Well, it's been a couple of beautiful days in Cuenca. We have been very busy with our fantastic real estate agent, Xavier, who has helped us open a bank account and taken us around to find appliances for the condo we are planning to buy. He has also taken us on tours of the city and been an amazing friend to us. We are currently waiting on the title search to be completed on the condo before actually paying for it. But we are on our way to owning a condo in Cuenca!! Once we know we're set to go, we'll send you some photos of the place.

Here's a picture of me with Xavier. He really has been wonderful and is a good friend to us.

After appliance shopping with Xavier, Gil & I took our usual afternoon walk to El Centro for lunch and some exploring. I would like to report that we are now able to climb the stairs leading up from our current rental to the old town without stopping part way up to pretend we are looking at the view, when in reality we are catching our breath in this high altitude. Gil estimates that the climb is between 5 & 6 stories (84 steps), and now, climbing slowly and steadily we get all the way to the top without stopping. Admittedly, we are panting up a storm when we get to the top, but we can get our breath back pretty quickly now. Here's a photo of the daunting climb.

Today, as we've done most days, we stopped at a restaurant for an almeurzo ejecutivo (executive lunch). It consists of a soup, a main dish which usually has rice, a meat, a salad (we don't eat the salads at the restaurants, but eat lots of it at home) and another side dish -today, large corn kernels fried with egg which is delicious -, fruit juice and a dessert. Today's cost, $2.00 each. Can't beat it!

After lunch, and some exploration strolling, we got an ice cream and walked over to Parque Calderon for some people watching. The ice cream cone was shaped like a cup. I don't know what flavor my ice cream was, but it was some kind of fruit and delicious. Gil stuck with chocolate. Here's a photo of the a happy ice cream eater.

As you can see, it's been bright and sunny here. We did have some rain in the afternoons the first week we were here. That's unusual for this time of year. But, then, the weather's been strange all over lately. Anyway, the last few days have been splendid and we just love it here.

Gil & Deborah