Merry Christmas!

Well, here it is, the day after Christmas and I'm just getting my Christmas greetings out to you.  It seems I won't have an internet connection at my new house until this coming weekend but I'll write when I can.

A little before Christmas I happened by the park when the people from the nursing home were having an event.  I love these people!  Enjoy.

It's hard to imagine just how short most of these folks are.  I'll try to give you a little measuring hints as the photos go on.  Don't you just love Santa? It's traditional for the indigenous people to present a serious face to people most of the time until they get to know you and this woman carried it off beautifully.

Christmas Photos

Today is moving day but there is no way I can see doing a blog post after the move.  The internet connection is a wire strung from the internet cafe up front and it's a hardwire connection.  Somehow I don't see myself rigging that up so I can connect and the idea of going back to the apartment after the move just doesn't do a thing for me so I'm writing this before the move and you'll get the skinny on the move soon.

Of course I have tons of stuff I can write about in the meantime and these are some of the Christmas photos I've taken recently:

 I think this is really a very comical photo.  I took it to capture both the little girls wth their basket of flowers, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus (or, in this case, both of them) but when I got it out of the camera and onto the computer screen I saw the two men behind and could help but laugh. The one on the left is obviously looking at me and is not happy that I'm taking the picture but I have no idea what the guy on the right is looking at.  The little girls are pretty somber, to

Ibarra Christmas

I was in Ibarra the other day (picking up my yarn and computer parts my friend brought me from the States) and we ended up at the main park there so, of course, I couldn't leave without some pictures.

My friend, her husband, and their daughter mugging for the camera.  They're such an adorable family.

New House Update with Photos

A friend and I went over to the new house this morning and four hours later is was sparkling clean.  I spent almost two hours defrosting the freezer alone!  I can't blame the old tenant for that because he said he could toss all the food in there and unplug it or leave the food and leave it as is, frost and all.  I opted for the frost.  Anyway, we also rearranged the bedroom furniture a bit and I got photos of that and the parts I missed last time--the bathroom and courtyard.  So, here you are, a photo display:

Before today the bed had the headboard on the left-hand wall.  I like it better this way.  It gives the room a more spacious feel.  We also moved the ladder to this side of the support beam and put the bedroom rug on it just to get the idea of how it will look when I put some kind of tapestry or something there.  It will give me the illusion of a closet.  The hanging rod is right behind there.

Cotacachi Park and Procession

So, here I am with my new computer all up and running and I can write a blog post in less than half an hour, including uploading photos (assuming they are already processed) and I have pictures from events back to September--possibly earlier--I'll have to check.  How shall I handle this?  Do I got back and start writing the posts in chronological order or start with right now and move back?  It's a dilemma--a small dilemma I will admit but a dilemma nonetheless.

Here's the decision I came to--I will start with the Christmas photos I have, then I will do the ones from each day I take them.  On the days I don't have anything to photograph I'll start tucking in ones from months past. I'll probably mention this again for new readers who may be wondering why in the world I have pictures from four months ago but I wanted to share my process with you.  Please feel free to offer your opinion if you think there's a better way to handle it.  I'm always open to suggestions.

Here we go with Christmas pictures from this month. On the evening of the 16th I was on my way home from a friend's and I heard music from the park and headed down to see what was happening.  It was the first procession I had seen--possibly the first of the season but I heard a rumor that they had started the night before.  At any rate, here are a couple of procession photos:

You can see pretty much the whole procession.  As I said, these are little groups of people.  I need to do a little more research but I believe they are from neighborhoods rather than an organization of some sort.

Bits and Pieces, December 19, 2012

Christmas in Cotacachi

Christmas here is a very big deal.  It's very commercialized, just as it is in the States, but the whole thing doesn't start until around the first of December.  I'll have lots more photos and discussion about Christmas here but I wanted to start out with the processions that take place from the 15th through the 24th of December.  This is the miniature one from last night:

I came up behind this one and it was within seconds of being over so I only got a couple of photos but with a wee bit of explanation I think you'll get the spirit of it.  There were sparkly fireworks at the corner where they started and the one where they ended (that would be a total of one block).  Traffic stopped on one side of the street for them but went around on the other side.

My Computer is Up and Running!!!!!

I got it!  My hard drive for my computer arrived!  I'm so very excited.  I'm not quite up and running yet but it's very close.  I was able to install the hard drive all by myself (it was really ridiculously easy) but I'm still missing some of the software I need.  My daughter and I will get that taken care of in the next week or so and then I'll be humming right along.

When I was in the midst of this computer mess I promised all of you a recap of everything once it was all resolved.  Well, here it is--the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'm Moving!

Yep, it's true.  As much as I love my adorable studio apartment, I've found a casita (little house) that is half the rent and I just can't pass it up!

I wish I had more photos and better ones than I currently have but you'll have a good idea of the "before" and then I'll show you the "after" as I have work done on it.

I think I may have taken the worst photos of this place that I've taken in a very long time.  My only excuse is that I was just snapping them because (a) I was intruding on the current tenant and (b) they were originally just intended for my own use to get a physical look at the space when I was doing my planning.

A Day In the Life -- Dec. 2, 2012

I hadn't set out to do one of my "Day In the Life" posts today but it was just such a joy that I wanted to share it with you.

I started out with two items on my list of planned things for the day.

On my way to my first event, I passed an interesting group of people in the park.  These people are holding folders with music in them so I'm assuming they plan to sing.