Sunday, November 13, 2005
Tales from Ecuador
Jon and I returned to Quito on Friday and kicked around town Friday afternoon and yesterday. Last night we went to the internet cafe to try to download all of our Galapagos photos from the ipod so that we could burn CDs. (I say "our" because Jon and I tooked turns taking pix with my camera). Imagine our dismay (understatement) when we read the ipod help site and it said that you could load photos from your PC to your ipod, but you can´t go the other way!! Argh...cardiac arrest! We had nearly 1700 photos stored on the ipod! Of those, we had burned about 400 to CDs using the ship´s very costly system, just as a precaution, leaving 1300 possibly lost forever, except viewable only on the ipod. We were nearly devastated, thinking the only way to go was either to contact Apple and see if there was any way they could take apart the ipod and retrieve the data, or the only other thing we could think of was to take pictures of the ipod screen...major loss in resolution, probably barely recognizable at best.
Well, we did some googling and found a 3rd party software that promised to do just what we wanted. They said that Apple had built a block into the newer ipods so people couldn´t share purchased music from person to person. This had apparently been possible on the early versions and the music companies complained. Apparently the same block also pertained to photos, which of course, does not have the same financial implications. This effect was indeed noted in the very fine print on the new ipods, which of course I didn´t read before leaving on this trip...
The good news here is that the software worked. We were certainly very nervous when we first plugged the ipod in, but having downloaded a trial version to the internet cafe computer, we just forged ahead and it worked really slickly. So now we have all of our 1700 photos...we´ll try to pare them down to several hundred we can share with all of you!
Jonny left early today and I have been having fun trying to find my way around Quito, speaking only enough short Spanish phrases to get myself in trouble (see below). I walked quite a bit this morning and then spent most of the rest of the day on top of one the the mountains that overlooks the city. They´ve just opened a brand new state-of-the-art gondola to the top. At the foot of the gondola, there is an amusement park for young kids...it´s really neat. Unfortunately, the mountain top was shrouded in clouds for most of the day. I did manage to get several photos when the sun rarely broke a hole in the clouds. At the top there is a small restaurant where I had lunch - some of the best food I have ever eaten! I had "pollo a la naranjo" or chicken with oranges...it was incredible!
Tomorrow I go on a tour of the city for the morning and then I plan to go to the old town area in the afternoon. It´s handy to have the restaurant here in the hotel so I don´t have to go out at night at all. I´ll be leaving here early the next morning. Getting around town is really quite easy if you want to take a taxi and they are very cheap...abut $1.50 is the minimum and we have never paid more than $4, no matter where in town we want to go. This morning it was $4 to the airport. When I went to get a taxi to go back, first I asked "quanto questa?" (what does it cost) and he said "cinqo", which means five. I said "quatro?" and without any hesitation at all, he answered "si!" I guess it pays to bargain! So I´m getting along without speaking Spanish except for the occasional useful phrase I mentioned above. Sometimes, though, when I ask a little question using the tiny bit of Spanish I know, they rattle off an answer from another planet and I have to say¨"whoa there, partner, no hablo Espanol!"
The other thing that happens is that I work up my courage and struggle out a phrase in broken Spanish and more often than not, they´ll just answer in relatively perfect English. Today after trying to get some directions using one of the few words I know..."donde"...which is related in some unclear way to "where" ....as in " donde is the dang bathroom"....said with obvious angst and holding certain parts, dancing with legs crossed...you get the idea....Anyway, I was asking "donde" something, and the young woman rattled off a bunch of Spanish words that all sounded the same...since I don´t know how to day "I don´t have a clue what you just said", I just shrugged my shoulders and crossed my eyes...she said "¿Do you speak English?" (in Spanish you always start a question with an upside down question mark...¿why we don´t do that...) anyway, I tried to make a little joke by responding "not very well..." She apparently didn´t understand my humor and asked with possibly a barely detectable irritation, "¿Do you want to speak English?" I said "Muy bueno," and the fight was on...
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel...even this wasn´t easy as I had a similar battle with the taxicab driver...I said¨"quanto questa Hotel Republica?" He said ¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" and I said, "Yes, Hotel Republica" (It´s OK to say yes, or yeh, as it is understood everywhere as long as you nod your head)....so he says again "¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" This time I take a different tack and respond, "Si, quando Avenue Republica y Asssway." (the hotel is located at the corner of Avenue de la Republica and Azuay....in Spanish, Z´s are pronounced like a lot of S´s in a row)...I think he finally got the idea, even though I don´t actually think "quando" means corner, because he said "quatro"...I got in and we didn´t speak to each other all the way to the hotel except when we finally got there he said, "¿Aqui?" and I said "yes... I mean si...", followed as I got out with "Por favor" (inappropriate) and "Danke", which I say a lot because I got so used to it last year... So goes my attempts to survive in a foreign country...
