{"id":7065154,"date":"2026-09-23T21:17:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/proof-that-youre-never-too-old-to-slap-on-a-backpack-and-follow-your-dreams-6\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T21:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:17:55","slug":"proof-that-youre-never-too-old-to-slap-on-a-backpack-and-follow-your-dreams-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7065154","title":{"rendered":"Proof that you’re never too old to slap on a backpack and follow your dreams."},"content":{"rendered":"


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Expatn<\/a>
\n \"Strolling<\/p>\n

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\n Published on<\/b> March 30th, 2026 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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O.k., o.k. it\u2019s been a (goodly long) while. Quite the (nearly 3 month, gasp!) hiatus since I managed to pop in here w\/ a bit of TL blather. Agreed. I am nothing but a wretchedly unreliable Blatherer these days.<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t as if I have nothing to say. I do have a boatload of pics and commentary on my skip to Bogot\u00e1 and Cartagena, Colombia last winter. Will get to that (eventually), but what I thought might be more fun to write about\u2026<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t shared a \u201cSlice of Expat Life\u201d post in awhile, so I thought y\u2019all might enjoy a few of the happenings here on this 8,400+ ft. mountain-top in South America. Given the \u2013 OMG 12 years now! \u2013 I\u2019ve been cozily calling Cuenca \u201chome\u201d, clearly my day-to-day life here isn\u2019t much different than yours (e.g. grocery shopping, paying bills, dental appointments, puttering with the plants in my balcony \u201cjardin\u201d, <\/span>and \u2013 in my particular case \u2013 confounding innocent private English students with a boatload of English homophones and bewildering idioms.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while even the most mundane chores can still prove a bit challenging (which in my book is a GOOD thing that I actually THRIVE on) when you\u2019ve chosen to live outside your native land for years on end, nonetheless, just as in your life \u2013 happily, a smattering of somewhat unique affairs do pop up occasionally as especially memorable. So let\u2019s take a peek at a handful of such highlights I\u2019ve recently enjoyed here in Cuenca, Ecuador, shall we?<\/p>\n

Another (Dodderin\u2019) Trip Around the Sun<\/h3>\n
\"Vietnamese<\/a><\/p>\n

The birthday girl is in PHO HEAVEN!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Generally I try to jet off to some wholly new corner of the globe around the time of my birthday (March is the perfect \u201cshoulder season\u201d in Europe and many other corners of the globe). But since returning from Colombia in December, I wasn\u2019t in any particular hurry to decamp again from my comfy home here on this mountain-top. So I opted instead for a simple (yet arguably EPIC!) bowl of a rarity in this part of the world: a great big ol\u2019 steaming-hot bowl of Vietnamese PHO (FYI: pronounced \u201cfuh\u201d as in \u201cfun\u201d \u2013 w\/o the n) soup at my favorite restaurant in El Centro (Sunday Brunch Cuenca<\/a><\/strong>).<\/span><\/p>\n

(Dear Vietnam: Oh how I so miss your amazing eats!)<\/p>\n

New Chinese Expat Friends<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>As is my characteristic M.O. when it comes to befriending strangers at every turn, I first met Minny by barging into her sweet pink and white sushi\/dumpling shop (Koi Sushi<\/a><\/strong>) at the neighborhood mall on the chance that she might know where I could get my hands on a bamboo steamer. I wanted to make a batch of \u201cbao\u201d (FYI: pronounced \u201cbow\u201d as in \u201chow\u201d) buns,<\/span>\u00a0and I\u2019d looked high and low all over Cuenca for a steamer. But not even the specialty kitchen shops seem to know whattheheck a \u201cvaporera de bambu\u201d was (sigh).<\/p>\n

Minny agreed that such a contraption might be hard to find here in Cuenca but pointed me to a couple of shops I\u2019d not tried before. Meanwhile, she said she\u2019d keep an eye out for a steamer, and we exchanged contact deets.<\/p>\n

No dice at the new shop options, but a few weeks later dear Minny sends me a FB message with a pic of my long sought-after quarry (see right: rather shabby<\/span> pic of said lusted-after bamboo steamer nestled in what looks like a disused corner of somebody\u2019s garage). Apparently (bless-her-heart) Minny checked with the Chinese import supplier for her sushi shop that\u2019s located in Guayaquil on the coast, and\u2026<\/p>\n

YIPPEEE \u2013 he had two and would sell one to ME!<\/p>\n

Which led to\u2026<\/p>\n

An \u201cAmerican\u201d Lunch<\/h3>\n

As Minny spoke little English (while both of us continue to learn Spanish here in our adopted Ecuadorian home), I started helping her devise online ads for her family sushi shop business (um, often Google translate doesn\u2019t get things quiiiite right). \ud83d\ude09 And in early December I invited her and her family (hubby Tomoi and 13 yr. old daughter Lily) to join me in my (cleverly reserved for a 1 nt. \u201cstaycation\u201d for a mere <\/span>$24) hotel room in El Centro \u2013 the balcony, directly above Santo Domingo Plaza, with a perfect view of my favorite annual fiesta here in Cuenca, the Festival de Las Luces (the Festival of Lights).<\/p>\n

