Cuenca

Arrival in Cuenca, Ecuador, my new home away from home?wherever that is. Meeting Stu and his three year old, Nadine at the airport and well a whirlwind of new things. Stu is a genial interesting and welcoming host. The director of Fundacion Cordillera Tropical, the organization we work closely with here and a big part of the course. Great first impressions already all around and Cuenca is about the perfect size city. Not too big, yet large enough to feel like you are somewhere. Muy tranquilo as everyone says. Our ?hacienda? here is grand and spacious, so much so it seems airy and bare all alone. Set on the hillside overlooking the city below and the river meandering just in front past la Universidad de Azuay. Unloading many boxes of gear, furniture, textbooks, medicine, clothing and bedsheets, rubber boots and kitchen utensils filling in this big empty space for the students arrival soon.

Next order of the day is meeting Big Blue, our temperamental beast of a land rover. With 250 miles and all sorts of bangs and dings this beast could best be described as a stubborn mule to get us out to the field. Installing a new battery and picking up some grocery supplies in the afternoon after meeting Stu?s wife at the house, munching on some pan de yucca. Before dark I took a stroll down into the city and picked up some empanadas for dinner before generally getting myself lost walking back home. Exhausted but I have arrived. Bienvenidos a Ecuador!

I snapped this shot of wind chimes hanging outside the balcony of the room I chose for my own here. Obviously the previous inhabitants had good sense and good taste. My guess by the creative teenage graffiti in Espanol, the mural of reef fish and two huge laughing dolphins they must have been a young artist, no doubt good signs. Clear omens of luck and good things to come!