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Monday, February 23, 2015
Sorry, no photos with today’s
Blog (check tomorrow) because I am not home, but I wanted to share the day’s
experience.
I was up very early to drive
Cristina to Guayaquil to get her Colombian police report so she can then
apply for a Mercosur Visa which is extremely simple and cheap for people from
the surrounding countries.
It was my first time actually
driving in the Cajas but it is no different than driving in the mountainous
areas elsewhere in the country. While
some of the hairpins are poorly marked the highway itself is really top-notch. We made good time, arriving in about 3 hours,
just in time to hit the morning rush hour.
I am thankful that those bridges over the huge bay can carry a lot of
weight, because we just crawled along….
I checked the outside temperature once we hit the flats around 7am on the way to the coast, and it read 24.5C which quickly
rose to 27C within minutes.
I can’t last on the coast
long because the heat and humidity are too much for a boy from Calgary. Thank God
for air-conditioning which removes a lot of that humidity, however the second
we alighted in the parkade it felt like it was time for a shower already. I have no idea how hot it was, but I melted
like an ice cream cone….
I am also thankful for the
Garmin GPS for getting us close enough to our destination for us to get there
without much problem. I had been there
before, when I helped Luz through the same process, so I was able to save us a
lot of time.
The Colombian Consulate is to
be commended for being extremely efficient and helpful. They have streamlined the process so that a
person can apply for the documents online, run to the corner to deposit $10
into their bank account, then later to actually print the documents. Ecuador could certainly take some lessons from them. It is also helpful that the employees of the
Cyber Cafés in the building are experienced at helping us lost souls with that
part of the process.
We were actually done within
3 hours which was a huge relief. We
actually discussed just returning to Cuenca but we both had had very little sleep, and I had
committed to a hotel room anyway so we checked in, showered and slept the
afternoon away, then showered again, even though the room has good-working AC.
The heavens opened at dusk
and that was a welcome relief from the heat.
We spotted a Mall Del Sol
down the block so we grabbed umbrellas when the rains abated and went for a
walk. The big “M” symbol was drawing me
there for supper. This mall was
amazing! Not quite West Edmonton Mall,
but a reasonable facsimile, with tons of stores and a food court that made me
want to stay in Guayaquil. I spotted
some specials at Pizza Hut and enjoyed our first pizza in months. The Cinnabon shop a floor down did not escape
my notice so I tried CinnaPecan, which was decadently delicious. It is such a pleasure to have some comfort
food from “home” once in a while…
I am not sure what time we
will get away in the morning, but probably early enough to get away, miss the
rush hour here and catch the rush hour in Cuenca… The joys of driving.
That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al
