Apartment Work Day

We had originally planned to travel into El Centro yesterday to get a few errands done but our friend, Emilio, called in the morning and was available to come out and help Stu install the wire we need for our Etapa Internet line. Our landlord pays for a basic line that we share with our downstairs neighbor. We want to pay for a higher speed line and not bog her down when we are using the Internet intensively (like watching TV). We also need a higher speed to be able to subscribe to services like Hulu and Netflix if we want a good watching experience. While we enjoy our Amazon Prime now, we'd like to see current series from the US, too.

The gentlemen from Etapa, the local Internet provider, came out a couple days ago and showed Stu where their line terminates, two houses down. It's our responsibility to get the wire from there to our termination point inside the house.

Fortunately Emilio is very experienced in construction as well as being our driver and facilitator/translator. He and Stu quickly opened up the little manholes, ran a metal wire through and then pulled our new wire back through. They then ran it up the building to a hidden corner of our living room and over to behind the television.

Etapa is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday to finish the install. We shall see, even in the US those days seem to undulate like an over full bowl of Jell-o. When they are done, then we will have the local specialist come out and configure the router we brought with us, designed to work specifically with Strong VPN services.

Here are some photos from the work today.

Once done with that, he and Stu hung our two big wall hanging rugs in the hallway. We couldn't have done it without him! I can already notice a difference in the echoing there!

Emilio has become so much more than just a driver since we met him in Guayaquil last December. We feel privileged to call him friend!