Thingamajiggy

July 17, 2010

One adjustment that is necessary to make when living in Ecuador is to realize that EVERYTHING takes longer to do. Everything. Even preparing a simple meal can be a time consuming chore if we need to go to several different tiendas to get ingredients, and don’t forget, we have to haul our own drinking water home too. We use the tap water to wash dishes, brush our teeth, and to shower, but we don’t drink or cook with it. Ice is made the old fashioned way, with plastic ice trays (we take so many modern conveniences for granted in the States, and you won’t realize how much you’ll miss your automatic ice-maker until you don’t have one). The electrical power has a tendency to go out unannounced at the most inconvenient times (sometimes for hours), like the time I had back to back loads of sheets/towel laundry to do and guests arriving later in the day….but we adjust. You have to, to live here.

Ecuador is not everyone's cup of tea. Physical and mental adjustments need constant tweaking, there will be moments of dismay and/or frustration, but the trade off is living in a stunningly beautiful country amidst a diverse and fascinating culture, and experiencing all that has to offer.

We don’t have a car; we really don’t need one here.

We use the chicken buses (25 cents each for local jaunts – up to $1.50 to go further in either direction (i.e. towards Puerto Lopez to the north or Salinas to the south). Or we call for a taxi to pick us up at the house. We also catch “cabs” along the Ruta del Sol (Spondylus); perfectly safe, despite some dubious looking vehicles at times. Either way, it generally costs a dollar or dollar &half (night-time) between Olon and Montanita to use the taxi services and that price includes the gringo skin tax/tip. When we need a to go into Libertad/Salinas for a “city” grocery/supply expedition we hire a driver for the day (around $30-35) and everyone we’ve ever used has been patient and helpful (it does help to speak some Spanish on these ventures).

We went to Libertad a few days ago to shop. Generally we go to the “HiperMarket” (a large Wal-Mart type of store) in the local mall there. It’s akin to walking into a black hole; you go in, and you can never get out. 




A local taxi owned by
our friend Pedro

I mean, I guess this huge store is laid out in a fairly logical manner (if you consider that coffee is found on the same aisle with the infant supplies as rational thinking). And items of the same category may be located in several different areas of the store…..like various flours and beans can be found in the cereal aisle and more will be discovered in the meat section (where else?). Household goods are truly scattershot (“say, let’s put some of the pots and pans here, and the rest over in those two places”).  None of the packaging is familiar, and I’ll give you a hint here – milk and eggs are not in the dairy section.  They are in on a shelf in dry goods (milk comes in a box; I was leery at first, but it’s good). I’ll never forget the 45 minutes I once spent a few years ago in the spice section (Spanish-English dictionary in hand) trying to discern what was what. And shopping for hardware? Forget about it. At least for me, since I could barely negotiate past visits to Home Depot, and would take the broken whatever with me, and say “I need this thingamajiggy.”  
Well, I still do that here, because I sure as hell can’t find the word “grounding adaptor” in my dictionary.

We were on a mission to replace our cheap, two-year old Ecuadorian phone with a more reliable version, and pick up other needed provisions that are hard to find in our area. I had a dickens of a time unearthing a muffin tin and I thought bathroom rugs were overpriced at $8 (wrapped in cellophane plastic and labeled as a “set” – exactly one rug, nothing else). Most things are cheaper here, but some things are incredibly expensive (hedge clippers/$17, and a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is $2.48 – found with the “imported food” items). And take it to the bank that every light bulb ever purchased in Ecuador will be tested first before exiting the store. In the case of HiperMarket, one is directed to the light-bulb-tester person booth sometime during or right after check out.

It always seems like such a long day when we make the Libertad shopping journey, but Todd was happy. Like most guys, he spent that evening fiddling with all the buttons on his new cell phone and discovered it came with a “fake call activator”. You know – push that button, and you can act like you need to take a call. Great idea, and neither Todd nor I can recall if any of our U.S. phones came equipped with it.