Connectivity capers...

[alexpgp]

My general approach to making sure I had connectivity here in Guanajuato consisted of:

Plan A. Rely on the hotel's wifi. This turned out better than expected, on the one hand, since the service actually "leaks" through the wall from the lobby into a corner of our room. On the other hand, starting yesterday, the ability to connect at any reasonable speed sort of took a dive during the day and continued today.

Plan B. Get a SIM card for my (theoretically) unlocked Samsung from Kazakhstan. I bought a SIM card, and although the phone recognizes the network and connects to the Internet—after a fashion, as I've gotten email while out and about, but surfing doesn't work well at all—the phone insists its phone number is "unknown," which means I cannot "recharge" either talk minutes or data volume. As the SIM card I bought here in Guanajuato was from a shop that reminded me of the place I bought my first Kazakh SIM card several years ago (i.e., the card was almost certainly bought by the proprietor of the shop, who resells the cards to people like me), I decided to stop by the Telcel service center across from the old market to see if perhaps my problem lay with the card.

The woman at Telcel was helpful, and swapped out the SIM card I bought with one from Telcel, but the problem (unknown phone number) didn't go away. At this point, I'm thinking the phone is maybe not as unlocked as I thought it was.

As an aside, although I am well aware that repeating what one says, except more slowly and louder, does not improve the comprehension of someone who doesn't speak your language at all, speaking more slowly and distinctly may help someone who has so-so comprehension understand what you are saying. That said, I've pretty much abandoned asking people por favor, habla mas despacio (please speak more slowly), because my request consistently has apparently been interpreted as please repeat what you said, but a little faster.

Given that the phone really isn't very useful, I left it home yesterday when we took the bus to the center of town to see what we could see. This was sort of mistake, because without a phone, I have no way to tell the time (I don't wear a wristwatch), other than to glance into shop windows or ask people on the street.

The reason I wanted to know the time yesterday afternoon was observing the crazy long lines at every ATM we walked past... there must have been a dozen or more people in each of about 8 or 9 queues. Maybe there is a connection between the time of day (somewhere around 3:30 pm) and the lines, but if there, is, it escapes me. It would appear, however, that folks do like to have some walking-around cash in their pockets.

More later, maybe. All this walking and observing has plumb tuckered me out.

Cheers...

Comments

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

It is not impossible that it was a payday and people simply don't trust their employers' enforced sending their money to the bank instead of paying them in cash like in 'the good old days'. I know what you've observed was the case here the first few years after those who work for the state were issued Sberbank cards: huge lines for cash were everywhere the first week of every month. It was not ten years ago that thus change happened, so maybe it only just did in Mexico.

(As an aside, it is just as well people did so, for the debit deposits thus opened are offered 0% return by the greedy bank of Russia; you might as well keep that money in a tin can at home.)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

That's quite possible. I never worked up the energy to find out.

Paychecks in the US are still generally printed on paper, but even in cases where employers make use of "direct deposit," the accounts in which pay is deposited are checking accounts (as opposed to savings accounts), which typically offer zero return. (Savings accounts do pay interest, but the rate is a joke.)

Cheers...