The mystery deepens

Today I noticed that the pedestrian gate is also bricked up. Thus, these homes and courtyards now apparently have no simple access to the outside world. They could put up a ladder and climb over the fence, but that is hardly practical. My theory is that the gates were bricked up by the new owner, as a means of driving out the folks who refused to give up possession. If they were locking their gates and refusing to come out, this is a way of saying, "Fine, two can play this game."

However, a weak spot in my theory is that Susan says that the pickup that was used to haul the bricks is the same one that used to be parked in the courtyard that is now bricked off. This would tend to indicate that the folks living inside bricked up their only means of leaving. As I said, the mystery deepens, but I will continue to observe and see if I can figure it out.

On another note, Susan and I had tuna steaks for dinner today. I bought a piece of tuna at the market yesterday, since I learned that fresh seafood is brought up on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tuna costs $2.50 per pound and we really like it. I cut the piece in half to make two steaks, as shown in the picture below. Unlike every other fish I have ever eaten, the only bone in this piece was the big piece of spine in the center.We cooked them on the hotplate, with a little oregano. It turned out really well.It came apart when I took it out of the pan, but that didn't hurt the flavor at all.After eating this, Susan suggested that we eat tuna every Sunday until we go home. I think that is a really good idea.

And as I wrote this, I realized that there is something else that I have noted that is worth mentioning. Ecuador is officially a metric nation, but there are still a lot of things that are measured in English units. For example, if you go in a supermarket, anything sold by weight will be priced in dollars&cents per kilogram. However, for the same items in the open market, all the prices are per pound.

Distances are always in metric, and water, soda pop, etc., are always in liters or fractions thereof, but gasoline is priced in dollars per gallon [$1.48 per gallon, everywhere, all the time]. And the other day I saw a set of scales at the market where the owner was charging people ten cents to weigh themselves, and the scale was calibrated in pounds.

I'm not sure why things are mixed up as they are, but it is interesting, and I am glad that I am comfortable in both sets of units.