3 MONTHS LIVING AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD – QUITO ECUADOR

PART I – Our Arrival and . . . Another Apartment Horror Story

(5/21-8/17/09) On May 21, 2009, we flew non-stop from Guatemala to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. Located only about 20km from the Equator, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world, at an elevation of approximately 2850meters (9350ft). The City proper has a population of around 1.5million, while the larger ‘metropolitan’ area population is probably twice that number. Quito spreads out from north to south in a valley between pretty green volcanic highlands in a relatively narrow but limitless length as far as the eye can see in either direction. As a result, it is fairly easy to navigate the large city, because there are really only 4 major arteries that traverse the city along its length, and upon which the local and express (Trolle) public transportation buses run. Starting with the Airport which is located in the northern section of the central City, traveling south you quickly pass the well-known Quicentro Shopping Mall and Olympic Stadium, then past the huge Carolina Park and neighboring upscale highrises, then about 2-3miles later you would enter what is known as New Town with its 4 or 5 square blocks of touristy restaurants and bars, and finally after another 2-3miles, you would get to the Old Town or Colonial Center of Quito at Independencia Square where the Presidential Palace is located, along with the main Cathedral, and the exclusive Plaza Grande Hotel with its $500/nt rooms with views over the square.

As usual, we found an apartment on the Internet, which was described as 3bedroom 2bath, with living/dining room, and fully equipped kitchen, in the Old/Colonial part of town, only about a 4-5block walk to Independencia Square. Initially, the only apparent ‘downside’ of the apartment’s locale, was that the ‘short’ walk to the center was actually a steep hill (down to the center, and a hardy climb back up to the apartment). Great exercise, of course, but for those of us who have arrived from normal elevations it is to say the least quite a strain on our poor lungs unaccustomed to the thin air. No problem – we’re young (at heart) and tough in mind (hard-headed?). Really, we were quite pleased with our choice of residence at the start, in a secure gated courtyard Condominium Complex, including a 24hr guard, all at a very reasonable negotiated rental rate (US$600/mo., including all utilities).

Soon, however, some unfortunate realities and problems would put a major damper on our stay. To begin with, and somewhat surprising, there is actually a very limited choice of dining options in the Old/Colonial part of town. Apart from 3 or 4 relatively expensive tourist hotspots around the main square, the only dining options were lunchtime oriented local diners, most of which closed by dinner time. Similarly, for groceries, there were only 2 small-medium sized stores, with limited selections of staples and even more limited selection of meats. The bulk of dinner restaurants along with the major Grocery stores known as SuperMaxi and MegaMaxi were all located miles away in New Town and the Quicentro area, requiring either a bus or taxi ride. And, compromising our usual mandatory requirement, we accepted an apartment without Internet or Cable TV (though, the owner did kindly install a limited access satellite receiver, but there were still only a couple of english movie/entertainment channels, and no news channels). But the lack of Internet access was the biggest problem – it meant no Vonage phone, and the inconvenience and added expense of having to use an Internet Café to even occasionally check emails). Nevertheless, none of the above ‘minor inconveniences’ would alone have spoiled our stay, until we had to deal with another far more serious at our apartment.

Our first brief encounter with what was to come, occurred immediately upon our arrival at the apartment, accompanied by the owner’s cousin who kindly picked us up from the airport. (Note: Our owner lives full time in New York, and rents out the apartment as an investment in between her occasional visits, and has her older Cousin who is a property owner and wife of a Developer, watch over her affairs). When we tried to switch on the lights, we found that the kitchen along with the entire 2nd floor of the apartment had no electricity. I promptly checked the inside Circuit Breaker box, but all looked ok. Stumped for nearly an hour, and growing increasingly frustrated, I finally speculated that the apartment must be have two central circuit breaker switches and one could be off. So, I went to check down in the central courtyard building circuit breaker boxes, but not surprisingly they had locks. Shouldn’t be a big problem, right? The Security Guard or someone in charge at the Condominium, surely must have key and should want to help us – at least, you would think so? But, when our spanish-speaking owner’s cousin and her assistant first asked the Security Guard for a key and assistance, they were told he did not have a key and no assistance was offered other than that they should call the Electric Company (yeah, right, how many hours or days would that take until they came – in the meantime, we’d have no hot water which worked off electric water heaters, no refrigerator, coffee maker, laundry machines, TV, or lights in our 2nd floor where are bedroom and main bathroom is located). After another half hour waiting, I went down to try to talk to the Security Guard (who of course didn’t speak english). Somehow, my increasingly angry tone persuaded the Guard to finally acknowledge that he did have a key to the main building Circuit Breaker after all. Opening the Box, he pointed to the apparent markings and what he said was our apartment’s Circuit Breakers (yes, I was right, each apartment had 2 switches) and they both looked on. But, I quickly spied the remainder of the other apartment switches and saw one that was definitely ‘tripped’ (in the middle-off) position. I promptly switched it on, and was reprimanded by the Guard who was indicating it was not our apartment’s switch. But lo and behold, Nancy shouted out our Apartment window, that the electricity was now working in our Apartment. (Obviously, the main circuit breaker switches were mismarked – gee, big surprise there). Ok, crisis resolved right --- wrong.

