Post 3349
- 14 years and 50 days since I started this blog -
Travel Journal
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 14 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a Type-2 Diabetes diagnosis, and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to a loss of 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since. I started adding commentary after a while, but recently it has been a food journal only. Except when I travel (every Winter).While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food photos when I've eaten something interesting or pretty). I write about my experiences, and use it as a photo dump. And that's where we find ourselves now.
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The weather in Cuenca is known for it's 'all four seasons in a day, every day'. There's usually bright sun. some rain, the transition sometimes instantaneous, average high temperature around 69º F, average low about 15º less, 365 days a year. Variations are due to changes in the Pacific Ocean currents about 200 miles away.
This trip is a bit of an outlier. In the past four weeks, there have been extended periods of rain about three quarters of the time. When I can't walk around, I have nothing to do but eat.
*NOTE: I am not comparing my experience here with what's going on at home, where they have had bitter cold temperatures and snow for thirteen of the last fourteen days. I still get Winter weather advisories, and I've gotten them almost every day for over a month now. Stay strong, my fellow Central New Yorkers.
What all this rain I've been getting has done is to prevent much of my rambling, my favorite way of spending time when I travel. If it weren't otherwise so pleasant, it would be boring.
Hence, far fewer photos this week.
I've been getting to play three or four times a week. When I found that all four open mics were on Wednesday, I was able to convince the owner of Solano Bistro, one of my favorite restaurants, to move theirs to Tuesday. And the Blues Enigma Band (fronted by my friend Claudia) has had a gig every weekend, and that has meant some real good playing time.
Speeking of playing, I got some bad news from Chiang Mai: There has been a crackdown on expats (farangs) playing music. For decades, you couldn't work on any visa that didn't specifically name the work you were allowed to do. The long-term 'retirement' visas, the most favored type by the Europeans, Australians and North Americans who live here, permits no work at all.The popular new digital nomad visas are quite specific that work must be done on a computer.
Performing music, with or without pay, is considered a specific kind of work, and if you aren't a Thai citizen, you probably can't do it legally.
This law has been ignored for decades, but the Thai government has cracked down on it now. They arrested and are deporting a rather well-known expat from Europe, and the owner of the club he was playing at, and it made national headlines. All the venues I ever played at are now Thai-only performers. My new favorite band announced they will no longer perform.
I may have to rethink Chiang Mai if this continues. A significant part of my happiness there comes from performing. Although it's usually at open mics, every year some musician friend comes up short a bass player and I get to play a whole night.
It's a major blow if that outlet stops being available to me, and if my friends' bands, all of which include both Thais and expats, are unable to perform.
Back in Cuenca, I remain entranced by this place. Staying at Hostal Yakumama has made this the best stay ever, anywhere, since I started my winter travels at the end of 2017. And that's saying something!
I always choose to appreciate what I have instead of dwelling on what I've lost. Even more when I appreciate the here and now as opposed to what might happen in the future.
On to the photos:
People Pics
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| Claudia and I, at Hostal Yakumama/Bistro Yaku (my favorite place in Cuenca, and where I intend to stay every visit from now on). |
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| One last pic of Patrick the night before he left. Unfortunately, the altitude did a number on him, and when a medication he needed wasn't available (at all, in Ecuador) he called it at three weeks. It was a real joy spending time with him - he told me he had had a great time in Cuenca. |
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| At the open mic at Solano Bistro, that's Kike, the open mic host, on guitar, backing up 17th-century page Oscar, a classically trained singer, who did an amazing job with Jackie Wilson's 'Higher and Higher'. This is the open mic I convinced the owner to switch from Wednesday to Tuesday, so I could attend (and have one more night of playing). The PA setup is minimal (in fact the speaker behind Kike is the whole thing), so, as much as I would like to jam with Kike on bass, I do a solo as a singing guitarist. |
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| Francisco Polo (l) is my favorite drummer in Cuenca, and one of my favorites anywhere. Anthony (r) gave him a pair of drumsticks. I can't wait to hear him use them soon. |
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| Chowing down in the garden at Thai Lotus, my favorite Thai restaurant in Cuenca (it's great, and I haven't found any others that are even good). |
Wandering
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With all the rain, on a sunny day, Rio Tomebamba has rapids. Still comes across as tranquil, somehow. |
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| Claudia is moving to a new house in a small town in the mountains outside of Cuenca. We couldn't get in, and there weren't good angles to show it, but it looks great through the fence. Thie top photo shows the view of the town church from her house, the bottom, Claudia and an old chapel as you enter the town. |
Eduardo Vega
My dear friend Felipe took Patrick and myself to see some of the ceramic mosaic murals by one of Cuenca's most famous artists, Eduardo Vega. These large murals were installed in the most stately homes in Cuenca, and some of the city's public buildings, like the university. Unfortunately, as these mansions were transformed into business centers and stores, they were not moved or preserved in any way. The first two pictures above are of a mural that was once a huge home in Cuemca's centro, now it is behind a bank of customer service stations at a cellphone service center. I didn't take any pictures at the next one - it was too depressing. The front salon where it had been created was now a drugstore, and it was behind shelves that had rolls of toilet paper stacked up on top of them. I was appalled. Lastly, though, one mural that was still in the setting it was created in. Although the building is now a shopping complex, the lobby of this mansion has been transformed into a gallery, with the original setting, behind the grand staircase, is as it was. That's Patrick and Felipe on the stairs. If you can magnify the bottom picture, it's worth it to see the details. Many different animals, warriors, scenes are in there, for your detecting pleasure.
Food
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| I hate the way this picture came out, looking like a lasagna, when it's actually mote pata soup, a traditional Ecuadorean/Andean soup made in the Mardi Gras/Carnaval season. This is my favorite version from La Warmikuna Cocina Taller. It is a very hearty soup with pork, hominy, beans, and seeds. |
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| Breakfast burrito at Bistro Solano (with a side of crispy bacon). |
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| Spaghetti carbonara at Pizza Mediterraneo was very, very good. A new restaurant with Milanese owners. |
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