Because of a new Ecuadorean constitution back in September, they did some restructuring of the visa policies. Now you can only be in the country 90 days within 360 days on a tourist visa, they gave her a couple different options.
- Becuase she only wanted to extend her visa by eight days, she could leave the country for eight days and come back.
- She could apply for a visa extension and pay $280
- She could overstay here visa and pay $200
While I waited for Natura to come out, I sat at a café next door and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee. When she came back to share the news, I paid for my double americano and a bottle of water. This means nothing to you, but the price was $2.60 for the coffee and $.95 for the water. I knew I was in the new town when I have to pay that much for either of those things. When I buy a coffee in "Gringo Landia," at the same cafe (Este Café), a double americano only costs $1.35. A bottle of water would cost $.50.
Because we were in the New City, we decided to go to the Shopping Mall, which is right across the street, which is just like any shopping mall in the States. They have vendors like Baskin Robbins, Radio Shack, Sunglass Hut, just to name a few. I was a little surprised when I went into a sporting good store to see that a pair of Adidas shorts were $33. I didn´t buy them.
The point of this is that there is a huge difference in social class between the New City and the Old City. The New City has a very large population of Spanish disent. The Spanish are typically viewed as having higher income jobs, and play more important roles. You can see it, it´s like any other big city. If an Ecuadorean has the money to pay prices equal to the States, they will just because they can.
We went to Michael´s work after that. Not a whole lot happened there, but on our way back to the hostel, it started to hail. It wasn´t big hail, but it was the biggest hail I had ever seen. Some of it was probably the size of pencil erasers. We made it back to the hostal nice and wet. While waiting for Maichael to finish work for the day, Natura slept and I studied my Spanish.
One of Michael´s classmates was having a Thankgiving dinner at her place in the same condo complex where he lives. The three of us went over there to meet the rest of his class. We drank wine and chatted and ate tons of food that everyone had made. It was a nice way to show some Ecuadoreans what Thanksgiving is.
Michael made empanadas. Paulina, who grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, who now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, made a big pot of borsch, which was great. Alice brought some candied yams, and others brought other things. Martha, the program director brought pan de yuca, which is bread made with yuca root.
The best part was when we all got quite and went around the room and told of what we were thankful for. I had never done that before at Thanksgiving, so it was really fun. I was interesting hearing about what others were thankful for as well.
Once the party came to a close, we headed back to "Hostal Fausto" were we were staying and went to bed. It was a nice, alternative way to spend Thanksgiving.
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