Even though I went to sleep late last night, I am awake by 6:15 this morning. There is a telephone outside on the wall of our complex two doors down, and it just rings and rings. I have never answered it. It is frightening enough to have to answer the Library phone when it rings! Hola Library! Then either the person speaks English or starts to speak Spanish. I say, Habla inglés? And if they say No, then I have to say that I don’t speak Spanish. I’m sure that it is as frustrating for them as it is for me.
Anyway, this morning someone was persistent with their phone call and it did just ring and ring. Good thing I was awake! I try not to make too much noise as I want Mari to sleep. I have no idea what time they came back last night. I think it was 2:15 AM when I had my “nature call” to the ladies room last night and she still wasn’t back.
I grab all of the stuff I need for a shower, and head to the bathroom. Ah. No water! This is really getting old. So I scrap that idea, get dressed and head to the Library for an Internet connection and email reading and writing. At 8:50, I lock the Library and head for breakfast. Sam, the interpreter, is walking up the hill from the cafeteria pulling his suitcase through the dirt road. Just as I say Hello, you can’t be leaving already! The cook and waitress are being driven down to the cafeteria in a taxi to start breakfast. Sam turns around and we sit on the outside porch at the comedor and talk during our meal. He has been interpreting for some bigwigs who are trying to figure out how to keep more of the tourist cruise money in Ecuador, specifically the Galapagos. The cruise ships need to get a special permit at the cost of $20K, but it is a lifetime permit. Sam says that these boats make a half a million dollars a year easy. So this upfront lifetime permit doesn’t help the Galapagueños all that much over time. He was hired to interpret, and may be back again in the beginning of April, to help with more talks on this subject.
So this is how it works, you meet people staying here and they are either here for the long haul (over a year) or they are here for a week or so, and then gone. I like Sam esp. because his mother was a librarian in New York somewhere and retired to New Mexico and she is president of her town library’s friends group, and runs the annual book sale. Once a librarian, always a librarian.
We leave together and I go back to the Library. While I’m walking, I look at my watch. Holy smoke! I almost forgot that I ordered cerviche for today, to be delivered to Room 3 around 9:30. I walk up the path and someone asks me, Cerviche? I say Yes. He says, Talk to Bryan Milstead. I’m confused but say Okay. I find Bryan and yes, he is about to go get the cerviche. He asks where I want it delivered and I say How about the Library? He is good with that and I go to the Library. I email a few friends, read most of my ECSU mail and I hear a noise outside the door. I figure that it is Bryan and he is having difficulty with his bike or something. I open the door, and there is a very big Marine Iguana trying to figure out how to get out of the foyer of the library. I quickly go inside and grab my camera. When I walk out the door, that spooks him and he hustles through the doorway and out. I go past him and try to take his picture in the doorway. Well, that’s not going to happen! I snap a couple pix and go back inside. Next sound that I hear outside is Bryan delivering the goods. I get a container of cerviche and a little bag of popcorn. Somehow these two foods go together down here because it is not the first time I have had them in combination.
As I walk up to the dorm, I see Mari with a group going off to town. I ask if we have water yet, and she says No. I told her that I tried to be quiet this morning and wanted to take a shower, but there was no water. She says that if I just wanted to take a hot shower, there is water. Duh! It never occurred to me that the hot water is from the solar tank, and the tap water is pumped from the station! I file that into my brain, and go to put my cerviche in the refrigerator, the popcorn in my room.
I head back to the Library for more online stuff. I am researching (still) Galapagos cruises for George and I to take when he gets here. I get an email from my cousin and we write back and forth about my Mother and her recovery from her surgery.
I know that breakfast is later on Saturdays, and I am thinking so is lunch. At 1:30, I head to the comedor, only to find out that I am too late, and it is closed. Drats! I have the cerviche, maybe I will eat that. I go to the room and Mari is there getting ready with the rest of the volunteers to go to the Tortuga Bay Beach for the afternoon, Do you want to come? I say No. I want to bike to town, shop and call my Mother. There are businesses in town that have just Internet, and others that are just phone booths. It’s pretty weird but I guess that it makes sense because I need to make an international call.
Mari suggests that I go out to lunch too while I am in town. She is right. I will go to town to eat lunch, shop, and then call my Mom. I grab some cash and head out. It is an easy bike ride to the kioskos and I park my bike on the street and head into one that I have eaten at before and it has pollo on the menu. Good thing. I go to sit outside under the roof, but the TV is turned to a soccer game (and they get good reception) so I sit inside at a table with a good view of the TV and near enough to the door so if there is a breeze I will catch it. The soup is very hot. Perfecto! The chicken comes plated with 2 heaps of rice and a salad which consists of two big slices of cooked potato sitting on two pieces of lettuce, two pieces of tomato, a teeny slice of hard boiled egg all with a peanut sauce on top. This place kills me, rice with potatoes! Whew!
