Not Our Day
26 September 2005 (Monday) – Quito, Ecuador
Ismael had suggested that we go up to Pichincha, the mountain overlooking Quito today. We met up after 11am, with Patricia. Hmm… Ismael observed the clouds closing in on the mountain. Not such a good idea to head up there after all. We would not be able to see anything.
Instead, he brought us to a place to eat some empanada morocho, which they said was a typical Ecuadorean snack, but which they had not been able to explain to me what it was. So, the best thing was to let me taste it. Over the snack, I asked Ismael about what happened during the time when their original currency sucre was converted to dollars. I expected to hear some disastrous stories and I did.
He explained that there was a series of gigantic fluctuation of the sucre against the dollar each day sometime in 1998 – 1999. Sometimes, there were huge changes within the day itself. Nobody could do business properly. Everyone would suddenly become poorer, unable to afford anything the next day. Those earning in US dollars were getting richer and richer. But those earning in sucres were getting poorer and poorer. He said that one night, they went to bed with 13,500 sucres to 1 US dollar. The next day, it was 25,000 sucres to 1 US dollar. At that point, the government kinda froze the fluctuation at this rate and made the decision to use US dollars.
So, imagine, if you have 50,000 sucres in your bank account. A pair of shoes may perhaps had cost 40,000 sucres, which you normally can afford. But overnight, you have US$2 in your bank account and the price of the shoes could be changed recklessly to, say, US$40 by the shop-owner. Everyone basically went bankrupt overnight. The poorest of the poorest who had land for cultivation sold their land and every single thing they own to buy a plane ticket to Spain. Up to 25,000 people left with nothing except the clothes on their back to try and find work in Spain. If they do not find work, they basically have NOTHING to fall back on and they starve.
People were given up to 6 months to change their sucres to dollars, but because of the huge queues, many people did not manage to change them on time. So, after the due-date, they were left with these useless paper money. One month after the deadline, Ismael went to a small town by the beach and found that people there were still using sucres, as they did not have dollars with them. There was absolutely no control.
Indeed, as Ismael tell me the prices of things here, I find that the cost of living here in Ecuador is really quite high. And yet, people here earn very little money. My Singaporean friends who are living here also tell me that groceries and food cost much more than in Singapore, so they actually spend more money here per month. Gosh, how in the world do the poor people here manage after the conversion then, I asked Ismael.
Well, he said, basically, you just start from zero and earn money all over again. Prices of things all went up of course. He gave an example. Sweets used to cost 100 sucres each. With a rate of 25,000 sucres to 1 US dollar, 100 sucres was not even 1 cent! So, everything had to be rounded up. Sometimes, they just went straight up to 1 US dollar for the hell of it, coz the people had no idea what to put the price as. Uneducated people were also confused about the cost and prices of things. They may have used to pay 5,000 sucres for something. But now, they pay 1 US dollar (which is 25,000 sucres) but because it is ONE dollar, they think it is cheaper.
Anyway, as we were leaving, I stopped by the toilet. And when I left, I actually slipped on the wet floor outside the toilet and fell down, hitting my head on the floor!!! OUCH!! Both Ismael and Patricia are doctors. When I told them about the incident, they kinda laughed at me. How sympathetic, argh!
Next, I wanted to buy some films. Ismael claimed that he knew a really cheap place that sold films. We walked there, but the shop was gone. No worries, he knew another place. Again, when we reached that place, it did not exist anymore. He had been slightly out-of-touch with film photography but still, he felt bad to see that these places had not survived through. I finally bought some from a random shop. Ouch as well!
Ismael and Patricia cracked their brains on what they could show me now. OK, Mitad del Mundo. This is a monument which indicated the Equator Line. Yes, there is really nothing much out there. Many tourists even take tours to visit the monument and the park. Crazy!
We paid US$1 for the parking and when we were about to march over to the monument, some guy asked us for our tickets. Tickets?, Ismael was surprised as previously, there was no entrance fee. It cost US$1.50!! We were appalled. What? Just to see a stupid line and a stupid monument? Everywhere else along the imaginary line is the equator as well! We could even SEE the monument from where we were standing. We refused to pay and simply took pictures right outside the gate. Sheesh.
We drove on further as they told me there is a mirador up there with a nice lovely view of a crater of an extinct volcano. But once we got up there, we were totally covered with clouds. We could not see a single thing!
Ismael was very disappointed with today. Why? Why? Why?, he asked, why was everything such a failure today? I told you he was very enthusiastic about showing me the best of Quito. To me, I was fine about the whole thing, but he felt so responsible.
We headed back to Quito before the fog totally locked us up here. He suddenly had a brainchild. Let’s go ice-skating! Sure, great idea!! “Wait… are you going to teach me how to skate, or are you going to laugh when I fall?”, I queried. “I am going to laugh.” was Ismael’s reply. OK, I thought so. But when we reached the place, they told us we had to pay US$3 but could only use it for half an hour as they were about to close soon. Last Friday had been wonderful where everything fell into place unplanned but perfectly. Today was definitely NOT OUR DAY! Ismael was close to tears.
Finally, as he had to go off soon, he suggested that we could go to a nearby place to try Empanada Boliviana, which he insisted was very, very good. Even as we drove there, he was expressing fear that the shop would be closed, on fire, had run out of empanadas, had no electricity, whatever. Even as we ordered, he was still expressing fear that something… something would happen and we would not get our empanadas! Only when we sunk our teeth into the empanadas, did we heave a sigh of relief. Gosh, heavenly empanadas indeed. Today, I am Empanada Girl.
We really should get our baño para la suerte from the shaman for tomorrow.
[photo credits IE – Ismael Escandon]
Tags: 07) Crossing Ecuador Line, Quito
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