Ladies and Gents ~ The Rain Season Has Commenced

After a downpour, the clarity is exceptional.

  

Now, kindly stop burning.

Excellent location for a future Hobbit-hole.

Swiftly the green emerges.

Smile

A Clock With No Hands

Can you exist without waiting?

Without expecting

To be filled with the next thing?

Mooji

I have all the right ingredients. It's been raining lightly for 24 hours. It's the weekend and there's no place like home. We have sustenance, ambience and unidentified flying objects. I haven't seen either of these tipos before and they show up the same day. Migratory? On the equator? 

I swear on Ma Libassi's grave that these are "as shot". 

Best viewed on a big screen. 

What is going on out here?

Shy Finch. A female. 

Walking Around Cuenca

The diversity of Ecuador is mirrored in the wild color combinations

of marble tile. 

(?)

Municipal Museum of Modern Art

In 1876, Bishop Miguel León founded the "House of Temperance" to treat chronic drunks in the city. It is only after two years that a small house is acquired next to the Plaza de San Sebastián to the presbyter Martín Aguirre, so that this praiseworthy social service can be provided.

The corner part of the current complex is incorporated in a lease in 1919, but the date of its construction has not been established. 

Subsequently, on January 15, 1924, the House of Temperance was destined for the Men's Prison of Cuenca. 

After some years, in 1937, it was decided to dedicate the property to the Asylum for the Elderly and the Indigent. And finally, the building, with the expansion of some premises, is converted into the School of Work, Children's Home and Health Center. 

In 1978, the Ecuadorian State, through the Ministry of Health, transferred the building to the local Municipality in the Mayoralty of Dr. Pedro Córdova.

The following year, the Central Bank and the Municipality sign an agreement that allows its restoration and adaptation to new use, a process carried out by the architect Patricio Muñoz Vega, who respects to the maximum the characteristics and architectural elements of one of the most beautiful places in the city. Transformed into a museum in 1981, it was inaugurated in February 1992. 

If you're well-off, you live in a wealthy area and you get an elaborate church.

When you're in a poorer neighborhood, you get a more humble church building, like San Sebastian's here.
It should be the other way around. The poor are humbled enough.

Hanging Out In My Hotel

Atención: Wear camera strap at all times

I'm still in "Taking care of business" mode. I have a strong conviction that will end this week as I retrieve my goodies from Customs in Guayaquil. I know what my agent's fee is, but no estimate on what my entry fees will be. Only challenge there is, they all want payment in cash and the port is in a neighborhood where it would be easy to snuff someone and lose the body. Look, it's suppose to be an exciting adventure, right?

My second attempt at getting my Green Card is now a successful memory. They cancelled all appointments last week claiming "system maintenance" after I took the five hour trip to Cuenca and booked a hotel room for four days. They sent my lawyer and email an hour before we were supposed to leave for Azogues. The next day, I failed to find a last minute tour offering so I entertained myself by spending a lot of money and walking about nine miles. The journey also featured just missing busses and no one with change for a twenty. Finally, I stand at my beloved puerto de pueblo and my keys are not in the backpack but somewhere in the suitcase. Deep breaths. Slowly, now.

If you're going to be stuck somewhere, Cuenca is as good a place as any.

The one item that wasn't playing that game was the finding of a mid-range telephoto for the Nikon at half price. Then I gave $35 for a pair of deck shoes but, there it is. This week I bought a different lens –also 300mm– but $100 less. The missing feature is vibration reduction, which is cool but extraneous for a camera on a tripod.

With a 105mm lens. Magnification 2X

With a 300mm lens.

Having successfully booked a walking tour, after the victorious booking of a Green Card pickup on Friday, I disrupted about 8 churches and cathedrals, a sombrero factory and museum, and the lookout point on the north ridge. This group of photos is only what I could get hanging out in my hotel room.

Cuenca will be partly cloudy with a 50% chance of rain.

Wandering aimlessly and taking in what's in front of you.

Now that's sauntering.

Fauna y Flora

There are some wicked things in this wilderness 

and I intend to find them.

