Aileen Friedman

27th November 2015

I took the day off and went with Mary to Puerto Lopez. Ali stayed at home and worked (he is such a good man.)

We got onto the Red and yellow bus this time at about 9.30am and enjoyed the hair raising half hour journey with good conversation.

At the bus terminals just outside Puerto Lopez we got onto a Tuk-tuk taxi. This was another first for me and it was so much fun. We bounced bobbed and somehow managed to stayed on our seats without our hair lifted us off. There are so many of these little machines on the road at one time, its a fantastic means of transport.

The first thing we did was have a Pan de Yuca. Oh my goodness they are mouth watering delicious. When I took that first bite my mouth went into a frenzy. I bought five more and took them home – Mary and I ate two on the bus on the way home!! Pan de Yuca means cassava bread. The flour is made from the yuca root and it has cheese inside. Gosh it is too scrumptious.

Mary and I had lunch at this stunning restaurant/hostel (In Ecuador and probably most Latin countries they call hotels or guest houses – hostels). The owners built it from the ground up and made this exquisite furniture while doing so. We spent 2 1/2hours here talking about our Christian lives and the need for a church to be established in Puerto Cayo. I know that this is why we are here so we ask you to please pray for God’s guidance in this regard.

The furniture in Ecuador is beautiful, they use the wood in it’s natural form and make spectacular tables and chairs. I will share a few of the stunning doors I have seen all over the place and will add a few more in a later post (still need to take the photos of them). Where we (in South Africa) would use steel for outside usage, here they use beautifully crafted wooden doors. It’s so fascinating.

The 28th November was a scorching hot day. We decided to paint the outdoor furniture. We used whatever paint we found in the store room, we need to find red and green then the chairs and table will really look stunning. When we painted the blue on it was lilac and we thought “oh dear this looks weird” But it was all we had so we went ahead with it. Funny thing is when it dried it turned blue. Just as well we are not drinkers otherwise we’d think we were seeing things. It was a lot fun painting them and now in the mornings we have our coffee sitting on the chair in the garden and listen to the birds and the ocean. Cannot go wrong with that.

We went to Puerto Cayo later in the day and bought some goodies amongst which were mielies (or corn on the cob which is what they call it here). When you put them in the water they don’t sink. We are sure ours (in South Africa) do, correct us if we wrong please. They are white and not sweet at all but still yummy. Nothing like a mielie to make us feel like home.

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