Another Bloody Ecuadorian Day!

I went to Quito this morning to do bank business. Before I went to the bank I went to the English Book Shop. The owner, Mark, who is English, was there. We had a nice talk about an hour long on the problems in Ecuador and living here.

Mark had been living here for 22 years and said that just last year he came to the conclusion that Ecuadorians are stupid. I didn’t know why it took him that long, as others who do not believe a lie of ‘political correctness’ comes to the conclusion much sooner.

Then I went to the internet cafe (the one that is closest to the book store). Then off to the bank.
I tried my ATM card at the bank and it said my card was rejected. I don’t know why as it had $426 in it. So, I went inside to tell an employee it didn’t work. I said i wanted to close the account.

The problem could have been a stupid Ecuadorian bank regulation. But why should i have had a problem in the first place? It could be the same problem I had with this bank before with my euro account.

I had not used my euro account for six months. Then when i went to use it I was told that it ‘became inactive’ and it took paperwork to get it active again. With all other banks your deposit or withdraw puts it in active state automatically. And it takes a lot longer than 6 months to make an account inactive.

Surprise I got my money out without a problem.

Leaving the bank I realized that I forgot by bag at the Internet cafe. Earlier in the morning I had bought a new Western hat made of some kind of cloth to take back to Cyprus and I bought a carton of cigarettes. The total cost was $40.

I thought that I would go back there, though I don’t expect anyone to have turned it in. I just want to satisfy my foreknowledge of what happened.

I took a taxi back to Mariscal. I went to the person working at the counter and asked if anyone turned in a hat. He said no. I looked at where I sat and it was not there. I went back to the guy to say (in Spanish) that a client is a bandito. He gave me that stupid look like he didn’t know what I said. Now, I didn’t accuse him but a client and anyone can have bad clients. So, by his response, it indicates that he could have stolen it or someone else that works there. (This is another counter that is right behind where I sat, so it would have been an employee and not a tawny looking customer in a business suit that sat in the next seat).

I was so fed up being robbed another time in Ecuador. True, it was my mistake by leaving it there, but at least in many other nations you can forget something and it will be there when you return. But here, with so many clients being petty thieves, it only makes sense that these same people also work in stores or are owners of stores. So, I got a taxi to go home. I didn’t have time to go to my other bank as I had talked too long to the English store owner.

A.B.E.D. Another Bloody Ecuadorian Day!

I’ll just take an older hat with me. I have a leather one but I had wanted to take a cloth one, but the one that I have is old. Therefore, I’ll take the leather one, which looks good.

When I got home and told Jayne she also told me about her A.B.E.D.! She had found out that two of her favourite CDs were taken by Gonzalo. Then she told me about the camera I bought for her (to take pictures of her paintings). She said she took pictures and wanted to re-roll the film. Well, the film didn’t roll back into the canister, so she had no choice but to open it. Of course, this exposed the film but she couldn’t even get the film off the take-up the spindle and I couldn’t get it off either. I would have to cut the film.

When I bought the camera and film the woman put the film in the camera, and she must have put it in wrong. It’s unbelievable how people can screw things up here! So, Jayne will not have pictures of her paintings.

That’s another $17 wasted. The sooner we get out of here the less money would be wasted.