Monday, March 30, 2015

Tripping to Cuenca

A change of plans brought us some extra traveling this past week.  Originally, we were to change to our "official" fields sometime at the end of the first week of April.  A week ago Friday, Karen and I found out that we would be changing fields sooner.  For me, this also meant getting acquainted with yet another field on a temporary basis.  On Thursday morning, Karen and I left Quito for an 8 1/2 hour bus ride to Cuenca, where we arrived in time for the midweek Bible study in the home of María Isabel.  We spent Friday cleaning the "pieza," doing some necessary shopping and trying to get somewhat organized.  On Saturday, we traveled to the little town of Paute for a study with a dear little family that is originally from Peru.  Sunday we had our fellowship meeting at 9:00 and Gospel Meeting at 10:00 before heading to the terminal to make the 9 hour bus ride back to Quito.  We arrived at the suite a little after 10:00 and were quite ready to crawl into bed!  We'll head back to Cuenca on Thursday if all goes as planned, and I should make it to my "official" field on April 9.  Plans change; be flexible!  
Bus rides are long; take pictures!  
I've gotten to be quite an expert at running the battery on my phone completely down by the time we reach our destination due to my constant picture taking.  I took over 300 on this trip, but I won't make you look at all of them.  Just a "few!"  :-)  

This one gives you a little idea of everything - the beautiful scenery, the blurriness due to a rapidly moving bus and the special effects that come from seeing everything through the window of a bus.





A soccer "field" seemingly out in the middle of nowhere


Restaurant

Vendors getting ready to jump on any bus that stops to sell their wares




Where did all these people come from?!  We're seemingly in no man's land, and all of a sudden there's a horde of people waiting to get on our bus.








We're nearing the end of the rainy season, so green is the color of choice.

Cows (and horses and donkeys and sheep and pigs and goats) are tied up any old where (usually by their head) and left to graze.





Picnicking in the pasture

















Pork anyone?


One lady's luggage unloaded

Just a few of the many dogs hanging around this little berg

2 comments:

Karmen said...

Wow - definitely a beautiful country, no doubt about that. I love your pic about 3/4 of the way down the post with the fields on the hillside and the top obscured by fog. Awesome!

Kamela said...

I imagine you'll be able to get some pretty awesome shots with a real camera when you come!