Ecuador- my pictorial history I: leaving Richmond, landing in Ecuador

Cuz & me

Cuz, me, John Miller

Before my wife, my step-daughter, and I began our new lives in Cuenca, Ecuador, I needed to visit my family and friends in Richmond, VA, many of whom I haven't seen since.  My most awesome cousin John and his lovely wife Ellen held an impromptu barbecue that day, which I'm not sure was for me or was just happenstance.  Either way I was most grateful!                    

w/Cuz (notice the sunglasses!)  He pretends to be a Ravens fan but as you can see in his heart he will always be a Dallas Cowboy!

(L-R:  Cuz, me, John Miller, boys L-R:  Jack, Max, Fisher)

John Miller, husband to my sister Anna Helen, of whom I wish I had 2% of his carpentry, wood-working, and building skills.  This man built a beautiful garden house for Anna Helen that will stand for centuries, and a jewelry box for his daughter that is as elegant as anything I've seen.

John & Ellen's sons have all sprouted since this photo was taken; Jack has grown about a foot, is quite the lady-killer, and is developing into a futbol and distance-running phenom.

Betsy, me, Aimeee

Betsy and Aimee have been my friends as long as I can remember; soon after I was born I was brought home to a house across the street from Betsy's, and not long after I learned to walk I began to chase Aimee around the pool and schoolyard.

That was Richmond--- this is Ecuador.  When you fly into Ecuador you're either going to land in Guayaquil, a city near the coast, or Quito, the country's capital located in the Andes Mountains.  We flew into Guayaquil; this photo was taken along the Malecón, where several of these extraordinary trees can be found.  

My lovely wife Michelle w/dogs (in the stroller)

Dogs are not allowed on the Malecón unless in a carrier or stroller.  

a truly magnificent tree

driving through the Cajas

The drive through the Cajas can be other-worldly, esp. when the clouds settle along the ground.  The Cajas National Park (Parque Nacional Cajas) is a protected area of the Andes Mountains, renown for the several hundred lakes and llamas found in abundance.  

                                                                           

Upon arriving in Cuenca we checked into an efficiency apartment for 30 days, the Hotel Apartamentos Otorongo http://www.hotelotorongo.com, while our condo was made ready to live in (we first had the countertops replaced with granite*, then major appliances delivered and hooked up (to natural gas).  The owner's wife of the Hotel Apartmentos Otorongo drove from Cuenca to Guayaquil to pick us up from the airport, a 3 1/2 hr drive; very cool!  

After about three weeks of living at Otorongo, we spotted this 8-legged fiend hiding under the couch... not poisonous, but definitely ugly!

 

      

  

The day our container arrived was a glorious day indeed!   Our container sat in customs in Guayaquil for over a month, accruing holding fees, until some customs official finally decided to address it.

While boxes filled nearly every room in our condo, we were ecstatic nevertheless to be able to unpack our home and put it back together again in our new country.

Me, coffee, & sunlight!

What really drew us in to this apartment was/is the light, and the view (mountains in the distance, beyond the city)... Michelle and I both remember the very moment the realtor opened the door and light spilled into the hallway.  That was it, we were sold.  Huge windows face the east; when clouds are sparse or nonexistent, sunlight fills the room, and raises the temperature.  It can actually be unbearable at times.  I didn't last much longer after this photo was taken.





*The stupefying condition of having granite countertops installed in your home is that your home becomes the workshop.  The pieces are cut so that they can be brought into your home, but then the measurements are made, and the granite is cut-to-fit right there in your house; and of course, so the buffing too is done in your home.  When the job was finished we, the homeowners, were responsible for clean-up.  We had to wash the walls, floors, and ceilings several times to remove all of the dust.  Un-friggin-believable.

Jumping ahead, when we had granite countertops installed in our café, I knew the process, so I "Dexterized" the restaurant, sealing off the area where the men were working from the rest of the café with floor-to-ceiling plastic, creating a plastic-enclosed workroom for the granite workers.  It kept approx. 90% of the dust from traveling into the rest of the café.