First Guests

I arrived back in Cuenca around 2PM on Wednesday.  I met Carlos in town.  We were going to get some lunch, but ended up at the hotel that we had reserved for most of our guests, Casa Ordoñez, coordinating rooms.  We were there for longer than we had thought and Carlos had to return to work (it was his last day before vacation), so I headed to the other hotel, Hostal Macondo, to find Amanda Jones.  She had arrived, along with her husband Jon, the night before (while I was in Guayaquil).  I was so excited to see them, because the last time we had seen each other was at their wedding, about three and a half years before.

Jones and I met in high school.  We were on the fencing team together.  We would have snowball fights and jump in the lake.  We would talk about books and play cards.  So, of course, the first thing we did here in Cuenca was get manicures.  I mean, it was the only time I had to get one and wanted to hang out with her and Jon.

But even that was not simple.  The shop where I made the appointment didn't have my appointment.  I mean, I saw the woman write it down when I made the appointment a few days earlier, but when I arrived, the woman at the desk said, no, there is no one here to do nails.  But I made an appointment.  Not even a sorry.  I found another shop in the mall to do our nails, but as soon as we sat down...the power went out.  Arrrgh.  It took a few minutes for the generator kick on.

But we finally did get our nails done.  However, it took so long, that when we were done we had to immediately head back to my apartment for our dance lesson...

A bit of background on the dance lessons.  The typical first dance here in Ecuador is the waltz.  But I didn't want to do a waltz.  We settled on a tango.  But that's not very common here.  For weeks we had been trying to get in touch with a specific dance instructor.  Apparently he had lost his phone and we only were able to get in touch with him about 10 days before the wedding.  He had other engagements and we could only have our first lesson five days before the wedding.  We had our first lesson in the dance studio on Monday night.  It was terrible.  Or dancing, not the lesson.  This night, Wednesday, was out second lesson.  And it was at our apartment because there was no power in the dance studio.

Our living room is tiny, but there is a bit of space in the adjoining dining room and entrance hall.  However, Carlos and I had two instructors and three spectators in that space.  The second lesson went better than the first, but my feet were aching in my new shoes (actually, I had bought the shoes years ago along with an identical pair in a different color that I wore quite often...I forgot that the shoes had only been worn one and would have to be broken in for the wedding).

Jones and Jon watched the entire hour long lesson, then we drove them back to their hotel, but ended up stopping for a drink and a snack on the way at the only microbrewery in town.  The beer is actually quite good, when it's there.  Usually they are out of one (or two) of the three beers that they make.  When we went they had the blond and the black, but were out of the red, which is my favorite.

At least the day finished on a relaxing note...