An anecdote about Ecuatime:
My first day at site, my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to Galerita with her, which is a town just a few miles down the “Corredor Tourística”. It was Holy Thursday (Semana Santa is a BIG deal here, just FY) and she needed to get some watermelon. I thought Sure, why not? I have nothing to do today, except lie in the hammock and read my Kindle, so if I get an invitation “para comprar sandía”, I’m gonna do it. The invitation happened at 11am, we left the house around 11:20. Stopped at a neighbor’s house to pick up another watermelon-buyer, then stopped in front of the church so my host mom could introduce me to a few people. Walked up the huge hill that is the only way in and out of Galera, and reached the bus stop at about 11:50. Waited for a half an hour, finally caught the ranchera headed south (a ranchera is an open-sided truck with rows of covered benches behind the cab of a pickup, and is the most common mode of transportation around here). The ride to Galerita was about 10 minutes, we disembarked in front of the tienda and we were told “No hay” sandía. (This has a fun little Ecua hand gesture to go with it, and can be used for all kinds of things. Ecuador is a country where “no hay” happens a lot.. No hay bus, no hay water to shower, no hay espacio en taxi, no hay change for your $5 bill.. the list goes on and on.) Just when we thought we would have to return empty handed, the neighbor across the road yells that he has some watermelon he will sell us. He doesn’t own a store or anything, he just has some extra watermelon we can take off his hands for a small price. So we bought all 4 watermelons, sliced one open with a machete and ate it on the side of the road, then sat down to wait for the ranchera going to opposite direction. We waited about half an hour and it didn’t come. I killed a little time by wandering up and down the road trying to get enough cell signal to send a text message. Luckily, two guys transporting water in a little motorcycle/truck thing (I know, Ecuador has all kinds of great hybrid transportation) offered us a ride for the same price as the ranchera- $0.25- so we piled in this little truck bed on the back of this motorcycle with our watermelons and rode back to Galera, although thankfully they dropped us down the hill at the cancha (cement soccer field), so we didn’t have to carry the watermelons too far.
Total time spent buying watermelons: 2 minutes. Probably less.
Total travel time: 2 hours.
Time it would have taken in the US to get in my car, drive to Trader Joe’s, park, buy watermelons, and drive home (even on a weekend!): 20 minutes.
Just to post this blog, I will travel to an internet café in Atacames, 45 minutes away by ranchera and bus, not including waiting time. Moral of this story: Things just take longer here. You can’t plan to go more than 1-2 places per day- and did I mention the rancheras stop running around 5?
(Also, the next time you complain about your 4G iPhone functioning at mere 3G speed, think of me, standing in the upstairs corner of my wood and cement house, praying for cell signal on my 90’s style Nokia phone.)
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