Over the next several days, our apartment’s electricity went off about once a day, requiring me to seek the Guard’s assistance to open the Box and turn on the electricity. But, so far, not that big a deal nor that big an inconvenience to spoil our stay. Ah, but that not so atypical Condo politics reared its ugly head. When our side of the entire building’s electric went off, and the Electric Co. was called out (only to discover it was simply the MAIN MAIN building Circuit Breaker switch that had now ‘tripped’, the Condo VP (a real A...hole), tried to blame us (and our apartment) for their faulty electric system, and tried to get us (and, then our owner’s cousin by phone) to pay the $40 fee for the Electric Co. men to come out. A big argument ensued between him and our owner’s cousin, with the Cousin finally agreeing to privately hire the same Electric Co. men to come and check out our apartment’s electrical connections. Sounds reasonable. But, in the meantime, after he hung up the phone, I watched as he went to the Guard and got the Circuit Breaker key, and then proceeded to walk away to his apartment. I shouted after him, that we might need to get in the Box if the breaker tripped again that evening, and he just gave me the brush-off wave. Luckily, no further problem that evening; but "the War of the Key" had begun!

True to her word, the Cousin arranged to have the Electric Co. men come back late the next day (of course, our ‘inconvenience’ had begun, now having to be present for their arrival). They changed the one main breaker for our apartment that kept ‘tripping’ with a newer better one that was unused in the Box, and then changed ALL of our inside apartment breakers with supposedly higher-rated switches. But, after the promised 1hr repairs, turned into 3hrs (5-8pm), and testing of the apartment continued to trip the main breaker, we finally grew tired and hungry (not having been able to even eat dinner), we told them they would have to come back the next morning. At my request, the Electric Co. men left me the master key to the electric box locks in case of any problem overnight.

Early next morning – JUST IN CASE, Bob was ‘smart’ enough to run into town to find a key copy place, and made a copy of the Master Key.

It was Saturday morning, and again we had to be inconvenienced, and stay around the apartment, for the arrival of the Electric Co. men, and wait and watch while they spent another few hours ‘repairing’ the electrical system. Supposedly they found a bad wire after an ‘explosion’ and major spark, and bypassed it with a good wire to the main box. After some further testing, it seemed to work ok. We had our doubts, especially when, turning the hot water heater control up and down, initially turned all the lights up and down. But, they left, and we kept our fingers crossed.

But, it was not to be. After another failure or two over the next couple of days, the owner’s Cousin in consultation with the owner, agreed to bring over her husband Developer’s personal Electrician to check things out. But after making the trip with the Cousin (and, again our having to be there), when he arrived and they asked the Guard for the key, he claimed not have the key and said the VP had it, and unbelievably said they should come back the next day. (Yeah right, like he and the Cousin have nothing better to do, then to come back again). Lucky for all of us, Bob pulled out his ‘secret’ Master Key, and opened the Box himself. (Otherwise, there would be no further repairs today, and Cousin and Electrician – and, us, -- would be inconvenienced yet another day).

When we opened the main Box, it was readily apparent to the Cousin’s sharp assistant and myself (both of us had closely monitored the original repairs), that ‘someone’ had changed back our apartment’s bad breaker switch to the old bad one. (We all knew that ‘someone’ had to be the Condo VP, who not only had the key, but despite being an Accountant had previously claimed to be a knowledgeable electrical repairmen whose offer to do the repairs was turned down by our NY owner). Ironically, we also discovered that the ‘someone’ had stupidly put the switches back upside-down so that the "on" was opposite position from all the other apartment switches. Unbelievable, Mr. VP was actually sabotaging our owner’s diligent attempts at her expense to repair the problem. Unfortunately, the Electrician did not again change the old switch again with the newer better main switch, and what I suspect to be the root cause of all the problems – since our inside circuit breakers had NEVER tripped, but only the main one downstairs.) However, he did change ALL the inside apartment Circuit Breakers (again), now replacing the ones the Electric Co. men had put in with yet different size ones, claiming they had got it wrong (I do believe he was more knowledgeable than the Electric Co. men, who were much younger and from watching them fumble and bumble, didn’t inspire much confidence). He also rewired all the Breakers to more evenly balance the electric load. However, suspicion remained that one problem was the instant-on Electric Water Heater was causing some overload – of course, if the building’s main electric system were up to par, that should not be a problem.

