March 10 - April 2, 2025: Our Spring Trip to Florida
	January 21-23, 2025: A Trip to San Antonio
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We are getting into a pattern now, vis-a-vis our house in Ecuador, and that pattern is to make three trips a year down there, staying about three weeks each time. The schedule for these trips this year has been now, in February, and then also in May and October. We have a Retirement Visa, and so there is no limit to the amount of time we can spend in Ecuador, so we can stay longer than three weeks, and go down more frequently, if we want. It looks as if we will maintain the same schedule until and unless we decide to move towards permanent residency in Ecuador. That decision will depend on a lot of factors, although the major one is pretty obvious: we have no idea what this country is going to look like in a year or two of Trump II.

Anyway, until we decide to drop the hammer and move to Ecuador full-time, we will maintain this general schedule, perhaps spending more and more time in-country to become more acclimatized to it.

Getting to the House in Ecuador

If you've already looked at our trip from last October, you know the story of how we have come to take Avianca through San Salvador to get down here, rather than American through Miami. If you haven't seen that trip, and are curious as to why we fly Aviance, please have a look at that photo album page; I won't repeat the entire story here.

Avianca Airlines is the national airline of Colombia (Ecuador's next-door neighbor in South America), and their routing goes through the airport in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, a country in Central America. On our first Avianca trip down, and on this trip as well, our flight left Dallas at 12:45 in the afternoon, landing in San Salvador a bit less than three hours later. Unfortunately, the onward flight to Quito doesn't leave until close to 10PM, and this means a long layover of 5+ hours, and so we each bring something we can do for that long a time.

The 2.5-hour flight into Quito gets in about 1AM, which means we don't get to the house until about 2, but then that really doesn't matter all that much, as we would be going right to bed anyway. I'ts too bad there isn't an earlier departure to Quito, but that's the way it is at the moment. The only bad thing about the return routing is when the flight leaves Quito. It is the turnaround of the flight that we take to get here, and so the departure is about 2:30 in the morning. Again, that's not much of a problem. We just take a nap and get up about ten and catch an Uber at midnight to the airport. The layover in San Salvador is a civilized 90 minutes, and we get back to Dallas right about noon. Here is where the Avianca option shines; we clear customs in Dallas, and at that time of day, the customs hall in Dallas is almost empty. (I am getting ahead of myself, but as I will write below, when we actually did return, we spent all of two minutes in customs.)

On this particular trip, we got to DFW about 11AM, checked in at a kiosk and then I went to drop my checked bag at the counter. There, I happened to get behind a man who was asking whether, with the fare he was on (which was the same as ours), he could use the airline's lounge for his long layover (a little shorter than ours as he was going somewhere other than Quito. The answer he got was inconclusive; some credit cards, the agent said, include the use of the lounge. He asked about Capital One, which was also the card I was using. We chattet for a bit and agreed to find each other when we landed in San Salvador, and together we would go over to the Aviance lounge and check it out.

When we landed, we ran into him near the lounge, and before we went in, we talked for quite some time. He was an avid talker; it was actually hard to get a word in edgewise. Long story short, he was a soccer coach in Grapevine, and, apparently, had a long career with the sport, working in England and the US. Anyway, when we got into the lounge, we discovered that all our fare got us was a discount on a visit. But seeing as how we had five hours to kill, and considering the fact that the lounge offered free drinks, Wi-Fi, and even food, we paid the $20 fee. We sat at the same table, and after another hour of pretty much nonstop stories from him, he had to hop onto his laptop for work, leaving Fred and I to relax and do our own thing. I took a couple of pictures, just to record the encounter:

When our flight was announced, we headed to our gate, did the gate-based security thing, and waited to board. We left on time, and about two hours and thirty minutes later were landing at Mariscal Sucre airport outside of Quito.

From the Airport to Cumbaya

Arriving at Santa Lucia Baja

We arrived on time a little after one in the morning. Getting to the house from the airport is routine now, and you'll see the maps above each time we come down here.

Exiting baggage claim, I just pause to locate an Uber, and one usually picks us up outside within a few minutes. The route into Cumbaya is about twenty miles and usually takes about thirty minutes- less late at night when we arrive. We used to just have the Uber drop us at Paseo San Francisco, but I've gotten good enough with the directions to get the driver to drop us right at the gate to our community- Santa Lucia Baja.

