Off to Driving School I Go...
There was a time in the past when ex-pats could pay an "expediter" to take their International Driving License to a friendly police station or "Driver's License Bureau", and usually within a day, they would be presented with a new Ecuadorean Driver's License. Well folks, it appears that those days are now in the past...the expediter that we had counted on using told us that they are out of the business, because the rules have changed.
I figured that the new rules couldn't be that bad, so I trundled on down to the Driver's License place in our State of St Elena, and found that the new Anti-Corruption statues have come down squarely on the old "Ex-Pat Exchange". The item that is the big stickler is your present International Driver's License. Apparently it is easy to forge or alter the AAA License that we all get in the US before we set out on our trip.
Now...one must have the issuing Agency issue a duly translated guarantee that the license that you are trading in is "real", and that is not all...a Attorney here in Ecuador must then issue a letter that the license is "valid". This doesn't sound like much, but it must be done through original docs--no faxes or email...
I was told that the US Embassy in Guayaquil would help out here, but they logically have backed out, because they have nothing to do with the creation of an International License, so they can not certify it.
The director of the driving school spent over an hour trying to get some of these rules waived, but to no avail. I actually had the contact person in the US Embassy tell me that I ought to "just go to Driving School" I sort of scoffed as I heard this idea, but as I thought over what it would take to have AAA in Grants Pass issue me a certification, get it translated, and probably get the translator certified (as we did for our Visas), the school idea seemed to make better sense.
The catch with Driving School, however, is that there is no "shortcut"...you have to sign up for the three week course--15 hours class, and 15 hours of driving instruction...so I did.
Here I am standing by my car...
Peugeot has a lock on this Driving school...all of the cars are Peugeots, and all the manuals and computerized instruction are put out by them in a coordinated package. I must admit that i was a bit impressed and humbled as I realized that I must master 200 pages of Ecuador Driving Regulations and pass a written exam--all in Spanish, of course!
But...just to get to this stage, I had to get a certificate from the police that I had no record...and you can only get that by showing your ID card or Cedula, and to get that you must have a permanent Visa.
In addition, I had to have an eye test, and pass three reactions tests, two for eye-hand coordination, large and small, and one for gas to brake reaction time. I did fine, and even got a thumbs up from the nice young lady administering the test...
Bob & Roxanne
Two days under my belt...
I have now been going for two days, and I am impressed with the professionalism of this school. I have gone to several of those "driving schools" where you go after you get a ticket for speeding, etc, and they are just a joke compared to these guys. I give this school an "A" on all aspects of the instruction process.
Also, I would caution everyone to realize that, as I relate this story, I am only telling you about my personal experience. There might still be an "easy" way for Ex-pats to get their licenses. Nancy indicated in her comment that they are now not getting a car for sure...
I hope that before any of you make an important decision like this, that you investigate how the procedure might affect you directly, with the contacts you have, and the documents that you already possess.
I certainly would recommend that anyone reading this, who is still in their home country, get all the "validation" documents at the same time they get their AAA International Driver's License. Plus, get it translated.
Bob & Roxanne
Three days of school, and getting poked for my Red Cross Blood Type card...
I have to say that I am actually enjoying Driver's School. The classroom instructor is loosening up now that we laugh at his jokes--I actually get most of them...and his Spanish is getting easier for me to understand. Today, he asked me where I was from, and when I stated "Estados Unidos", he got a big smile on his face, and directed comments to the rest of the class, that if I, with my rudimentary Spanish, am getting something out of the course, then they, who are native speakers, should ace it...dig, dig...
My Driving Instructor is a young man who is dedicated to teaching, who is also looking forward to the arrival of his first child with his wife, Vickie, who is 16...and a knockout. Since he sees that, with 53 years of driving experience, he is not going to have to recreate the wheel and teach me to drive, we spend a little time talking about other things, one of them being the economic reality of limiting the number of children to just a few...
Driving around St. Elena is a piece of cake compared to driving in Cuenca, a city that has about 500 percent more cars than it can handle...so, it is a relaxing hour.
If you drive in Ecuador, you must have all your docs, and also have a Red Cross card with your Blood Type on it. Here I am getting poked in the thumb today to get my card stating that I was O positive...info that I first saw on my dog tags 49 years ago...
This nice young lady smeared my drop of blood on three squares on a plastic ruler looking thing, and then added a drop of one of the bottles next to me to one drop of blood, then stirred it up. The first drop was clear, the second was red, and the third was pink...I tried to ask what the other blood types looked like, but my Spanish was a little frail here, and she had other customers...so that piece of vital information will stay a secret...
Stay tuned for a surprise announcement tomorrow...(well...the surprise has turned out to be kind of a fizzle...we had envisioned that Rox would also go to school with me...sort of a team effort designed to maximize the one hour trip that I make each way to school...but...the school is totally booked until one week after I complete my courses...so no advantage there...she still might do it in Cuenca, where the school is about three blocks from our apartment...more on that when it happens...)
3 Comments
Reader Comments (3)
Thanks for the post. It is now for certain that owning a car is not in our future.
Can you share any info of what happens if you have an accident in EC? I hear everyone gets arrested till they discover who is guilty.
Hi James...since I have never had an accident, I can't tell you anything about that from personal experience. I do know that the penalties for drunken driving, or for serious mayhem like injury or death that is your fault will result in jail time.
The statute has a sliding scale of penalties for infrafctions, just like other countries...jail is only one of them.
We always keep Grace and Nelson's business card with us, just in case we need to call a lawyer or interpreter to make our case, just in case of an emergency.
As in any country, a good lawyer will solve many problems.