Walking Around

We woke up early today in the hopes of getting to Mogab Muebles to order our dining room table, but soon realized that we had no electricity. Our first blackout in Ecuador! It was on and off throughout the morning, so I was still able to dry my hair after a quick shower. What a glorious morning it was though! After two days of gloomy, cold weather it was so nice to see the sun. And what a difference the sun makes. It warmed up the house within minutes and we were soon throwing open all the windows. I wanted to take picture after picture of the sky today. It was that gorgeous. A deep, deep, clear blue. And the mountains were spectacular.

The furniture store was closed again!  Urgh!  Maybe it was due to the blackout.  All of El Centro was out as far as we could tell.  We decided to hit the mall again and I was able to find my yoga mat this time.  Yeah! 

We made it home just in time for a little siesta and quiet time.  I could get used to this.  The kids were getting hungry and since we didn't have electricity yet we decided to go to lunch at the cafeteria at Ital Deli.  Its about two blocks away and they have a beautiful selection of all kinds of meats.  Even tongue and other parts that I don't know.  We had a nice lunch and the sandwiches were quite good.  Mark and I split a Hawaian pork sandwich, Tali had an Italian sub, and as always Finn had a hamburger...just meat and bread, please.

It was such a glorious day we decided to walk around and explore some more.  We found the cutest, quietest neighborhood around a little park.  It was newly renovated, and Tali and Finn had a great time on the swingset and slide.

A word on some of the animals around here.  There have been flocks of parrots winging their way across the sky every day.  I really want to take a picture of them, but they fly by so fast its almost impossible.  You can hear them coming and you get ready, but then they're gone.  I can just barely get a glimpse of them.  We have seen one flock of the green with blue heads, and one flock of rainbow colors. 

And then there are the neighborhood dogs across the street.  There are two medium-size dogs that live downstairs and one large yellow lab that lives upstairs.  Next door is another yellow lab.  For some reason the people let the two downstairs dogs out in the morning to roam the street.  They lie down in front of the driveway door waiting to get back in until a car drives by and then they chase the car down the street barking.  I keep thinking that they are going to get hit any day, but so far so good.  Then there is the little red dog who comes to play with the dogs across the street every day around 4:00 p.m.  He stays for two hours and wreaks havoc the whole time.  He slides along next to the wall and then pounces on the bottom of the door where the other two dogs are waiting with their noses hanging out, and they all go into a barking frenzy along with the two yellow labs...one upstairs and one next door.  Then he calmly walks away, scratches up the lawn and moseys on down the street.  He waits until the two dogs have stopped barking and have moved away from the gate, and then he pounces! and the frenzy starts all over again.  This craziness goes on for two hours staight.  EVERY night.  If I wasn't such a dog lover and I didn't think it was so funny this would drive me absolutely batty. 

Here they are waiting for him.  See their noses?

Here is the yellow lab upstairs looking for him.

He's been spotted!

I am going to tease the shit out of you.

 It is now 6:24p.m. and he is gone.  Until tomorrow that is. 

Last night I cooked my first Ecuadorian meal:  Frittada de Gallina
It was soooo good!  You marinade the chicken in orange juice, cumin, cloves and garlic overnight.  Then you cook the chicken in the marinade until it reduces all the way down in to sticky, gooey goodness.  It made the house smell lovely, and everyone really liked it.  The only thing I would change would be to use dark meat next time.  The breasts were a little dry, but still tasty!

Some people on the yahoo and Facebook groups have been talking about moving here with a dog and looking for a house with some green space.  When we first started looking I knew that I would be lucky to find a patch of grass for Scout to do her business.  The house we are in now was the first house we looked at and the minute we saw the yard we were sold.  I will take a small kitchen if it means that my kids and dog have a large green space to play in.  The picture below is of only the right side of the yard.  It wraps all the way behind the house and along the side and front as well.  It is very large for a Cuencano backyard and we count ourselves lucky.  So, it is possible to find a house with a nice yard in Cuenca.  You just have to look.

Scout enjoying the wonderful sunshine this morning in the office.