November 23, 2025: My 79th Birthday
	September 25 - October 19, 2025: Our Fall Trip to Florida
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Returning from Florida, we spent a week at home and then embarked on our Fall trip to Ecuador. We could only stay a few weeks; less than the month or so we would have preferred. We had Thanksgiving coming up, and we'd committed to help Prudence inaugurate her new kitchen for the holiday.

If you are wondering why we haven't just moved to Ecuador and applied for Permanent Residency, the answer is that, like many countries, the assumption Ecuador makes is that someone will get a visa, come to the country, and immediately begin the process of obtaining the residency. In Ecuador, also like other countries, one is required to stay in the country for a certain period of time before permanent residency is granted. For Ecuador, this time period is 21 months. This may seem onerous, but it really isn't, as the vast majority of people who want permanent residency are people who have already committed to that permanent residency. We have not.

This is a huge step for us to make. With four properties, a couple of houses full of stuff, and certainly friends we would prefer not to leave, we have decided to continue to go to the expense of just renewing the Retirement Visa every two years until such time as we decide what we are going to do. And that decision will depend, in large measure, on what happens in the first two years of Trump II, and especially in the midterms next November.

Certainly, the first half-year of Trump II has not decreased our anxiety about staying here; in fact, it has raised the chances that we will indeed bite the bullet and move permanently. But still, we hold out some hope that the country will come to its senses and we'll have more time to consider things. But, if things deteriorate as I expect they certainly may, we will be beginning the process of moving permanently shortly after the results of those midterms are known.

Getting to the House in Ecuador

If you've looked at any of our last couple of trips down here, 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 one of those trips, and are curious as to why we fly Avianca, please have a look at our trip from earlier this year or our trip from last October; 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 about midway between Mexico and South America. On our first couple of trips, we left Dallas at 12:45 in the afternoon, landed in San Salvador a bit less than three hours later, had a long layover of over 5 hours, and then landed in Quito about 1AM, after another three-hour flight.

Last time, though, I discovered that on Tuesdays and Thursdays Avianca has an additional flight that leaves Dallas at about 6PM for San Salvador. This connects to the same onward flight to Quito, but at least the layover in San Salvador is reduced to a little more than an hour, reducing the total travel time to less than 8 hours from the 13 hours we'd gotten used to. The only bad thing about flying Avianca is that the return flight leaves Quito at the ungodly hour of 4AM, getting back to Dallas a little before noon. But that's a minor inconvenience when set against avoiding Miami- and especially Miami customs. (Going through Miami customs takes the better part of an hour; customs in Dallas is, quite literally, a minute or so.)

We arrived at DFW plenty of time before our flight, and when we were through security and seated at the gate area, Fred wanted to take this picture of some of the airport architecture.

From the Airport to Cumbaya

Arriving at Santa Lucia Baja

We arrived on time a little after one in the morning. Walking towards baggage claim, Fred took this picture of a "Welcome to Quito" sign. 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, turned on the upstairs water heater, had a snack, and went off to bed.

We didn't plan any side trips this time, due to our short stay. We still have plans to visit both Cuenca and Banos, but those will wait a little longer. I will group the pictures by the activity that caused me to take them, eschewing any kind of day by day account.

Our Art Collection Expands

About a week before we were due to head back from this trip, we happened to stop in at MarsuArte where Paty (our art dealer) showed us works by an artist in the manner of Jose Luis Alfaro, an artist a couple of whose works we already have.

At left is a picture we took in Paty's gallery of the work when we first saw it, and we decided to go ahead and buy it, particularly as we had just the place for the work, which was a bit smaller than Alfaro's equally fanciful works. Paty said the artist was Ecuadorian, and our theme in selecting artwork for the house has been to concentrate on local artists from Ecuador and Peru. But when we looked at the signature in the lower right corner of the work, we were a little dubious as to Paty's statement that the artist was indeed local. Click on the lower right corner of the image at left and you will see what I mean.

Whitman Gualsaquí Sasi (born in Otavalo, 1960), is a painter with a distinguished career and he stands out on the art scene with his own unique style- bestowed upon him by his Andean muses. He conceives the faces of girls and adolescents in a multitude of colors, as if drawn from the popular festivals that live in the artist's intimate memory, like the rebirth celebrations of ancient times, and in the flowers, birds, fruits, and candles, illuminated with their own light.

