The Links

 We Get Around   by Locke Beesley Lots of transportation outside of the market     We don’t have a car, so we have to find other ways to get around. There are lots of ways to get around in Cuenca. We walk a lot. We take taxis, mixtos (truck taxis), the tranvía (light rail), and lots of city buses.   When we leave town we mostly travel on long-distance buses.        The first vehicle I'm going to write about is a mixto (truck taxi). It looks like a white pick-up truck with a back so you can put stuff in it such as a bicycle, plants, or a table with dad on it because he does not get to go in the car (hahaha, just kidding, dad gets to ride inside). You have to call these ones and they cost more than a normal taxi. And if they happen to come by, you can’t just hail them. And sometimes it is kinda squished because it only has 4 seats but we’re 5. The truck can go on rough roads while the normal taxis can’t. This is what we take to places outside o...

Hogar Cuenca                        Getting our lives set up here has been a funny play between feeling like we’re moving quickly and doing a lot and feeling like we are stuck in mud or running in place. The past two months have been about establishing a routine and getting to know our new home. We have accomplished some big goals: we got our temporary residency visas and the kids are in school. And there are many things we are still working on. Poco a poco.  We were lucky to land in a spot where we would like to stay. Our half-way educated guess about which airBNB would be a good fit based on kids school location, price, and proximity to river trails turned out to be a win! We negotiated a longer-term contract with the owners and plan to stay put. The house is part of an “urbanización,” a small gated development of 14 homes connected by common drive and mini soccer field. All homes are gated: streets are lined by 8 to 1...

 The fruit I’ve Never Seen  by Robin Beesley A fruit stand at Mercado 3 de Noviembre      Hi,  its Robin here.  I’m going to be telling you about the fruit in Ecuador, and that’s a lot! There are so many fruits that I have never seen in Alaska, and a lot of the ones I have seen. The first fruit I saw was after we arrived was a granadia, and to me it looked like frog spawn, but to my mom and my dad it looked delicious. Sam thought it looked like frog spawn too but he really liked. Locke saw it and was brave but he did not like it and once I said it looked like frog spawn, he decided not to eat it again. But I do have to say that it is a good fruit. You crack it open like an egg and the middle tastes sweet and you can eat the seeds. Granadia See why we thought it looked like frog spawn?      I think the next new fruit I saw was   a maracuya, which I think in English is passion fruit. It is so yummy. my mom tryed it and she loved it an...