Viajar es la unica cosa que compras y te hace más rico

I discovered a taste of Europe in Ecuador this weekend: Cuenca. The city is described as "the economic center of the southern sierra, [which] has long been known for a rich intellectual, artistic, and philosophical tradition that matches its colonial architecture." 

While I love to meander through museums, I really took in the city by winding through the streets and hunkering down in different cafés and restaurants to read and people watch. 

After a weekend of sipping a lot of tea and agua de coco, turning into something of a social anthropologist, and enjoying a quaint, tranquila cuidad, I've arrived back to school quite calmada. 

Through photos I'd like to share the belleza de Cuenca con ustedes. 

So come, together let's see what we might find...

1st stop (well, and 3rd, 7th and last--when I find a good restaurant,
I eat through the menu): El Mercado.
 Great food, great vibe, great tunes

and a great view of the river.

Aaand notably good coffee with a cozy chair for reading. 

El Mercado by evening--with Celeste and Greg, friends from Americano. 

Strolling around town one runs into beautiful buildings as such.

Making my way down by the river I saw street art that is nothing like the graffiti we know back home. The street art has good purpose; it makes a statement and speaks a truth.

Good thing I love to walk, right friends, because I ended up back up from the river in the main square. I spied a parade and then found the best seat in the house. Sipping poorly brewed coffee was okay if it meant taking in the scene from above. 

After the parade had passed, the square makes a superb place for people watching and hunkering down with two of my favorite things: a brilliant book and large coco. It seems I was being watched as well as a desconocido plopped down next to me and started chatting. I found the conversation pleasant until the middle-aged stranger wanted my number. With a "mucho gusto" I was off and walking again...

While I may be, in the realm of shopping, the most conservative Baci woman, still I get the itch, so I was off to find some shops, continually happening upon interesting sites and scenes.

The mosaic paired with the family enjoying one another's company was just too lindo.

To travel is to live, said Hans Christian Andersen. Simple words, but I heartily agree and the town continued to just delight me with its beauty and tranquil energy.

For me that beauty included visible "flaws" as well. If imperfections are always so consciously concealed, I struggle to relate to those persons or places.

A good traveler has no fixed plans...further wise words, spoken once by Lao Tzu. My experience in Cuenca was largely marked by arriving without a set itinerary. Allowing the day to unfold the way it would, I feel I got a real sense of the town and its people. 

As my legs were walking that city center, I stumbled across the famous domes of Cuenca,
 the top of Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. 

Before catching the plane back to Quito, I nestled back onto a bench in the main square, peered through the trees to once again allow my senses to take in the sites, sounds and surroundings of this lovely town.

These past months have been filled with especially memorable trips. February began with the Galapagos, then the whole family gathered in St. John's and the next weekend I was exploring Cuenca. I don't take this life for granted, that's for sure. I'm so privileged. These experiences are certainly enriching, and I hope that as I feel my life is quite indulgent, I also continue to bring positive energy to the world and people surrounding me. It is something upon which I reflect daily, my purpose in this place. A friend posted an article recently that was thought-provoking in this vein of purpose and making a difference. I'm reposting it here  as these words might speak to you as well. 

The title to this blog translates "To travel is the only thing that you buy that makes you rich." ...and may that richness also somehow enrich the lives of others...

For now, love from Cuenca. <3 

Jame

Oh, the delights of the unforeseen, unexpected and formerly unknown

There are times when I can get lost in the fears of what I cannot predict...and what I cannot predict turns out to be just about everything. In a lifetime there are people and events that take you by surprise in deeply sad, sometimes tragic ways. This post, though, is dedicated to those delightful appearances of people, moments and discoveries that were wholly unpredictable, and for that, all the more delicious. It is 12:21 am on March 16th (mmm hmm, guess who's not sleeping again) and for the next 30, 60...maybe even 90 days, I will be noting life's unanticipated pleasures:

March 17th: It's 8:30 and I just sat down for the first time tonight. I've been busy cooking and baking up a storm in my kitchen. The unforeseen here isn't wholly unpredictable. Anyone who is reading this blog is familiar with my passion for food and chowing down, but it's the fun frenzy that has arisen in me that is so notable. Taking a Coursera class called "Ignite Your Everyday Creativity" I was encouraged to create a list of "to-do's" for a project. I invented a project called "Creative Kitchen" and determined that I would make at least two new meals a week. It's a good thing that I had time to work out today in the midst of digging my spoon into the Avocado Ice Cream I made last night the moment I walked in the door from school. I then started to put together the ingredients for veggie burgers with lemon cashew mayo...while wolfing down the roasted cauliflower soup I had made on Sunday. I just finished the Nutella cookies (which I am gifting to staff at school in case you were beginning to wonder how fat my big toe was going to soon get). Passion=Positive Life Force. How are you exploring yours?

