About mid-morning yesterday, I heard that the Ecuadorian police and/or military had seized and closed the Quito and Guayaquil airports. Todd had gone into Montanita for his favorite encebollado breakfast, and I was working on-line from our Casa del Sol rental room in my jammies. Reports started coming in from Facebook friends and expat forum acquaintances about the somewhat alarming news that civil police were striking and a political coup was underway. A couple of friends in Guayaquil wrote to say that they, along with most everyone else in the city, were pulling kids from school, shunning bus transportation (unfortunately an all too common place to be robbed in Guayaquil), stocking up on several weeks of basics, and staying home. A few others were reporting of incidents of opportunistic looting in the larger cities. Some were saying that President Correa had been shot, the internet would go out, and a bank run was possible.
Our friend Karen Kimbler said the scene in Cuenca was "rather quiet" with a few demonstrations in favor of Correa and the police were striking there too. She also said some stores had closed down. See more on her blog: Kimbler´s Exit to Ecuador.
When Todd returned shortly later from Montanita, he was also aware of the situation, but said that most TV’s in town were tuned to the futbol (soccer) games rather than the news about the events in Quito and some of the larger cities (police striking in reaction to their recently implemented pay-scale restructuring, perhaps with some support within the national military) and President Correa’s rather dramatic response to it. Nothing was amiss or unusual in our neck of the woods. And since our l
ocal police were still on the job, we weren’t sure if they even heard, knew, or cared that their big-city brethren were on strike. We called Randy in Jardines, and he said things were quiet and “as usual” in Olon as well. Without exception, every single local person we questioned yesterday about the events in Quito answered with a shrug and comments along the line of… “This is Ecuador”…. “these things happen” … “tomorrow will be different”.
ocal police were still on the job, we weren’t sure if they even heard, knew, or cared that their big-city brethren were on strike. We called Randy in Jardines, and he said things were quiet and “as usual” in Olon as well. Without exception, every single local person we questioned yesterday about the events in Quito answered with a shrug and comments along the line of… “This is Ecuador”…. “these things happen” … “tomorrow will be different”. 
We returned later yesterday afternoon to Montanita to get a bite to eat and watch the news. Once again, the area locals seemed pretty much nonplussed by the activity happening in the cities, but we are concerned about the airport situation, given the impact it may have on some of our October guests and friends soon to be arriving. Not to minimize events in Quito – tragically resulting in several fatalities, we now know – but the impact along the coast has been nearly nada.
The only two screens in Montanita that are tuned to the news rather than futbol are broadcasting from the same Ecuadorian news channel. Which means that Todd and I are essentially absorbing visual impressions about this situation, since we only understand about every tenth word, when we can hear it over Bob Marley and the soccer enthusiasts. Naturally we have been on the internet and we think that, as usual, most of the main stream media (here & States) TV broadcasts and internet news has been sensationalized, slanted, or sterile. From our perspective, the reality is that the travel warnings out of Europe now (based on recent terror threats) are more dire than anything happening here, and our airports are back open. We spent most of today writing reassuring emails to family, friends, and guests.
The weather has been stunning for the last couple of days; all is tranquillo here. We’ve spent a lot of time puttering around the Montanita point tide pools, just poking around and gathering interesting shells and rocks. The political turmoil in Quito seems very far removed from us, and tonight Todd had a Montanita friend of ours come over and teach us how to make encebollado in Casa del Sol´s kitchen and we invited friends to join us for dinner (though this is generally a breakfast soup).
For additional perspectives about the attempted Ecuadorian coup of September 30, 2010, refer to Mary Beckman´s excellent site South of Zero which has a "daily news report of what’s going on in the Ecuador Expat blogosphere" and a comprehensive list of blogs and other helpful website links. I enjoy reading many of these blogs but I suppose my favorite comments about this event were made by Clarke of Clarke and Brenda...Next Stage (I think I have linked this to go directly to that post).
Why thank you very much for "linking" us!
ReplyDeleteThat seems so long ago! Like they say, tomorrow will be different! Come Visit we have a bed in the guest bedroom now!
Hi, I'm an Ecuadorean from Guayaquil, found your blog a couple days ago.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add that "encebollado" is mainly a "hangover cure", that's why is somewhat regarded as a "morning" meal :)
Laalharaca,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing that out! Yes, it is known as a hang-over cure, and neglected to mention this most important attribute - and it works....We speak from experience (smile here).
Glad you found me - I am appreciative of all who read this.
It sounds like your English is much better than my Spanish. Even after a almost a year here, my Spanish leaves a lot to be desired.