Out

Today was the start of my course of eight lectures as the "main event" of Linear Programming Week at ESPOL. The first two went well, and I had lots of questions. Afterwards I went back into the city centre with X, his daughter D and two colleagues to have lunch at a restaurant in a shopping mall. As an indication of the security concerns in Ecuador, we were scanned to check for guns as we entered the mall. Inside, predictably, it was very international in its style and shops.. On the menu at "Red Lobster" - a US franchise - the titles of the dishes on the menu were written first in English - and I ate half a tasty (small) lobster. After eating, we had coffee at "Sweet and Coffee", an Ecuadorian chain of coffee shops, but still one that trades under an English name. Presumably this is to give it "class".

After X had driven us back to ESPOL - to get an arranged lift to my hotel, in my case - the lift didn't materialise, so I hung around with X, D and a colleague for a quarter of an hour before X drove me back himself! 

After leaving my laptops at the hotel, I ventured out alone onto the street to walk 500m to another shopping mall since I have run out of underpants and guessed that it would be cheaper to my more than have them laundered by the hotel - I'll also experiment with hand-washing, but can't count in anything drying with any speed in such a humid place. 

My photo (see extra) from a pedestrian bridge is uninspiring but, at least, an honest image of the street. Tonight I'll eat again at the hotel, but also completed tomorrow's talks and start on the two for Wednesday.