another weekend away with Camila's family!

This past weekend I went away again with Camila and her parents, this time to Gualaceo, which is about 45 minutes from Cuenca.  We stayed again with friends of her father, in another lovely home, nested in a magnificent setting.  How lucky I am to have had these little excursions at the end of my stay in Ecuador!

The couple who own this house take great pleasure in the beauty that they have created.  The wife is an avid gardener and has so tastefully and elegantly planted so many beautiful flowers and plants that surround the house.  It's like walking around paradise.

flowers outside along the back of the house

pool and view of the back of the house

fish pond in front of house

We left Cuenca around noon on Saturday.  Not long after arriving, everyone sat down to eat.  At that point there will probably about 10 people, but eventually there were 15.  Then some went into the pool, but I chose the jacuzzi as the pool water seemed a bit cool.

This family had some interesting gadgets that I had never seen before:  a cotton candy-making machine and a chocolate fondue fountain machine.  I only had a little cotton candy, but it was hard to resist dipping the mountains of cut up fresh fruit (melons, kiwi, pineapple, grapes, bananas, etc.) into the flowing warm chocolate.  We did this, of course, before we had dinner!  Like the previous weekend, a lot of time was spent in food preparation and eating.  I participated as much as I could in the food prep, learning more about foods of Ecuador and how to prepare some dishes.  We had dinner outside near the pool, but it was not cold because various grills where the meat was cooked were going full blast, keeping us warm.    

The sleeping accommodations that I saw included 2 rooms with 2 sets of bunk beds.  There were clearly more beds on the 2nd floor, but I never went up there.

After breakfast on Sunday, I went for a walk with Rodrigo and Rocio along the Rio (River) Santa Barbara.

When we returned, a number of people, including me, went into the pool & jacuzzi.  Then there was a marathon food preparation.  There was soup, with homemade pasta (and no pasta machine, just hands!), some kind of beef stew, a casserole of sorts with mashed green bananas, which might not sound good, but was excellent, and of course rice--there's always rice.  After cleaning up from the meal, a group of us went into town to buy shoes for some of the young people of the group.  Gualceo is known for its beautiful, inexpensive leather shoes.  There were many, many people on the streets shopping for shoes.  Not longer after we got back it was time to leave.

I feared that I would have to say goodbye to Rodrigo, Rocio, and Camila when they got me home.  The tears were already welling up in my eyes, but Rodrigo said that they would come by for a goodbye next weekend, only delaying the inevitable, but I must say that I am glad that it hasn't yet happened.  It will be very difficult.