Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Monday August 3, 2015 Toxic

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Monday August 3, 2015

I was up early to be at the Immigration office by 8am and there was already a line-up of 21 people ahead of me although that didn't concern me much because I zip right over to the "extraneros" section where I was second in line. That doesn't stop 2 rude gringos and 1 rude Ecuadorian from jumping the queues. Ugh...

This time Immigration finally had approval of my old Visa from Quito. With all the delays I was seriously beginning to think that President Correa had flagged me for some "treatment".... Anyway, I paid $30 and got my photo taken, then they asked me to come back today again. The Bank statement copies that I had brought did not actually show my name with the account number, so that meant a trip home, printscreen, print, and return... Then I am told to come back a week from Wednesday for my new Visa and to bring another $30... Then, and only then, will they begin the work to change my marital status on my Cedula.... So far, 6 visits and they still won't work on it....

I was to meet my buddy Oswaldo for lunch and go shopping for accessories for my scooter, and for a tailor to make me a suit. I got a call from Oswaldo that he couldn't make it because he had a bad accident with his Nissan close to his home, going too fast to make the turn off the Autopista, hit some gravel and wrecked the car. Luckily he has only suffered some bruising. He said that he had let go of his insurance last year so this is going to be costly to my poor friend...

So I had lunch at home and made arrangements to go to my old insurance agent to finally get the refund on my car insurance (which was requested in May..). I also enquired as to whether they had found a company to provide insurance on my scooter, which they have not, so I am uncomfortably running around like 3/4 of the Ecuadorians without any insurance.

Not far away I went to FACO Uniformes at San Blas square who had made me a waterproof jacket quite a while ago because I decided to get some reflective stripes put on it. Then I still bought a waterproof vest with reflective stripes as well. A good start...

Then I decided to check around myself a bit for accessories for the scooter and went to a few places without major success. I found one storage case for $55 but it did not have the back rest that I want. One of the other customers there said that he had a used smaller one that I could have for 1/2 the price, and it supposedly does have a back rest.... So maybe I will see that in a couple of days. Everyone kept referring me to the Royal Enfield store but unfortunately they were closed at 1pm so I figured they weren't open today at all. So off I rode again.

I went to Kiwi by the airport on a lark and checked out a few hardware items. I picked up a No Parking (Estacionar) sign for my garage door, a metal lemon squeezer, then I saw something that made my wheels turn. As a result, my scooter now has a name... TOXIC, with a skull and crossbones to boot! The sign actually said Toxico, but I cut off the O and stuck that in front of the "Fatty", so now I have the only low-fat scooter in town, ...lol. If nothing else, my scooter is now a conversation piece....

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al