Whitman Gualsaquí Sasi, is often called “the painter of tenderness,” and his first name came from his father's love of the American poet Walt Whitman. Indeed, Whitman's siblings all have foreign names: one has a name of Arabic origin, a sister is named after Princess Diana, and another brother is named after a Spanish hero.

Whitman, the second son, had six siblings, and his family placed great value on education. He studied at the José Martí School in Otavalo, spent three years at the Daniel Reyes School, and his final three years of secondary school at the University College of Visual Arts of the Central University of Quito. He received the "City of Quito Gold Medal" as the top graduate of his class.

He then entered the Faculty of Arts at the Central University as a student; his talent was immediately recognized and just months later was invited to join the faculty. This was in 1990 when jobs were scarce, and joining the faculty was a remarkable achievement. He chaired one department and also taught in another, but soon encountered the same dilemma that many teachers in the Arts face: how can creative skills be graded? After three years, he left the University to teach in his own studio.

The Artist Whitman Gualsaqui

Whitman's "style" and much of his content reflect his life experiences. Many of his works feature individuals with round faces and large eyes; this characteristic is traceable to the birth of his first daughter, and the fact that he cared for her in his studio, so she was constantly in view. The birth of his second daughter reinforced this, and began to depict both her and his wife in his paintings. Soon one or another became a constant element. Viewers also note the frequent appearance of the green dome of a church; this is a tribute to his maternal grandfather, Don Simón Sasi Vásquez who worked in the construction of just such a church in Otavalo.

Whitman currently lives in Quito with his home and studio in Ibarra. But his inspirations, he tells us, come from Otavalo. He remembers the colors that convey magic to him- traditional costumes, flags, and even the landscape. His paintings overflow with joyful colors. One of his daughters says, though, that the happiness revealed in Whitman's paintings is a reflection of her father's spirit. While for the observer it is tenderness expressed magnificently, for the painter it is an unconscious act where he manifests his inner self.

One final note. Whitman's father died when he was in school, and at the time it seemed as if music would be his vocation. He played the guitar, the flute, and the charango. Along with some local friends, he experimented with Andean music, rediscovering the songs of his heritage. But he was also extremely interested in painting, spending as much time on that as on music. By the end of his time at university, he had chosen painting.

He has held several exhibitions in various cities. One of them, titled “Images and Colors of the Andes,” was held at the Benjamín Carrión House of Ecuadorian Culture in 2011. It featured 72 works divided into three series: “The Color of Tenderness,” “Red Sofa,” and “Arches and Corners of Quito.” When presenting the exhibition, Whitman said, “The title of the work is an honor for me, and the geography of my homeland, Otavalo, is a source of inspiration. I am happy to be from a place so rich in color and culture, a perfect source of inspiration for my work.” He concluded by saying, “I am color, I am theory and philosophy. I do not seek happiness in color, happiness found me through color. The commitment is to oneself.”

A few days after our purchase, Paty and her picture-hanger arrived to hang the painting in the spot in the dining room that Fred had picked out.

As usual, Paty and her hanger were very professional, and did the job much more quickly that we could have.

The painting is in just the right place, adding color to the front of the house, and we are pleased with the purchase.

Around the House

On other trips you can find numerous pictures of the house itself- including a couple of video tours. Other than photographing new artwork in situ, we don't bother taking more repetitive pictures in or around the house. This time, we only took a few snapshots in or around the house.

Down the row of houses northeast of us there is a particularly tall, surprisingly bare palm tree, unlike those we usually see in Florida or around the Tumbaco valley.

Our avocado tree, which is growing like topsy, is pretty productive, and gives us more avocados than we can eat.

Though the basement is waterproofed, some water seems to be getting in outside at the corner of the TV room. Felipe will address it when we return in February.

This view looks from the guest room window out towards the entry gate for our little compound in Santa Lucia Baja.

This is another picture taken to document some deterioration of an outside wall- the wall of the laundry/maid's quarters structure that faces the kitchen.

At the Bridge Games

As you learned on the page for our two-month stay in May and June, I discovered that there are bridge games in the area and began playing three times a week. Monday is in the clubroom in Quito, Tuesday is at Club d'Union, also in Quito, and Wednesday is at the Rivera del Rio- a senior living facility just on the other side of Scala Mall, about 2 miles from the house here in Cumbaya.

