Take Your Kid to Work Day????

Dear Family and Friends,

Quite often I see things in Cuenca that touch my heart and make me smile.

It is quite normal here to see mamas tending their small children while selling fruits and vegetables at the market.  But, today I saw a daddy working and tending junior. 

I was sitting in Parque Calderon waiting for my friend, Patricia.  I was watching the shoe shine vendors across the street.

The portico is lined with shoe shine vendors in the day and then after 5:00pm, they leave and the hippie jewelry vendors come for the evening shift.

I was watching them work and saw a man getting his shoes shined.  There was the shoe shine vendor, the male customer and a baby stroller.  After a moment it occurred to me how strange this looked.  When the customer left, I expected to see him walk away pushing the stroller.  But no, after getting his shoes shined, the customer walked away alone and that was when I realized that the baby was with the vendor.

It was heart warming to watch the vendor interacting with the baby while waiting for another customer.

I walked across the street just to get a look at the tyke.

I went on to enjoy a wonderful lunch with Patricia.

Hugs,
Nancy

Mini Celebration in Cuenca

Dear Family and Friends,

Tonight Chuck and I had a mini celebration of sorts.  We went to Taco Pronto for a bite to eat.  As usual, I was snapping pictures; when the owner saw me, she came over and asked if we would like our picture taken. When we said yes, thank you, nothing would do but we put on sombreros.

Our mini celebration was because our drapes for our new condo were installed today. Well, most of them.  There were a few glitches, but those are being corrected and will be installed on Thursday.  Here is the completed sliding door to the terrace.

Chuck has been as busy as can be putting plants on the terrace.  He is having a lot of fun.
It's coming along.

Love,
Nancy

Cuenca Weather Information

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck found this very neat URL that has historical weather data for Cuenca.

Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/longterm/historical/data/cuenca_ecuador.htm

Good information to have if you are moving or planning on traveling to Cuenca.

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For our friends, Clarke and Brenda -

Just to let you know that your babies are being well cared for.  We were over at the Kimblers tonight eating some of the best homemade soup on earth.  I snapped these pictures just for you.

Karen is a good substitute mommy.

And, just to put your mind at ease Brenda, the puppies are doing an excellent job of keeping their room nice and neat.  You must of trained them well.  (smile)

Hope you guys are having a nice time in Kansas.

Hurry home.

Nancy and Chuck

Extremely Long Stem Red Roses

Dear Family and Friends,

The other day Chuck went to buy some flowers.  He came home all excited because he found some extremely long stem roses.

This is the first time we have encountered them from a vendor.  They are grown here for export to Russia.  To find some for sell locally was a real surprise.

Here is Chuck with his find:

 We had to sit them on the floor.  As you can see they come to my waist.

Chuck paid $2.50 for them.


Happy day!

Nancy

Full Moon Egg Balancing

Dear Family and Friends,

On Friday night, my friend, Denver Greer wrote on Facebook: "Make your plans for going out tomorrow night (Sat) and take a gander at the "Super Moon." The Moon will be at it's closest to the Earth, and the Sun and Moon will be aligned with the Earth. They say when this happens the gravity pull is so strong you can stand an egg on its end. They say."

Well, we live so near the equator that I figured we would have an added advantage.  

Here are the results.


1.  Full "Super Moon" from our patio (a little cloudy)

2. Chuck easily balances the egg.  NOT

3.  My attempt at balancing the egg.

4.  Chuck said he wanted one more CRACK at it.   Here are the results:

HE DID IT!!!


Hugs,
Nancy & Chuck