Tamera's Take: Everything's Eventual, Cats & Cell Phone Communication

Tamera's Take is about being here.
Are you ready?  I am.

Before any "constant readers" start plotting my death (and you know who you are), yes "Everything's Eventual" is the title of a book by SK.  Just as SK uses songs, life events and literary quotes to punctuate his stories, I am using his book title to punctuate my story.  How do I know he does this? Because I have been a constant reader for over 30 years.  I read my first SK novel while I was pregnant with my daughter.  The book terrified me.  I loved it.  I still read his books.

The rainy season has begun.

Anyway, I thought about using "The Cell", but that was too obvious.  Are we okay now? Good. Then I will continue.

Last week in "Octopus's Garden, Cats & Water Always Wins", I wrote about not having enough time to blog because of everything that has happened to us in the past couple of weeks. Eventually though you have to just suck it up, quit whining and write (or paint, or clean your house, or whatever it is that you need to do).

Stephen King said it.  He is right.
Eerily always right.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” 
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Roof Top Terrace

At this moment I need to move from the rooftop terrace that I love so much, and get out of the sun before Senor Sol burns a hole in my retinas.  It may only be 8:30 am but the sun is serious around here.  Downstairs I go.

That is better - sort of.  I have lost my view, the ocean breeze and the sound of tropical birds, but my eyesight is thankful that I relocated to the shade of the first floor patio.

The view from the roof was especially beautiful today.

Our Beige and Sage Colored Mountains

When we arrived in Crucita late November, we were told that the rainy season starts in December and continues through February or March.  November is the end of the dry season. That was evident. Everything was dusty and dry. There are mountains along the coast of Crucita. They were beige with tinges of sage green here and there.

We looked forward to the rainy season so our mountains would turn green. December came and went. Where was all that rain we heard about?  

Beautiful Rocafuerte

A few miles inland everything was green. We know this because we visited a number of towns in the Manabi province during the past two months.

Portoviejo, Charapoto, Rocafuerte, El Pueblito, La Boca, San Jacinto, San Clemente, Bahia, San Vicente, Chone, and Manta.  

There was rain.  It just never made it to the coast.

That all changed about seven days ago.

We have been able to call our friends and family back home using a Skype phone account.  This is a little different than the Skype you can use for free on your computer (or smart device).  Free Skype does not work on every computer (or smart device).  Also, our bank is not going to "Skype" when they need to contact us.  We pay $13.50 each month for Skype phone subscription to receive a U.S. VoIP phone number and unlimited use of that number.  We can call anyone in the U.S., and anyone who has our number can call us.  It costs them nothing to call us.

We use the cheap LG smartphone that we brought with us.  It is not an "unlocked" phone, and does not have an active cell phone plan. But that does not matter.  As long as we have access to WiFi, we can use this cell phone for calls to/from the U.S.

What is the downside?  There are only two downsides. First, we have to have access to WiFi. Second, we cannot use it to call anyone with an Ecuador phone number, and vice versa.

We have WiFi set up at our house and free WiFi is available at many restaurants, hotels, malls, and even some buses.  This is not a problem unless our electricity is out, or we are nowhere near a free WiFi hotspot.

San Vicente.  Across the bay from Bahia.

We have only lost electricity a few times and never for more than an hour.

That all changed five days ago.

We need to be able to make phone calls to people and businesses in Ecuador.  Skype Phone was not the solution to that problem.

If you are only going to be here for a short period of time, you can use a U.S. cell phone plan (Verizon, AT&T, etc) with an international calling feature. You may have read other blogs advising travelers to bring an unlocked cell phone, so they can use one of the local cellular carriers.

Why go to the trouble of bringing an unlocked cell phone? Because cell phones are supposed to be very, very, very expensive in Ecuador.

At least this is what we read and heard.

We agonized over this dilemma.
We are not short-timers.
We did not have an unlocked cell phone.
We waited until the first week of 2016 to get our Ecuadorian cell phone/number.  There was no reason to wait.  It was much easier than we ever could have imagined.  Lesson learned.

You can shop for just about anything in El Centro.

There are various options for obtaining local cellular service in Ecuador, but for us it made the most sense to buy a smartphone and use a prepaid (prepago) chip.

There are a number of cell service carriers in Ecuador.  The two main service providers are Movistar and Claro. We chose Claro, and bought a new Samsung Galaxy.  It came with an Amigo Chip that gives us 2 for 1 on every dollar we spend to recharge (recarga) data/talk/text.

In addition we have unlimited "Whatsapp", that allows us to talk and text for free with anyone else who has Whatsapp.  Total cost for the device, sim cards, amigo chip and promtional plan, was less than $140 USD.  We will probably spend no more than $10 per month to recharge data/talk/text (megas/voz/mensaje).

