Saturday, July 31, 2010

Day Trip


Friday (Viernes) 30 de July (Julio) 2010

So…what I thought was going to be a maybe a two 
(2) hour drive out of Cuenca to see my friend Girard’s 
property…turned into a “TRIP”.

To better understand all this…I guess I need to back 
up a bit…

A couple/few weeks ago Girard asked if I’d like to get 
out of town to see his property and also see some 
scenery on the way. He also told me he had asked a 
mutual acquaintance Graham to join us. Well…after a 
couple of “false starts” during the past couple weeks…
we were about to and finally get on with our road trip.

Now originally Gerard had mentioned that we’d get 
out of town for a couple of hours. Keeping in mind 
our past get togethers and the fact that he’s married 
to a Cuencano whom I'm sure he would want to get 
home to…I had no doubt that a couple of hours...
literally meant a couple of hours.

To make a long story short the couple of hours turned 
into about six (6). 
Now “I am not complaining one bit” however…
I’m the kind of person that should never be told that 
something will last “X” hours and then…surprise…
it’s far and above the original “guesstimate”.

All in all (and I think I speak for all concerned) I had a 
very enjoyable afternoon/evening. I did indeed get to 
see some beautiful countryside with incredible 
mountain ranges. On this note…I feel compelled to 
state that the extremely green and very high 
(approximately 12,000 ft.) mountains were well…
AWESOME!!!

In addition…the sight of the surrounding unspoiled 
natural land was indeed inspiring…and that’s not 
even mentioning the “clean mountain air”! J

The only thing that made me “just a teeny bit” 
(Ok…high anxiety) apprehensive was the constant 
upwards (and what seemed as “never-ending”
driving onwards towards the yet unseen summit of
 the “MOUNTAIN”(or into the clouds for all I knew)! J

Hey…12,000 feet is by no means a pimply hill J J

Anyway once at the top…the view was indeed 
awesome.
I cannot believe people actually live up there.

Now I need to back-up a bit.
Gerard’s property is nowhere near the top. In fact 
his place...when built…will be situated someplace 
near the lower(est) range of the mountain. However 
this property (with a stunning view) is probably a 
good half-hour drive to Cuenca proper.

I will say this…as awesome as this adventure was 
to me…I was very happy to be heading down to a 
much lower and more civilized area (I am after all... 
"city-boy").

Oh incidentally. Along our way down "El Mountain"
we made a “tourista” pit-stop at Mirador (viewpoint
de Turi…which is a well known over-look of Cuenca 
Cuidad and very glad I had a chance to experience 
this sight.















After our stop overlooking Cuenca it was about 
this time that the three of us…decided it was time 
to “fill the bellies”. This incidentally suited me just 
fine as the El Estomago (Stomach) was starting to 
send me “alert” messages ! J

Well…finally entering Cuenca Centro and being that 
Graham had never had the pleasure of dining there…
we invaded Raymipampa Café y Restaurante. Good 
choice…as we all ended up having the same thing…
Fried Shrimp with French Fries…a side salad of 
various items (the only thing I remember was the 
Guacamole) and a drink (my choice was limonada). 
Of course this being Raymipampa they once again... 
did not miss providing a “huge“ portion.

By the way..under six (6) bucks a piece !

So folks…that was my day and until the next rant…

Hasta Luego y tenga un bien dia  J  J
(So long and have a good day) J  J




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