Back in Cuenca

I am back in Cuenca now where there is internet and cell phone service! I feel like I was in the village for ages but it was only 11 days, which is nothing. I could have spent a lot more time there since I was feeling so much more comfortable towards the end and people were getting really friendly. Some people told me towards the end that they had thought I was replacing the Peace Corps volunteer there and they were sad I wasn't staying to help. They kept asking when I would come back. The last couple days Jessie and I made lunch with two different ladies, and the second one especially was really cool. They made an effort to show us typical food. In my last half hour I stopped by the ladies roasting cuy (guinea pig) over a fire for the fiesta later on that night

, and they asked me if I'd tried it yet and gave me a big plate with some when I told them I hadn't, even though I had just eaten a huge lunch. It wasn't incredibly tasty, but it was cool to eat it right next to the ladies making it. It was sad to say goodbye to my favorite old lady, Justina. 

Jessie (she visited Friday and we left Saturday) and I got back to Cuenca around 6:00 and there were lots of SIT kids at the hostel since its ISP writing week and a few people came to join us at the awesome hostel. So yesterday night we 

all went out to dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant and then went out for a little. Today I got up at 7:30 and got ready and went out to go get a newspaper and read in the main square for a couple hours. It's beautiful, right in front of the New Cathedral, which is soooo amazing. Jessie and I went to go buy some flowers, and I got three huge sunflowers for a dollar fifty to put in my room. My room is really cute and cozy since it's the smallest in the hostel. We went market shopping for lunch and I made Amanda and I really good quesadillas. Later we went to the huge city market with everything under the sun and bought more fresh food to cook over the next couple days. I bought a lot of bowtie pasta since its so cheap, plantains, broccoli, green beans, garlic and honey. There's another market close so I'll probably be doin

g most of my shopping there. It's great to be able to cook here and share the food. Tonight I'm going to go with Jessie to the home for abandoned youth to cook pizza for them for dinner.

Here's a link to a site with our hostel. I don't think it has its own page. http://www.hostels.com/hostels/cuenca/hostal-macondo/4620

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294309-d315501-Reviews-Hostal_Macondo-Cuenca.html

Oh also, the pictures on this one are just random from the internet since I still can't use my digital camera.