Jessie sampling exotic fruit in Gualaceo market
After traveling for 24-hours (with a 10 hour layover in Miami airport) we arrived in Quito for two nights at the upscale Swissotel where we were to meet up with our AHI group. Jessie spent most of the following day trying to get the newer of her 2 PCs to work, and finally determined that it needed a new disk. It contained all our camera support software & Skype, etc. Dell is sending a replacement disk to Cuenca — we’ll see how that works out.
Quito is an elongated city in a valley between two mountains at about 9,500 feet. On our 2nd day we took a city bus ($.25 fare) around and did some walking, but not much else. But it did get us acclimatized for our destination of Cuenca, which is a mere 8,400 feet altitude.
We arrived in Cuenca on Friday afternoon after joining the AHI group in Quito and flying over the cloud-covered Andes (with one volcanic, snow covered peak looming over the clouds). We spent the first night in Hotel Victoria in the Old Town section of Cuenca. It’s a very nice old hotel and our room overlooked the river and the newer Cuenca business district. As in Quito, the weather was spring-like, 70’s during the day and 60’s at night.
On Saturday we were assigned our furnished apartment, a large studio on the 6th floor (with 2-person elevator) that has a glass partition to separate the sleeping area. Our windows overlook the tile roof-tops of the neighborhood to the West, with just the steeples of several churches protruding in front of the surrounding green mountains. The basic kitchen consists of modern cabinets and a long granite countertop.
The AHI group arranged a bus tour on Sunday (today) to near-by Gualaco that has a large fresh food market, and to Chordeleg which is known for its gold and silver jewelry.
The Gualaco market was an amazing collection of colorful stalls offering everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to eggs, potatoes, rice and corn. The produce included quail and chicken eggs, bananas (of course), tree tomatoes, cherimoyo (deliciously sweet), chili peppers, huge radishes, and more, all in great abundance. The vendors were indigenous Quichua women in white “Panama” hats, pigtails and colorful skirts. We also visited the large meat market which featured cuy (Guinna pig) being roasted, chicken and roasted whole pig. There we ate a typical plate of roast pork , lettuce & posole.
In Chordeleg we visited the jewelry exhibit which contains the “world’s largest earring” made of silver, about 4′ high and made the rounds of the dozens of shops with their dazzling array of gold and silver jewelry.
The AHI group consists of 34 people, mostly older couples, from diverse parts of the US. Tomorrow we start Spanish classes at 8:30am at the Simon Bolivar school, and will be assigned individual “life-style guides” and language tutors for the next 4 weeks. More soon…
On the Go with John and Jessie 