Ecuador News in English

Here is another source for news about Ecuador that is in English:

http://ecuadornews.blogspot.com/search/label/USA

2006 European Vacation

This blog was started to keep family and friends up to date on our daily life in Cuenca.  However, since its name is Travel Tales, I decided to link our 2006 European Vacation to this blog so it can be viewed here.

It's been six years since we took that six week trip to Europe, and it was fun going through the photos and narrative again.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did in creating it!

Here is the link:  http://grimms2006vacation.blogspot.com/

The Color Purple

Color Purple Event II 

Otober 11th at 7pm, Gary & Sue Gaither will host the second annual El Evento Color Purpura.  (See thecolorpurpleevent.blogspot.com)

It has grown considerably this year form a women's luncheon to a semi-formal dinner for all. Tickets are now $20, representing a first class dinner.

Among the speakers are the lovely Miss Cuenca and the Dr Avarado, Director of SOLCA, the children's cancer hospital.

The four sponsors are providing free promotion from Unsion Television (100 spots), La Famila Radio, El Tiempo newspaper and Arco Language Institute .

They hope to sell all 250 seats and also to obtain donations from friends in the US. Twenty dollars goes a long way here in Ecuador. Tickets are available at Villa San Carlos, Hotel Inca Real, and El Tiempo

All net proceeds go the SOLCA for the benefit of children and their families. Many are so poor that they cannot afford the bus fare to visit their children in the hospital!

Sue has written a special song for suffering children. She will play and sing it during the event. Gary will close with a short devotion.

Hope you all can make it to a wonderful evening celebrating life, and helping those families struggling with children living with cancer.

Our New Apartment

We have just moved to our new apartment on September 1st.  It is larger than our former apartment and has a beautiful kitchen, and also a terrace that overlooks the Yanuncay River.  We are in the brand new Cuatro Rios building on Primero de Mayo y Av. Los Americas.

We highly recommend Destination Cuenca for all of your moving needs.  Vicente organized our move, he and his crew packed us and moved us in a very professional manner.  There was no damage to our property even though they couldn't use the elevators in the buildings (down 2 flights of stairs in our old building and up 5 flights of stairs in our new building).  They moved our refrigerator, washer, dryer, furniture and boxes within a four-hour time period.  (They also do international moves too.)

Here are pictures of our apartment after we unpacked and got everything arranged.  We still have some things to buy, but the apartment is very beautiful with the dark wood floors, special lighting, granite counter tops, etc.  We also have a large bodega (storage), and two parking spaces.  And there will eventually be stores in the front of the building (one will be an ice cream shop, which makes Mike very happy!).

Our condo can't be seen from the street, as it is set back high on the 5th floor

Entrance to the locked security door

Fountain area along the entrance-way

Path along the river across from our condo

Entrance to our condo from the inside sky-lit hallway

Looking into the kitchen window

Entering the front door

Kitchen (seen from living room)

Living room (seen from kitchen)

Living room and dining room

Dining room (with stone wall and accent lighting)

Looking inside from the terrace

View of the trees along the river from the terrace

Laundry room (cabinets need to be installed)

Social bath

Guest bedroom

Guest bath

Rainfall shower head

Master bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Master bathroom

Office (we need to get a desk for me)

Large hallway from bedrooms to living room

Our terrace with built-in BBQ (needs to be finished)

Common patio

View from common patio (good for watching fireworks!)

Apostille and Translation Services in the U. S.

If you need something apostilled / translated in a hurry in the States, here's information that can help you:

Express Document Authentication Services
1930 18th St. N.W. Unit #1
Washington, DC  20009

Contact:    Brigitte Tan Siegall
Email:        info@expressauthentication.com
Phone #:    866-886-8472

Whale Watching Tour -- Part 2 of 2

NOTE:  Michael Edwards created a fantastic video of our entire trip.  (Click here to watch it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEkesIXiEEg&feature=youtu.be )

We continued on our trip after visiting the Guayaquil Historical Park.  From Guayaquil we drove about three hours to Montanita to spend the night at the Swiss Hotel (where we had stayed in Sept of 2010).  The hotel had been updated with new rooms and a swimming pool.


Day 2:  Early the next morning, we headed north to Puerto Lopez to catch the boat.  Here are pictures of Puerto Lopez, and the early morning launch:

These 3-wheeled motorcycles are the taxis in town

Beautiful beaches

Pelicans waiting for the fishing boats

Father and son cleaning the morning's catch

Our group waiting to wade out into the water to climb aboard

Safety vest, sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, camera.  Ready to go!

Let's get some sun and see some whales!

Now for the whales:

A whale's tail

Up close and personal!

Saying "Hi"

Isla de la Plata

After watching the whales for about an hour, we continued onto Isla de la Plata (Silver Island). 

Approaching Isla de la Plata

Explaining the flora and fauna of the island, and the different trails

We walked to the center of the island and then took the short circular trail

Our trail-head sign

Parts of the trail were very steep, which led us to . . .

. . . blue-footed boobies

They weren't afraid of us, but we still kept our distance

Enjoying the warmth and the sunshine.  Ah, able to wear shorts again!

You can see the boobies' nesting area in the center of the photo

Coming back with food.  Boobies stay together as a couple to raise the young together

Waiting for my food to arrive

A nesting couple

Reminds me of Big Sur in California

We were gone for about five hours on the whale watching / Isla de la Plata tour.  Then we drove the one hour back to Montanita to clean up and go out to dinner.  We slept very well that night!  Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention about our first night in Montanita is that at around midnight, we had an earthquake.  Quite a trip!

Day 3:  The next morning which was the day we drove home from the beach, we had breakfast in Montanita and then drove north to a town called Olon to do some sightseeing and shopping.

The beach at Olon

Birds in flight

Conga line!

After lunch, we headed back to Cuenca (which took about six hours).  Overall, this was a great trip and we really enjoyed ourselves with the warm weather and beautiful sights.