Evelyn has been after me for the last few years to let my hair grow longer.  I decided this past summer to hold off on another haircut for a long time to see how it looked.  As we approached this trip to Cuenca, I told Evelyn that I really needed a haircut.  She talked me into waiting until we reached Cuenca — while she went off to “the only hair stylist she trusted” back in Berkeley… !

For the past three weeks in Cuenca, we have walked past several barber shops.  Some are fancy, but usually empty.  One is a little hole-in-the-wall that only has one old man barber, but he almost always has a customer in his chair.  Passing him over twenty times, I have only seen his shop empty twice.  I decided this was the guy to go to.  Of course, I noted to Evelyn that we only know that people go there. It is possible he only knows one type of haircut and those that like that cut go there, so all bets are off…

The barber shop is in that tiny door between the cabs across the street.  Very loud from traffic, and tiny, but he was always busy!

A couple people at work said that I was starting to look like LBJ with long hair in his later years.  Sure enough, when we Googled “LBJ long hair”, I saw what they meant.

We were lucky when we arrived at the barber, as a customer was just checking himself in the mirror after finishing.  The chair was empty and ready for me.  I had prepared a few key words to say in Spanish, such as “Cut just over the shirt in back”, “Taper the back”, “sides short” and “top of the head long.”

So much for planning ahead. The barber didn’t understand a word I was saying.  He was pleasant and friendly, but clearly I was speaking gibberish to him.  The prior customer came back to the shop when he heard my bumbling my way through. He also didn’t speak English, but between the three of us, I mostly communicated what I wanted.

Finally the smock went over me, and I was in a panic.  What was he going to do to me?!

After half an hour of whacking, the floor around me looked like a jungle.

I checked myself in the mirror, and found I was right.  This barber only knew one haircut, and I had just gotten it!  Oh well, shorter than I hoped for, and he had no idea what the word “taper in back” (spoken in my best Spanish) meant, but I no longer feel like I need a band to tie a ponytail in back.

His price was $3, and I added another $1 as tip.  I walked out with a pretty darn good haricut (though a bit shorter than I would have preferred), and another example of how friendly Cuencanas are to us expats, even more so if we at least put in a small effort to speak the local language.

I’m keeping the moustauche for now.  A TEDTalks presentation “Healthier men, one moustache at a time” gave one more reason to do so…

Each morning, if we happen to wake around 5:30AM, we hear a cacophony of bird calls, and a lone rooster.  Roll over and go back to sleep, and get up around 8:00, and it is completely quiet.  We have been here for two weeks, and the only birds we have seen are a few pigeons on a single park (Parque San Blas) at the other end of town.  Where do those noisy birds go once the sun rises???

In fact, where are all the animals? I saw 2 cats in one yard in Banos de Cuenca, but other than that no cats at all.  Despite many flowers around, I have seen only one bee.  No windows have screens, and we often leave our windows open for ventilation, yet I have seen (and killed) only one fly and one mosquito in the apartment in more than two weeks.  I have seen no squirrels, or any other animal that would be common in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Of course, we are at 8,200 ft, which has a lot to do with the absence of many animals, but it still seems rather odd… and where are those birds that sing so loud before dawn?

We are settling into a more normal routine now.  I stopped my formal Spanish tutor classes (more on that in the future), though Evelyn continues with her tutor.  I am now spending 1/2 hour per day to do a Pimsleur audio tape.  Yesterday I started writing software for LeapFrog again, as was my agreement when coming here for this long.  I got off to a rocky start at first, as I discovered my programming environment needed more updating and tweaking than I expected, but I was still able to deliver my first completed project today, on schedule.

The rain has returned — with a vengeance. After staying away for the entire 4-day Independence celebration, the sky opened up yesterday and poured for 4+ hours, then again last night, then again today.  We are told the rainy season is coming, and it looks like the weather is trying to make believers of us.

Today was a day of exploration and struggling with Spanish. It ended with a meal at Evelyn’s favorite restaurant (Chez Johnson) and a slap-stick bootleg DVD watched on a laptop.

We started the day with taking the metro Blue Bus for the first time.  After finding the bus routes online, we discovered that #12 goes right by our apartment, and goes out to Banos de Cuenca — a small town of natural hot springs, rather similar to Calstoga, North of San Francisco.

