Today was a charm. I had some specific things I wanted to accomplish today, and I did.

I wanted to get those darn pictures uploaded so you guys can see what´s going on and what things look like down here.

I needed to go to Western Union to obtain more life source.

And I wanted to check on the cost of traveling to Otavalo and back. Otavalo and Catugachi are sort of sister villages. One is famous for their leather craftmanship (Catugachi), and the other (Otavalo), is famous for beautiful woven products. Plus the trip is nice and can be done in a day.

I didn´t get to i tem number 3, except for checking at one place, which cost $50.00. Not bad and well worth it. Still, I cant make the decision based on a single quote, so I´ll have to finish that one tomorrow.

If you check the blog now, you´ll notice that there´s a lot more pictures than before with commentary. So, that´s a major accomplishment. It´ll be a lot easier now to get the pictures uploaded and commented on a daily basis.

I have money, so my self confidence is stable.

Uploading those pictures cost $5.00, and three hours. Pain in the ass sort of... but it´s done.

Some special mentions:

I found the fat people! There´s a mall that I´ve gone to looking for cables, and even ate sushi there. It´s called Quicentro. The time I was there last people were sparse. It´s a mall similar to Fashion Valley (San Diego) or the Galleria (Houston). Rich people. And overridden with U.S. standards, i.e., Burger King, Taco Bell, Sabbaro, etc. You can definately see the effect of the Americanization. Fat People. Everything there is also about the exact same price as the Galleria, or Fashion Valley. It´s amazing. The exception is electonics. Electonics are much more expensive in Quicentro than anywhere in the U.S. I'm sure it´s for a reason. These people can't afford those prices. It's obviously relagated to the rich, which are indentically styled to their U.S. parntners. The only good thing there is consistently fast internet, and a mural that I tried to photograph of the bordering Andes and includes all the surrounding volcanos. It's absolutely staggering. However, I was unable to frame the mural, which is done in a panoramic style. So, I decided to do a movie of it and scan the thing from left to right and right to left. I've never uploaded a video yet, but I'm about to try. Success will determine whether or not you get to see it.

Special mention #2

I meandered my way back home and arrived in the general locale at around 5:00p Instead of going up to the Hostel, I decided to stroll the park and take it easy. Great choice! Quitoans (I guess they're called) do like Americans used to do. They grab the family and stroll through the park with their kids, grab an ice cream cone each and sit on a park bench together and talk watch people. There's sort of a canal (see posted píctures) where they paddle boat around. It's a great scene. The sun is in the perfect position in the sky, sort of low in the sky and a golden light hits the trees and lawns, it's spectacular. I got myself a Deli Mora, 100% fruit juice, and sat in the park watching people watch people. It was splendid. While I was in sitting on the bridge over the canal with the paddle boats, the sort of mini-Venice, I met a guy formally known as Prince. Hehe, not really, his name was simply unpronounceable. He grew up in the Amazon and was in Quito going to school. A sincerely warmhearted and sincere gentleman. We sort of liked each other and talked for about 45 minutes while I drank my juice. Once other thing. This transition that occurs at around 5:00p, with the sun and all, happens at the same time every day of the year. Because we're on the equator, there is no difference in hours of daylight per day as the seasons change. The weather doesn't change hardly either, there's no energy at the equator to create weather. You either get some rain, or it's sunny. Comes and goes all year long, so predictable.

While I was strolling the park, I took a bunch of pictures. I've uploaded them now, and their ready for viewing.

Enough talk, I want to try and get that video up here, then head to the roof of the hostal and have a beer or two as the sun fades.

Hope everyone's having as much fun as I,

-robert