Photo Roundup, June 10, 2012

One of the local food cart delicacies is a mango that is cut into thin strips with this hand operated peeling machine.  I had one of these in the States and I used it to peel and core apples (among other things).  This version doesn't have the part that cores things but the rest of it pretty much the same.  At any rate, after the mango is cut into its little strips, it gets put into a plastic glass and sprinkled with vinegar and salt.  Yep, vinegar and salt.  I haven't tried one yet but one of these days I'll get brave and give it a try. 

I had no particular reason to take this picture other than how much I liked the texture of the bricks.  They're handmade and fired here in Cotacachi and this is just part of a stack that sits in front of another six or seven rows of bricks.  They're quite lovely.

I never cease to be amazed at the hand work done by the local women.  This traditional blouse is made entirely by hand.  The embroidery is done on a piece of fabric and then made into the blouse, then the sleeves are added and the crocheted edging is added at that time.  I can walk down the street here and see women crocheting thread for necklines or edging as they walk down the street.  I have no idea how they do that AND manage to avoid tripping hazards but they do.

This is the courtyard at one of my favorite restaurants, Solid Rock.  They always have a special of the day and while I may not have that, it's always something good and reasonably priced.  It's also a good place to check the bulletin board and see what's going on, whether or not there's an apartment or house for rent (if you happen to be looking), a piece of property to buy, or something to sell, like the recliner I saw there shortly after arriving here.  The woman sitting at the table is Sheiran (pronounced "Sharon") is a new friend of mine.  Unfortunately, she's only going to be here another month.  She's looking up at the new construction happening on the second floor of Solid Rock, below.

That's the ceiling of concrete blocks we're looking at and they're being held up almost exclusively by those tree limbs or trunks or whatever they are.  I'm sure there's rebar in the middle of the blocks but that's still a lot of weight to be held up by those poles.  There are a couple of real supports (one on the right and the other on the back left) but they really don't seem like quite enough to me.

That's it for this week.