You just stand on the side of the road, and stick out your arm as the bus approaches. Much like flagging down a taxi.  The bus stops barely long enough for you to get your feet on the bottom step, and it is off like a rocket.  25 cents takes you to the next block or to the end of the line.  We watched the sign-board for stops, and 20 minutes later got off at “4 Corners” in Banos.  Didn’t really know where to stop, but that seemed like a logical place to try from.

This church was at the top of the hill, and dominated the view from any part of town.

Being Sunday, the info booth was closed, but a local saw we were testing the door, and asked if we needed  help. He knew all the spas in town and pointed out several from our hilltop vantage point.  I asked which he would go to, and he said Novaqua, so we went there.

About then, music started blaring out of a tower speaker just over our head, and all further conversation was impossible, so we started walking down the hill towards Novaqua. As we were walking, I was struck by how close we were to Cuenca, yet how third-world the town looked.

This woman, in typical indigenous dress, walks along along a road lined with half-built and poorly built homes.

Cows are in the of town, and often in the middle of the road. You can see the church at the top of the hill, dominating every view.

We arrived at Novaqua, which is a completely modern facility.  For $12 each, we had access to a warm swimming pool, hot pool, cold pool, steam sauna, and jacuzzi.  For an extra charge, there was massage available too.  I’m afraid I am not really much into these places, and was bored after 15 minutes…  When I got into the hot pool, I neglected to read the advisory message next to it (in Spanish) — “recommended stay no more than 5 minutes.”  After 15 minutes, I got out when I was feeling feint… 🙂

I didn’t photograph any interiors, as it was discouraged with people in the pools.

We left after about an hour, and wandered around the rest of town.  We found another hot springs right next door that was obviously a favorite of the locals, based on the line to get in. The price there was only $4.25.  We never explored the range of amenities there.  We also looked in on Piedra de Aqua, which is the spa most heavily advertised.  Their basic entry was $10 (less than Novaqua), but they quickly tried to upsell to packages costing as much as $175 per person. Yikes!

We wandered back into town and chose a restaurant for lunch that was packed with locals.  We opted to order specific meals rather than the almuerzos. Evelyn’s Sopa de Papa was $3, as was my Seco de Pollo, and a monster size cerveza (beer) was another $1.25.  The meal was fairly tasty and set up back a whole $7.25.

After another Blue Bus adventure back to the apartment to drop off our clothes, we took a taxi out to Mall de Rio to buy a new impresora (printer) at the HP store.  The lone store clerk spoke absolutely no English, so we spent an interesting half hour or so making clear what we wanted to buy, and then completing the purchase.

Turns out they have no inventory in these stores, and you are buying the unit off the shelf.  There were 4 empty PC display slots that were filled when we checked out printer models last week, apparently sold in the interim.  The salesman was extremely thorough and helpful, making sure we had every cartridge, cable, disk, and what-not for the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 that we bought for $136. 

By the way, you may have read my earlier warnings about making sure you brought any electronics with you from home that you want, because they are more expensive here.  That does not include computer printers though.  You can buy better ones in the States, but then you won’t be able to get ink/toner for it.  The printers sold here are not top-of-the-line from US standards, but they are reasonable, and supplies are then available when needed.

While waiting for the salesman to process our payment, Evelyn started playing with one of the PCs on display. She discovered a videoconverencing program that let her put bunny ears on herself. 🙂

We then went over to Coral, in the same mall, to stock up on some additional forks, plates, diet coke, and other necessities not available in the local mercado.  Loaded down with our loot, we caught a taxi home.

It has been dry here for the past 4 days. Heavenly warm and dry for the entire Independence Day weekend.  Just as we got home, around 5:30, it started sprinkling.  By the time we had gotten everything inside, the sky opened up and it began to thunder and pour for the next couple hours.  I guess the rain is back!

At home, I made pork chops and mashed potatoes.  Chez Johnson is started to get his frying pan hands back in action again!  We usually have breakfast at home (Evelyn cooks those), lunches out (we can’t cook for the price the restaurants charge), and will probably get into a routine of eating at home for dinner 2 or 3 nights a week.  That is much more restauant eating than we are accustomed to, but the food here is so good, and the prices so reasonable, that we will enjoy it while we can…

After dinner, we popped Johnny English Reborn, a James Bond slapstick farce, into my Mac laptop.  This was recommended by our South Vietnamese guide last year.  I was skeptical, as I am not a fan of slapstick, but I have to admit, I was laughing through this one. 🙂