Travel With Peggy: Sunday - Day of Relaxation & an Earthquake

After the busy day we had yesterday, we wanted to just be quiet today. It was about 11:34 this morning and I was on the computer and Ed was in the dining room. When all of a sudden, I felt dizzy and motion sick - what the heck. I felt like the building was swaying. Well, it was my first earthquake. A 7.1 earthquake hit central Colombia this morning. We have not learned of any damage in Ecuador or in any of the cities. We are on the 13th floor and it was very slight. When I was feeling "dizzy" I asked Ed if he felt anything and he said no - so it had to be me! Then, I got on the Expat Facebook site and everyone was talking about it.

Well, after that bit of excitement we decided to go to lunch in the Old Town of Cuenca. Now the real reason was we only had one meal in the house and was tired of cooking. Ed had done a little research to find a restaurant open on Sunday. He selected Hotel Inca Real and it was perfect.

The hotel has an indoor courtyard that is lovely and has a couple of dining tables set up there. We selected to eat in the Cafe part.

The cafe has dark red walls and very old Coke posters. It has charm and since today was Sunday very quiet. There was only one other gentleman having a meal. The restaurant has a Spanish flavor and offers tapas.

They started us off with a basket of fresh baked bread and this most wonderful dip. We had to inquire about the dip and was told; olive oil, tomato juice, coriander, chili powder (gives it that kick) and very thin onion slivers. I could have eaten that and the bread and had been happy. Ed went with their house wine from Chili and I got a glass of Sangria (very good).

Ed started off with Camarones Al Ajillo or garlic shrimp. There were about a dozen large size simmered in butter and tons of garlic.

I stated with Bergara - fried eggplant, Camembert cheese, tomato salsa and olive oil and served cold. I was a happy camper with my selection.

But, we weren't done....

Ed had their Spaghetti con Camarones = Spaghetti with shrimp. He cleaned his plate so he must have liked it.

I selected another tapas for my main dish, Cemarones Eccocados = Coconut shrimp. It was a rather large serving of 12 large shrimp and was good but the coating was rather sweet. So, I peeled away most of it and then dipped the shrimp into their dip sauce.

After that wonderful lunch, we needed to do a little walking. We headed towards the central square in Old Town. We came upon a church with a small flower market in front of it. It was just about closing up time and the ladies were busy cleaning up their stalls. I got to wander around, snap a few pictures and enjoy the beauty of all the fresh flowers. Well, I couldn't leave empty handed so I bought myself a "bunch" of long stem roses. I really didn't know how many roses there were but I guessed about 12 and paid the large amount of $5.00. When, I got them home and started putting them into the pitcher we have there were 24 roses! They smell like heaven!

We continued walking around the square and just people watching. The weather was nice and NO rain but cloudy! There are always a surprise waiting for you around the corner. The little 1954 International truck was beautiful and the driver was eager to tell us about his truck.

It was the perfect day for strolling the streets. We only could tell by the directions of the church steeples or mountains. Most all of the stores and restaurants were closed but that almost meant a lot less traffic for us.