Monday, August 29, 2016

Thursday August 25, 2016 Montanita Revisited



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Thursday August 25, 2016
As promised, here is the last instalment of processed photos from our departure day at Montanita.
This was, overall, a lovely trip mainly due to the hard work of Brian and Jimmy.  
The hotel was OK, but a little strange.  The swimming pool is only about 12' long and is not the same as the one in the brochures (which is from a sister hotel 2 blocks away).  There is no elevator, and some rooms can only be accessed by a narrow, wooden spiral staircase.  Our room, as in a lot of others, had 4 bunk beds, with a regular size on the bottom, so room for 12 people, plus a sink, and a small fridge.  That was it.  No chair, desk, lounge, TV, coffee maker, microwave, etc...  On the plus side, it had a nice balcony, good view, large bathroom, and a decent shower with hot water.
It was also shocking that some of the rooms only faced to the rear, where the view was decidedly lacking.
Montanita is a fun town during the week for us old folks.  Not many of us would enjoy the weekends when the town is packed with kids and the noise is unabated until 4am.  The weather is tolerable in August, and the bugs are few, but nasty.  Wear repellent.
The bus driver was very professional and the long rides passable.  Getting to see the magnificent humpback whales makes the whole trip worthwhile.
I hope you enjoy the photos.  That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al 
© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.
NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

Am I seeing things?  Owner submerged, doing repairs..

Huge fish'n'chips supper, with beer, for $7

Street entertainment

In back of the hotel, an open kitchen!

And a second one too....

Egret in a tree

Egret doing some fishing

Wild relief art on a wall


Interior of the local church

Find the syntax error on this hilarious sign

Dusk on the Cajas


Sunday, August 28, 2016

Sunday August 28, 2016 Llacao



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Sunday August 28, 2016
Friday we went for a delayed appointment at 2pm with the doctor we hoped would schedule Cristina for her hernia surgery.  Wouldn't you know it, there were 4 groups waiting, and all had 2pm appointments.  Then the doctor didn't show up until 2:35, saw 2 of the groups by 3:30, and left....!!!  WTF???!!  We talked to the administration people who did not show our appointment (another WTF), so they casually made us another appointment for Monday.  We are not impressed so far with our first major test of the IESS system.

Jeff Van Pelt told us that he finally knew the way to the top of the flat mountain that we have been calling Table Mountain, or El Tablon.   The locals know it by another name which I did not catch.  So today was a morning ride with Jeff and LT Murphy to get up there and enjoy what we knew would be fantastic views.
Basically we ride out the Panamerica Norte to Capulispamba and hang a left onto the Sidcay road and ride right through Llacao to the mirador (viewpoint).
The top of this mountain looks so flat from below but it really isn't.  And also some of the roads up there are bone-chatteringly rough.  We started to go on a couple of roads but turned back when we decided that the extra view wasn't worth banging up our motorcycles over... 
But,... views we did get!!!  Since I have this simple, free program called Image Composite Editor, I tried several 3-shot panoramas and the program stitched them together flawlessly.  We had lunch at a cute little town called Solano and finally found our way back to Cuenca via Ricaurte.

I am so pleased with some of the programs I now have, especially the Smart Photo Editor....  I also have the new Portrait Pro Body program to re-shape peoples' figures.....  It is complicated but the results are impressive....
I hope you enjoy the photos.  That was the day's excitement,   Cheers, Al 
© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.
NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

The view towards Cuenca to the West.  Wonderful stitch job by the Image Composite Editor program.

Zoomed in to Cuenca

Jeff and LT enjoying the views

Another shot...

I believe this is the town of Llacao below

Another of that same panorama view towards Cuenca to the West.

This is the view East towards Mount Cojitambo

Up on a higher vantage point, looking towards Cuenca

The view mostly north

Do you see a sleeping, or slain, dragon??

This appears to be 2 more towns below, north

LT and Jeff.  Cojitambo in the center

There is an abandoned church up there

We were not alone visiting up there

View of Cojitambo thru a church window

Panorama to the north

Panorama to the East

Somewhere near Domay

This is the town of Solano