Things we have missed

As it is with any move into a new place, whether it's from St. Louis to Washington or Chicago to Hong Kong, there's always those things that you can't get in your new city. Of course, there's those things that you get in the new city you can't get at home. And so I thought it might be fine to create a record of those things that relate to Cuenca.

Things we have missed:

• Good old fashioned American, must-be-refrigerated, milk. There's nothing like it anywhere in the world, at least where I've been.     

• Bikes. The kids pine over their absence daily. 

• Trains. Another big absence in Elliott's life is the lack of toy trains. 

• Beer with color (a/k/a good beer). There are three local beer brands down here, and all of them sell lager style beer. I do like the brand Pilsener, but it gets old. The only imports I've found are also lagers - Heineken, Budweiser and Corona, and being imports, they are double the price of back home. I don't think $7.99 for a 6 pack of Corona is worth it at home, much less the $15 it costs here. I miss my pale ales, Guinness, IPAs...anything with flavor. 

• Reasonably priced wine. Okay, now we sound like alcoholics. But there are few choices in most categories here, and we enjoy some variance with our adult beverages. The combination of Ecuador's status as a non-wine producing country with high import tariffs mean that wine is expensive, so consequently, we haven't had much, and what we've had has not been good. 

• Mexican food. The only place I've visited in the world that I haven't missed Mexican food is...Mexico. You just can't find quality Mexican food outside of North America. 

• Shoes. Okay, only Shannon misses her shoes. But it's understandable. She only traveled with three pairs. 

• Heat.  None of the buildings in Cuenca have heating systems built in, due to the mild climate. But a long stretch of cold, rainy weather makes for a chilly house, and sometimes a little heat would be nice.

Of course, there are those things that we have grown to love down here that we are most certainly going to miss at home:

• Cheap produce. Can't beat the ridiculous low prices of produce and the multitude of farmer's markets around town.  

• Native fruits. There are some great fruits down here that we just can't get at home. 

• Granadilla. This is a hard-shelled fruit; you crack it open and, and with a spoon, you eat the seeds and the pulp (which looks and feels like slime, but is absolutely scrumptious). This is a cousin of the passion fruit. 

• The several varieties of bananas. Sure, we can get the normal Chiquita bananas down here, but there are smaller, sweet bananas, plantains, and others. The variety is fantastic. 

• Mora. It's really just a blackberry, but their version is slightly different - bigger, juicier, and a little more tart. It is as common as any fruit down here, and is probably the most popular. It makes fantastic juice, sauce, yogurt, ice cream, you-name-it. 

• Tomate de arbol. The juice is just delicious.

• Peanut butter. Shannon raves about the peanut butter you get in Ecuador. It's natural, has a great grainy texture, and just tastes better.
• Aji sauce (hot sauce). It's Ecuador's style of hot sauce. It's not too hot, but it does have a great flavor.
• The mountains. Oh, how do I love thee, mountains! Let me count the ways:
• Real mountain biking. Not off-road trail biking - which is great, don't get me wrong, but it isn't mountain biking. Riding for miles and only going up sounds a bit agonizing, and it can be, but the views are so spectacular, and the downward runs are so much fun.   
• Driving. The challenge of driving in the mountains, particularly in Ecuador, is fun in and of itself, and that doesn't even include the amazing views at every turn, of seeing the cloud cover above you and then driving up through it, only to look back down on the clouds. Of course, driving within those super-dense clouds in the mountains isn't quite so much fun.
• The air. I can't really describe it, but when I returned from my trips to the humid rainforest and coast, arriving back home in the dry, cool mountain air just felt right.                  
• Just seeing them every day. Walking around Cuenca on a clear day and gazing out at the mountains, I cannot imagine a more serene setting. I feel this way in Denver and every other mountain town I've spent time in. I will miss seeing them.

•  The new friends we made.  Comes with the territory of any new trip.

And finally, there are definitely things we won't miss when we leave:

• Fear of getting clobbered by a bus. Because this is an old colonial city built before cars, the sidewalks can be narrow (or non-existent), and buses fly down the street. I am constantly in fear of getting hit by a bus' mirror hanging over the sidewalk, or worse...

• The gringo discount. Unscrupulous vendors will apply a gringo discount - doubling the standard price - when we approach. It's annoying to have to be on guard against this.