#2780, Wednesday, January 19, '22: Whole lotta nothing going on

Reverend Ken's Travel Blog

Post 2780

- 12 years and 19 days since I started this blog -

Winter Travel Journal
(written Jan 18-19, 2022)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 11 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling, except for the occasional food shot when I've eaten something interesting. And that's where we find ourselves now.

The last time I wrote, I had just tested positive for Covid.

I was already quarantining, and I still am.

It's been pretty boring. My screen time is somewhere around fourteen hours a day. And, I'm not going to start reviewing all the things I've been streaming.

Here's a status update: I feel fine. The crushing fatigue is gone. I'm still a little weak, but I'm doing things to completion (meal prep, washing dishes, eating), that, when that fatigue was a problem, I had to take breaks from completing.

Yesterday, I developed a little cough. Different than the one at the beginning of my illness, this one is productive. We'll see where that goes. It seems better today, and didn't interrupt my sleep at all.

I want to mention the support I've gotten from one individual, my friend Fenigno, former proprietor and chef of my favorite restaurant in Cuenca, A Pedir de Boca, now closed due to post-Covid bureaucracy. 

When I first got to Cuenca in 2020, I came straight from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I found A Pedir very early on. I went there for lunch, and some new friends I'd met were there. They said they came there often. I asked what to order, and was told they always had whatever was the special of the day.

The meal I had was delicious, and the presentation was beautiful. I was reminded of some of my favorite meals from Chiang Mai, a pretty well-known foodie destination, and the place that holds more of my favorite dishes than any other in the world.

The chef came out just as I was finishing up, asking in good English how I enjoyed my meal. I gave him his due, and was specific about what I'd liked and why. He asked how long I'd be in Cuenca. He gave me a map that was a walking tour of ceramics galleries and exhibits, and told me about his Wednesday Spanish classes.

I started, but never finished the tour - it simply couldn't be done in one outing. I attended the next three Spanish classes. I brought anybody who was interested in having a meal with me there. I took the two meetings I had with facilitators there. It was my favorite restaurant in Cuenca, and I never had a single disappointing bite of food there.

After I left Cuenca, we kept up with each other a little, 'liking' our posts on Facebook and Instagram. That's how I found out Felipe was actually Fenigno.

Near the end of June, 2021, due to the aftermath of the Covid measures and the ensuing bureaucracy of of reopening, A Pedir de Boca closed for good. I didn't find out until November, because there was only a brief message on Facebook.   

I had come back to the US to the full-blown pandemic situation. I didn't get home to Syracuse for eleven weeks after I'd originally intended to. I came back with the intention of moving to Cuenca permanently, but things happened, not the least of which was undergoing a quintuple-bypass operation (CABGx5). I changed my plans.

I'd decided to become a part-time Syracusan, eight months a year, with the Winter months spent traveling to visit friends and family in warmer climes, and to spend two-to-three months in one or two places like Cuenca as a resident, which is to say, not a vacation, tourist lifestyle, just living my life in a different city.

Cuenca is in a valley high in the Andes, elevation is about 8400 feet. It takes a few days to adjust to that altitude for a low-lander, and during that period of time you can have some symptoms of altitude sickness, or merely find that you have stamina issues. Two years ago,  it took me four days before I had a normal amount of energy, although other factors (arthritis in my knees) had a role in how well I got around on foot.

When I first got here two weeks ago, I thought I was going to acclimate quicker. I arrived with no real problems, but soon some familiar symptoms cropped up. Early in the morning (like 3am early) on my fifth day, I had a fever. I suspected I'd come down with Covid.

I had reached out to Fenigno a few times since finding out A Pedir de Boca had closed, with no response. That morning, he greeteed me warmly, saying he, himself, had just returned after visiting relatives out of the country.

I told him I was sick. He immediately came over to my studio with food, and at my request, a gallon of water.

He brought me food he had cooked every day after that. Three days later he walked me, in fits and starts, to get a PCR test that confirmed my intuitive diagnosis. He has brought me food every day, without fail, as I recovered in quarantine. As a friend said, only I could go overseas, get Covid, and have my quarantine catered by my favorite restauranteur.

I haven't clue one how this worked out for me, what I did to deserve such a wonderful gift. I hope I can repay the kindness I've been shown, and have every intention of paying it forward at any/every opportunity.

I am not taking anything for granted. I am just grateful.

Food Comment

I've been eating wonderful food out of boxes, and drinking fresh juices provided by my pal Fenigno. No pics, 

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