Another week down…and more adventures to be had. Cuenca has been really good to me. And I think it will be sad to leave this town. This is the first time that I have traveled someplace and stayed for a significant length of time. It is really nice to be able to get to know a town and its surroundings.
Last weekend was another adventure. Like the weekend before, Saturday was pretty quiet. I wandered over to a museum on the far side of town, and took a look at the cultural exhibit there. And, of course, a little dinner and dancing with my german friend, Bea. Good thing she is a good sport and is willing to dance with me. I’m starting to learn how to lead better, just due to circumstances. We happened to be sitting upstairs and looking down on the band. The music was too much fun to sit still, and nobody else in our party wanted to dance, so I led Bea downstairs for a salsa. Afterwards I was too self conscious to stand around for the next song and see if some Cuencano would ask me to dance. So I followed Bea back upstairs. It was a good thing, because the next song was slow… I’m not looking to be that close to the Cuencanos! So things work out, as they have so far.
Sunday, Bea and I went out to Ingapirca. They are the local ruins of the Cañari people that the Inca’s came and took over. As always, we hopped on a bus that we hoped was going to the ruins. And, as always, it was going to go close…but not actually to where we wanted to go. So we had to switch buses at the small town of Tomba, and take a local bus up the hill for a half hour. The ruins were beautiful, and we had a beautiful day. Bea decided to practice her English, and I continue to fumble along in Spanish. So our stories took a long time to tell on both ends, but it was a good time.
This evening I’m off to a housewarming party for Bea, as she finally found an apartment. Sounds like it has a view over the town, for $150 a month. Hmmmm. That is pretty damn cheap. It makes you think. But I went down to the flower market today to find a house warming gift. I found a palm and had to bargain for the pot and extra dirt. The plant stands about 4 ft tall and I ended up paying ten bucks for it… and then had to carry it back to the hostel on my shoulder. I got a lot of funny looks, I can’t imagine the people around here don’t see a gringa walking down the street with a potted plant about the same height as she is on her shoulder. Is that weird?
I heard that the term gringo was due to american military presence in México? Something about the people shouting “green go home!” But nobody understood what was being said and the military thought they were just yelling “gringo, gringo”. I don’t know if I buy it, but I like stories about the origin of words.
Sorry there are no pictures. I can’t win with the connection down here recently. The page times out every time I try and load a picture. Talk about frustrating. Anyhow, as soon as I find a place, or actually I think it has more to do with the time of day, that will let me, I’ll get some pictures up.
Till soon…
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