Bought this rug in Guano...Safe and Short Trip to Riobamba

Dear Family and Friends,

Lately we have been feeling the effects of the Covid lock down.  Until recently, each province in Ecuador was locked down.  People were not allowed to leave their province and go to another without special permission.  

Chuck read online about a private tour that was offered to Riobamba area during this time of Covid.  The tour was very private indeed.  The tour guide and driver were one in the same.  Our tour guide picked us up at our condo, drove us to Riobamba, toured us to two amazing places and returned us to our home in Cuenca.  

Riobamba is about a 5 hour drive, so having transportation included was a big plus for us. 

Here are a couple of pictures I took out the window of the van as we headed north.  I still pinch myself when I experience the beauty of Ecuador.  I feel so fortunate to be able to call this beautiful country my home.

I took this picture as we were driving through Canar.

We stopped for a bite of lunch in Alausi (home to the devil's nose train).  We did not go into town, we just stopped at a restaurant on the highway.

We felt very safe as we entered.  We were greeted at the entrance with a temperature check and hand spray by a masked employee.

Everyone kept social distancing and we ordered at the counter and it was delivered to our table.  I think our typical Ecuadorian meals were about $3.50 each including our drink.  

Meet Dimitri, our wonderful tour guide.  I will share more about him later in other posts.

We continued our drive to Riobamba.  Before heading to our hotel, we asked Dimitri to take us to Guano to do rug shopping.  Guano is about a 20 minute drive from Riobamba.  It is famous for hand knotted rugs.  Of course Dimitri hooked us up with the most famous rug making family in Ecuador.  

I was expecting a big factory, but we were taken to the family home, where out back they dye all the wool used and then hand make their rugs.

Below are Chuck and Dimitri in the large working room.  Nothing fancy at all, just a large area with multiple looms.

The family matriarch was making a rug as we were touring.  

They dye all their own wool in big vats.

A close up photo of the family mother working.  Notice the kitten sitting in her lap.  

After seeing where the family makes the rugs, Dimitri took us to where the rugs are displayed and sold.  

All of these rugs are unique and handmade.  

I told you that this family are very famous rug makers.  Here is a plaque of a letter of thank you to the father of this family.  He made a rug that was presented to Richard Nixon by Ecuador in the 1970s.  The rug is being used in the White House today.  

Also, this family has two rugs on display in the United Nations building in New York.

We bought a rug.  They are not cheap, but we wanted something nice for our condo.  Here is a picture I made after we returned to Cuenca.  We have the rug displayed in our office.  

Here is a link to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Home-Decor/Alfombras-Allauca-Pancho-279328928773128/

After selecting and purchasing our rug, Dimitri delivered us to our hotel, Rincon Aleman.

Here is Chuck at the gate.  It is not a traditional hotel, but a private home with a nice B&B addition in the back.

Here is a picture of the backyard B&B.  I am not sure how many rooms they have but they also have a reception and breakfast room. 

Here is Chuck in our room.  It was rainy and cold so we really appreciated the European style comforters.

Our hostess also provided us with two flannel covered hot water bottles filled with hot water just before we bedded down.

A very good beginning to our Covid get away.

On Tuesday we went to Sangay National Park. I will share all about that on the next post.

Love,

Nancy & Chuck

 

First time out of Cuenca since February

Dear Family and Friends,

We have packed a suitcase for the first time in 7 months!  

We are so excited to get out of Dodge.  We are taking a private tour to Riobamba.  Riobamba is a city in the Andes, located between Cuenca and Quito.  When the weather cooperates you can get wonderful views of Chimborazo.  A snow covered volcano.  

We will be gone for only 4 days.  It is just Chuck, me and the tour guide, so we are hoping that we will be safe from Covid.  Looking forward to posting about this trip when we return.

Love,

Nancy & Chuck

Walking to Breakfast - Part 2. Lots more pictures

Dear Family and Friends ,

Walking to breakfast on Tuesday was our main objective.  We also had another objective.  Shop for peanuts.

So after breakfast we headed to the best store we know for such shopping, Arandano market.

We could have taken a taxi, but instead we took a couple of different buses to get back to our side of town.  

We walked back down to the river.

Next door to our restaurant is a beautiful old mansion.  Now days it is a museum and gift shop.  I love to imagine what it was like for the owners to live in such a fine home, right on the river.

Other houses as the walking path continues.  We did not continue on the path, we crossed the bridge to get to a bus stop.

I took this photo of the river as we crossed the bridge.

We waited at the bus stop on 12th of April Street.  

It is located directly across the street from a large park.  It is called Parque de Madre.  Park of the Mother in english.

Here is our #7 bus.  We took this bus to Feria Libre, Cuenca's largest market, so we could change to #13 bus to continue our journey.

It felt very comfortable riding the bus.  It was not crowded at all.  

When we stepped off the bus outside the market, I saw a very familiar sight.  A man with his goats.  When you go to the market it is quite common to see men walking 3 or more goats tied together with a rope.  The purpose is to provide fresh goat milk.  They carry paper cups with them and for 50 cents you get a cup of fresh squeezed goat milk.

I have tried it.  It is very good.

The little boy at the top of the picture is probably the man's son.

This is outside the market where we got off the #7 bus.

We did not go inside the market, but I will show you some of the items we saw outside the market.

This man was selling cute canvas shoes.  

I really liked them, he was selling them for only $5 a pair.  Unfortunately he only had shoes up to size 6 and I wear a size 7 to 7.5.  

This man is a street food vendor.  He seemed to be doing a good business.

We sampled his meat.  It was good.

He was selling this plate of food (pork, potatoes, cabbage salad and yellow rice) for $1.  

This lady was selling face masks.

We walked to the bus stop across the street to catch our next bus, the #13 bus.

We were happy that it was not crowded either.

We rode the bus past our normal stop all the way to the store to buy peanuts.  This is it, Arandano.

Inside is a store like no other.  

They have bags and bags of bulk food.  Take exactly the amount you need.  Below is some bulk spices.  I see bay leaves and not sure what else is in this picture.

Here are some dried vegetables, like carrots, peppers, etc.

Here we go, this is my section.  All of these bins are different types of nuts.

Here are bags of dried beans, lentils and more.

Bags of flour...wheat, corn, almond, quinua, you name it they have it.

Chuck checking in the freezer section.

He scored well on these good looking Maracuya.  54 cents a pound.  This fruit is known as passion fruit in the USA.  Oh my, it is good!!  Chuck uses it to make smoothies in the mornings.

Social distancing for the check out.

All done and ready to start walking home.

It is not a real long walk, just about 10 blocks, and all downhill going home.

Finally home, Chuck rings the guard to open the front gate for us.

Large ceramic mural on the front of our condo.

Our guard welcomes us back home.

Just a few steps....

and we are back in our condo.  Our mission accomplished for the day, breakfast and shopping.

Here is the total of steps taken so far, over 10,000 steps.  All total 4.8 miles.  Not bad for two old folks.   

Oh, and those peanuts I bought are now three jars of homemade peanut butter.  Two jars of chunky and one jar of smooth.

Thanks for joining us in this "day in the life of" journey.  

I have to get back into posting to this blog so my brain won't rot.  

We have a special trip planned next week.  I will share all about it when we return.  

Love,

Nancy and Chuck