Watching Man U in Ecuador

Lucy went off to Quito with Julia and Aureliano around 10am. She took a taxi, which costs $12.50 per person. It’s quite a good way to travel, but you don’t know who you share with and how long you have to wait to be dropped off.

Lucy will be with Nidia and Emilia this week, while we sort out the rest of the furniture and possessions in Santa Domingo. She has some work to do in Quito, some meetings connected with her fieldwork/research and also Tom’s citizenship application. It’s a lot easier and cheaper for him to get Ecuadorian citizenship than it is for Lucy to get right to remain in the UK, let alone a passport. We are an unwelcoming, inhospitable society.

It was the first weekend of the Premiership and Tom was keen to see Manchester United v Chelsea. Carlos has some satellite subscriptions and put his TV in the lounge, so we could watch. The Premiership is screened on ESPN with Argentinian commentators, which is only slightly odd.

After the match, I went for lunch with Carlos and Tom to a marisquería (seafood restaurant) called Jocay De Manta. I had a massive plate of battered prawns with rice. There was a little road of seafood restaurants and they were really popular, but ours was the busiest. There are so many staff, even people outside helping you to park on the street.

In the afternoon, Tom and I went to the mall to use the cash machine. I was blocked by one bank, but Pichincha finally let me have a couple of hundred dollars. Afterwards, we went to the supermarket to stock up for Santo Domingo and, in the evening, watched Journey’s End on Tom’s laptop. It’s a pretty depressing film.