Tomar 1 coda 12 horas

"Take 1 Each every 12 hours" is not what you want to hear when you are on vacation.  But that was the result of a trip this evening to the farmacia around the corner from our apartment.  After dealing with the stomach issues yesterday I woke up with it again today.  We figured since it was pushing 36 hours we probably needed to take it to the next level.  In Ecuador you can buy most any medication, other than narcotics, over the counter without a prescription.  You simply tell the pharmacist your symptoms and wallah, you get your meds, cheap.

So tonight, after dealing with this for two days I gave up and put my symptoms into Google Translate, copied the translated Spanish text, sent that to my email and headed down to the pharmacy.  I showed the pharmacist the email on my phone and she showed it to another lady behind the counter.  Within a minute of their muffled chuckling, she had the necessary meds on the counter.   

This was the Spanish translation I showed to her on my phone:

Tengo calambres estomacales con diarrea que se inició ayer por la mañana .

La diarrea y dolor en las articulaciones continuaron durante el día y la noche . Me desperté esta mañana y ya no tenía dolor en las articulaciones , pero la diarrea ha continuado. He estado tomando Bismoul desde ayer por la tarde , pero no ha ayudado .

¿Tiene usted alguna medicina que usted podría recomendar ?

Además, mi esposa acaba torció el tobillo . Ella tiene algo de inflamación . ¿Tiene un abrigo de tobillo o lo que se refieren como un " vendaje " .

This is what she put on the counter:  

To make matters worse, while we were out trying to get some sun and rejuvenate earlier today, Jana stepped into a hole on the sidewalk and twisted her ankle.  She could still put pressure on it so we came back to our apartment and made a makeshift ice pack and elevated her foot.  

The Spanish translation we showed the pharmacist also asked for an Ace Bandage for Jana. She gave us a Vendas Elastica (Ace Bandage) and some prescription cream for her to rub on her ankle, all of which, including my meds came to a total of $13.34.

So tonight, we ended up ordering take out (gigantic) hamburgers from the Hotel El Dorado, which is next door to our apartment and we're sitting around watching movies, again.

  

But all was not lost today.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, with a high around 70 degrees.  We walked down to the flower market, where they have fresh cut flowers for $1.50 per dozen roses!  We walked over to the San Francisco market and saw a bunch of tennis shoes and pots and pans and more matte de cocco, among a bunch of other junk that they obviously imported from China, as well.  

The San Francisco market was a disappointment because we expected it to be full of local artisan crafts.  But it turned out that it was such junk I was afraid to take a picture for fear of it breaking my camera!  

From there we planned to walk down to the Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno, but I couldn't recall exactly where it was located.  We headed back to the tourist office "iTur" and took a look at the very informative map of "El Centro" showing all of the historical sites and other points of interest.

The museum was located across from the beautiful Plaza de San Sebastian park, adjacent to the San Sebastian Church. I had the aperture setting messed up on the camera so all of the should be gorgeous pictures turned out way overdeveloped.   I finally realized the setting was incorrect and made the adjustment.  

We then went inside the museum of modern art.  It merely reconfirmed for me why I don't generally take the time to visit these places at home.  We saw a few things that just make you wonder what's going through a person's mind to not only dream something like that up, but to even call it art.  This is not meant as art bashing at all, but really, WTF???  But through all of that we did see some beautiful art and the the grounds were gorgeous.

 We even saw a painting of my buddy Jon.  It was entitled, "Master o' de Grill".

After seeing the pig fetus with the little hooves painted with fingernail paint, suspended in a jar of formaldehyde, I decided that's not what I call art and we headed for the exit.  It reminded me of that moron back in the late 80's that put the crucifix in the jar of urine and called that art, not to mention while using a Federal Arts Grant to "fund" the project.  I make no apologies for it, but I just don't get it.... 

Outside, we passed the San Sebastian Church. 

Then, along Gand Columbia on our way back to our apartment we saw more beautiful buildings that have been renovated.  Some of these were houses in the Colonial days.  Many have been renovated into hotels with gorgeous courtyards in the middle.  The architecture here is worth the price of admission alone.

We had planned to attend a gathering at Fabianos Pizzaria tonight with Beverly.  But with the two of us nursing each other's ailments we had to call her and cancel.  This was another big disappointment for us as Fabianos is supposedly a wonderful pizza place, operated by an Ecuadorian couple who lived in New York for some time, learned the pizza trade and brought authentic New York pizza to Cuenca.  It's reportedly so good that the many from local ex-pat population meet at Fabianos every Friday night and call it "Gringo Night".   Although we'll miss the gringo night, we WILL be eating at Fabianos before we leave Cuenca!  Stay tuned for the photos.

So instead, we had the GRANDE hamburgers from Hotel El Dorado and put our feet up.

With that I bid you a Buenos Noches and we'll hope for a better day manana!