Back in Baños

Hi all
We are back in Baños. Now that really took a while and is certainly not a simple tale but one riddled with many convolutions and anticipation of final outcomes. (Well said, hey. Took me a while but well worth the effort. )
We made the decision to leave after the first night of returning back to Canada. Prices, inflation........Yikes! We decided to complete things here and of course the most important one was the paper work, which I absolutely hate and am usless at. The accountants love me too, I think they shudder inside when they see me carrying my shoe box full of receipts and paper. But we did our paper work (taxes) and didn´t have to pay anything, in fact Rob is getting money back. Now that is a first for me. I had dreams of taxmen in my pockets like beggars on the street, but that is another story and doesn´t need to be discussed.
We house sat for two families for a while and came to this conclusion. ¨We need to leave.¨and so we did. Life there right now seems very stressfull and the energy high with tension and fear. At least that is what it felt like to me. I may be wrong, I am wrong about those things only a few times, my intuition is very good sometimes too good. I wonder if that has to do with being a massage therapist for so many years and dealing with so many people or whether it comes naturally or both. Probably both. My intuition tells me this is where we need to be and so we are. It might also be having more confidence in myself especially after having so many women be so supportive, especially the group of women in Salmon Arm (you know who you are). And I thank you so much.
Getting the dog down was a major hassle and I don´t think that I would EVER do it again. Finally, we had to get an agent to handle the paper work and all that jazz. He was great and kept telling me it would be OK. Reason for me being worried, they are having their Labor Day now and that means they shut down all gov´t offices for the LONG weekend and there would be no one to feed or water her. And if we had to pick her up on Tuesday, Yikes. Poor puppy. But it all came out fine, and we got her out of doggy prison, where upon she drank almost 2 liters of h2o ate and eliminated as to be expected. Rob and Dane put her on the plane and Rachelle and I flew ahead to catch her when she landed. The airline insisted on this, it made everything down here legisticly more difficult. Oh well, it is how they do things here. So we are waiting for Rob and Dane to get here, right this instant they are waiting for their plane that will take then to Quito. Then they will spend the night and maybe come to Baños right away or have a sightseeing day in Quito, who knows. All is well.
Funny thing about having a dog (rottie cross) is that everyone is afraid of her. Here in town, they think she is the devil reborn with glossy black fur and big white teeth. However, they fail to see the tail wagging and pink tongue hanging out wanting to lick you to happiness. Very few people know about them, even though they are all over the place walking around, who knew. She is adapting well, though you can see she is stressed out a bit. I guess so many new faces and new smells and new sounds, it could make anyone stressed, never mind the dog.
But life here is grand so far, and we have been warned that after a time you will love it or leave it. One of the important realizations, is that it is not like anywhere but here and that is what you must accept. So far that´s just great with me. But if we don´t like it later, well there are other beautiful places in the world too.
Since it is a holiday here, there are quite a few people in the town and there is music and smells of food and last night, lights and performers, it was really nice, but I don´t expect that every day. I love looking at the candy makers, stretching the cooked sugar on hooks. They are all different colors and have a shiny glow like interference paint. Quite beautiful. They grow sugar cane here, and naturally this town makes candy.
I can feel the creative flow beginning to burn in my body, I know that soon I will have to create again. In the past if I went too long without creating art, I would get sick, and I am not willing to do that right now, so.....
I can´t wait to paint. I brought down with me, my artist quality paints and even canvases that I had laid out already. I will start with the animals first. I feel the need to express the freedom that I am feeling, so I will start with the Peregrin falcon. I´ll let you all know the results. It seems that I can put the pictures on a separate site and direct you all there. I will be also painting in the future the flowers and insects here. They are fascinating. The light here is different than Canada, sharper, lighter, and if I could find a color for it , Whiter.
Speaking of which, for all those interested, there should be some new paintings on the website soon, it is at the webmaster to be put on, keep you all posted.
I am at an internet cafe, there are a million of them here, and the dog is wanting to do something. So we will walk the dog with the hostels dog and hopefully they will get along better.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
Robin