We got inside, set up the laptops (I brought my older HP laptop for Fred; I thought the screen of the small laptop Prudence gifted me was a little small, given the amount of time Fred uses it when we're on vacation), and had a snack. I also checked out the new house battery backup that we had installed based on our experiences last October. It seemed to be working fine; the light indicating it was fully charged but that the municipal electric was powering the house. (We did get a chance to verify that it indeed worked, as there were two short power outages during this stay. They were due to some local issue; not a country-wide rationing scheme as happened last October. The power would go out and less than 5 seconds later all the essential lights and such would come back on. While the outages were only 90 minutes the first time and just fifteen the second, we had no problem. The system will actually provide lights and Internet and TV and such for up to eight hours, depending on our usage. A good investment, I think.

Anyway, after our snack and a bit of time to decompress, we headed off to bed.

During our three weeks here, we didn't plan any particular side trips, and so neither of us took a great many pictures. So I will do the same thing I do for our many trips to Florida- we'll just group the pictures by activity, eschewing any kind of day by day account.

Our Art Collection Expands

In the year since the renovations on the house were completed, we have recognized that if we are going to spend a significant amount of time here, the house needs to become warmer. Specifically, there wasn't anything on the walls, not a great deal of furniture, and almost no knicknacks, books, lamps, and all the other things that we accumulate that make our living spaces actually look lived-in. We have enough furniture, knicknacks just need to be dusted, and there was no reason to haul books from home down here, especially since we have no bookshelves on which to put them.

But the one thing that we did decide to do was to purchase some artwork for the walls, and when we walked around Cumbaya or Quito we were open to looking in galleries or stores if something caught our eye. One of the first places we ran across was right down by the town square- a gallery called MarsuArte. We'd actually passed it a few times when Greg was part of our consortium, as it was on the way to where our lawyers used to be.

A year ago, we bought two pieces from that gallery, both of which we had them hang in the TV room outside the kitchen, and if you've looked our trip from October, last year, you have seen those pictures. On that trip, we also saw another work by Vintimilla down at the MarsuArte Gallery that was interesting. On this trip, we have acquired that piece and two other works by Vintimilla.

This work by Vintimilla (shown at left), entitled "Iglesia la Merced", is the one we had seen at the gallery earlier this year.

Vintimilla was born in Quito in 1953, and studied architecture at the Central University of Ecuador. His work reflects the influence of his city and his architectural studies. Vintimilla defined himself as an artist "with a distinct technique and style."

Jorge Vintimilla in 2015

Jorge Vintimilla's works encompass many hours of work, study and dedication. The detail in his strokes characterize his work; he used various materials and textures to achieve a harmony of form, and this was accentuated by the apparent ease of his brushstrokes. Vintimilla has been the subject of numerous exhibitions including two in 1985 mounted by the Quito Chamber of Commerce and the Ecuadorian House of Culture. In 1998, there were two more notable exhibitions- one at the Klabal Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, and another at the United States Embassy in ​​Quito.

By 2018, Vintimilla- husband and father of two daughters and grandfather to three of their children- had attained a degree of fame, particularly in South America and seemed to be living life to the fullest. Sadly, in that year he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor that quickly affected his ability to move. His family gathered together to support him and arrange for the urgent surgery needed to relieve pressure on his brain and to try to safely remove as much of the tumor as possible. Vintimilla had the surgery in October, 2018, and early indications were that it was entirely successful. But the family's elation was shortlived, as complications ensued and Vintimilla died a few months later.

We were drawn to this work because of its unique style and the precision of Vintimilla's visualization of the views of Quito that he painted. This is the second of his works that we have acquired. When the gallery owner came to hang this work, we put it in the transverse hall just to the left of the stairs where one can see it as soon as they come through the front door. After it was hung, Fred took a picture of me beside this artwork.

At the same time that we purchased Vintimilla's "Iglesia la Merced", we purchased the gallery's remaining large Vintimilla work entitled "Quito". This one, .8 meters by 1.2 meters, had a different color scheme; it had more reds and browns in it, and seemed very lively to us. We had Paty (the manager of MarsuArte) hang that work between the kitchen door and the stairs. We already had the art light in place, and so this was a good space for it.

When Paty and her installer left, they mentioned that there was one more small Vintimilla in her gallery, but that was the last work by the artist she had access to. We promised that we would come look at it, even though it was much smaller than any of the other works we have hung.

A day or two later, when we went by MarsuArte to look at, and buy, the small piece, we mentioned that the white frame of "Iglesia la Merced" seemed to blend in to the white walls, and we wondered whether Paty might recommend a shop where we could get the work reframed. She did have a recommendation, and we resolved to go down there soon.

