Moving to Paute...............makes me smile

I knew eventually it would happen. I've seen a lot of Ecuador to stay in one place and I wanted to experience more of the country than a playground for retro hippie gringos. Vilcabamba is a beautiful place and I met a lot of very nice people but there so much more to see and do so I took my friend, Jani, up on her offer to house sit while she was in the US for three months.

The morning of March 13th started much the same as any move across country. It took an hour to load up and another 20 minutes to kennel Bear and Amber, say our goodbyes and leave.

As we were entering Loja, 45 minutes away, the driver told me he had to stop at a mechanic for repairs. I guess he must have found out just that morning he had a brake issue. "Media hora mas o menus (1/2 hour more or less) he said. Uh-huh. Sure. I've learned a thing or two in my year plus of living in Ecuador. "Mas o menus" is a key term used in this country that ALWAYS means mas...more in English. I have no idea why menus is added. I thought "One half hour? Who is he kidding? It will be two hours at least." We rolled into the mechanics at 9 a.m. and it was fully 11:30 a.m. by the time we left.

Two and a half hours at least gave me the time to clean Bear's kennel. Why did I ever think it was a good idea to feed dogs before an over hill, over dale ride?

The drive to beautiful Cuenca was uneventful. We had a roadblock to wait for a road slide repair, a herd of cows to avoid, my constant quizzing of Javier (the driver) for Spanish words and lots of windy, twisty roads around the Andes. Hasn't everyone moved like that before?

At one point, I made each of us small sandwiches of my chicken salad I had made up of chicken, walnuts, pineapple and eggs. He refused another but stopped 30 minutes later for lunch. Oops!! I thought chicken and pineapple made perfectly good sense. It certainly made more for me!

As we were coming through Cuenca my phone was ringing. I was out of minutes and needed to apply the phone card to make a call. I desperately searched the black abyss of my purse. It was Jani calling presumably to get an eta of our arrival but I was too late. Applying a tarjeta (phone card) requires codes, tiny print and a bajillion numbers and it is difficult bouncing around in a moving truck, bad roads and a small dog kennel in your lap to even see the numbers. On the fifth try, I was in business.

After telling Jani we would be there in an hour, we found the construction work the expats in Cuenca had talked about for months. It would be two hours before arriving in Paute. I might have known.

Jani told us to stay on the main road until we saw yellow painted guard rails and a school. Javier stopped at the first yellow guard rails. "No esquela" I said. Then he stopped at a school. "No amarillo", I said. I was actually thinking of the George Strait song Amarillo by Morning by that time.

Finally we found a school AND a yellow guard rail WITH my friend all in the same place. Bear, Amber and I were home for at least three months.

Smiling. Did I mention the biggest perk? Bathtub......HUGE smile!!! Rare commodity in these parts. Ahhhhhhhhh....

At the mechanics.  Have to admire the creative way of dealing with old tires.

30 minute job in Ecuador??  Right.

Bathtub.   Magnificient.

Rock slide

Cows.

Last look at Vilcabamba.