You can get a basic cell phone for less than $20 USD. You can get a basic smartphone for less than $50 USD.  If basic is not your style, no problem.  You can get the brand, style and features you want in a price range that meets your needs.

Blah Blah Blah

Good luck with getting "unlocked" cell phones in the U.S. anyway without paying a fortune.  I do not know why, but the cell phone carriers in the U.S. are the only ones that lock their devices so that they cannot be used with other carriers.

If you want to bring your cell phone, there are technicians in Ecuador that can repair and unlock most cell phones for a fee.  If you are in Portoviejo, go to El Centro shopping district.  Keep in mind that once unlocked it may or may not work on other networks.  

Note:  At the time of our arrival in 2015, Ecuador Customs allowed each traveler to bring only ONE cell phone.  There are also customs restrictions on other electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets, digital equipment.

Check the Customs Regulations before you travel.

By now you may be wondering, "is she ever going to finish the story about the rain, green mountains, blah blah blah?".

Yes.

Everything's eventual.

Then it started to rain.

Rain. Finally.

I cannot express how happy I was when it finally started to rain.  Not just drizzly little droplets that look more like mist and disappear instantly when the sun comes out.  Or worse, appear in the middle of the night when you are not even sure that it rained.

This was big rain.  This was soaking rain.  This was last Saturday.

So what if we miss a beach day.  There will be plenty more. Besides, all this rain is going help turn our mountain green. Sunday.  Still raining.  No problem.  Bring it on.

We have not lost power.  Our WiFi is a little wobbly but still doing what WiFi is supposed to do.

Midnight on Sunday night, or Monday morning depending on how you look at it, everything stops. No electricity.

No electricity means no WiFi.  No WiFi means no Skype Phone.

Everything is going to be okay. Our laptop was fully charged.  Our Claro cell phone was fully charged.  The power is never out for very long.  I did all of our laundry two days ago.  I had already packed our necessary documents into the laptop bag for our morning meeting on Monday.  Manta Monday.  Manta Monday with our Attorney at the Immigration Office.

Waiting on the Malecon for our attorney to pick us up.

At 7:00 am on Monday, the electricity was still out.  Our attorney was picking us up at 9:00 am. One more thing that does not work without electricity - the water pump.  We have bottled water for drinking and cooking.  The water for the rest of the house comes from our cistern.

The electric pump in the laundry room brings the water from the cistern to the kitchen and bathrooms.

Not today.  No electricity.  No showers.

My husband and I are resourceful people.  We have been camping many times.  We have been through our share of Hurricanes in Florida.  We have a gas stove and five gallon bottles of water! Camping showers done.  Stove top coffee made.  We are ready on time.

Still raining.  Still no electricity.

I felt like "Rainman" taking these pictures from the car.

My first trip to Manta and I saw almost nothing, except flashes of green things as I looked through the windows of the car. I assume we drove past farms, trees and mountains.  It was hard to tell through the rain and fogged up windows.  I also saw the ocean and big boats.  They were the gray things floating in the gray water, that I saw through the fogged up windows of the car that was driving in the rain.

Tamera was very tired and just a bit cranky from having had no sleep the night before.

Very cool whale sculpture at San Clemente beach.

I was also under a bit of pressure.  I was the designated translator between the four of us (who were in Manta that day to apply for 12-IX Visas) and our attorney.   Our attorney does not speak English.  I speak the most Spanish out of the three Americans and one Canadian.  Our attorney was there to speak to the immigration officials on our behalf and file the necessary documents.  But we still needed to speak with him.  There were questions to be asked and answers needed.  Anyway, I was the designated translator.

I will not go into any more details about our experience at the immigration office, except to say that the staff were all very efficient and courteous.  Our attorney was very skilled, very efficient and very nice.

The day was a success.  We should have our new tourist visas by Monday or Tuesday.

I gave the attorney our new Ecuadorian cell phone number.  He is supposed to call me when our Visas are ready.

The view from the rooftop terrace is especially beautiful today.

It is green.  Very green.

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Sometimes, I Guess There Just aren't Enough Rocks

Earlier in the week I wrote about some of the challenges we discovered once we got here in the "It Ain't All Poached Eggs and Rubies" segment.  I guess I should quantify.  We didn't "discover" it all.  We read about some of this stuff before we got here.  We read about a lot of stuff before we got here.  Some correct, some not.  Things change.

New condos in South Central Crucita

Here in Crucita change seems to be on a fast track.  Fiber-optics are coming.  A new highway is coming.  New housing is coming.  I am not here to talk economic impact or politics.  That is going the right way for a smacked bottom and I know it.  The point is things change and we have to change with them.  Information posted a year ago may have changed.  I say this a lot because well, things change.  A lot. Older blogs or websites may not be current. Generally, not the author's fault. Now my butt is eternally covered.

We are just coming to the end of our first week here and while things have not changed per say, we have learned more about what has not.  Some "bad", some "good".  In reality these things just are.

