Visa Registration

Today we had to go the office of the foreign registrar or something like that to register our Visas.  It was an experience much like spending the day in the Social Security office or the BMV.  No one wants to go there, but if you need something from there you go and bear the long lines and long waits and endure the "First you need this copy and then we can see you." And the "oh we forgot to tell you that you need this document too."  It is always an adventure.  We needed to go there today and we asked Maria, the contact person for the volunteer organization to help us get there and help with translation.  Without hesitation she said yes and spent most of the day standing in line with us and waiting in the waiting area for our number to be called.  We could not have done it without her.  Our day started out taking a 40 minute bus ride to New Town in Quito and waiting on the corner to be picked up by Maria and her husband.  They drove us to the one address they were given and Maria went in and checked and they gave her another address to go to.  We drove over there and then walked around a little until we could find it because the first place did not have an exact address for us.  When we found it somehow we were put in a really short line and they looked at our information and told us we needed copies of everything not the originals.  So we left there and went next door to get copies made.  We went back with our copies and got back in the short line.  They checked our papers and gave us a number.  We waited for about 45 minutes in which time Melayna decide she had to pee and would not stop yelling that she had to pee.  Luckily not very many people spoke English so we did not look like horrible parents not taking her since our number was next and we were not wanting to miss it.  During our wait, Maria double checked twice about what we needed and was told we needed a copy of something else which we only had three of the four and that we had to have a large manilla envelope.  We went outside where they sell the envelopes on the street knowing people will need them and bought one.  Then we went to make the other copies needed and realized we had them in the pile of papers already.  When our number was finally called we went to the window and waited for the guy to type all the information in for what felt like 20 minutes then paid our $16 and left.  We went to the restaurant next door to use the bathroom and had to pay $.25 per person to use it.  When all that was done we walked back to the bus stop and headed home for lunch.  Needless to say we took it easy the rest of the day.  A huge thanks to Maria, because that would have been a nightmare without her help.