Tag: Old Town

Music & Songwriting: Handmade Ecuadorian Guitars by Rosero Nunez

Posted by J Roland Kelly – December 2, 2008

As in my earlier, post I talked about writing a song with an Ecuadorian I met here, and I needed a guitar. I was feeling that nervous-anxious itch, after not having played for six weeks anyway.

I walked around to different guitar shops in El Centro Historico of Quito, of which there are many, and decided on a little student guitar by Rosero Nunez. It cost $45 and is totally playable.

I don’t know who this Rosero Nunez (or the company) is. I do know that there are many small guitar-making shops in Ecuador, but I couldn’t find any information online about this one.

And when I can’t find information online; I blog about it.

All I have is the inside label:

Notice the hotmail email address on it.

I’ll pass that along, in case anyone wants a custom guitar.

I hear from an Ecuadorian peace corp’er that the country has many guitar makers that are 70 years old with no children who wanted to continue the tradition. So it goes.

My new guitar is quite inexpensive (but good) and in the store I purchased it, I saw many more Rosero Nunez guitars that were of really good quality but at a higher price.

I decided on my particular guitar because it was small (in case I have to travel with it), it was cheap (in case I have to toss it), it’s not large enough to make too much noise in my hotel room, and while being a “classical” guitar, it’s made for children so the strings are almost the same distance apart as in the American tradition.

Having a classical guitar is new to me. I have never had nylon strings, I’ve never had strings don’t fan out as you go down the fret board, and if I break a string I would not know how to replace it, as the strings have no “ball” and are tied on in an elaborate way.

Still it has a unique sound, and I’m quite satisfied.

I should say that many things in Ecuador are bootlegged, and just because the label lists it as being a Rosero Nunez, that’s no guarantee that it’s not a guitar made somewhere else with an Ecuadorian label. I bought a hat that says it was made in Italy and that is obviously not true.

Even if – it’s still a playable guitar.

-J Roland Kelly

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Quito, Ecuador: Samsom Y Dalila – A gym (gimnasio) located in the downtown El Centro Historico (Old Town) that’s suitable for ex-pats

Posted by J Roland Kelly – October 17, 2008

Living in the old historic part of Quito is great, but sometimes it’s hard to find modern trendy things; like a place to workout. Plenty of decent gyms exist in the new town, but I have only found one near where I live in the Old Town.

It’s called Samsom Y Dalila, and it’s located at Montufar & Chile in El Centro Historico.

They have a good selection of free weights, most of the machines are pretty beat up, but I found one stationary cycle in good shape.

If you want to pay by the month, it’s 20 bucks for a membership plus a one-time sign up fee, otherwise it’s two bucks to enter.

I think the hours are 6:30 am until 9:30 pm Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 2:30 pm on Saturday and they are closed on Sunday.

It’s located on the ground floor of a residential building, but a stainless steel “GYM” sign on top of building makes the place easy to find.

I couldn’t find any information online or in a Quito city guide about gyms in the Old Town so I am writing this up.

If you are preparing to play Joe Versus the Volcano with the Cotopaxi (5897m), Chimborazo (6310m), or just taking the TeleferiQo (sky tram) up the Pichincha above Quito (4100m, where I play Joe vs. the Volcano, they built a bar and an entire amusement park up there) you can use Samsom Y Dalila to stay in shape.

“I’m sorry to inform you, you have a terminal brain cloud.”

-J Roland Kelly

A volcano! The one thing that the Bay Area doesn’t have, somebody petition Google to buy one.

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Prices for Screenwriting Expats in Quito, Ecuador.

Posted by J Roland Kelly – August 6, 2008

I’ve had enough time to wonder around Quito and get a grasp of the cost of living. I reside in the historic center of Quito (Old Town, El Centro) on what turns out to be an inexpensive working class street.

All of the Old Town is an Unesco World Heritage Site, and a great place to be alive.

