A backlog of text from Cuenca

text entry 1-23-11
The bus tour. Sunday I was feeling well enough or bored enough with not feeling well that I grabbed a bus for the 25c tour. Saturday night somebody had left a bus guide on the common table in the dining room. Fair game, I kopt it. God knows you can't find them on the busses or at the stops. The guide is well done. It lays out the thirty or so routes against a faded map of the city. The first I took dropped me at Feria Libre, a huge market maybe two miles to the south. That is also where the inter city busses going to Loja start from. After walking around the market a while and getting a $2 haircut I caught another bus. The hardest part of the 25c ride is getting the quarter to drop into the slot. Small change is not plentyful and everyone fights to keep theirs. I realized at the market that about half the purchases I make are to break down large bills and coins into quarters. The busses don't make change. Some gringos would spend a dollar for a 25c ride but not me. I spend a dollar to buy 25c in candy and pocket the 75c, usually a quarter and an Ecuadorian 50c piece. Anyway, I believe the slot on the bus would treat a Susan B Anthony like a slug. With the quarter finally in hand I caught a bus from feria libre that went east and north, skirting the foot hills on that side of the valley. I got off I have no idea where and walked to a nearby mall. In the mall I bought butter & a can of mystery meat for dinner and got the all important quarter back with the change for a twenty. The merchants seem to think you're pulling some sort of a trick when you give them a twenty. They were right, I was. I needed another two bits for the bus stop across the street. From the bus I caught there I got to within a block of home. Two of these three bus rides had to dodge huge processions of people walking or riding horses or atop floats. Nearly every Sunday has a Catholic theme parade. Kids wearing angel costumes with sparkly cardboard wings, Drums and flutes and dogs and anything capable of three miles an hour forming a long slinking tail to the processions. Fine with me, my little pickup truck is sleeping under snow and ice and can only dream of such things. 

text entry 1-24-11
Early Monday morning, after breakfast at Bannanas, I walked down the Escalinata and across the river. I carried a 24" by 18" panel of luan plywood painted white on one side. From a Boulder with a view of the bridge and stairs I made a sketch of the scene. I had composed it in advance with the aid of a photo (in post of 11 Jan). In the afternoon back in the hostel I added shaddow to the graphite sketch. Bit by bit, with just grey as color. I have to sneak up on color. Me with color is like watching a teenager learn to drive....I'm all over the place. The resulting sketch with light wash I'm basically happy with...but the more I study it the more I see. Thats OK, I expect to draw and paint the scene dozens of times. Now I notice a couple of geometric distortions. I needed to squeeze the width a bit to fit into the aspect of the panel. Another distortion is the plane of the river vs that of the bridge foundations. That I can fix. It is amazing how much I am not seeing, at first. These sketches are called studies for a reason I guess. Cuenca offers a lot of raw material for studies. The remains of a another bridge, washed out in a flood years ago, awaits me about 1500 feet down stream. I think I will paint it next. Its called Puenta Roto, which means, broken bridge. Both these bridges are on the Rio Tomibamba.

At six that day the Carolina book store threw a byob party. The most gringos I've seen in one place in Cuenca so far. Several dozen. I introduced myself to half a dozen. Their experience ranged from six months to twenty years in Cuenca. It is difficult to not feel the need to gather with fellow citizens now and then. I am sure there are US citizens who avoided it like the plague. There are others who overdue it an try to build a coocon of fellow gringos around them. I suppose I am in the middle somewhere. The age group skews toward my age, retired people for the most part. They come from all over the USA, lots of southerners. The hottest topics (non rumor topics) involve apartment rentals, good deals, good locations. Some really fantastic rentals can be found. Like anywhere it takes a good network, listening to the grapevine well, and luck. As in a big city in the states one might move a couple of times seeking that perfect place. An apartment in the hills above the city on the bus line would be nice. Quiet, a super view. I will be looking.

entry for 1-26-11
Something has triggered questions in my mind. I think it was the blank response the other night from an expat couple to my question about the practicality of going between Maine and Quito every three months. The seeds of doubt can grow in that soil but they don't really threaten the crop. The traveling back and forth serves to comply with the Ecuadorian law regarding a residence visa (Retirement) and my desire to be in Maine summers. This would be for the first two years. If Gaby can secure it, residence would be granted in February of 2011, next month. That would mean that until March of 2013 I could be out of Ecuador for no longer than 90 days at a time. After that my absense from the country could be as long as 18 months.

The difference between me and most of these expats is that I've never thought of relocating. I have consistantly & simply wanted a place for the winter. Ecuador looks like the place. I've extended the idea of winter to six months. So, ideally, I would live here December thru May. Folks with the money and time to live anywhere in northern summer choose Maine. I agree with them, with the snow gone Maine is fine.

Also part of my reasoning is the job I have in Maine. Its just on the weekend but it pads my income nicely. I can keep the job while being absent for the winter, now three months and later possibly six months. Regardless of the Maine job I should be able to suplement income here with artwork. The job may become year round this comming winter, throwing off these calculations. At some point I would give up the job.

As for the practicality of shuttling across the equator every three months....just time and expense. Having no more than carry on baggage would help. Staying in Ecuador for only a couple of days would keep expenses down. Not cutting close to the 90 day point would allow for airline problems.

Otherwise, its self imposed exile thru the Maine summer, away from family and the familiar. I crave change but not too much.