Bus Stops And Friendly Cuencanos

The weather changes every hour in Cuenca. I was walking back from the Coopera near Avenida de las Americas when the skies opened up. Of course I had no umbrella. And the nearest bus stop was 3 blocks away. Frequently a bus will stop if you flag him down. The buses run every 5 mintues and I was able to flag the next bus in about 3 minutes thus avoiding a complete soaking. The fare is 25 cents but the driver usually makes change if you have a 50 cent or $1 coin. I  purchase a bus card and pass my card over the card reader. Students and seniors over 65 pay 12 cents when using a card. The down side is that the bus drivers are frustrated Indy race car drives. In my scores of rides I have only met 2or 3 bus drivers that drive safe and slow.

I ventured out in the afternoon to buy some Blu-Ray discs. I found a tienda that sells them 3 for $10. On the way there waiting for the light to turn green I exchanged a smile with a Cuencano about my age. Note to readers I know about 400 Spanish words but my conjugation of verbs has a long way to go. He asked me in Spanish "how it was going" and if I was an American.  We found out that we lived only a block away. In the next 10 minutes we chatted about our children, grandchildren and the crazy Cuencano cab drivers. I told him I had an errand to complete and then I was walking to Super Maxi ( the big supermarket in Cuenca. He asked me if I needed a ride to the store. After waiting for me to shop he drove me back to his apartment.(a block from my apartment) . He invited me in for coffee and we agreed to meet Thursday for a walk.  All in All a great experience and maybe a new friend in Cuenca. I'm sure I killed  the tense in a couple of my Spanish sentences but I have found Cuencanos to smile and appreciate that I am using Spanish. My favorite mistake was when asked if I like the fish in Ecuador. I quickly replied, "Me gusta mucho Cortina. thinking I was saying "Corvina" which is Sea  Bass. I really was saying, "I really like the curtains".

The picture below I captured in the Tomebamba River where some Camapasinos were washing their laundry.

Churches, Stilts, Soldiers, PlantMan, Rivers

I had good intentions when I started this video. I was going to shoot video of at least 10 of the scores of churches in Cuenca. I easily became distracted with students on stilts, soldiers guarding the Provincial Government building and the rivers. But the most interesting distraction has been the "Plant Man".

Cuenca is a city of 400,000 people. I walk everyday and I have seen this man 5 different times. Yesterday, I saw him in two different locations. Next time I see him I'm going to buy a plant.