If I hang out in gringo bars of the Mariscal Sucre, the traveler’s ghetto or “gringolandia” as some locals call it, it costs gringo dollars (American dive bar prices) but if I stay away from touristy or major hubs the everyday working class prices are as follows:

Hotel Room – $165 per month. See my Quito for Expats post for pictures of my room.

Large beer from bodega – .80 cents. The national beer is called “Pilsner,” guess what kind of beer it is.

Internet – free with room but faster at Internet café .70 cents per hour. It’s high-speed.

Lunch & Dinner – $1.50 a piece. Nothing scary, I promise. They know bananas, and fruit juices. Order what ever you want or you can get the set menu for lunch or dinner, it’s like their special, or a lunch or dinner of the day sort of thing. Multicourse and good.

Laundry – $1 a kilo for someone else to do it.

Public Bus – .20 cents, years ago when I was in Quito it was full of pickpockets. I don’t know about now, they’ve cleaned up the city.

Taxi – $4 bucks from the old town to the new town, almost as far as you would want to go, not including the airport which cost $8.
 
Things like shampoo – if imported same price, maybe not San Francisco, California bodega prices, but certainly supercenter or target prices.

5 liter bottle of mineral water – $1.10

3 liter bottle of coca cola zero – $1.50

Bootlegged DVD – $1 Bootlegged DVDs are everywhere.

Private Spanish tutor – $4 bucks per hour

Touring churches and museums – approximately $1-3 depending.

Salsa Club with live music – all different of course, but one I like in the Mariscal Sucre is $6 bucks and includes one drink, $2.50 a drink after the first one, Salsa lessons from women who know how to wear high-heels free.

I guess I should say the National Currency of Ecuador is the United States Dollar. They no longer have their own currency, inflation was at 60% and in the year 2000 they decided to abandon their currency for the US Greenback.

This is good for Americans because while the US dollar is losing strength in the rest of the world, Ecuador is pegged to us, that, and you don’t have to change money at the airport.

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Have Screenplay High Concept Will Travel: Quito, Ecuador for Screenwriting Expats – $300 per Month

Posted by J Roland Kelly – August 2, 2008

Writing Screenplays in Quito, Ecuador
California might be the entertainment capital of the world, but why must you choose to hole yourself up to write your first selling on spec screenplay there?

Los Angeles is way too expensive, and dirty for just sitting around.

You might have access to other screenwriters, but even that is part of the problem.

If you are an un-showered, unsuccessful screenwriter in LA sitting around in an apartment, you are just another an un-showered, unsuccessful screenwriter in LA sitting around in an apartment.

 

You’re probably burning through money (if you are trying to write full time), and good luck with the ladies.

 

Why learn your craft there?

 

Someone suggested to me (hey, Tim) that this is the reason that writers are so nervy; even if a writer becomes fairly successful, they’ve had so many years of rejection that they can’t take pride in their decent success and are always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

Don’t live like that.

 

Come to Quito, sweetheart.

 

While you are writing, or learning to write, or reading books about how to write, there’s no reason you can’t be living in a new and all-out positive atmosphere.

 

You might even find the inspiration necessary to finish your project. Even that.

 

You can probably live a couple of months on what you pay for one month’s rent in Los Angeles.

 

The buy-in is the plane ticket. LA and Quito are not that far apart just one connection. My ticket was $550 from San Francisco. After that it’s ten dollars a day if you just sit around and write.

 

Here are some pictures of my $165 dollar a month hotel room in old historic section of Quito (Old Town, El Centro).

View from the balcony.

From the lobby.

I’m not saying it’s the best room for the cash, it was sort of the first one. I liked the view, the balcony, the section of town, I stayed for one night, checked around a little and then threw down for the month.

 

I think it’s a perfect writing cell, and I’ve always wanted to live in a hotel.

 

I figure it’s possible to live on $300 a month if you don’t do touristy things and drink in bars, etc.

