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Wednesday morning, I found the poor Owl Butterfly had passed on, so I took front and back photos while I had the opportunity.
The whole day was preparation for Dawn's departure Thursday, and her desire to do a pub crawl. I initially had refused to take part, but relented as the day wore on, not that they needed a chaperone....
We took a cab to Gustavo's patrimonial home to get a tour and see all the changes being made. Historic homes have archaic rules about how a home may be renovated... If something was wood, it must remain wood, for instance. And if a dark room had no window originally, it must stay that way... And you have to pay a lot to get approvals for any work... I am glad that I do not own one of those homes.
We walked around, headed west up El Centro and started at the Yakumama Cafe where I was the only one who ate, ... and I again ordered the delicious roast beef salad. We decided that we would be drinking mojitos, so the day began, and they had 2-3 drinks to my one.
We then went to La Cigale, a well-known haunt and had more drinks and some french fries with cheese sauce.
Then we tackled another bar on the sidewalk on Calle Larga where Dawn fulfilled her wish to get very inebriated on her last night in Cuenca.
Today, Dawn was packed up early and Gustavo picked us up for some last-minute shopping downtown. I actually bought a nice cashmere pullover sweater and a coordinated jacket so I don't look so much like a refugee from Canada.
Dawn was waiting out the day for her 10pm flight. I was intending to go to the airport with her and Gustavo to see her off but I got a surprise message from an old Coopera fiasco survivor, lawyer Graciela Estrella.
She is presently President of the Neighbourhood Action Committee, for lack of a better description, and she invited me to their Christmas turkey dinner at one of the Santorino Restaurants on Imbabura. I was very torn, but Dawn kindly gave me permission to go, ...she was in good hands with Gustavo.
They had counted on 10 people for the party and we ended up only being 5. It all started on Ecuador time, an hour and a half late, and the women were very passionate in their discussions about their problems and proposed solutions, especially when it came to discussing Government corruption. And Graciela will be running for a seat in the National Assembly in the February election.
The lights went out around 11pm and we were still going strong. The generators were fired up and conversation became more difficult. A couple of times I almost nodded off.
Then I had a terribly embarrassing sequence when my main credit card was blocked, the other expired, and the debit card not working in Ecuador, and not sufficient cash for the bill. It took a very long phone call to 3 departments at CIBC to get my main card unblocked. I have been with CIBC for so many years and they seem to be bent on disappointing me at every turn.
Anyway, I finally got home around around 12:30am for some badly needed sleep.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.
Al
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Poor thing must have been ill 
So pretty 
View to my old neighbourhood from Gustavo's 
Mill timber construction in this old home 
The old and new cathedrals 
Justice Building central area 
The view directly upwards 
Yakumama wall mural 
Yakumama 
Dawn and Gustavo 
Roats beef salad, yummy! 
Gustavo pointing out his family home location 
Getting into their cups already 
Flower in Thursday morning light 
Mi amiga Graciela Estrella 
Good friends 
Feliz Navidad 
Decorations 
The group