I now tend to play with the same partners on different days. Monday is Gustavo, and he usually gives me a ride to Quito and back. Tuesday is more fluid, but most often I am playing with Maria Theresa, and, again, I ride back and forth with Gustavo. (He lives about a mile from us here in Cumbaya.) Wednesday, it is usually Pablo, and I walk down the hill from where we are to Scala Mall and then onward to Rivera del Rio (usually taking a cab back when the game ends about 7PM).

I took lots of pictures of the three venues when we were here in early summer, and if you want to see them you can go back to that page. Nowadays, I usually only take a picture when there is some event, like a birthday, being celebrated.

This was the case on my last Monday game before we returned home. The occasion was Carola's birthday. Carola, who I will point out in the pictures below, has a long-standing partnership with Bachita, and they play very, very well together- often placing first or second for a session. Here are the pictures (and a movie) that I took during the session break where Carola was presented with a cake and other edibles:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) This movie looks around the clubroom in Quito that is actually owned by the Quito Bridge Club, and catches the beginning of Carola's birthday celebration.

In this picture, everyone is gathering together so "official" photographs can be taken. Carola is in the center with the white open-neck blouse and long blonde hair. Andrew, an American who married an Ecuadorian and then retire here is in the back to the right of Carola.

I would love to be able to name everyone, but other than the partners I've had, it's tough to remember everyone. In the center, rear, is Marcelo, with whom I have played once. I have played twice with Elina who is to the right of Carola and has red hair. Just to her right and behind her is Maria Theresa, with whom I have played a few times. There are at leastfive Marias in this picture.

In this picture, I want to point out my most frequent partner- every Monday and some other days as well- Gustavo. He is at the rear, left of center, with white hair. He is a successful Ecuadorian businessman with a large family. He is teaching me his "2-over-1" system.

Here at the Monday game of the Quito Bridge Club, there is usually a light meal served about three-quarters of the way through the session. Today, for Carola's birthday, only desserts were served, and the game itself was modified so that players would try to reach certain contracts so that, if they were successful, they could cross off some squares of a kind of "bingo" card. No one actually got a "bingo" during the session, but it was a lot of fun trying.

Carola got two kinds of cakes today.

Usually we are heading home as it is getting dark (645PM or so). But today's special session ended early, and I was able to get a decent picture of the Tumbaco Valley and Cumbaya.

Bridge has added another facet to our trips here to Ecuador, and it is nice to know that, if and when we move here permanently, this activity will be available. I will redouble (no pun intended) my efforts to teach Fred.

Walking Down to Scala Mall

One thing that we do at least a few times each trip is to walk down to Scala Mall. Sometimes we are shopping or I am going to the Claro (phone provider) store, but other times we just have lunch in the food court and then return via the Chaquinan Nature Trail. And there were extra times on this trip that I walked down the hill past Scala and the hospital to the Rivera del Rio Senior Residences where the Wednesday bridge game is held.

We used to walk down to the mall on the trail, but now our practice is to use a walkway and stairs that I scoped out to walk down to the mall and then we return on the trail. In this section I want to put all the pictures that we took over the course of our two-month stay on our walks down to the mall, at the mall itself, and on the trail coming back.

First, let's take a look at the walking route down to Scala Mall.

Heading Down Maria Idrovo

Any walk down to Scala begins as we leave Santa Lucia Baja, go around the Paseo San Francisco Mall, and then start walking down Maria Idrovo, a main street that angles southeast. The picture at right was taken just after we passed the mall, and the view looks southeast. As you can see, on sunny days the view is really neat.

Maria Idrovo is a typical street for Cumbaya. Once you pass the open area southeast of the mall you are in an area where both sides of the street are rows of little shops- lots of little groceries and restaurants and then a huge variety of specialty shops, drugstores, and many more. I find the street very interesting, and reminiscent of Korea and Japan when I was there.

In less that a half-mile, we come to an intersection where the main road curves to the right and heads downhill, and a smaller street continues straight on. We follow that street and after just a block we turn right onto a gated street (gated for cars but open for pedestrians) that also goes downhill to the south and ends at the top of the walkway and stairs. Here, there is a maintenance road that goes along the hillside to that the large signs that are built there can be serviced. The road is gated, and the gate is brightly painted but partially covered in graffiti. Unless there is maintenance going on, the gate is usually closed.