 

Of course I will do all of those things, I’m just saying $300 bucks is the base price if you were super commented to only writing while you were here.

 

I will try and compile a Quito price sheet for the next post.

- J Roland Kelly

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Travel Update – Quito, Ecuador: First Impressions and the First Five Days

Posted by J Roland Kelly – July 28, 2008

Quito, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

 When I first got off the plane in Quito, I was exhausted. My cheap ticket from San Francisco ($550) was too Indiana Jones like, from SFO to LAX to Panama City to Quito. All of this was over night, and took 12 hours with layovers.

 

The flights themselves where not long enough to get comfortable, and I have a habit of getting good and exhausted before a trip even begins; it’s always been that way with me.

 

Maybe getting deliriously tired is my way of calming the nerves.

 

After all, what does it take a normal person to move to a foreign city with no connections?

 

So, there I am in the newly remodeled Quito airport trying to stand up straight and look okay for customs, and the first thing that I remember is that Quito is very high at an altitude of over 12,000 feet.

 

The air was thin, and I had been living almost at sea level in California.

 

No problems with customs. Ecuador offers a 90-day visa for US tourists. It’s my understanding that I can just cross the border and get another 90-day visa when the time comes. I guess I’ll find out in October.

 

I got my backpack, hid my cash, went outside to the smell of car exhaust (I’m getting less tolerate of these types of things and I think they use ¨dirty diesel¨ here), walked away from the airport, got a taxi, and started for the cheap side of town.

 

In the taxi, I realize how this routine is second nature to me.

 

Each time I put my backpack in a closet, I think never again. I even burned my passport once; then three months later spent 80 bucks to have it replaced for a trip to London.

 

This time things are different; my backpack hasn’t been dusted off since Western China in 2004 (excluding moving to California, which is it’s own country). In the down time, I’ve tried focusing on expressing myself in different artistic mediums but the backpack stays with me.

 

Now, I’m trying to bring art and travel together. It might be magic, it might be disastrous. I’ve never tried this combination before, but I figure others have made it work and I still have some youth to burn.

 

Back in the moving taxi from the Quito Airport, the driver says something into a CB radio that I don’t understand, which could be anything in Spanish ¨I’m leaving the airport, be back in twenty minutes¨ or ¨I’ve got the gringo, get ready,¨ just in case I calmly locked the three doors, leaving his door the only one unlocked.

 

At the first sign of trouble, I decide (and it seems totally rational at a time like this) I will kick this old man’s head off and take control of the taxi, but there never was a first sign of trouble, nothing bad ever really happens, and getting half crazy is half the fun of traveling.

 

I fell asleep in a five and a half dollar hotel room, woke up in the middle of the night, when nothing was open, went back to sleep, woke up in the afternoon and thought damn this place looks like San Francisco.

 

I had a good laugh; I didn’t pick up on that the last time I was here. It took me 12 hours to get to Quito from Mountain View, California.

 

How long does it take to get to San Francisco (North Beach) in accident laden rush hour traffic or public transit from Mountain View? I’ve been stuck in traffic for over three hours.

 

Commuting in the Bay Area, I will not miss.

 

Since the first night, things have been good. I am staying in the historic part of town (El Centro), which people just call the ¨Old Town.¨

 

It’s beautiful, and I found out they don’t allow cars into the old town on Sundays.

 

And even better, on the last Sunday of every month they close the main drag here from one end of the city to the other for every thing but bikes.

 

All of this has been reassuring, I was worried that since my last visit Quito might have fallen apart. There’s been a coup, multiple new presidents, etc. but costs are still low, crime is down, the things that needed to stay the same, stayed the same and things that needed to change, changed.

 

Don’t get me wrong, nothing is perfect, if I were half the man I were five years ago (slamming fist on table) I would take a power-washer to this place, who-ra.

 

- J Roland Kelly

 

Plus I can do a 45 in 35.

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