Officially Single

About two weeks before the wedding, I found out that the certificate that I had gotten last year that stated that I was single was invalid.  I mean, every time we went to check the requirements for getting married in Cuenca, a different women would tell us a different thing.  One said, well the one you have is fine, another said that the document needs to be less than 45 days old, no, actually less than 30 days old, oh, well 90 days is fine.

Carlos and I decided that it would be safer just to get a new copy of the document, easy right? 

Nope.

I needed to book an appointment with the notary at the U.S. Consulate in Guayaquil.  The only date available before the wedding was on Wednesday, December 16th, just two days before the civil ceremony!  Then I had to actually go to Guayaquil.

Guayaquil is not that far away and not that difficult to get to, it was just that there was so much crap to be taken care of in the days before the wedding.  Arranging transport, confirming hotels, meeting flights, taking dance lessons, consulting with the wedding planner...And did I mention that there were still three hour daily rolling blackouts occurring at this time (now it's only two hours a day)?

I left Cuenca on Tuesday evening for Guayaquil to be prepared for my 8AM appointment the next day.  I arrived at the consulate around 7:45AM and waited to be let in.  For anyone who has not had to visit a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, let me tell you, they aren't very fun.  You need to go through two levels of security, which are slow and the guards don't speak any English.  There are lots of signs, but they don't really say anything.  For example, they direct you to a waiting room but there is not sign that says you should not approach the window because you will be called.

But I had done it before and knew the drill and paid my $30 to get the form notarized saying that I was single and that I intended to marry Carlos.  And that was it.  I had my form.  I walked back to the hotel clutching it, terrified that a breeze would whisk it away and I would be screwed.  But that didn't happen.

I managed to switch my van reservation from 11AM to 10AM and headed to the van's office.  While I was paying I asked the women if she had any reservations under the names of certain friends and she kept on saying, no, no, no.  "Are you sure?" I asked.  Yes, she replied.  She was getting really annoyed with me and finally told me that she had to help the people that were waiting.  I finally got up from my seat, turned around, and saw the people waiting.  We all stared at each other for a split second before hugging and kissing.  It turned out the people waiting were my friends from IHE, the ones whose reservations I had been looking for.

We only had a few minutes to chat before my van left, but it was really nice to see them.  And then I was headed back to Cuenca to greet our first guests...