McDonald's -- but no Internet

So the big news in Carlos Paz is that we're getting a McDonald's! Usually McDonald's can only be found in the big cities here in Argentina. I think we qualify because, as a tourist town, the population swells from around 80,000 to a quarter million or more in the summer. And this past year we've had a steady stream of tourists, right through fall, winter and spring (although not in those numbers).

While I'm not a big fan of their sandwiches, I do love me some McDonald's fries once in a while.

But mainly I'm hoping they'll have frappes on the menu. Right now there is not a single place in our fair town that offers frappes. How sad is that?! Yes, for those with a hankering for a frappe, it is necessary to trek into the big city of Cordoba to one of the two Starbucks. And no, the McDonald's there do not have frappes, so the chances that our McDonald's will offer them is slim. But a girl can hope!

Even if the chances are about the same as us getting internet any time soon.

I mentioned in my last post that our neighbor's phone/internet wasn't working. It was down almost a month before Telecom finally sent someone out to fix it! As you can see, lack of competition means the phone company has no incentive to jump right in and fix broken lines.

Or to transfer existing ones, apparently.

When Ivan saw the Telecom truck, he got pretty excited! He went over and asked the guy if he could go ahead and connect us since we're right next door. We've even already run the cable from the front of the property to the casita. But the guy said, "Not a chance!" He went on to explain that there simply isn't the necessary infrastructure on our street. Our neighbor's line comes from two blocks away! He said it would probably be months before we get connected.

Of course, Telecom was more than happy to keep stringing us along and having us pay the regular monthly bills without providing service in kind. It would have been cheaper to get the line transferred IF (and this is a big IF) they could actually do it right away. But since that's not the case, we are going to cancel the transfer order and just get on the list for a new connection. That way we won't have to pay until we're actually connected.

To say I'm frustrated and discouraged would be an understatement.

But...
¡ES LO QUE HAY!

At least the neighbor's phone/internet is back up and running, so we're back in business. It means having to come out to the garage, but it still beats trekking downtown to an internet café.

All this means I finally got caught up with my P365 blog yesterday.

I also plan to come back here in the next day or two and share all about our first wedding experiences in Argentina (prepare for lots of photos!). We attended two weddings on Saturday, one a formal church celebration and the other a civil ceremony.

I'm really hoping to get my blogging mojo back, and do a better job of chronicling our Argentine adventures. I've missed writing!