Last post before I'm actually there!

Well, I'm sitting in my parents' living room in Toronto, enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich with my son, and we are pretty much all packed and ready to go...tomorrow! I've been doing some casual subbing work at the ESL school I used to work at before I up and moved to Mexico, so it was great to back to teaching and of course to supplement my bank account a bit before going off to earn a heck of alot less! :-)

Last year, when I went to Oaxaca, I was surprised by the cooler temperatures at night, especially during the winter months, and, as I had only packed summer clothes, I had to buy a few things there. Of course, thinking about all the warm sweaters and jackets back at home, I really resented doing that! So, this time, seeing as we'll be located at higher altitudes with chilly evenings and mornings, I am bringing alooooot more stuff with us. We're also allowed more baggage this time, so two cases a piece. Last summer, I had decided to wait to buy stuff in Oaxaca, thinking things would be much cheaper. This is often not the case, so this time, I bought things here, like new shoes, clothes, etc. I am also bringing teaching materials, which I am pretty sure will come in handy. Last year, in Oaxaca, I found that it was really difficult to find the books that I usually use, so again, I don't want to run into that problem again, especially if I end up teaching privately.

I also sorted out the apostilles and legalizations. I took the early morning train to Ottawa, waited for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open and then got everything stamped. It took less than five minutes. If I had done it by mail, it would have taken 7 weeks, so I'm grateful that I live close enough to Ottawa to come and do it in person! If I lived in say, Vancouver or Halifax, I guess I would have had no other choice but to wait the almost two months! I got the stamps at the Ecuadorian consuate after that and was quite surprised to find out that they take only US cash, even though they are in Canada. The official told me it's because going to the Consulate is the same as actually going to Ecuador. I was so tempted to say something snarky like "uh, well, at the Mexican consulate, they didn't ask me to pay them in pesos!", but seeing as I needed those stamps from him, I just bit my tongue and asked where the nearest bank was. Thankfully the Canadian dollar is almost at par with the US dollar, so I didn't cringe too much at the exchange rate. (I remember getting ready for a trip to New York about ten years ago, almost crying to see how little American cash I could get for a hundred Canadian dollars!)

So, yesterday, I went online to confirm my booking at a hostel in Qutio and then tried to buy tickets from TAME to get to Loja on Septmember 2nd. I had thought it would be a good idea to spend a day in Quito. Anyway, I was unable to book the tickets, for whatever reason, and then I started toying with the idea of bus travel. I checked the Lonely Planet to see what interesting places were along the route and thought it would be a good idea to stop at Banos (sorry I don't know how to get Spanish characters on my keyboard, so I know that's spelled wrong)for a day and then head on to Cuenca where a friend of mine who I worked with in Oaxaca is now living with her family. So, I emailed my boss telling her my potential plans. Anyway, I guess I look like an idiot in the end cause it turns out that we have orientation on sept 2nd, and she is going to book us on an early morning flight to Loja for the day after we arrive in Quito, so that is that. It's probably for the best, though. We have so much luggage, it would have been a real pain lugging that around from bus to bus. There will be time for exploring later on, I guess, seeing as we'll be in Ecuador for the good part of a year! (or, who knows- maybe longer)

Anyway, one last thing I have to do before we go, is get a new camera and to sort out all the snacks, books, games and activities we will need for a very long stopover in Miami. My son has been practicing his Spanish all summer, randomly speaking to people in Spanish, who generally have no idea what he's saying. So, wish me luck! Here's to a great year in Ecuador!!

• ecuadorian consulate
• apostille
• Loja
• Ecuador