Saturday's woes

In my previous post, you read "Saturday's plan."  Here's how it all derailed.

Our whole schedule was based on this fact: We needed to get to a wedding reception in Ipiales by 7:00 pm.  The son of some of our friends was getting married in the afternoon and had asked Ookyoung and I to say a few words at the reception.  I had accepted, Ookyoung not being present at the time, with the thought that perhaps she wouldn't like the idea too much and would change the plan.  :-) She didn't.  What she did do was desert me.  Well, I guess I should be fair.  She was called away to a funeral in Guayaquil.  A few days earlier, when I had asked the groom-to-be what time the reception would begin, he had told me, "The wedding is at 3:00, so maybe 6:00 for the reception.  Or maybe 6:30.  Or actually, by the time everyone actually gets there, 7:00."  Now, I have gotten at least somewhat accustomed with how the concept of "time" works down here, but I figured, "Since he's already backed up his initial start time by a full hour, it seems likely that they would begin by at least 7:30."  Ho ho ho.  

As I have mentioned before, the bus schedule from Ibarra to Tulcán is highly unpredictable.  The printed schedule, handily posted on the ticket window, announces that buses leave fifteen minutes past the hour.  If you ask at the same window, they'll tell you that the bus leaves on the hour.  In actuality, the bus leaves whenever the bus driver decides to pull out.  It could be quarter to the hour or twenty past.  As you might imagine, this can create complications.  And it is due to this peculiar scheduling that I do not make a habit of purchasing tickets ahead of time.  If you have a ticket for the 2:00 bus, and you arrive at ten minutes to the hour just to leave yourself a margin of time, and the bus has actually left at 1:48, you are plain old out of luck!  

So, we arrived in Ibarra on time to do all that we needed to do there, including eat lunch.  I ran by the ticket window to make sure there were no unforeseen gaps in the bus schedule (no bus leaving at 2:00, or whenever, for example).  What I discovered was that all the tickets for the 2:00, or whenever, bus had been sold.  This created a bit of a conundrum.  We could try to catch a bus from the park on the outskirts of town.  There would be more options, but we wouldn't be guaranteed a seat, and certainly not together.  Or we could purchase a ticket for the 3:00, or whenever, bus from the terminal and count on squeaking into Ipiales just in the nick of time.  We decided upon the latter option; the trip shouldn't take more than three hours!  It should actually take less, but we use three hours as the maximum time estimate just to allow ourselves a bit of a cushion.  Now, do we buy the ticket now and risk missing the bus if it leaves ridiculously early or do we wait until we return to the terminal and risk having all the 3:00 tickets sold out as well?  We decided on the former.

So, with tickets in hand, we headed to Sra. Patricia's to leave our monster of a suitcase.  With that mission accomplished, we walked a couple of blocks to a Pizza Hut for lunch.  From there, we caught a taxi to the terminal, arriving in plenty of time to catch our 3:00 bus that actually left at 3:20.  Not a good day to be running behind schedule!  

The bus trip from Ibarra to Tulcán was basically uneventful, but we didn't enter the town of Ipiales until 7 bells sharp.  When we left Sra. Alicia's after our approximately 2 minutes and 47 seconds "spiff-up" session, our bedroom looked rather like a tornado had concentrated its attentions therein.  

We arrived at the wedding reception venue somewhere around 7:10 and found that we were among the first ones there.  Maybe 20 other guests or so were seated at tables, but the room was set up to accommodate some 70 or so more.  Perhaps we would be waiting a while.  

Fast forward to 8:30, at which point, Karmen's and my eyeballs were bloodshot and crossing.  Nothing indicated that the "reception" would be starting anytime soon.  Guests were still straggling in.  I finally worked up my courage and spoke to the groom.  "I don't think we can stay much longer.  We have two meetings to get ready for tomorrow."  I knew that once the speeches and meal began, we would be in for the long haul, and at this point, I couldn't see either Karmen or myself holding out for hours to come.  "We're about to start," he assured me.  So we kept waiting.  Finally, I found out that the main reason for the delay was that the bride's mother had not yet arrived.  Guess that's as good a reason as any!  

At 9:00, we made our excuses, and feeling somewhat guilty and bad, we left.  Guess that's one way to get out of speaking!  

And thus I welcomed Karmen to Ipiales.