Apartment Hunting

Thursday, October 7

As we had talked about a couple days ago an apartment nearby was found by our friends Jim and Silene and they said it was in a very nice new building  They gave us the lead and I walked over to the apartment building a Esmeraldas y Batan and got the telephone number off of a sign on the lobby window.  It was a very impressive building and Jim told me that he thought the rent was about $350.  We gave Juan all the information and asked him to get an appointment to see what apartments were not rented.  He got us an appointment to see the apartment that was for rent.

The next day (today) Juan picked us up at 9 AM at Ortorongo Apartments and took us over to look at the apartment at Esmeraldas. 

When we got there the guard told us it was rented.  Juan told him we had an appointment with the owners.  He told Juan the owner was in Quito on business and could not be there.  Juan told the guard to call the owner.  The guard called the owner and the owner said to let us in to see it.  We went up and looked at the condo and fell in love with it.  It was absolutely huge.  I estimated that it was well over 2,000 square feet.  It was three bedroom, 2 ½ bath, a very large office/computer area off the hall way, and a very large great room and a great kitchen laundry area.  It was on the fourth floor which is actually 5 floors off of the street because they don’t count the lobby floor as a floor.  We said we were interested if the price was right.  We were told that it would cost $300 per month plus a $60 per month condo fee for maintenance and security.  That sealed the deal.  We wanted it.  An appointment was made to meet with the owners on Friday afternoon at 5PM.  Juan told us that typically the first one there with the money gets the apartment.  We were very worried that we would miss this opportunity.  Juan took us back to Ortorongo apartments and we took a well deserved siesta.

We went to California kitchen for a 5:30 PM dinner date with Karen and Randy Kimbler.  When they arrived Karen looked at us a little sheepishly and asked if it was OK that they invited Clark and Brenda.  She explained that she had forgotten that they were celebrating her birthday.  We said that it was not a problem at all and the more the merrier.  We had great dinner with great new friends.  There was another party taking place.  There were about 10 or 12 people at that party.  It was a birthday party for Mike and his wife Pat.  Jim and Silene were at that party.  We met a lot of new people that night.  The food was absolutely great and we highly recommend California Kitchen.  Thanks Geroge, Carol, Jim and Susie for a wonderful first dinner there.

We walked a bit after dinner with the group and then decided that we were too tired to go any further and hailed a taxi and went back to Ortorongo and crashed.  And so ended another day in our adventure.