Blogs from South, Ecuador, South America - page 10

As in any city in the States, regretfully, we have taggers and graffiti here in Cuenca as well. But the city officials are trying to focus more toward art than destruction of property. They have allowed the 'street artists' to paint walls in certain areas. They even have a contest for the best art work. there are just a few of the pictures I have taken, but it is just a small sample, so I will post more in the future.... read more

Our friend Braulio has been going to school five nights a week to get his Professional Drivers License. On Tuesday the school had an open house at Parque de la Madre, so Debi, myself, Chanel and Mandy all took a bus into town (with me carrying a large stroller) to support him. Normally this is not an easy feat. The bus drivers usually try to pick people up and drop them off on the run. The bus we take only comes by about a block and a half from our house. It usually comes up the hill about 10 minutes before the hour and goes back down about 10 minutes after the hour. As we left our house at about 5 minutes before the hour, we were delayed a few minutes by our landlord, Don Julio ... read more

Vilcabamba Known as the ‘Valley of Longevity’, Vilcabamba is a small town in Southern Ecuador famous for the age and health of its residents with one resident reportedly being 120 years old. Situated about a 90minute drive from the nearest airport of Loja (“Loha”), Vilcabamba is nestled in a valley surrounded by gorgeous Ecuadorian mountains, with clear springs and crisp mountain air. The town has become a mecca for Western health enthusiasts worldwide and attracts thousands of tourists each year looking for respite from the 9-5 daily grind. As I don’t mind a bit of meditation and yoga, I decided to spend a week in Vilcabamba before heading to the Galapagos Islands. To get there, I left the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires at about 5am, to fly to Loja airport via Guayaquil, Ecuador where ... read more

Several of the ladies that attend the Women's Bible Study on Tuesdays do not even go to Calvary Chapel Cuenca. But evidently there are not a lot of bible studies going on in town, so they come to ours. Back in February, one of the ladies heard about the Balloon Ministry and asked us to help her increase the population of their church (International Christian Church) by providing balloons to draw the children, which draws the parents. The day after we helped her they had eight new children in the church, along with their other family members. Well, they moved the location of their church and again asked us to help out. So on Saturday morning we showed up, balloons and pumps in hand. There was Braulio, Chanel and Mandy, Kathy, Nancy and Mike, Mark and ... read more

After we left the farm, we drove over to the Tarqui Zoo. It was rather small, the walk around the various cages was a little difficult, but everything was very clean and they had a lot of animals. We had lunch here and then drove back to Cuenca.... read more