Preparing to TRAVEL....

As we  count down the days till our departure for Minneapolis and Omaha (on Thursday) life goes on pretty much as usual.....

Yesterday Susana took us to find the special coffee for Linden who is now in Miami and dying for a good cup of Ecuadorian coffee....

El Tostador Export Coffee

Sealed tight to preserve the flavor...

 I had written down the address wrong,  but Susana had an idea where it might be, so we followed our noses.....










The shop is small but they seem to sell a lot of coffee - they roast it themselves.....
Got some to take to the states with me -- both my sons-in-law love good coffee....

Leaving the coffee vendor we passed a street hawker selling some kind of hair do dad....

He was a very good salesman and seemed to be doing a great business....demonstrating how to use the piece to make your hair look very neat and finished.....  Almost made me want to buy one!!

Then Susana had to go to Ricaute to make an appointment with a chiropractor who seems to be a great healer....he only spends 5 minutes with each patient,  charges $5, and they are cured after 3 treatments...  He handles over 100 patients a day....You have to go get a number and then go back in 2 or 3 hours....

While they wait.....

the indigenous people make good use of their time...weaving straw into the lovely "Panama" hats which of course are from Ecuador.....This is in the courtyard of the chiropractors office......

After Susana got her number she took us to SuperMaxi to get toothpaste and a couple of other things....since we leave Thursday I didn't need much......but we forgot the toothpaste!!!

Later in the evening Susana brought over some fresh "pan de choclo"...bread made with corn.....a few minutes later Marcella from Tacanijo called saying she wanted to bring me money to order some personalized pens for the business.....she came with her mother, the baby and oldest son.....

We got to talking about her mother-in-law from Mexico who had visa/passport problems and we got worried about Ricardo leaving the country with less than 6 months on his passport....seems there's a lot of misinformation out there.....we spent the whole day today calling the US Embassy in Guayaquil, the airlines,  our dear Silvia (Ecuadorian counsel in Minneapolis) and FINALLY found out that there is no problem leaving but he will have to renew his passport in Minneapolis because ECUADOR will not let us back unless he has at least 6 months left on his passport......he was planning to take a 4am bus to Guayaquil to be at the embassy by 8am.....
Anyway, that's not necessary,  thank God.....

And by the way, the pan was delicious with coffee!!

This afternoon I sent Yolanda over to pick up the bolero jacket Fany Dominguez made for Cristina to wear over her sleeveless First Communion dress....

It turned out darling -- the fabric I had...kind of a cotton printed "brocade"  ...  I asked her to put ruffles on it and puffy sleeves....sent a picture to Deborah who showed it to Cristina -- her reaction, "I LOVE it!"

Fany does great work...the cost to make this $7, but we traded some sewing notions that I had for her work!     The zippers, etc., I had bought years ago at an auction and never used,  and they are what she needs....

Tomorrow Jean comes over for manicure and pedicures....then Ricardo and I pack,  and Thursday night we are on our way!


I probably won't post again until we return to Cuenca on May 5......