I pull a bottle of water from their refrigerated case and the waiter gives me a glass of juice which I forgot comes with my meal. The juice is red and sweet, maybe strawberry? Anyway, it has ice cubes in it and I am not afraid to have a drink with ice. Hopefully my stomach has “gone native” by now, otherwise, I guess I will find out the hard way! I take my time eating and watch the game. Then I pay and I am off to the big supermercado. I find some 50% less fat milk to buy and a set of cookware to bring as a gift to the housewarming party I have been invited to tonight. I leave there and start biking home. I pass one telephone booth establishment and it is cerrado. It isn’t that late in the day for this to be closed. I am a little upset that I can’t call my Mom. I will try again tomorrow morning to see if any phone booth stores are open.
I bike home. I arrive and I am all alone. Everyone is still at the beach. I have an hour before I need to get ready, and you know what that means: back to the Library for email. On my way there I meet a woman who I have met before and she says to me I wonder if the Library is open. I say I think so. She’d like to read her email. We turn the corner to the Library’s walkway and she says, No the Library is closed. I say, No it’s not, I’m about to open it (and read my email). I’m the Librarian. She says, You’re the Librarian? I say Yeah. We go inside where it is cool and she sets up her laptop and we talk a little bit. Her name is Sarah H., and she is studying Darwin’s Medium Ground Finch, grew up in Ohio, went to UMass-Amherst for school, and lives in Virginia now. She reads and I read and she leaves and I leave.
Back at the dorms, we have water now, Hooray! And I was going to shower anyway, so I do.
I wear a skirt, my Librarian Tee-shirt, earrings, and my new necklace. This is a party after all! I think that I have this great gift for Mandy and Mark, but nothing for little Molly. I grab the box of cookies from Poland and start to walk back to town. On my way there, I pass two “gift” shops, and I see little ceramic turtles, lizards, etc. How much? Two dollars. I thank them and move to the next shop. I look inside and find a big sticker, How much? Two dollars. As I walk out of the store, I see bracelets with elastic string. How much? One dollar. Perfecto. I buy a little fake pearl bracelet for Molly, and I am walking again. When I turn the corner, I see Dennis Geist 100 feet or so in front of me walking to the party too. When he turns to see if he can cross the street, he sees me and I wave. Are you going to Mark’s party? Yes. He waits until I catch up. We cut through the park on the corner and Lo and behold, there is Paola and her daughter on the basketball court. I say Hello and introduce Paola to Dennis. She asks me how I am doing in the Library and I say fine. What about the book that the woman in San Cristobal wanted. I found it and it was in the Archive. Everything is okay. Don’t worry. Email me any time if I have a question. I will.
Dennis asks me if the Library is open tomorrow. I say it can be if you want it to be. He says that the office he was in got gutted for a retrofit of some kind and he doesn’t have Internet access. I say What time do you want to meet? He says 9 AM, and I say Fine, I’ll be there.
He figures out which house it is and we go in. We aren’t late, but we aren’t early either. There are a ton of little kids, and I find Molly. She is the first one I give a present to. Her eyes light up. I know I did the right thing. Then I give Mandy the cookware gift. She seems happy to have it. I tell her that it is small, and she can use them as serving dishes. She says that’s fine. She needs small. Then I put the box of Polish cookies on the table.
I find the wine and a glass and I roam around the house. It is very modern in its own way. This is the house where I will house sit and I will get pictures of it in a week. It has a fabulous covered 3rd floor balcony where you can see out to the Bay, and there is a hammock there too. I know where I will be! Can’t wait to try it up there in a rainstorm too.
I meet a few people and talk to a very nice older German woman, the mother in law of the BIOMAR guy. I have another glass of wine and eat some fruit salad and peanut and raisins. I am beat, and tell Mandy that I am headed home.
I walk home in the dark that isn’t so dark again. Freddy bikes by saying Hola Kris! And he is gone. I get to the room and Mari has just finished her shower and had a good day at the beach.
I sit and we talk a little. She asks how my phone call went, and I had to say that I didn’t make it. I almost can’t face writing my blog tonight, but I get up and start writing. It’s 10 PM and Mari has to work tomorrow, poor kid! I’m calling it a day.
