each of us, usually comes in right around $20.

There are also more restaurants starting to provide live jazz entertainment several nights per week. We have been to three such places so far, and there are others we will go to in future weeks. These all have the music free, as a draw to bring in dinner patrons.  Sometimes they include a tip jar, and the band tells us that they live off those tips. In those cases, the suggested tip is usually about $3 per person.

Berkeley — eat your heart out! ☺

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How Many Keys???

 

When we lived in California, I had two key rings.  One for my motorcycle (house and bike keys) and one for my car (house, car, storage shed, car alarm).  Since we do not plan on owning a car in Ecuador, I expected to be able to simplify my pocket and have only a single key ring with just a single house key.  Heck — no need for a key ring at all. I figured I would just stick the single house key in my “coin pocket” of my blue jeans.

Ha!

Yes, every one of those keys in the image above is now needed.  They originally were all on one ring, but we split them up, since we don’t really need all of them at the same time — and I didn’t want a bulge in my pocket the size of a baseball !

The upper-left red key ring is the one we carry whenever we leave the house.  There are 5 keys on that ring, and each is needed to get from the front door to the street.  Evelyn placed them in order of being needed, which helps make it a little less confusing to reach the street (or conversely, to get back into the house).  The keys are: 

  1. House front door
  2. Grate in front of that door
  3. Elevator
  4. Grate to exit residence portion of building
  5. Grate to exit the external wall (at the end of the driveway)

The blue key ring (center-left) gives us access to our parking spot.  Since we don’t have a car, we keep those separate and rarely use them at this point.  When we do need to park a car though, we need two keys for the front driveway gate, then another key for the parking spot itself.

The yellow key ring gives us access to the rooftop, a storage area where we keep the propane tanks (more on those in a later post), and our washer/dryer.

The other keys are for inside the condo, opening various locked cabinets left us by the sellers, and a safe that we had installed.

When I first saw all these keys, I was overwhelmed.  After a month, we are getting used to it though.  After awhile, it just become the “new normal.”

 

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Helen Johnson, R.I.P.

My mother, Helen Johnson, passed away last night in her sleep.  After battling colon cancer for the past year, she passed last night, at the age of 87.  

In May, the doctors told us she would likely live another one or two years.  In late October, just after we arrived in Ecuador, she was put into hospice, with the doctors saying she had two or three months remaining.  Late last week she went into a coma, and died in her sleep last night. Fortunately, this meant that her suffering was shortened, and was able to pass comfortably.

Helen raised two sons, Mike and me, mostly as a single mother, having married and divorced three times. She helped provide a good basis for future success for both sons, and we both went to college — the first to do so in the family’s history.  As with most parents, she wanted her kids to succeed beyond what she had accomplished, and she was pleased that both kids had done so.

She went to college briefly in Minnesota, studying journalism, but dropped out at the end of WWII and moved to California.  It was there that she met Fred, her first husband and my father, and married in 1948.  Here is a photo from that wedding that I found when going through old photo albums.  It is hard to believe that my mother was ever so young…!

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