E - Entertainment


“There I am, up on the stage. Here I go, playin’ star again...”

As you might guess, Puerto Lopez is not a locus of cinematic performance.

Occasionally, the local schools will put on performances. These are usually either dramatic performances or marching bands, and the kids put their hearts into them. Other times, we’ll have an itinerant troubadour, a traveling jazz duet and once even a bagpiper perform in town. For professional-level productions, however, we’ve got nada.

During our seven month stay in Cuenca, we had the opportunity to enjoy performances by the local community theater and small orchestras. Quito and Guayaquil will even host contemporary performers like Maroon 5 (ask your kids).

Puerto Lopez has none of that. That doesn’t mean that we lack for entertainment. It’s just not live.

Our local DVD-hut has most new movie releases. They aren’t official, however (video-cam steals), and they are either subtitled or dubbed in English. Content is also limited; most of the movies are either action movies or WWE-style wrestling.

Most of what we have is electronic. Pirati…err, “digital borrowing” is one method of getting movies or music. Most common, however, is a remote subscription service via NetFlix, Amazon or Roku. Our local cable system will also have most championship games for sporting events (World Series, Super Bowl, etc.), and streaming baseball and football games online is something that I do at home.

Many times, though, we have to detail with one of the most disappointing messages that people in North American rarely see:

“This content not available in your country.”


Comments

  1. Hilary Melton-ButcherApril 5, 2018 at 8:51 PM

    Hi Scott - being British ... I get irritated here when the Beeb won't allow me to watch British tv - ah well ... in Canada do as Canadians do ... and fortunately there's some public broadcast ones. I guess living in Ecuador has some disadvantages! ... But must be fascinating - cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hilary Melton-ButcherApril 5, 2018 at 8:52 PM

      Also the library ... I'm getting films I wouldn't normally see via the library - foreign ones mostly - but living in a Bilingual country I suppose helps!! Cheers once again -H

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tales of Puerto Lopez - Theme Reveal

"Moving ahead so life won't pass me by" For four years, my home has been Puerto Lopez, a fishing village of 15,000 in central Ecuador. One of the sayings in town is that you can always identify the new guy because he still wears his wristwatch. This blog is the from the viewpoint of a guy who no longer wears a wristwatch. My Perspective I want to share what the ‘daily grind’ is like here for a foreigner. Magazines and essays do a great job of sharing the highlights and successes of living in Ecuador, and there are certainly many of them to be experienced. (That’s why I live here!) There are also some sundry things that are required for living in a (sometimes) challenging and foreign environment. I hope this blog draws some attention and insight into the mundane but frequently humorous aspects of living in this once-remote area. My Approach I previously wrote a serial narrative on the process of moving from California to Ecuador
Read more

C - Close to Home

“ I’m on my way, I’m on my way; home sweet home. ” For anyone reading this blog, please remember that this is being written from the context of life in coastal Ecuador and is not necessarily a reflection of life throughout the country. Along the coast, most of the people residing here are born into a town and live their entire lives in or around that town. This is primarily because of family, logistical and financial concerns. (There are exceptions, of course, and those exceptions increase every year; I’m writing about my views over the past five years and the stories that I’ve heard.) The core of coastal societal structure has traditionally been the “comuna” . A comuna is a town where a family (or families) settled and made a living, and many of the social structures (family growth, policies, property ownership, etc.) are built around supporting the town. Laws were passed and decisions were made based on what was best for the community. The development o
Read more

Z - Zen

“ And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” I have a couple of thoughts to end this column, but before I do I want to share two other items. The first is a Q&A posted on Facebook last year. I think this short dialogue might describe my town better than anything I could say (minor editing by me): Christos: Hola Puerto Lopez, I'm currently enjoying the grand hospitality at the DD in Playa Santa Marianita, both of which I highly recommend:) However, along with the much larger Crucita to the north, I find it lacking in the basic services which I hope to find in PL. So, ***does*** PL have a butcher, a baker and a barber?;) (And perhaps a shop selling the fresh fish being caught daily?!?) Oh, and maybe at least one tienda selling fruit and veggies (and Rum;~)? I get that the Ecuadoran Coast is relatively new as a travel destination - ergo many beach towns are entirely dependent on Manta, Porto Viejo, Guyaquil, etc. - but I
Read more