Wednesday Jan 26/11 "In Town"

We had supper at a marvellous Argentinian restaurant and I can say that the filet mignon “was to die for”. The service was superb and the menu was in English. It gets 5 stars just for that!

This hotel is about 2 stars, Cuban standard. Pretty sure there were bed bugs last night and the coffee I was “served” is gross. I got some tepid water and a jar of Ecuadorian type Nescafe, suspect it is mostly chickory or some such thing, really not good. I am forced to have Ruffles for breakfast. My travelling amigas are still sleeping even though it was an early night (10:30) and it is going on 8:00 a.m. I am still just “going with the flow”, after all there have been a number of days when we didn’t get coffee in the morning though now we have figured out how to light the gas stove without blowing ourselves to kingdom come.

This spacebar is driving me nuts, I am forced to whack down hard with my thumb or I get runonwords.

I can hardly believe we have only been here for 12 days, we have experienced so much. The American leg of our journey was loaded with events (and stops), our 2 ½ days in Quito saw us in 2 different towns to experience the huge outdoor market and the whole Equator experience. Then we had that incredible bus ride from the Andes to the southern beach of Manta/Meridor San Jose (this last is the name of our resort). Then the days at the house have been filled with the excitement of seeing the house for the first time and then shopping for household goods. Barb says I am a great shopper so I keep reminding her “Of course, I’ve done the New York thing!”

Tomorrow we are supposed to get the furniture for the house which is custom made for Barb. It is rattan; a big round dining room table with 6 chairs plus a 2 seater sofa. They are very solid and comfortable to sit in. The house is really starting to come together.

It’s been nice to have this little break “in town” to get a breather from the organizing, sweeping and cleaning. And among all of that there has been a lot of visiting back and forth with our only neighbours though they have now either headed home or gone off on their jungle trek.