A couple of days later, after locating the frame shop on the map, we took "Iglesia la Merced" to the shop Paty recommended, which turned out to be located about two miles from here, a ways past Scala Mall.

The shop was easy to get to- a $2.50 Uber ride. We took the painting into the shop, and together with the proprietor, found a more bold frame that we thought would work. The framing cost less than we expected, and even more surprisingly, the work would be ready in just three days.

At right is one picture of the work with the new frame sample, and also a picture of me getting an Uber back to Paseo San Francisco. Below is a larger picture of the artwork and new frame, which we thought was perfect for the work and the light-colored walls in our house.

NOTE:
Before we see the finished product, there was a snafu after we left the frame shop.

We came into the house, and as he often does, Fred plugged his phone into the charger in the kitchen to top it off. A short while later, Fred wanted to take a picture of something at the house and reached into his pocket for his phone (completely forgetting that he had plugged it in to charge) and it wasn't there.

Knowing he'd taken pictures at the frame shop, he assumed he had left it there. Standing in the living room, my first thought was to call his phone, which I did. Unfortunately, Fred gets so many spam calls that he keeps the volume turned down, and we didn't hear it vibrating.

So I rushed back out to Paseo San Francisco and got another Uber back to the frame shop. There, I did a thorough search, calling phone again, and getting no answer. I really didn't think the proprietor would have taken it, but I had no other explanation for why it wasn't there.

So I got another Uber and returned to the house, thinking all the way there about how much hassle replacing Fred's phone was going to be, all the pictures he'd lost, all the contacts- you know the drill. I had to very sadly tell him the phone was not in the frame shop, and I just plopped down in one of the TV chairs. I told Fred to get a pad so I could make some notes on what he would need to do. When he went into the kitchen to get the pad, he found his phone hooked up to the charger.

I was so relieved that his phone had not, in fact, disappeared, that all the rushing around and angst faded quickly. It is now just another "senior moment" story that each of us of a certain age has.

Anyway, the snafu was worth it, for when we picked up the newly-reframed picture a few days later, and hung it back on the wall, we were impressed with how much better it looked. The golden frame picks up some earth tones from the marble floor and makes the picture stand out. Fred took a picture of me with the picture and then one of the picture itself, and those pictures are at left.

I also want you to be able to see some of the detail in Vintimilla's paintings, detail you lose when looking at the pictures on this page. So I hope you will take a look at the detail of this work.

Here are two more pictures that Fred took to show the new artwork:

This is what a visitor sees now when coming in the front door.

Up the stairs to "Iglesia la Merced", one looks right down the transverse hall towards the TV room.

One last acquisition was the very small Vintimilla work entitled Quito. This work is only 16x20 centimeters (about 8x10).

We actually picked up this work down at the gallery, carried it home, and hung it ourselves. In the picture at the far left, you can see the work close-up, and in the picture at the near left you can see where we hung it.

If you would like a closer view, just click here.

Finally, the week before we left for home, we went down to MarsuArte after Paty told us that she had additional works by Jose Luis Alfaro. You may recall that one of his works was among the first two artworks that we purchased for the house.

At left and below are the three Alfaro works that Paty still had. We decided on the three women and the boys on bicycles. We left a deposit and when we come to Ecuador in May, we will complete the purchase and have them hung upstairs.

Around Our Neighborhood

Just a few pictures around the neighborhood this time, and the map below will locate them for you.

The picture at right is the view that we see when we come through the gates of Santa Lucia Baja, our community. Essentially a square road with houses on three sides and in the middle, it is just southwest of the Paseo San Francisco Mall. Just northwest of the mall itself is a complex traffic circle with essentially four main streets coming into it.

On the map, I put a small yellow arrow just outside our gates, the same gates you see in the picture. Looking down the street that parallels the back of Paseo San Francisco, we are looking southeast. Cumbaya is on the hillside of a large valley- the Tumbaco Valley. Cumbaya is just one of the towns in the valley; Tumbaco itself is actually larger. But because we are far up the hillside, our views are really spectacular, even on a cloudy day like this one. On other Ecuador trip pages you have seen and will see the same view on days without a cloud in the sky.

The traffic circle is pretty major. The road leading northwest out of it climbs the mountainside and eventually goes through a tunnel into Quito proper. The road heading southwest (Oswaldo Guayasamin) descends the hillside and eventually goes past Scala Mall and on through the city of Tumbaco. The smaller street going northeast leads past the University and there are some restaurants along it that we patronize quite a bit. Finally, the road heading southeast (Maria Idrovo) also descends the hill, goes right past the center of Cumbaya, and then also winds up coming back to merge with Oswaldo Guayasamin.

