Monday December 22

---

I woke up at 6am to catch the 645am bus to Cuenca to meet up with the Abad family (Michelle Abad is one of my best friends and her family is Ecuadorain in the country for th holidays to see family). caught the bus just fine and had a connection in Riobamba, 2 hours from Banos). By accident I got off the bus at the wrong stop. Totally lost I asked some kids my age where to go to catch the bus to Cuenca, and I only had 40 minutes to figure it out. They directed me toward a city bus. Jumped on the city bus and asked these older women where to go. They laughed at me, due to being a gringo with bad spanish and being lost, but were very helpful and told me where to get off. Got off at some street corner. Not sure if I was in the right place I asked another guy where to go. He told me to stay put and wait and I would get picked up. Sure enough, it worked out.

The bus ride was long and took close to 7 hours to get to Cuenca. I arrived early in the afternoon. I walked out of the bus station to grab a taxi. Every taxi I tried, around 8 or 9, told me they did not know where the adress was. Looking back, there is a good chance they did not no where it was and some of them probably did not want to drive that far even though it was only 15 minute drive max.



I started to get nervous and panic as I was in a new place I did not know at all and everyone I had talked to said they did not know where the adress was that I would tell them or show them. So when in doubt, I started to walk. I figured out which way the city center was and started walking. The city was beautiful, old cobble stone streets, beautiful churches everywhere (one church for each sunday in the year 52). The city was clean and I felt very safe for the most part. I walk for about 1.5-2 hours before I sat down in some park in front of a beautiful church. I talked with a Columbian immigrant for about 30 minutes about this and that. I showed him the address and he knew where it was. I tried abou 4 more taxi's before I found one who knew the adress.



We drove to the edge of the city and started up this small gravel rode. I was thinking to myself hopefully I am in the right place. Eventually he said we are here. I got out of the taxi and was thinking I am not in the right spot. But eventaully realized about 50' up the road was the name of the complex that was on my address. It was a gated community. Michelle told me to press #10 when I got there. I pressed number ten and some lady started speaking spanish and I sad I was looking for the Abad family. The gate opened.



A lady came out to greet me, which I had never met, and told me to come into her phone. It was Michelles mom's, Maria, Aunt. I sat down with some cousins of Michelle, 11, 12 years old, and one a bit older, and the aunt. The only ones who knew a bit of English was the younger kids but were no where close to fluent. Between my broken spanish and the small amount of English Emelio (the 12 year old) knew we talked about this and that for an hour or two. They had informed me they family was still on the way back from the beach.



Eventually Michelle and the family arrived. We all chatted and hung out and before I knew it we were going out on the town. We were picked up by Patricio, there uncle (dad's brother) and we headed over to his house. He had a son our age and a daughter a few years younger. A bunch of us went our for beers in the town. It was a lot of fun talking to locals (the kids and their friend were very fluent in english) We drank and hung out until about 12 which is when everything was closing down. Headed back to the house and fell asleep.





Quote of the day: When you are lost, make an adventure out of it, it is not necesarily good or bad but just a different experience.

-unkown.

---