After Christmas, my new Chinese expat friends invited me to their home for a delicious authentic Chinese homecooked dinner (Tomoi previously was a chef in some of the best hotels in Shanghai and Tokyo).\u00a0 Not only were the many different dishes delicious, but I finally learned how to prep fresh shrimp into the quintessential stretched \u201cstraight\u201d shape for proper shrimp tempura.<\/p>\n

\""American"<\/a><\/p>\n

My take on an \u201cAmerican\u201d lunch\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Naturally, I wanted to reciprocate their hospitality so a few weeks later I invited them to lunch at Casa Dyannita. My \u201cplan\u201d was to likewise cook them a truly \u201cAmerican\u201d\u00a0 lunch\u00a0 (short of the standard fast-food associated w\/ U.S. of A. cuisine: pizza and hot-dogs).<\/p>\n

But I must say \u2013 choosing a menu representative of the wide variety of cuisines spread across my native land proved quite a challenge. I even polled my friends and family on Facebook and received a diverse array of suggestions including fried chicken, potato salad, ranch dressing, buffalo wings, nachos, and sloppy joes. All good suggestions, but I finally went with a potpourri of comfort foods from my own childhood in the U.S. Midwest: meat loaf, \u201cloaded\u201d baked potatoes, and good ol\u2019 (albeit \u201ccopycat\u201d) homemade KFC coleslaw.<\/p>\n

Happily my Chinese friends seemed to enjoy my humble \u201cAmerican\u201d eats. Even better, Tomoi brought a a small batch of dehydrated <\/span>Chinese seaweed, and made us all a starter of seaweed soup.<\/p>\n

In short, a 7,000+ mile wide cultural exchange of national eats, curiously led to\u2026<\/p>\n

A Quilting Teacher is Born!<\/h3>\n
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\u201cCrazy About Cuenca\u201d quilt at Casa Dyannita.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While the four of us chatted (mostly via Google Translate and mime) <\/span>around the table after lunch, young Lily (the only member of the family that spoke a good bit of English \u2013 not to mention is swiftly becoming fluent in a 3rd language at school here in Ecuador) admired my several quilts scattered about the walls and draped across the couch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Casually I replied \u201cThanks Lily \u2013 would you like me to teach you how to make a quilt?\u201d The gleaming smile on her face needed no language (neither English, nor Spanish nor Chinese) \u2013 oh my \u201cYESSS<\/em><\/strong>!\u201d was her emphatic answer. And we arranged then and there, for quilting lessons every Sunday since that day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Suddenly I\u2019d become a (very happy) quilting Teach to a most delightful teen born in now far-away Shanghai, China!<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s honestly been great fun to share with her my own renewed passion for fiddling with all manner of colorful fabric scraps and creating ever new fiber art to hang on the walls and liven-up my apartment.<\/p>\n

Clearly not everyone gets a high from snipping fabric scraps and struggling to match unruly patchwork corners. But Lily swiftly befriended my sewing machine (albeit pressing that uber-speedy foot pedal ever so gently to slow stitch her seams). And even happily claimed the title of \u201cSeam Ripper Queen\u201d when she has to un-stitch a wonky seam.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been working on small projects to start, and Lily is an especially quick learner. The first project was a fun \u201csnap purse\u201d (using a metal strip from a carpenter\u2019s measure for the \u201csnap\u201d closure), and now we\u2019re working on a series of quilt blocks using various piecing techniques that she\u2019ll eventually stitch into a runner for her family\u2019s <\/span>kitchen table (Shhh! \u2013 don\u2019t tell her parents \u2013 it\u2019s a surprise!)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

lol \u2013 note the bamboo steamer tucked in the cart behind Lily \u2013 that started it all! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Best of All Worlds<\/h3>\n

So there you have it \u2013 just a peek into a handful of what the TravelnLass has been up to lately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fond reminders that \u2013 while g-knows we wanderlusts love to travel \u2013 even (recently trendy) <\/span>\u201cslow travel\u201d has its downside. For me, having a permanent base in a foreign country is the best of all worlds. A place that still offers cultural\/language surprises daily even after a dozen years. A place where I can set up a sewing machine (which is otherwise a bit heavy to drag around from country to country every month or two)\u00a0 and invest in a proper bamboo steamer for my kitchen<\/span>. A place where I can still hop on a plane to a new land for a month or more whenever I get the itch, yet\u2026 A place that I can truly call \u201chome\u201d and nurture genuine friendships (not just endless \u201cmeet-ups\u201d) with both local Cuencano neighbors as well as fellow intrepids from far-away lands (who feed me well!) \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

In short, after a lifetime of whizzing hither and yon round the globe, I\u2019m ever grateful to have found such a lovely corner of the globe to settle down.<\/p>\n

Thanks ever so much Ecuador, for allowing me to permanently live in your beautiful country!<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

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\"Dyanne\"\/<\/p>\n

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P. S.<\/b> New here and curious who I am?\u00a0 Check my bio<\/a> to learn more!\u00a0 Better yet, subscribe to my email list (so you never miss a single post) and get a pdf of my 30+ Best Travel Tips (trust me, at least one is sure to be a revelation).<\/p>\n

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About the Author<\/h4>\n
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Dyanne<\/a> Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion,and I\u2019ve always lived life \u201clike-a-kid-in-a-candy-store\u201d \u2013 eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been:<\/p>\n

This ain\u2019t a dress rehearsal, folks!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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