On both sides of the road to Quito are businesses. On the south side is Villa Cumbaya, an enclosed mall where a good coffee shop, two pharmacies, our barber, a bookstore, the Supermaxi grocery store, and various other businesses are located. On the north side is Plaza Cumbaya, a long row of business that goes a quarter mile up the hill. There are two banks (including ours), Hornero Restaurant, a big Kyiw hardware store, various home decorating stores, a couple of art galleries, and a wide variety of other stores- including our local ice cream shop.

While there is a Baskin-Robbins in Paseo San Francisco, this place offers locally-made ice cream in a variety of flavors that are very much Ecuadorian, made with fruits we don't normally see in the United States. They also sell cakes- whole or by the slice. This local shop is also much less expensive than either Baskin-Robbins or ice cream bought in Supermaxi. A "doble" is $1.30, and the scoops are large. It is a great place to sit down and people-watch when we are our running errands in either Villa Cumbaya or Plaza Cumbaya. Here are a couple of pictures taken inside the store:

In the Paseo San Francisco

We are fortunate to be right next door (well, maybe a block or so) from one of Cumbaya's two major malls. Scala Mall, about a mile away, is much like any traditional multi-level US mall, and actually has many of the same stores. Paseo San Francisco is a bit different. There are some of the same stores as in Scala Mall, but on the whole Paseo San Francisco is quite different. Yes, there is a Food Court on the second floor and, yes, there are home goods stores, pharmacies, coffee shops, and a cineplex on the lower level. But Paseo San Francisco also has event spaces on the lower two levels, an arcade/bar/bowling alley, offices for various individuals and small companies, five or six car dealers, and an entire section that is actually part of San Francisco University Quito, containing classrooms, a performance hall, medical clinic, and the University Library.

Though Paseo San Francisco has just a fraction of the foot traffic of its larger sibling, it survives, I think, from the presence of these more non-traditional activities. This is good for us, as the Food Court has a number of good restaurants and a wide variety of cuisines, we can get almost all of what we might need for the house at one of the large home goods/department stores, there is a branch of our bank, and of course there is the cineplex.

Keeping in mind that it is early February, here are some pictures we took this time in the mall:

The bear was popular, and there were lots of folks waiting to use it as a photo backdrop.

We see lots of movies here. They are already cheap by our standards, but being over 65 gets us an additional 50% discount, making a movie cost about $3. We always check the marquee (see below) to see what's playing. Movies marked "ESP" are dubbed into Spanish; those marked "SUB" are in English with Spanish subtitles. (These are actually good because reading the subtitles while listening to the English translation is helpful in getting familiar with Spanish.)

Though not technically part of the mall itself, there is an overpass from the mall, over Maria Idrova avenue, and over to the University. There are hundreds of students who use this walkway daily; some of them go to the University facilities at the eastern end of the mall, and a great many of them eat lunch at the Food Court. For us, the overpass, and the mall approach to it, are a great place to take pictures with the Tumbaco Valley as a backdrop.

The Trip Home

After a pleasant three weeks at the house in Ecuador, we headed home early in the morning of the 25th. As usual, we walked from the house over to Paseo San Francisco where I arranged for an Uber. (It is just easier to get picked up at the mall than have the Uber driver come into the community and come around to our house.

While I was using the app to arrange for an Uber to the airport, Fred took the picture at left of the larger-then-life sculptures in the middle of the traffic circle right in front of Paseo San Francisco.

Ubers are always quick in Cumbaya, even at 12:30 in the morning, and in just a few minutes we were on our way to the airport for our 3AM flight to El Salvador. The two flights home were uneventful. The flight to El Salvador was only half full, and the flight onward to Dallas was not much more crowded.

We landed in Dallas a bit early and headed on to the Customs Hall. As on our first Avianca return, the hall was almost empty when we got there. We each walked right up to an immigration officer, had our picture taken, and were through to baggage claim in under a minute.

With no bags to claim, we went right outside and I called for another Uber, which again arrived in three or four minutes. We were home before 1PM, to a house full of cats who seemed to be a little unsure of who we were. But they warmed up right away and we settled in to being back home.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	March 10 - April 2, 2025: Our Spring Trip to Florida
	January 21-23, 2025: A Trip to San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2025