Papallacta in Summer

The Hostel Pampallacta ("m" is important as the town is Papallacta) was a cozy adobe hut with one water temperature – hot.  I made full use of the fireplace to the extent that Chuga had to lecture me on carbon monoxide.

We're at about 10K feet elevation. You can see my breath and the breath of the pool. I put a thermometer where the water was coming in. It was 115 degrees.

Horse Ride Didgeradoo

The One Life-form who asks– Why?

Do you have a place to stay down there?

I reserved a room in a hostel for five nights.

Do you have any friends or family there?

Not yet.

😦

Now that it’s obvious I wasn’t bluffing about leaving the U.S., several people asked me, Why Ecuador? My first response– 

Is it ever in the news? Well, there you go.

But now it is in the news in connection with the latest US hostile takeover in Venezuela. More on that later. None of that was happening when I surfed the virtual planet for a place to retire. Even with the fresh challenges, Ecuador won the paradise award by a wide margin. Ecuador is handling the refugee influx without drama or hysterics. It’s a refreshing change for an X-Gringo.

The one certainty was, I wasn’t retiring in the U.S. Firstly, I couldn’t afford to retire here. I’d be working the rest of my life (I’d never do that to myself) or living with my kids (I’d never do that to them). Two, we’ve just recently laid bare just how corrupt the federal government is and what it portends for the forsaken 99.9% of residents. The .01% of remaining citizens are the government. Politicians are the cardboard cutouts the extremely wealthy work through. Billionaires! No logic. No compassion. They just run things. Three, the bombardment of media, entertainment and just plain noise of the ego-orgy in New Babylon cuts across the grain of who I am. 

Ecuador is divided in thirds vertically. The coastal planes, the Andes and rainforest/jungle. This was the first time Ecuador turned me on. You choose your climate by choosing one of the three. Coast– 80/70F and humid. Mountains– cooler, relative to the elevation. Low humidity. Jungle– irrelevant.

The punch line is, wherever you choose to live, it’s that temperature year 'round. On the equator there are no hurricanes, tornadoes or surprises, except a slight chance of an earthquake. Like the one they had yesterday. The only seasons are wet and dry. I chose a village at approximately 6000 ft. in a valley in the southern Andes. During the two weeks I was there it always got up to the mid 70s and at night I laid out on a lawn chair for hours wrapped in a blanket looking at the stars. It sprinkled once or twice but didn’t rain. I’m writing this in the middle of the rainy season (about 5 inches a month, if I know how to read a chart).

Surrounding Vilcabamba are three national forests. Some of the taxis in town are 4-wheel drive pickups. Enough said. Ecuador has the largest concentration of hummingbirds and number of orchid species and more species of birds than anywhere on earth. I'm going to need a telephoto lens. One of the studios I'll be working in is the cloud forest that lays like frosting at the tops of the mountains.

The whole country fits nicely inside Nevada so, traveling to other amazing places via autobus takes a few hours but the high-end tour buses are comfortable. Taking a group taxi to Loja - 25 miles north, costs $2. A bus trip to Cuenca - 250k through the mountain passes is about $8. You can also fly cross country for about $50 but only on a couple days per week.

⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥悪⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥⬥

The human natives are anything but restless. There may be a residue of Mayan spirit remaining that empowers them with a “knowing” that I don’t know how to put in words. They are life-smart. On the surface– they are kind, helpful and inclusive. There is a substantial gringo population that acts as the control group if you’re into observing and evaluating the mellowness of Ecuadorans scientifically. My experience so far is that nobody wants to bother anybody.

Greetings!

Greetings, Earthlings!

Welcome to the new blog. We're broadcasting from Ecuador on the one-month anniversary of our arrival. By we, I mean me – the Vinster, Vini, (Beenie en Español). I may indeed have Multiple Personality Syndrome but we all get along.

The mission of this site is to illustrate the abundant beauty of the Ecuadorian countryside. Photos and videos will be accompanied by insights and revelations I deem significant (heavy revvies and wonderings from the wanderings). 

Loja Province

On the doorstep of the Podocarpus Parque Nacionál

 The pueblo Vilcabamba below Mandango Mtn.

A gravel road twists around the mountains outside of town.