Day 192 Ecuador- All that jazz

Thursday, Jul 21, 2016

Easton made it to Rio and met up with his brother Chase. They now have about one month to experience Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympic games. Easton, Chase, and some of Chase’s friends from the Peace Corp have rented a beautiful home for the month, and most of them are serving as volunteers during the games. I expect it is going to be a crazy fun-filled month for everyone.

My internet saga continues. For the last few days my internet speed with ETAPA has been, at times, less than 1 mega (I’m paying for 8). For large parts of the day as I’m working on the computer my internet speed is at a crawl. I found out that PuntoNet has to dig in the road to run some line and that isn’t going to happen until Monday. I think that means it will be 3 or 4 weeks from when I signed with PuntoNet until I will actually have their service. This is typical for Ecuador and how things happen. Another lesson in patience for me.

Scott and Colleen

Heidi and I had a fun night out with Scott and Colleen listening to Jazz. The Jazz Society Cafe located at Luis Cordero 5-101 and Juan Jaramillo plays Jazz and serves pizza. Basically, the Jazz Society of Ecuador rents the upper floor of the restaurant located here, so customers can order food and drinks while listening to Jazz. The performance is supported by donations, with a $5 per person minimum requested donation.

The piano players and singer were gringos but the cello, sax, and drums were all played by local Ecuadorians. The dude playing the cello plays for the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra. Every one was talented and skilled, and together they created some wonderful sounds.

Even the waiter was talented! When the jazz band took their break, he played his guitar and sang Latin romance songs for the room. It was pretty incredible really. There is so much talent in the world, and people have such gifts to bring beauty into it. It was a fun night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Chau.