Oooh fun, a new color! Well I´ve been busier than usual lately, so despite the fact that after the better part of a year waiting for the return of free internet access in the Tourism Office and now finally having it again (yippee for technology that makes communication easier...) I´ve been lapse in getting new material up on the blog. Doesn´t help that my camera seems pretty much dead.

A slice of life, all true: I took the Ciudad de Piñas bus back to Zaruma today from Cuenca. That´s a 6 and a half hour ride, which in a regular U.S. of A. lifestyle would be a long way to go, but here in crazy Ecuaworld that´s not too bad. When I go to Quito it´s 12-13 hours on a bus. That´s longer than the flight from Los Angeles to New Zealand, and much less comfortable!

Anyways, some stickers that I saw used as decorations inside the bus: (By the way, I was sitting in the front row and so these are decorations posted forward of the first row of seats... I assume that there were more interesting tidbit sto observe if only I'd turned around and had a look...)
An image of Che Guevara. Mickey Mouse. A bald eagle´s head superimposed over the stars and stripes of the U.S.A. flag. A "Divino Niño Jesus" sticker. An image of the baby Jesus with his hands over his head. An image of adult Jesus' head and bust with a crown of thorns, bleeding and crying. A picture of an anthropomorphic water droplet wearing headphones and white gloves and labeled "Lluvia" (rain). Three different Ferarri emblems and symbols ... two of them had the stallion facing left and one, the one that had a stylized signature by Michael Schumaker, had it facing right. A checkered flag with the word RACING under it.

No joke. Mickey and Micheal and Che and Jesus, all together in my bus today.

More true stuff: Also seen on the bus ride today, but outside of the window - Flocks of wild yellow parakeets. A black hen with feathers on its feet that made it look like it was wearing feathery bell-bottoms, just running down the street like it was late for an appointment. About a million dogs lying on concrete porches and packed clods of dirt and piles of gravel, looking positively DEAD from the heat and humidity. A LARGE tarantula crossing the street - the bus drove over it without hitting it, and this I know because the thing was definitely big enough that if we'd hit it there would have been a bump that would have knocked the ayudante and guardia (bus attendant/money collector and the armed guard generally present to discourage holdups) right off their feet. Last but not least, I saw a man with down syndrome and wearing a black fanny pack take a leak facing the bus, full frontal funtime. We were stopped for a minute at some backwater intersection loading or unloading something and he walked off presumably to find a place to do his business in private, but when he got what he deemed to be far enough away, he turned back to face the bus and whipped his little salchipapa ( an Ecuadorian term for a snack consisting of french fries and hot dog slices... I use it in this sense for a laugh) and hosed down some ornamental shrubs that were planted in the median.

It was truly a superb visit to Cuenca though. Got some painting done on an apartment, drank some wine, ate some good macaroni and cheese, went running one morning in the park, and the conversations... OOOH the conversations. Good times. Ciao for now.