Moving2Ecuador

Semana Santa is the most religious week of the year and the city is ramping up for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The churches in the Centro Historico have masses throughout the day, there is sacred music in the churches and the theatres nightly, there are special exhibits in the churches and monasteries and museums, and a massive procession is planned for Good Friday. The 'cucuruchos' are penitents dressed in purple outfits with peaked caps, who join the 'veronicas', who are the women, also dressed in purple, who represent those who attended Christ during the march to his crucifixion. The procession will start at San Francisco Square at noon Friday and continue through the streets of the Centro Historico, recreating the last hours of Jesus's life, his crucifixion scheduled for 3 PM (which is apparently when it actually happened) and ending at the start of the Jewish sabbath at 6 PM. San Fransisco Square The mass we attended Sunday recounted (in excruciating detail...

My house is empty, quiet, far too quiet. Debra, Werner and Rebecca all took the same flight tonight to Atlanta, and then on to Salt Lake. Debra and Rebecca and Werner have filled up my life these past five weeks, and I will miss them. Eric is in Yanayacu, and not coming home tomorrow as planned. Maya and I are left to our own devices, and there are all sorts of possibilities ahead. This is her spring break, and all her friends are off to the beach, so she has told me she wants a vacation, even if she misses Easter celebrations. We all went to 'Mitad del Mundo' today. We visited the original monument, which is NOT on the 'true' equator. It is located at the place where the original French scientific team determined the equator to be in the 1700's. They used their measurements to define the length of the metre. The monument is a thick tower with a sphere on top, and inside the structure, one ascends to the top in an elevator to view the arid landscape in all four dir...

I worked on my 'denuncia' last night, and Rebecca put hers together this morning. We went to the Minsterio de Turismo armed with two folders, one with all the original documents and the other with copies. Our original itinerary, the amended itinerary, the invoice, the copied 'denuncias' from our visit to the Galapagos Tourist office, and our new expanded 'denuncias'. When we had been confronted by Freddy at the tourism office in Puerto Ayora, things got out of hand very quickly, and while Freddy and Janeth and their lawyer were handling our denuncias and threatening the staff, one of the ministry employees led me upstairs and advised me to speak to 'Glammys' at the Tourism office in Quito. I was concerned that Freddy would make the 'denuncia' disappear, and I do believe that is what happened, because Glammys was supposed to have received the 'denuncia' and been advised about our case before we showed up today. Of course she had heard noth...

We visited the Centro Historico today. It was a good day for Rebecca's first exposure to the center for all sorts of reasons. On Sundays, many streets in historical part of the city are closed to motor vehicles. There are some streets that encourage bicycle traffic, but otherwise, the noise and the smell and the dangers from cars is not a concern. The city feels so much more peaceful, although there are many people who congregate on the squares and the place is very lively, with dancing and music and street theatre going on all over the old town. It is also the start of 'Semana Santa', or Holy Week, so the churches are open, there are museum exhibits everywhere, and a music festival of Sacred music. Most of Maya's friends have gone to the beach, which is the popular thing to do this week. I am interested in the celebrations for holy week, and today is Palm Sunday, so I was eager to participate in the activities of the day, in the place where they were likely to happen....

It is always wonderful to come home. Maya is happy and excited to see me and Eric has been in a frenzy cleaning up the apartment, so that I wouldn't be too upset about him filling the house with crickets for neurophysiology experiments while I am gone. I do not what to imagine what is was like when I am away, I am simply delighted that I feel so welcome after my week vacation. Rebecca is exhausted, and nursing blisters on her feet and bruises all over, and has to adjust to the altitude again, so I decided to take it easy today. I was unable to sleep after a couple cappuccinos while waiting for our delayed flight from Guayaquil to Quito, so I finished four loads of wash during the midnight hours. I had used all the clothes I had brought to the Galapagos, and everything was dirty and smelly and in immediate need of disinfection! Maya had an orchestra concert at the 'Condamine' School, which is the local French school. I had tried to get Maya into the school when we moved here...

I have decided that I absolutely love Guayaquil. Of course, I have not been robbed yet and everyone I have encountered has been kind and helpful. The 'hostal' was comfortable and a little funky. The bathroom was behind a glass enclosure, which during the day obscured the actions of the bathroom user, but when it was dark, the glass was see-though and all was visible. Rebecca and I shared the double bed. We piled up the duvet between us and slept well, despite our room being right on the Malecon, with cars booming by all night. The drapes would not close entirely, so I was up with the sunrise, wishing I had slept a little longer. On the other hand, watching the city wake up was entertaining. We had our breakfast on the balcony overlooking the Malecon and the river, and ate granola with yoghurt and fruit and watched the cars whizzing by. I am not sure whether we are just so relieved to be treated with decency and respect that we are over enthusiastic about our experience here. In...