Seguridad. Security is a BIG concern here in Ecuador, and the private guard business is booming. I swear that I saw a bank guard downtown carrying a beat up, WW II vintage, M3 "Grease Gun."

Then, too, there are the ubiquitous ‘guard shacks’ on just about every street. To my mind the hombres who man most of these structures would be ‘the usual suspects’ in any crime investigation.

Things are barred and locked up twice! Electric fences, cameras, and broken glass on the top of walls are everywhere to be seen:

Casa Barros, where I reside with my host family.

Llaves. Keys. In ECU one keeps and always carries keys to locks that haven’t existed for generations or which are hanging rusted shut on some gate, somewhere. This ensures that several times every day the opening of any current locks will take a trial & error process lasting for many minutes. Everybody looks like a custodian.