This morning we awoke to the sounds of sheep bleating as market day in Zumbahua began. People from the surrounding area brought their goods to sell in on trucks and llamas. We had some steamy morocho and fresh empanadas as the sun came over the mountains.

A few days ago we were in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, along the Pacific Coast. Every morning fishermen arrive on the beach with the day’s catch. It is a crazy scene–trucks and carts arrive and people buy lots of fish to sell in various markets, and of course the birds know what is happening too.

We are in Cuenca, Ecuador, enjoying the amaxing architecture and great food. Today we started with locally grown and roasted espresso (the cafe just made espresso, no frills, no milk, just espresso).
We wandered to the Saturday market and encountered these lovely goats. The milk was delicious.
Had encebellado (fish, yucca, onion soup) for lunch and sampled some tasty pastries and a fruit sorbet…

We have not had the best of luck in finding good coffee, but there have been some great morocho drinking experiences.
We are now in Cuenca, in Ecuador, a UNESCO World Heritage city, and had good brewed coffee this morning. We hear that that Loja and the valley near here are prime coffee centers, and in the upper altitudes there will be coca tea. If you don´t hear from us for two weeks, we will be at the coca tea cafe. Apparently you can bring the stuff back over the border.
The morocho has chunks of corn in it. Today we put popcorn in our soup, as is the custom. Wacky food! Still have not tried the roasted guinea pig, but we are able to purchase guinea pig roasters in the market for any of you who would like one. Let us know.

We took some public boat transportation from San Lorenzo to La Tola in Ecuador. The precious cargo was not us, but several hundred dozen huevos. Lovely trip through the mangroves along the Pacific Ocean in Northern Ecuador.

We have zipped south from the north coast and will cross the border into Equador soon. The mountains here are really big. As in Rocky mountain big.

a sampling of the beautiful scenery here in Cartagena. I will be ordering this balcony as an addition onto Krakhaus 1 in the Spring.

It will be difficult to leave this walled city of amazing architecture , but tomorrow we are going to Barranquilla to see some pre-Carnival festivities. Someone will be crowned the queen of something. Our Spanish dictionary is becoming dog-eared and worn, while our Spanish vocabulary remains insufficient.

On the super speedy banda ancha conveniently located downstairs from our hotel, we uploaded a slew of photos to our flickr photo page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zerkahloostrah/sets/72157613390499046/

Enjoy!

Caribbean coast, Colombian style. Very exotic. Lots of bananas. You get the idea.