Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Moving In...Or Not







Cotopaxi in the morning


Waking up to the incredible expanse of the Andes in every direction is absolutely amazing. Cotopaxi was clearly visible this morning, as well as Ilinisa and another mountain or volcano that I cannot name. I am so pleased that we will be waking up to the view of the mountains in our new apartment. There are buildings obscuring Cotopaxi and the Panacillo from our new place, but Pichincha is visible, as is the length of the city to the north and to the south.

Now that we have decided on our apartment, we will have to wait for the owners to send us an agreement, our friend Guillermo to look at the contract before we sign it, the concierge to do the necessary repairs, the cleaning staff to scrub it thoroughly, and we will have to stock up on towels and sheets and kitchen materials. Knowing what I know of Ecuador, this will all take much longer than expected. I would like to move in tomorrow, but we will be lucky to be there in a week. Most importantly, we need an address for Maya's school so they can arrange the bus route for pickup and drop off.

Mirror in entrance

Fireplace

Living Area

View from living area

View of sky

Piles of dirt in living area...

Patio needs a little scrubbing and lime-away...

Kitchen

View from kitchen

Apartment Key

Bedroom
Eric and I visited the apartment today and walked through with the concierge to review what would have to happen before we move in. Pedro on each prior visit has been very encouraging and positive about our moving into the place, but today appeared hesitant and uncertain. When I put my hand out to shake his, he brushed me away. I am not sure what that meant. He appeared distracted as we did the walkthrough, and disappeared quickly when we were done. I am trying not to read anything into his behaviour, he may have been busy or overwhelmed by our requests, or had not heard from the owners that we would be moving forward.

We piled up all the unwanted furniture in the middle of the very large living room; I had in the end decided to keep as much as possible so that we would not have to purchase so much before moving in. That means using powerful chemicals to clean the stained sofas and chairs. Eric is very excited to have to go to KYWI, the local ferreteria extraordinaire, to buy the necessary cleaning products and shopvac equivalent. Despite the choice to keep as much as was tolerable the pile of rejected furniture is substantial and occupies a large space. Eric plans to have a birthday party next Monday and has started asking people to come and celebrate in our new apartment, piles of furniture in our midst or not!

Meanwhile, I am conducting a systematic search of the Mariscal, or in fact my search will include all of Quito and extend to the rest of Ecuador if necessary and of course the search is for a good cup of coffee. I am rather stunned that despite growing coffee for export and otherwise, there is no true coffee tradition here. Ecuadorians like to drink juice, and wonderful combinations of juices, but coffee is not a priority. I order cappuccino each time, and when the coffee arrives, it looks like cappuccino, but always tastes the same as drip Ecuadorian coffee. I am not sure what the problem is, but perhaps this it the way Ecuadorians like their coffee, so I will keep drinking it and continue to try different coffee shops for the best coffee in Quito and in Ecuador.

Cotopaxi in the Evening

5 comments:

  1. Hello, Welcome to Ecuador! Your new apartment looks very nice and I hope you will be very happy there! I am responding to your need for a good cup of coffee. You should've brought a Melitta cone with you (or have one brought down), and some brown paper cone filters. You can buy the white paper cone filters at the Supermaxi but they do not sell the Melitta cones here. Any coffee shop in the states would sell them and they sell the cloth re-washeable filters for the cone too. I wouldn't think of travelling anywhere without my Melitta cone (and sometimes my hotplate) and a bag of good Ecuadorian organic coffee. There are a couple of organic coffees now for sale here. One is from Vilcabamba, don't know the name, but Magic Bean sells it. The best, I think, is Rio Intag organic coffee and you can buy it at the Salerinito store on Calle Marchena right near the Santa Clara market. Also next door to the Salerinito is the Camari store. Both of these stores have healthy foods, good cheeses, whole grains, nuts, honey, wholegrain breads, etc., and the Rio Intag coffee. You can buy it in bean form, and roasted dark or light or already ground and the grind is perfect for the Melitta filtering system. In a pinch without a Melitta cone, you can buy a medium sized plastic funnel for about $1 and that works well with the paper filters. Good luck in your quest for a good cup of coffee! And yes, the Cyrano bakery in Quito is perhaps the best in the country!

    Margarita

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  2. Hurrah!!!! I can't wait for a good cup of coffee! Thank you!

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  3. Excellent coffee house in the Mariscal is Road Coffee.
    You can't miss the orange painted edifice located at:
    Mariscal Foch 430 and 6 de Diciembre
    And it's a free WiFi hotspot!
    Salud!

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  4. BTW "piles of dirt in living area" LOL it's an indoor planter, just everything is dead.

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  5. Amazing design!! Check out the wide range of Apartment Furniture from metroloftfurniture.com

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