Well, we did some googling and found a 3rd party software that promised to do just what we wanted. They said that Apple had built a block into the newer ipods so people couldn´t share purchased music from person to person. This had apparently been possible on the early versions and the music companies complained. Apparently the same block also pertained to photos, which of course, does not have the same financial implications. This effect was indeed noted in the very fine print on the new ipods, which of course I didn´t read before leaving on this trip...
The good news here is that the software worked. We were certainly very nervous when we first plugged the ipod in, but having downloaded a trial version to the internet cafe computer, we just forged ahead and it worked really slickly. So now we have all of our 1700 photos...we´ll try to pare them down to several hundred we can share with all of you!
Jonny left early today and I have been having fun trying to find my way around Quito, speaking only enough short Spanish phrases to get myself in trouble (see below). I walked quite a bit this morning and then spent most of the rest of the day on top of one the the mountains that overlooks the city. They´ve just opened a brand new state-of-the-art gondola to the top. At the foot of the gondola, there is an amusement park for young kids...it´s really neat. Unfortunately, the mountain top was shrouded in clouds for most of the day. I did manage to get several photos when the sun rarely broke a hole in the clouds. At the top there is a small restaurant where I had lunch - some of the best food I have ever eaten! I had "pollo a la naranjo" or chicken with oranges...it was incredible!
Tomorrow I go on a tour of the city for the morning and then I plan to go to the old town area in the afternoon. It´s handy to have the restaurant here in the hotel so I don´t have to go out at night at all. I´ll be leaving here early the next morning. Getting around town is really quite easy if you want to take a taxi and they are very cheap...abut $1.50 is the minimum and we have never paid more than $4, no matter where in town we want to go. This morning it was $4 to the airport. When I went to get a taxi to go back, first I asked "quanto questa?" (what does it cost) and he said "cinqo", which means five. I said "quatro?" and without any hesitation at all, he answered "si!" I guess it pays to bargain! So I´m getting along without speaking Spanish except for the occasional useful phrase I mentioned above. Sometimes, though, when I ask a little question using the tiny bit of Spanish I know, they rattle off an answer from another planet and I have to say¨"whoa there, partner, no hablo Espanol!"
The other thing that happens is that I work up my courage and struggle out a phrase in broken Spanish and more often than not, they´ll just answer in relatively perfect English. Today after trying to get some directions using one of the few words I know..."donde"...which is related in some unclear way to "where" ....as in " donde is the dang bathroom"....said with obvious angst and holding certain parts, dancing with legs crossed...you get the idea....Anyway, I was asking "donde" something, and the young woman rattled off a bunch of Spanish words that all sounded the same...since I don´t know how to day "I don´t have a clue what you just said", I just shrugged my shoulders and crossed my eyes...she said "¿Do you speak English?" (in Spanish you always start a question with an upside down question mark...¿why we don´t do that...) anyway, I tried to make a little joke by responding "not very well..." She apparently didn´t understand my humor and asked with possibly a barely detectable irritation, "¿Do you want to speak English?" I said "Muy bueno," and the fight was on...
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel...even this wasn´t easy as I had a similar battle with the taxicab driver...I said¨"quanto questa Hotel Republica?" He said ¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" and I said, "Yes, Hotel Republica" (It´s OK to say yes, or yeh, as it is understood everywhere as long as you nod your head)....so he says again "¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" This time I take a different tack and respond, "Si, quando Avenue Republica y Asssway." (the hotel is located at the corner of Avenue de la Republica and Azuay....in Spanish, Z´s are pronounced like a lot of S´s in a row)...I think he finally got the idea, even though I don´t actually think "quando" means corner, because he said "quatro"...I got in and we didn´t speak to each other all the way to the hotel except when we finally got there he said, "¿Aqui?" and I said "yes... I mean si...", followed as I got out with "Por favor" (inappropriate) and "Danke", which I say a lot because I got so used to it last year... So goes my attempts to survive in a foreign country...
# posted by dennis @ 5:33 PM 
