Visa's, Censo's and Cedula's

When we finally decided that Ecuador was the place we wanted to move to, we began the paperwork process.  There were tons of  documentation that were required, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, proof of income, yadda, yadda.  We had to have all the documents translated into Spanish, Notarized, Apostolized (something we had NEVER heard of before), then the documents had to be taken to the Ecuadorian Consulate, the originl  documents as well as the Spanish translation ones, to be given the big gold seal (seriously) of approval.  Michael took care of all this, having a consulate in Chicago was a huge convenience.    Apparently we did everything right, our documents were recieved and accepted in Quito in early March.  So anticipating the Visa's would be ready at the end of April, I gave notice at my job that I would be leaving. 

Well this is where it turns into a really long story, I was getting bored writing it, and assumed anyone reading it would be even more bored, so I won't go into all the details.  Simple version, it turns out the Dude in charge of Immigration was fired for taking bribes and his replacement quit after two weeks, the Immigration office was closed from May 1st to August 2nd.

In March we were told 6 weeks, and it took 6 months.  Our Visa's were issued September 20th. 

Apparently we are lucky, lots of people we have met have had much longer struggles due to incorrect paperwork or cruddy lawyers.  Something as minor as the wrong spelling of a  mother's hometown will throw things into a tailspin.  We know - crazy, but that is a part of the paperwork, they require the info about where our mom's were born.  Who knows why.

So, we have finally got  our Visa's, after that we had to get our Censo's ( a card required by the Immigration Police, all non-Ecuadorian residents are required to have these),  then we had to wait for an appointment in Quito to get our Cedula's, this is a National ID card, everyone is required to have one, once we have that, all of our documents will be complete.    We got the call on Friday that we have to be in Quito at 8:00 am on Tuesday.  So, we are off to Quito today, getting the Cedula's is a big deal, people have actually congratulated us on having an appointment, and are asking us to let them know how it goes and what to expect!!

By the way, the amount of paperwork to get Oscar, our dog, into Ecuador  was also ridiculously complicated.  Everything we had to do for us, had to be done for Oscar, even the big gold seal from the consulate,  plus, the paperwork had to be completed and dated within no longer than ten days of our entry into Ecuador...when we got to Guayaquil, no one asked for a single piece of paper for Oscar.  Go figure.  LOL!!

We have more updates on our travels, we went to a beautiful Botanic Garden this past week, it is about an hour outside of Cuenca, and celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary on the 21st.  We cannot believe how the time has flown by.

For today I will just include some pics of a flower bouquet that we got at the local SuperMaxi  (grocery store chain), we paid a whopping $4.00 for it, there are a few beautiful flowers in the bunch that I have never seen before, and pics of a stroll in the largest park in Cuenca.

What are these????

What are these also???

Like little upside pine cones that bloom, very cool.

Tha Yancunay River in Parque Paradiso

Oscar Enjoying a day in the Park

We love the way these  vines crawl over things

This is a beautiful park.

This "viney" covered things reminded me of something out of The Hobbit

I just threw these up to show you how infants are carried around.  This woman was landscaping the yard, a process that takes an enitre day, so she just wrapped the baby up and threw him on her back.  You see this everywhere, strollers are a rarity, infants are carried, and most often if it is a couple strolling together, the man is the one carrying the child.

She spent her day raking, pulling weeds, edging the lawn with this little baby on her back all day.