March 29th: The Baci clan is in St. John's this week. This afternoon I had this deliciously victorious moment. Auntie Jamie's been a little neurotic about the amount of toaster waffles, pasta and butter and mac-and-cheese the sobrinitas have been consuming (though I do have to earnestly reflect that when I was in Barcelona, I was requesting that Mom send me Easy-Mac...creature comforts die hard, I guess). I've been making my way through Dale Carnegie's classic How to Win Friends and Influence People and one of his main tenants is "arouse in other people an eager want." I've reflected on my classroom practices in regards to his words, and now this wisdom is helping me consider how to get two intelligent, spunky sobrinas to eat their fruits and veggies. Here it is: let them pick out their own fruits and make some rainbow kabobs. Natalie was totally making my day with her enthusiasm. She was so incredibly proud of her creations...and working it to pass them off on Uncle Tommy, Auntie Cassie and Bapa. 

She's a saleswoman like her mama. And she's soon to be a great sous chef; I've got a project brewing for the summer...

April 10th:

Less than one week after I arrive home from St. John's I am flying off to Cuenca, a most quaint and lovely, European-ish feeling town in Ecuador. Seriously, is this my life? Yes, it is. Damn. Heading to Cuenca I anticipate I will find some cool little places, but I don't know that one will be called El Mercado. I don't foresee how cozy and comfortable I will feel away from home. At 4:30 on this Friday I am about to crack open my latest read. The energy of El Mercado...is just what I need at this moment. Old school John Mayer is kind of twirling through the air, bringing me back momentarily to college. I'm sipping agua aromatica con gengibre y naranja. What I take to be a North American couple sits across the room from me, well-dressed in their North Face travel apparel while two Latin men speak softly at the table in front of me. The river rushes below and sun beams make their way through an overcast sky. What I feel is simply peace. 

April 15th:

Just finished a meeting with a student and his administrator. I really like this kid, but we've been ebbing since he was sour about a cell phone incident. The conversation went really well, though, and we are both walking away with better energy towards each other, which leaves me hopeful for the last weeks that we are working together. Reflecting on this conversation, the best feeling I have is actually my understanding that the conversation does not likely mean completely smooth sailing until he graduates. It's just not realistic. My growth as an educator, and person, has been coming to this understanding, that real change takes time--weeks, months, sometimes years--and all of the ebbs and flows are necessary parts of the process. I have a great deal more patience now for my own growth over time and that of my students than I did when I began my career, or even when I began this year of teaching. After waking up a bit cranky and pouty (another floppy date last night--I think the Universe mixed up dessert and desert. I like sweet things, but I'm in a man desert and that's really not dulce), the meeting and this reflection lightens me and reminds me of the cool stuff happening within me and within others. 

April 19th: 

This morning as I was just heading out on my Sunday morning jaunt with my friend Nicole and her very spirited dog Lola, I received a text from my dear friend Iain. Would I help him rise to the challenge of baking banana bread at altitude? Absolutamente. An afternoon I thought would be one of solitude was made much lovelier in the company of Mr. Duncan. We whipped up a ridiculous amount of banana bread. Bread baking, we watched the lightening strike out against the not-so-distant mountains and played good tunes all afternoon. Emerson's words seem well-placed here: A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.

April 23rd:

The end of the school day was nearing and the sun was still beaming, in the midst of the rainy season. Sometimes I get stuck in my routine. Today was supposed to be my more intense workout with weights. But my soul was saying, "Go for Vitamin D!" Sometimes I need to break with routine so much that I move to another country; sometimes I become so attached to routine that it takes a good deal of consciousness to let it go for something better. Making some effort to ignore the rush hour exhaust, I powered around the park; the energy of the other walkers, runners, families and peppy pups got me feeling...exuberant you could say. All of the buildings set back against the surrounding mountains led me to yet another "My life really kicks ass" moment. 

I began this post just over a month ago to reflect on the unexpected, which I have, but more it's drawn me to just savor the everyday. Every day has something radical to offer. And there will never be another day like it. This is the only April 25th, 2015 that will ever exist...