FILLING IN THE BLANKS

Friday (Viernes)…19 Noviembre 2010

Filling in the “blanks”……..

Over the past “many” days I’ve been busy with [as I’m 
sure you can guess]…the Internet conundrum.

The Ecuadorian Bank account (necessary for the Internet) 
is now done! This being said…I just returned from the 
bank albeit…empty handed.

You see (and remember…this is Ecuador) today was the 
day that I was to pick-up my “debit” card…in which case 
I would then have ATM access. I would have also been 
sure my account was “live”. Well-l-l-l...it wasn’t!

Lo Siento (I’m Sorry) Senor…No “active” account…

No Debit card and…yes…yours truly has to return this 

coming Monday for said Debit Card and whatever else…

kind of papers await me.

Ahhh the joys of South American Customer Service (?)

So…now it’s about 11 a.m. and I am obliged to wait…

for the Etapa “installation hombre” who…hopefully will 

(a) Come…and (b) [keeping my fingers XX’d]…be 

successful at installing said internet.

Somehow...I have a feeling that…”IF” Etapa comes…

It’ll be late or…I’ll need to do a “do-over” on Monday 

(at the very least)!!!!!! Soooo…..now I wait!!!

Quick Note: Etapa…a “No Show”!

It’s now early Sunday (Domingo) a.m.

Luckily I picked-up another errant wi-fi signal which…
gave me about a half hours worth of connection and 
allowed me to send a couple of e-mails along with deleting 
a lot of crap.

Monday (Lunes)…22 Noviembre 2010…a.m..

Finally…finaly…fianally!

My Bank Acocount with Pichincha bank is now…after 

another 2 or so hours…”activated”…as are the Debit Card 

and Transfer card. These cards are necessary in order to 
make any intra-account transfers…don’t ask… 
’cause I have no use for it...but it’s something that 
“one has to have” [????]. As for my Etapa (Internet) 
Installation…”manana”…we’ll see!!!! More later ….

If you’re keeping track of this idiocy…

it’s now Wednesday (Miercoles)  and (believe it or not)…

Etapa (BTW that’s pronounces EEETAAPA) came about 

noon and left about 12:15.

Results…NADA!!!  ARGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems that the phone number on the Etapa “Proof of 

Telephone Service” that I received from the owner…was 

“her” phone number. Thus No Installation! Anyway…
after I talked to not…“Un”…but “Dos” Amigo Cuencanos 
and…I guess after some behind the scenes negotiations… 
bottom line…el Dos Hombres from Etapa are due to come 
back manana…Thursday (Jueves)…A.K.A.…

(Si...Thanksgiving Day).

Now…Etapa “promised” to arrive at my door early a.m. 

I mentioned to mi amigo who had set-up this upcoming 

visit that…I had an early Turkey Dinner appointment and 

will have to leave by 1 p.m. His response (and in typical 

Sud (South) Americano style) told me to…just (marchar) 

leave!

I guess that means…if they don’t show by then…”they’ll” 

just have to reschedule me [perfecto] !!!!

Anyway…with luck…my Internet woes…will be a thing 

of the past come manana. Incidentally…I’ve had “some” 

luck in picking up some stray wi-fi signals over the past 

couple of days. This of course has enabled me to check 

some sites and do some e-mails. Unfortunately and 
because the stray signals are…shall we say…weakish…
this translated to a high incidence of “extremely low” 
Internet speeds…too low in fact to let me get SKYPE 
to actually work.  Isn’t “high tech” wonderful ???

BTW and before I forget…this coming Sunday is the day 

that the Republic of Ecuador does it’s Census. This occurs 

every ten (10) years. Now…the Census rules are thus:

Talk about “shutting down a country”…

One cannot leave their home from 8 am. until 5:30 p.m. 

This is supposed to ensure that “everyone” will be 
available to the Census taker (visitors included). The 
penalty...(as I understand it) is that a person ignoring this 
rule…will be apprehended and end up in jail for the next 
24 hours (I’m being quite serious here).  Furthermore 

(again as I understand it)…ALL streets will be CLOSED 

and enforced by the Police Force.

BTW…I got lucky as…my Cuencano friend gave me a 

“copy” of the six (6) page Census. Being that the Census is 

only in Espanol...he was nice enough to fill in the blanks 

for me. This way when the Census taker arrives…I just 

need to hand over the copy and he/she will just transpose 

the information…[I Hope] !!

Getting back to my previous police statement.

One should understand that the police force in Ecuador is a

“National Police Force”…one in which… police totting 

Automatic Weapons are not uncommon. No…it’s not a 

“police state”...but they Do Not fool around either! I’m just 

glad that this is a “once in a decade” exercise!

OK…enough of that!

Thursday (Jueves)…25 Noviembre, 2010

Another day…and more waiting for the Etapa Technicians. 

The big question…will they come before my self-imposed 

1 p.m. deadline or not. Actually will they come at all! 

It’s now just a bit past 9 a.m. and all I can do is wait it out!

OK…another day came and another day went. By 
1:30p.m. I called my friendly interpreter Jose and…to make 
a long story short…he called Etapa…cancelled the rest of 
the day and rescheduled per my instructions for next...
Monday (Lunes).

The reasoning behind this…is that I refuse to sit in my 

apartment for another L-O-N-G day...manana Friday 

(Viernes).

So…si…still no Internet! Do you think I might be getting 

just a teeny bit crazy over this? Actually…I’m not…just a 

bit annoyed. But..hey…this is Ecuador! 

On a brighter note…I just returned from Thanksgiving 

Dinner at my newish friend Julia’s place. Nice folks all 

(we totaled 9 personas) and… wayyy too much food!

One needs to understand that this was somewhat special 

to me as I haven’t been to a “family-sized” Thanksgiving 

Dinner for…well…quite a number of years. In addition 

to the food was of course…was the other Expats present 

for said dinner and of also the good natured jabbering 

that went along with it (hey that’s a big part of this type 

dinner…right?) And speaking of Turkey Day…

By the time you will read this…Thanksgiving will be a 

thing of the past. Sooo…this being the case…let me wish 

you all…a belated Happy Thanksgiving.


(OK folks…time to get out there and “walk it off”) 

Until next time…

Buenas Noches y Sonreir 

Good Night and Smile