Spanish Pursuit in Cuenca

“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.” ( Rich Ridgeway )

But in the beautiful city of Cuenca on our tour, a new question popped in my mind about how Ecuador might help me to practice my Spanish skills in real life situations. I might add that in Cuerca, there’s been a significant U.S.expatriate migration there in recent years making me more confident that I could find some “locals”willing to engage in such informal Spanish conversation. One interesting example of this effort that sticks in my mind took place yesterday when I complimented a middle age man of obvious Hispanic descent in Spanish about his shiny white shoes (zapatos ) . But instead of speaking Spanish back to me he kindly reported in perfect English that he was a long time resident of Minnesota who had moved to Cuerca a few years ago.

So I can thank our gracious tour guide for escorting our tour group to plenty of people friendly locations on this busy day. This gave me the opportunity to practice my Spanish at a local textile factory, an orchid planting facility, a hat store, and the city market. I can also report that when I lost a pair of air buds, I calmly entered an electronics store to purchased a new set speaking simple lines in Spanish with no problem. Enjoy the pictures from our Cuenca visit.