Some Easy Travelin'

Hi Friends. I wanted to write for those who check, to let you know we are live and well. We had a great time traveling with our friends, Marty and Jeri. They spent three nights at our (now) cozy place. I think they were genuinely impressed with the warmth and generosity of the kichwa speaking people at our site. From here we went south to Cuenca, a truly charming colonial city. Cuenca has so much charm that it seems European. I wondered why so few tourists were to be seen on the street-- a few Europeans but no Norte Americanos except us. That made it more appealing to me! We took a little side trip to the very pretty little artesania town (especially jewelry and pottery) of Chordeleg. After that excursion we met up with our two friends in Tena, in the Oriente region of Ecuador. It was great to be on the edge of the Jungle and experience the vastness of jungle and river water, all flowing to the Amazon and the Pacific Ocean. Both Marty and I tasted enough to be wishing we had time to explore a few weeks further down the river and into the jungle.
Notwithstanding time being an artificial human construct, we had to move back up in the mountains to Baeza, shockingly pretty and cleaner than any other town we've seen. It was surrounded by three big ecological reserves (with their own volcanoes). It was great to see so much forest (primary I think) when so many other parts of Ecuador are deforested. Our goal there was to see the goats at a municipal farm in the hopes they might have some good breeding stock for our site in San Bernardo. Turns out they have lots of Saanen, one of our favorite breeds.....and they want to sell them at a reasonable price! They are not up to the challenge of marketing goat milk to a population not accustomed to drinking goat milk or eating goat cheese. They are located several hours at least from any large population. So we are very interested in some of those goats and savor the challenge of commercialization of goat milk in the Riobamba area. A ver. After Baeza we said our sad farewell to our brave friends, Marty and Jeri who went on to Octavalo and home. They lost there son, Roberto, a welder, who fell to his death in May. We hope they found ways to see their son alive in the beauty of the people and natural phenomena of Ecuador.
I promise to update our recent activities within a week. No pics because a virus infected our memory card so we have bought new one today. Will post some pics next post. Love to all.
Craig