After he left, and it was obviously reported by the Guard to the VP that we had got into the with our own Master Key, Mr. VP now put on his own lock in place of the Electric Co.’s on our building’s Circuit Breaker Box. Naturally, the problem did not resolve, and actually grew worse over the coming days and week. This resulted in a couple of major confrontations in the Courtyard with the Condo Officers and Staff, when they refused to help turn our electricity on or open the Box for us. I finally, had to use my Master Key to open their side of the Building’s Main Circuit Breaker Box and threaten to shut off their entire building’s electricity, if they would not turn ours back on. It worked temporarily. That evening our NY Owner called (again) to speak with the VP and the Pres., and supposedly they were acting the way they were because they wrongly claimed we had been turning our Circuit Breaker Switch on and off "every 5 mins." and they feared this could cause a fire. Well, first of all, of course it wasn’t true. At most, we had turned the switch on once (maybe on one occasion twice) in any given day; and, second, it is absolutely silly and false that switching the breaker on and off (however often) could cause a fire or any damage. Indeed, when the Electric Co. men or the private Electrician had been undertaking their repairs and ‘testing’, they had switched the breakers on and off dozens of times in minutes without fear of causing any damage (let alone fire). In any event, we told our owner to tell the Condo folks we not only didn’t do that, but really didn’t want to touch the switches at all (and have them be able to claim we caused damage), if only they would do it for us if our electric went out. Our NY Owner supposedly extracted a promise from the VP and Pres. that the key would be left with the Guard or otherwise available and they would help us in the future with any further problem. (Yeah right, if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!)

In the meantime, our NY Owner called in a favor at the Electric Co. and had them send two supposedly high-level Inspectors to come and look at the system the next day (and, at my request, to cite the Condo for improperly putting their own lock on the main box). Well, the Inspectors arrived next day as promised, and ironically (and even FUNNY, if it weren’t so serious), were unable to get into the main box because the Condo’s private lock was still in place. When they asked the Guard for the key, (as usual) he denied he had the key, looked at me and suggested I use "my key". I actually laughed aloud, and said I don’t have the key – it’s YOUR lock! After more arguing, and at least half an hour of time passed, finally the Guard "found" a key to the lock (claiming he didn’t know he had it in his guardhouse). Well, the Inspectors then just visually looked at the main box and our apartment, and concluded …. Nothing. No suggestions, no help, no nothing. In addition, with Cousin and her assistant also present and translating, when I pushed them to do something about the illegal private lock on the main Box (which had even initially prevented them from getting in), they just shrugged. Realizing they weren’t going to do anything about it, and concluding that ‘what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander’ – and, as usual, being one step ahead of Mr. VP and his 'soldiers' – I quickly pulled out my own lock from my pocket, and before anyone could blink shut the Box doors, and snapped on my own lock! Most amusing, was the look of shock on everyone’s faces, especially the Guard who stood a few feet away (holding the Condo’s lock in his hand). After a moment, the Electric Co. Inspectors actually sided with me, and told the Cousin that it would be okay if I kept my lock on to have access to our switch, until the problem were ultimately repaired. In the meantime, a little while later, the Guard and two of the cleaning women, were seen holding a hammer and pliers, obviously intending to try to remove the lock. I then had the Cousin then call the Pres. then on her Cell phone to tell her that I had the okay from the Electric Co. Inspectors to keep my lock on, and supposedly she told the staff to stand down (for the time being). But, after all that had gone on – would you trust them? I knew as soon as Mr. VP came home from work to the Condo, he would blow a gasket at my having ‘outsmarted’ him, and would try to remove the lock. So, in the interim, I went shopping for a virtually impervious titanium cased bolt-type lock, and quietly replaced my standard fitness club clock that I had originally used. Checkmate.

Notwithstanding the foregoing temporary resolution to the "War of the Locks", our electric problems continued, we could only literally take 2min. lukewarm/lukecold showers, and continually face confronting the Condo officers and staff if we tried to turn our electricity on. Our sympathetic NY owner, in the meantime, had very kindly offered to release us from our Rental Agreement if we found another apartment. We began our search, and were quite fortunate to find one of the rare short-term rentals available. Actually, it was a brand new beautiful 2BR 3BA high-rise apartment, located in the upscale premier Carolina Park neighborhood, filled with high-end restaurants and bars, 2 blocks from the MegaMaxi Grocery/Dept. store (the largest in Quito), and 2 blocks from the main red-line Trolle. The apartment is furnished with top-quality furniture, comfortable beds and high thread count sheets, unlimited central hot water (finally, we could again enjoy a nice shower!), two large flat-screen Plasma TV’s, and broadband internet! And, no more steep hills to climb. Paradise found. Of course, the rent’s a wee-bit higher, but after nearly 3 weeks of non-stop problems, we could finally begin to enjoy our stay in Quito, and actually have some free time to explore the City and surrounds.

(To Be Continued)