Looking for a Farm

 

Some new friends arrived in Cuenca sight unseen for their new adventure.  We met them at California Kitchen in their new location for a nice, quiet dinner. 

Eating dinner with Linda and Bruce.

     We could NOT figure out this picture. 
What the hell is this little boy doing?  And what
is the expression on his face saying?  This is
really a bizarre picture.
 

 Through a woman online who sells goat milk and cow milk cheeses we were put in touch with her goat milk supplier, Miguel.  We found out that Miguel had a farm for sale so we called him and he drove us out to San Fernando to see it.  San Fernando is about an hour and 15 min. outside of Cuenca.  45 min. to Giron on a nice paved road and then another 30 min. into the mountains on half paved/half dirt road. 

The farm is gorgeous - 7 hectares, which is about 17 acres.  The surrounding countryside and view of the mountains is spectacular.  We were enamored from the get-go.  And the price is right.  The only caveat was the fact that an indigenous family lived right smack dab in the middle of the perfect building site for a house.  The only other place on the hill for a house would have to be cloyingly close to their property.  Then there was the concern of there being no internet.  We had to go home and sleep on it. 

Looking from the road towards the property.  Finn,
Mark and Tali are very tiny figures in the background.

 

 

Looking out the side of the property.

Looking towards the left of the property.  You
can see the house already there.

 

Looking from the property out over the mountains.
What a view!

San Fernando tucked into the valley. 
 

Looking towards the back of the property.  This is quite a
steep hill.  The reservoir would be built on the
opposite hill.

Another view out the front.

Driving home out of the mountains towards Giron.

The small town of Giron.



 After taking us to see the farm, Miguel drove us to his goat farm in the flat lands outside of Cuenca.  Miguel raises Saanens, with a few Nubians thrown in.  He really wants to start a dairy in Cuenca.  He bought his buck from a woman in Quito who has a really nice goat dairy operation and she is selling to our local supermarket, Supermaxi.  She is making $25,000 a month.  $12,000 goes to feeding the goats, but that is still a huge profit!  I'm not sure how far I want to go with this.  I had initially envisioned selling raw milk and cheese to the expat community who have a huge interest in these products, but I wanted to keep it small.  Miguel's enthusiasm is contagious though, so we'll see.

 

 

Kids!  We so miss having kids around.

Love the little tongue.

Finn and Tali did NOT want to leave.

This Nubian doe reminded us so much of Raisin.
I couldn't take my eyes off of her.  Miss my Nubians.

Black in a sea of white. 

Horseback riding again!

 

We've come to find out that our new babysitter's parents are also avid horseback riders, so we set out for another trip yesterday.  Mark was nice enough to stay home this time so that I could go with Kim and Katie.  We had a great time.  Carlos took us on a different route back through the valley.  We climbed up this red rock canyon that was incredibly steep.  We were all worried that the horses would not make it.  They were breathing so heavily and we had to stop 4 or 5 times to let them catch their breath.  Carlos said he wouldn't go that way again.  Good thinking! 



The cows are up in the pasture today.

 

Felicita threw a shoe so I am riding Lluvia (Rain). 
Katie fell in love with her little Palomino. 
I think she would like to buy her.  :)



Here is the canyon we climbed.  This is about 1/3 of the way up. 
We thought those bushes marked the top, but no, it climbed
even higher still.

Carlos, me and Katie. 

Looking back down into the valley from where we had climbed.

Tortorillas Valley

After climbing up, we came down through this very thick
copse overrun with branches and bromeliads.  This
was a nice opening in the thicket.  You can see the bromeliads
in the tree to the left.

We came out onto this paramo.

After a good roll and some water the horses are shooed
up the hill and down the lane to the bigger pasture.

Finn and Tali had a playdate with Anaya and Yonggi this week.  After many dreary days it was nice to have a distraction.  We took them to
the park to relieve some energy. 

The following day was nice and sunny so we headed out for some more exploring.  We found a very cute bookstore and spent awhile in there.  We bought the kids a great book, Children's GREAT EXPLORERS Encyclopedia.  It will help round out our history lessons.

We also found a nice, little mall with a very little, but sweet bar/restaurant.  We ate lunch at another new find, Cositas.  It was a very quirky restaurant with bunnies and birds in the lobby and little things hung on the wall.  A very bright and colorful restaurant.  Good food too.

Then it was down to San Blas Plaza to try the gourmet ice cream at Mixx.  I had the Baileys.  Yum!  A stop at another store to look at exercise equipment and a purchase of 8 movies for 10 bucks and we felt like we had accomplished a lot.  We are usually happy if we get ONE errand done, let alone three.


I love this picture.



Libro Mundi.  Great children's section.  Some in English too.

The little door into the children's section.  A nice touch.

Here is the nice, little mall.

Bunnies!

The flags kept the kids amused.  Finn has been playing a game
on my Ipad called Stack the Countries and he knew a lot
of the corresponding flags.  More than I knew!

For $2.50 you can get your fill of carbs with a side of protein:
popcorn appetizer, rice, plantano, beans, a little potato in
a great sauce, avacado and a thin, but tasty slice of chicken.

Chairs hung on the wall.

San Blas - beautiful

San Blas Plaza

We've got our ice cream - Happy Campers!

Mixx - Gourmet Ice Cream

We ran into these guys at Parque Calderon.  Finn wasn't too
sure of them.