cuenca is nice. ideal, in fact.

i had begun my ceviche eating life interested in octopus, the shrimp, the squid. but what i soon realized is that these types of seafood taste roughly the same in ceviche form as they do grilled, fried, or baked. the real treat, when eating ceviche, is the fish. it is the fish that come out with a totally different taste than from any other method of cooking. in ceviche, covered in the lime broth, the fish taste sweet and though chewy during the first bites, the rest will melt into your mouth. delicious. that said, it is always a treat when the ceviche you order contains some manner of shellfish. the ceviche restaurants that line the beaches of máncora, peru all throw in a bit of oyster, and some even toss in a few black clams, turning the broth jet black. ths is an extra.

anyway, the overall analysis of traveling peru is this: peru is a beautiful country, mountains, jungle, beach, etc. however, being a tourist there is very difficult. especially if you are trying to be a 'traveler' who is inherantly not really trying to be a tourist, but some sort of middle figure between tourist and resident. anyway, there is a well established tourist route in peru that involves seeing all of the archeological sights and culminates with cuzco and machu picchu. peruvians have caught onto this fact, especially those in the tourism industry. the result is that wherever you are on this route, you can expect to get ripped off for things, you can expect to not be able to spend a peaceful hour sitting in the plaza because people will come offering your tours to places and otherwise asking for your money, and you can expect not to be able to take a leisurely stroll down the cobblestone streets because of people rushing out at you with menus for their restaurants, offering you massages, or otherwise tours to places. and, you cant expect a leisurely stroll down any other street because the taxis will honk at you (only at tourists though - anna and i did research) incessantly until you acknowledge them even if only to say, 'no gracias' whic in and of itself isnt a problem, but after a while it can be tiresome. the unfortunate result is that you leave peru with a shell around you, always on guard for people who may try to rip you off. its a shame, but you cant really blame anybody. the people have to make their money, and you cant really blame touists for wanting to see peru. the other side of the traveler peru-paradox is that you have to see the places on the tourist route. one cannot go to peru without seeing cuzco, for example. so naturally a portion of your time and money is spent on seeing these places. there are, of course, other places in peru worth seeing. these places may not be on the tourist route, but they certainly are worth seeing. however, distances are so far in peru, that it is a pain, and expensive to visit anywhere, much less a place you dont have to see.
anyway, go to peru, its nice, but try not to get ripped off.

as you cold well guess, we are back in ecuador now, cuenca. so despite the fact that we do have various vague travel plans for the coming months - a possible vacation to argentina, a trip to the galapagos that may happen, bussing through colombia perhaps, beach time in costa rica maybe, leading treks in nicaragua if energy permits - ths blog hereby ceases to be a travel blog. so, if you are reading only to hear little things about various new places, then check back periodically to see if any of the aforementioned vague plans have panned out. if you care to hear about the day to day life of your favorite travel blogger-turned efl teacher, then this is you spot!

so, we got back to cuenca the other night. for whatever reason, ever since we left cuenca some 2 months ago, we have been trying to find jobs in every place that wasnt cuenca. on first glance, i found cuenca to be a bit dull. not totally dull, but not too lively. over time, i was able to appreciate that lack of rip-roaring, frenetic party scene as a plus that will allow me to learn more spanish and really chill and relax. still, there were certain things that were just a bit off center. why didnt our hotel have toilet seats? why was the most popular bar/restaurant, cafecito, so dark? why didnt people sell fruit on the streets?

well, out of habit, we chose to return to hotel pichincha. you may remember this hotel, as it was featured in the peepeepoopoo entry of this blog. to my surprise, not only did the toilets have seats on them, but there were entirely new toilets! the toilets were clean and new, and teh floors of the bathroom were re-tiled. a tub-like thing was built around the showers so that the whole bathroom doesnt flood when you shower. and, there were two knobs in the shower: one that controlled the hot water, and one that controlled the cold water. amazing! before, they had one of those elecrically heated showers, but it was broken so that if you turned the knob a little, a spit-like trickle of freezing water would touch you, but turned a millimeter more, scalding hot water would pour all over you so that you lost 7 or 8 layers of skin each time you showered. eventually you stop trying. the internet service at pichincha, advertised and promised via signs and posters, actually works now. wow.
for whatever reason, the streets are filled with street food vendors. bags of mangoes, sticks of meat, whatever you may want is available right there for you on the street, just like it should be. and also, cafecito, still insistant on being candle-lit, at least draped a white tapestry across the entire ceiling, reflecting some light onto the patrons. now, im not saying that cuenca heard my complaints and reacted to them - but im kind of saying that. as of now, cuenca is the ideal place to live and work and learn spanish while still being in an urban-type environment.
ok, so let nothing stop me.

also, we found an apartment. with the apartment, we have acquired two cats, and since i just finished reading kafka on the shore, im imagining that i will also be able to speak to these cats by the time im done here in cuenca, thus rendering me trilingual.