Mr. Books

When we arrived in Guayaquil yesterday from the Galápagos, I had one mission: Find Mr. Books. Mr. Books is the Ecuadorian equivalent of Barnes & Noble. 

Here's the deal: My Kindle died on January 3 -- the first full day of our trip. I had charged that sucker before we left and loaded a few new books on it. And it crapped out on me in Quito. I should have seen it coming; I'd had the device for close to 10 years and it was running more and more slowly. But go figure that this most important possession would bite the dust on the first day.

I definitely freaked out in our Quito hotel. "Ohmygosh! What am I going to do??!! Can I find another Kindle here? Could I get Amazon to deliver?" You would have thought my world was ending. It's just that I HAVE to read, and I have to read especially before falling asleep at night. Tim told me to chill, and we left the hotel to walk around Old Town Quito.

Well, the book gods were looking out for me that day, because as we walked around Old Town Quito, we walked right by the English Bookstore. It's a bookstore that literally sells English books -- all used. I bought myself Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses (highly recommend) and we went on our way. In hindsight, I should've bought myself a few books...but I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

Cut to Taylor. This girl reads. She packed three fairly thick books for the trip, and she read them all in the span of two weeks. Then she started on Wyatt's books, and while we were on San Cristóbal Island, she finished those. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: "What am I supposed to read now? I don't have anything to read!" 

So by the time we landed in Guayaquil yesterday, Taylor and I were itching to get ourselves some new books. Lucky us, our hotel was right across the street from Mall del Sol, a huge shopping mall, and there was a Mr. Books inside! We chose Mr. Books because we knew there was an English section, and that section did not disappoint. There were even children's and young reader books in English.

Sweet, sweet victory. We all got ourselves some new books -- Wyatt, too; and Tim bought a Lonely Planet Peru book -- and left very happy campers/readers. Fingers crossed we'll be set for the next 26 days.