Our blog writing has changed.  I do not know how many have noticed but most contractions (don't, we've, you've) have been weeded out unless it is a quote from somewhere.  It is not because I am a lazy writer or because I am simple, as true as that may be.  It is because we now have readers from places other than the good old U.S. of A (and no, we are not tracking our own hits!) .  That is exciting for us.  I did not really expect much more than family and a few friends to be readers.  We had a hit from the Ukraine.  Many from Ecuador.  I am positive most are English speaking ExPat bloggers or visitors but-

Americans use contractions but many nationalities do not.  They do not translate well or so I hear.  We are trying to be as international friendly as possible because after all, we are trying to help all people.  This is a writing nightmare for us.  An editing nightmare too.  It adds an hour or so to the process.  We are not professionals and attempting to change a lifetime habit is in a word, hard. Good thing we have time, huh?

In line water heater.  Quite all right.

I said earlier that I wanted a gas stove for a long time.  I went on about how happy I was to have it.  I am.  Supremely happy.  Can someone tell me how to turn on the freaking oven?  Dag nabbit blob!  I say this only because in my ramble about appliances of all things; I left out the fact we do not have a toaster.  No problemo mon.  Make it in the oven.  Nope.  Don't have, it, fresh out. (Quote.  The contraction is intentional).

DO NOT not flush the toilet paper.  We are on a land-locked, permanent cruise.  The sewage system here is not as good as many are used to.  It is very important not to overtax it.  Throw away that toilet paper, throw away that brush, just don't throw it in the toilet and a flush, flush, flush!  We are not chicken proof. We are not peanut butter proof.  That was special, just for my Jacksonville peeps. Be honest, you guys will have that stuck in your head for a few days now.  Flush toilet paper and give rise to the munthsters of the deep!  It is far too perilous.

That brings me to the water.  We come from the water.  The Toadies said it. It must be true.  We have to use bottled water (you can boil it too) for drinking and brushing teeth.  A five gallon can be had for $1.50 or less.  From what we know, the piped or "city" water in and of itself is perfectly fine. It is treated.  The issue really, is not the water, it is the delivery system.  Aged and flawed like so many of us.

Main power line.

Power is another thing.  Yes we have it.  Right here in our own little old home.  Almost all the time.  We have been here a week and lost power twice. The first time for about 2 hours. The second time for about 1/2 hour.  We knew about it.  It is another infrastructure issue like the water. The electrical is a bit sketchy if you are American as well.  We are on 110 amperage.  I think a few of the photos will help the electrically inclined understand.  Don't recoil in horror.  It is going to be OK.  Promise.  The house is made of concrete.

The air raid siren bugs me.  I think most every town has a whistle (Maxwell House, Beechum County, AL), bell, etc. that is set off on a quasi-regular basis.  We have an air raid siren.  It is not too loud or annoying to the ear,  It is quaint.  It is the kind of thing where you say "there goes the siren!" (like everyone does not hear it already, dumkopf!) when it sounds and smile. What bugs me is I do not know WHY it goes off.  Some days I hear it twice. Some days I hear it 5 times.  Never the same bat time.  Never the same bat channel.  I'll find out soon enough. For now it's on my mind.

Update 02-02-2016: The siren is from the school which is in session From 07:00 until 21:00 Mon through Sat!

Rocks.  Rocks, rocks, rocks.  Maybe stones is a more appropriate description.  It seems to be a permanent issue.  We use them all the time.  The exterior doors of our home are all held open by rocks.  We are renting so can not install hooks without landlord permission.  The Pacific breeze is generally pretty strong.  Since the rocks are not heavy, after a time, the doors will slam shut.  If you are upstairs you have to run down and fix it.  If you are downstairs, run up.  I know there are solutions people.  We just do not have the knowledge required to find what we need yet.

Rocks.

The rocks are found on the beach as we are cradled against the coast by a crescent of mountains.  They can be treacherous to your feet.  They are not sharp, large, or even particularly heavy.  There is a line of them along the beach  just like the shells line up on many beaches.  You can see them when the tide is out.  When the tide is up you can not see.  One second you are stepping on sand and the next; rocks.   The transition can bruise the bottoms your feet. Pirates, ye be warned!

The rain has stopped and it is time for us to set out on a new adventure, time for me to overcome my fears.  "Man up" in other words.  I am thankful my wife is here to give me strength.  I can not imagine doing this alone.

Some of you want the pictures of the native people doing native things.  I get it.  I try not to take pictures without permission.  I do not think the locals would enjoy another loco gringo waving a smartphone in their face without permission.  I do not know the words.  We have had bigger fish to fry, sometimes quite literally.

We must brave the bus and try to find a grocery store in Portoviejo.  We must replenish items we can not get here.  Another challenge.  Another segment all its own.  Wish us luck.  Adios!

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