Garden Trip and a Halloween Party

There is always something to do here.

The Cuenca Chamber of Commerce offers day trips to various places of interest, there was a trip to a rose farm and a candle factory, we missed both of those. 

We took a day trip to a Botanical Garden about an hour outside of the city, it was really beautiful. They have incorporated plants from the Amazon, the coastal area, the desert area, along with local flora. 

It was interesting, our guide said that it was amazing that all these plants can live together, and why is it so hard for people to do that.  HHmm.

This area was originally private land, and it has a love story as part of its history.  A young woman from a wealthy Spanish family lived here, she was not supposed to "fraternize" with the indigenous people, well she did and got sent to a Convent for the duration of  her pregnancy.  The poor little baby didn't make it, but she met a young man, they married and lived happily after.

Gold is in abundance in this area and the story says that he gave her a bowl filled with jewels and gold as a wedding gift, the bowl has never been found.  So the story goes, who knows.

Some pics;

The Botanic Garden

Our Guide for the Botanic Garden, he LOVED his job, and his enthusiasm was fantastic.  Happy guy, lots of smiles.

An incredibly beautiful flower, we have no clue what it is called.

Orchids are in abundance here, but these are the smallest ones we had ever seen, beautiful.  We used a coin to exemplify the small size of the orchids.  A 50 cent piece is slightly larger than a quarter. 

By the way, the currency here is  American $$.  No exchange rate nonsense.  We carry lots of dollar coins, all those Susan B. Anthony's that we didn't want in the US are here.  Ecuadorians  like the coins because they more durable than paper money.  When you pay for something, you may get change in both Ecuadorian coins, and US coins,  thus the 50 cent piece.  Since things are fairly inexpensive here, and credit cards are rarely used, you always have pockets filled with heavy coins.  

Anyway, I have wandered from the point of the pictures, more Botanic Garden,

View from the Botanic Garden, beautiful.

Chapel in the Botanic Garden, in Ecuador there is always a chapel for something!!!!

Just a beautiful flower

Trumpet Flower Tree

I don't remember the name of this tree, but these thorns were really sharp, a defense for predatory insects.

These are the graves in the middle of the Botanic Gardens of the man and woman that married and happily spent their lives here.  We hope the story is true and that there is a bowl filled with gold and jewels with them.

The Botanic Garden was beautiful, at the end of the trip we were served sandwiches and tea.  It was a warm, sunny afternoon, what a great way to spend the day.


 OK, Halloween.

We were invited to a Halloween party and costumes were requested.  We had been in Quito most of the week getting our Cedula's,  and we did not have a lot of time to plan, so we improvised with some stuff we had, some stuff we rented, and a little bit of a wine cork our friend Leslie gave us.

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Oscar in his Halloween costume, Ecuadorian hat and pants.  Not a happy guy.



Michael was a convict

I was a wizard, with our pal Digit in the pic. (Yes, I tried being as pale as possible)

 

Beautiful  girl at the front door of the party

Unbelievable spread.  FABULOUS FOOD.

A Priest, a Witch and a Ghoul!!

Cool, creepy table setting

Batman and Elvis - cool!!!

Our lovely landlord, the hostess of the party dressed as a Hippy.   It was a Halloween Feast.

We had a great time at the party.  I can't remeber the last time we got dressed up for Halloween.  We "rented" Michaels convict costume, we bought my wizard hat, two masks,  and pom poms for my "wizard stick", it set us back about $9.00.

Next up, the Cuenca Festivities.