It was a time to say goodbye to my brother today. Or, until we now frame it - "See you next time!" He'll be back, soon. But first, we had to get to Ibarra to pay his fine. Yes. That was really funny. You see, if you enter Ecuador, you get a 90 day free visa. But my brother had come twice last year already, so he had only 18 days left of those 90 days. No problem, you can get an extension of another 90 days. Sounds easy enough. But there's a catch. Always.
He had entered Ecuador on the 18th of March last year. The 90 days count for a whole calender year, and are always reset on that date. Now, as we found out, the extension would only be valid until the 17th of March this year. Fortunately, the people working at the migration ministry are always helpful. "Get the extension, leave the country the 17th, and enter back in the 18th." The Colombian border is only 3h driving away, so it's not even that much of a big deal. The extension would've cost 260$.
Now, what's the fine for not leaving the country on time? $480. Hm. 220$ more, but no over night trip to Colombia in the shitty border town, taking away 2 days from his vacation? Other options weren't valid, re-booking the flight didn't make sense, too expensive. So he opted for the fine. We went to Ibarra, got the ticket (and again the people were very helpful, which isn't always the case), paid the ticket, got the "Yes they paid" stamp and that was it. No lines at all. We even decided to walk the 8 blocks from the migration office to the bank where one pays, and still it didn't take us more than 1,5h. Nice. We went for a good coffee, chatted a little bit, and then back to Cota.
One the way we almost ran into a friend of mine who's also a taxi driver. I asked him if he was available to go to Quito today. He said he had to be at the airport at 4pm - which was perfect. He charged my brother half of what it usually costs to drop him of in the center of Quito (he's staying the night there), and the timing was just right. Since we had more time on our hands than expected, I helped him to get some stuff organized in his appartment. I have to clean it out soon - it's going to be remodelled while he's in Germany.
I enjoyed a lazy afternoon with Lily, until she had to go to Ballet classes and then I dropped her off with her mom. I'm still not quite able to motivate myself to get all my work and such done. I'm writing this a little earlier today, hoping that this way I will make it to bed earlier, sleep well, and tackle tomorrow like a champ. And if I can't, I have to dig deeper to see what my problem is.
So far! Have a good night!
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
