A lesson in being Flexible

We had an appointment this morning with Fernando to get our final Visa, in Manta, last time we tried to take the bus, and were late, so this time we hired Richard to take us. We wanted to be IN Manta at 8:30 when the immigration office opened, but Richard said he couldn't pick us up til 8:30, so we said ok. At 9:06 we called Richard wondering where he was, and he said he was stuck behind the parade...they had closed the road leaving town, and he couldn't get to us. He thought maybe 10 minutes, but in 10 minutes he called again and said it wasn't happening. He was stuck. 

We've been hearing the marching band practice for weeks, so when we heard it this morning we didn't think anything of it. But this time it was a parade, so we walked down to the main road to see it. I mean, who doesn't like a parade? 

This was the end of the parade route, maybe 3 blocks from our street. The commentator was under this tent with loud speaker. Richard was stuck at the way other end of this street. The Malecon is 2 blocks to the right, parallel to this main road, and that was where all the cheerleaders and bands were lined up waiting, so Richard couldn't go that way either.

We stood here for a minute, then walked down to see if we couldn't meet up with Richard, which we did finally. I took some video, and after Mike works his editing magic, he'll post it.

When we found Richard he told us that the reason for the parade was having to do with Crucita being "adopted" by the city of PortoViejo, kinda the reverse of Independence Day, but this is the anniversary of that. Many of the schools were from PortoViejo, we didn't see the beginning of the parade, so we don't know how many schools were in it, but most of the parade was kids and bands. There were school children in their school uniforms, and the teachers wear uniforms too. 

We couldn't  tell how long the road would be closed, so we called Fernando and he said tomorrow would be fine, so not only did we have to be flexible, but so did Richard, and Fernando. The parade ended up being 2 hours, but it was going to take awhile to clear out, we said goodbye to Richard and walked to the Malecon, and sat at the beach for awhile. It ended up being a nice morning, good weather, and some culture. Stay tuned for the video.