Ecuador stumbled but stood strong

Today is Thursday, September 30th and I took my walk this morning and no, I didn’t remember to bring my camera again.  When I got back Di and I had our normal continental breakfast.  We decided to take a taxi to the Mall Monay.  We had wanted to go there and check it out again after visiting it on our Cuenca tour with Dixie and Juan.   Little did we know what was in store for us during the day.

We took a taxi to Mall Monay and got there just before it opened at 10AM.  We waited outside and I went to the corner and recorded the buses that passed in both directions so we could know what bus or buses to take to get there in the future and what bus take when we left the mall.

When the mall opened we went shopping and window shopping and bought a watch battery.  Then we went down to the food court and got a great chili cheese dog and of course a Pilsner.  While sitting there we noticed that there was a lot of activity and conversation between the police officers in the mall.  You have to understand that there is a lot of police security at all the malls and bigger stores and at every bank and it is normal.  We didn’t think much of it at first but it did seem like more activity than we were used to.

We went to the Hypermaxi and window shopped.  When we were ready to leave, as we were walking to the exit of the Hypermaxi, Di noticed that there was a considerable amount of police presence and people in business suits at the entrance and all had their radios going.  We figured there must have been a security problem in the store and they were checking everyone going out.  We exited without incident.

When we were leaving the main entrance of the mall to go catch a bus to our next destination we noticed that police were not letting anyone into the mall but they were letting people out.  They were controlling the entry gates to the mall very carefully.  We weren't sure why but we didn't care beacuse we were leaving.

We caught the 13 bus from Mall Monay to Mercado Feria Libre so we could change buses and got to Mall del Rio.  That was an unbelievable bus ride.  We never thought that a bus could pass another bus on a one lane city street.  Trust us, it can be done.  We had the kamikaze driver.

When we got to Mercado Feria Libre there was so much commotion.  Police sirens were everywhere.  Police cars were everywhere.  Police on motorcycles were everywhere.  We stood in the median of the road as we tried to cross over to catch the 7 bus to Mall del Rio.  Police were everywhere.  We figured there must have been an accident somewhere.  You have to remember that we were at Mercado Feria Libre which is usually jammed with thousands of people as we have been told and we figured this was all normal. We finally got across and proceeded to our bus but took a short rest on a bench.  We noticed that there was a strong police presence in the area and there were what appeared to be heavily armed military personnel in the area.  There were maybe a dozen of them gathered near where we were resting.  They were armed to the teeth with automatic rifles, helmets and flack jackets.  Again we figured this must be normal.  What did we know.

We caught our bus to Mall del Rio.  When we got there we found that the mall gates were shut and being guarded by a police officer and people were waiting outside the mall entrance as well as outside the gate at the bus stop.  There were police in the parking lot and at the mall entrance and they were not letting anyone in.  They were letting them out.  We didn't know what was going on.  We waited about 15 to 20 minutes and decided this could wait for another day.  So we got back on the bus and went back to the apartment.  Little did we know what was in store for Ecuador.

When we arrived at our apartment we met up with Jim and Silene who we had just met the other night at Eucalyptus Restaurant and we had no ideas that they lived in the same apartment complex as we did.  We lived two doors apart.  We spent the afternoon off and on conversing.  During this time we discovered that there were problems with the police in Ecuador.  As time went on we began to hear news of the police force strike and the problems in Quito and in Guayaquil.  The only problems we heard about in Cuenca was some tire burning in the Parque Calderon area.

Except for the inconvenience of not getting into Mall del Rio we saw or experienced nothing out of the ordinary that we would have been able to recognise as out of the ordinary.

We heard a lot about the President of Ecuador being hurt and held by the police and being rescued and people getting hurt but it was all far away from us and we were never really in any danger nor did we particularly worry about it.

We spent a quiet night in our apartment.  We had a light meal that Di cooked.  I worked on the blog and Di did puzzles and we went to bed early.  We took photos while we were out.  Had I know what I know now I could have taken photos at Mercado Feria Libre that would have been CNN quality.  Our photos are included in this post.  And so ends another day in our adventure.