Some observations

Just a few observations that I've made. Am killing time this morning waiting for the craft market to get going in earnest. Things seem to get busier in these countries late morning and into the afternoon.

I forgot to say that the doorman at our hotel is wearing a long coat and top hat! That screams costly.

The beds: In Peru we had layers and layers of heavy wool blankets. Here we have the Europen style quilt with no top sheet. Unfortunately there are no layering possibilities but I appreciate the lightness.

Don had to buy some Tylenol as he forgot his. We of course had to go by its generic name and the cost was amazing! ---- 90 cents for 30 pills. When you buy in a drugstore here you order from one person. She gives you a slip of paper which you take to the cashier. You then either return to the original person or go to a different part of the drugstore to actually get the drug.

Our driver of yesterday recommended some Eucadorian dishes and we were able to get them in the hotel restaurant. I had a thick potato soup with lots of pieces of fresh cheese (the squeaky kind) and avocado in it plus, of course, more potato. It was yellow and I got a hint of curry flavor. Don had shrimp skewers with rice and potato(sort of like potato cakes but long and thin). The shrimp were the largest and meatiest we had ever seen and he got two skewers of them. Shrimp is one of their exports.

On our way back from the drugstore, we saw two street entertainers doing their thing in front of the cars waiting for the light to turn green. Just before it did that, they stopped and went from car to car soliciting money. Seemed to work well for them and the policeman standing there didn't care.

Speaking of police, they are everywhere -- as they also were in Peru.

Lots of street vendors here, either sitting or walking around. One lady had her poodle on a leash. It was wearing a cute coat and booties and she had an armfull of these items to sell.

Yesterday, when we were driving through the city to get to the park on the hill for our city view, we saw a guy going down the street with half a dozen goats. Then there was a lady in the actual park who was herding a bunch of sheep. Not something we would even see in little downtown Salmon Arm, much less a huge city.

I haven't mentioned Don's "champion" effort at canning the peaches before he came. He did 42 quarts. Eleanor----you can have them next year as we will be away again.

Signing off for now.