Now, we've taken this route many times, and you may already have seen some pictures from the walkway and stairs. On this trip, we just took a few pictures. They include one Fred took of some of the vegetation along the stairs and the two pictures I took looking west at Avenue Guaysamin down below and then northwest towards the new condominium complex called Botanico:

The walkway and stairs end at the top of a street that comes up the hillside from Avenue Oswaldo Guayasamin. There has been some new construction here, and the street where the stairs dump you out is quite new. As you come down this new street, you reach a portion that is older, and here you turn to the right, still coming down the steep hill, and you can see the street reaching the bottom of the hill and then ascending on the other side up to Oswaldo Guayasamin.

As we turn southeast to walk along Avenue Oswaldo Guayasamin towards Scala Mall, we pass, on our left, the design district where the offices of our architect and contractor are located. We went to see if Felipe was in his office, but only a couple of staff, were there. Fred did take a couple of pictures here in the design district:

We went on to the Mall, where I bought a pop-up book for our friend Steve, and we had lunch at our favorite place in the Food Court up on the third floor, and then we walked back to Parque Cumbaya by going up the Chaquinan Nature Trail.

(Picture at left) As we came to the main entrance to Scala Mall, we found that the Christmas decorations were already up, including a three-story Christmas tree. So I asked a passerby if she would please take a few pictures of us. At left is the best one.       (Picture at right) Just after we cross the bridge that connects Scala Mall to the nature trail, there is an area where the wall separating the trail from the community on the other side has recently been brightly painted along its entire length, and this is a new part of that decoration.

We then turned northwest and headed up the nature trail. Although returning on the trail is longer, the grade is much less steep than on the stairs, and the views are better. Sometimes we continue to the top of the trail, but more often than not we take the last exit point before the top of the trail to walk up the street that takes us to Parque Cumbaya- the old central square of Cumbaya.

When we reached the square, we walked through the small market that is usually going on at weekends, and we bought a jar of natural honey at one of the vendors.

When we came out at the west end of the market, we came across a restaurant we had not noticed before. It is called the San Arnulfo Bistro, and it seemed like an interesting place to try sometime. We'd already had lunch at Scala Mall, so we didn't stop to eat. But we did take a look at the menu, and I am pretty sure we will come here to eat sometime.

After that, we went over into the square itself to sit for a while as is our custom.

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From the square, we walked northwest through Old Cumbaya so we could stop by the bakery Rey Pan that Fred favors. He always likes to buy a couple of cookies or pastries for our desserts at home.

Then we walked the short block northwest to get back to Maria Idrovo, the street we were on when we first started out to walk down to Scala Mall earlier in the day. When we reach this street, we are at a busy intersection where three other streets intersect with Maria Idrovo.

At this intersection, there are often food vendors offering stuff that looks good and is very reasonable but which we've never tried, thinking that perhaps we might suffer some ill-effects. The fact that there are many Ecuadorians patronizing the stands, and given that we know the locals don't even drink their water, should indicate that what is served is safe, so perhaps we might try some of the stuff sometime.

We walked a little ways up the street and came to an actual food truck, so we decided that it was high time we tried some street food. We decided to start with a burger, and while Fred was ordering, I made a movie of the activity here on Maria Idrovo, and you can use the player at right to watch it.

As it turned out, the food we got at the food truck was pretty good and, if you are curious, caused no ill-effects later or the next day. While Fred was waiting for the food, and when we started to eat, I took these pictures:

While the burger was good, and the fries were hot, it turned out that what I thought was ketchup (in the large red container), was a thinner, tomato-based sauce of some kind- but definitely not ketchup. So it was naked fries for the most part.

We completed our walk where we started- at Paseo San Francisco. By the time we reached the Mall entrance, it was of course much later- after sunset, actually. Fred took a couple of pictures of me looking past the Mall building towards the entrance gate for Urb. Santa Lucia Baja.

The pictures were fairly similar, and I was thinking about which one to include here when I noticed that the backgrounds were similar, and that gave me the idea to stitch them together, resulting in a single picture with me in it twice.

I just did this for the heck of it; the result is at left.

So that's a typical walk down to Scala Mall and back. This isn't the first time you may have seen this walk in this album, and it probably won't be the last.

Over at Paseo San Francisco

Just as Scala Mall was decorated for Christmas, so was our neighbor mall, Paseo San Francisco. Here are some views of the Christmas decorations next door:

Around the Neighborhood

One day, we were across the street in Villa Cumbaya, the strip center where our grocery store is, and we found that it, too, was all decorated for Christmas:

On one of our walks down to Parque Cumbaya, we came across a flowering tree that Fred didn't recognize. I did a Google image search and discovered that it is Princess Flower (Tibouchina urvilleana) also commonly known as Glory Bush. It features large, vibrrant, deep-purple flowers with a velvety texture and distinctive stamens.

It's not really a tree, but rather a large shrub that has dark green, longitudinally veined, and softly hairy leaves.

It typically grows as a sprawling evergreen shrub, reaching about ten to twenty feet in height.

The plant is native to the rainforests of Brazil, and it is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical landscapes. Of course, it was intentionally planted in Parque Cumbaya.

Over in Villa Cumbaya, we also noticed (for the first time) that there were a couple of mural-like photographs on the walls of one of the aisles off the central area of the small mall, and these were two aerial views of the area. Fred photographed them, and I want to include them below. I have noted on them some of the significant landmarks around our neighborhood:

Finally, for this trip, I have a couple of movies taken in our neighborhood:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) I made this movie one evening when the traffic lights at the huge traffic circle near our house (see the aerial views above) were either out or malfunctioning. This wasn't exactly gridlock, but it might as well have been. Occasionally, a car could move, but not often.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) In one of the aerial views above, you see I have marked the route to Scala Mall, which begins as we walk down Maria Idrovo to the busy intersection at five points. This movie was made of that part of the walk.

The Trip Home

Probably the worst thing about the flight schedules back home to Dallas is that if you want to minimize your actual travel time, the best itinerary has you leaving Quito for San Salvador at 4AM! You can leave at a more civilized hour, but then you have to either spend a very long layover in either Bogota or San Salvador, or take some other routing that has you clearing US Customs in Miami or Houston. Miami is a zoo, and Houston isn't much better, so we opt for taking an early nap in the evening and then leaving the house about 130AM in an Uber for Mariscal Sucre Airport. We always get there right at 2AM, which gives us plenty of time to check in and clear Customs and security. That's what we did this time. As we have some time to kill at the gate, I like to wander around and look in some of the store windows along the concourse.

We arrived in San Salvador about 8AM (San Salvador is one hour different from Quito; the flight is a little less than three hours) and have only a 90-minute layover. We are back in the air before ten, and land in Dallas around 1145AM. On this trip, I took a couple of still pictures out the plane window as it was a fairly nice morning:

I also took the opportunity of this being a nice morning to make a movie as our Airbus 320 took off and climbed out of the San Salvador airport, and you can use the player below, left, to watch this movie.

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The mountain feature that you see in the pictures and which is a central focus of the movie is the San Vicente Volcano, a stratovolcano in central El Salvador. It is located next to the town of San Vicente (hence the name) and is the second highest volcano in El Salvador. In the indigenous language the mountain is Chichontepec, which means "the mountain of the two breasts," because its double summit resembles a woman's bosom. The volcano has two craters, one located in each summit, although not exactly at the top. A dense jungle covers both summits. Numerous hot springs and fumaroles are found on the northern and western flanks of the volcano. To the northeast, there is a ravine that is 1500 feet deep and still geologically active with fumaroles and small volcanoes of mud.

The last significant eruption occurred more than 1,700 years ago. The volcano may have had a very long history of repeated, and sometimes violent, eruptions, and at least once a large section of the volcano collapsed in a massive landslide. On August 9, 1995, Aviateca Flight 901 crashed at the volcano, killing all 65 people on board. Aviateca was originally the Guatamalan flag carrier, but in the late 1990s became part of Grupo TACA, part of the Avianca Airlines group.

It took all of 20 seconds to actually clear Customs in Dallas, not counting the walk from our arrival gate to the customs hall itself, as there was literally no one in the line for American citizens when we arrived in the hall. We took an Uber home to find everything in order and four cats anxious to see us after our 60-day absence.

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

	November 23, 2025: My 79th Birthday
	September 25 - October 19, 2025: Our Fall Trip to Florida
	Return to the Index for 2025