Internet at the house in El Guanacaste!!!!
As I have said in various posts in the past, my wife's family lives at the foot of Volcan Mombacho in an area called El Guanacaste. It is about 15 miles south/southwest of Granada. When I first arrived in Nicaragua in 2004 and met and started dating my wife, it was impossible to reach her when she was not in Granada for work. At that time there were few cell phones (if any) in Nicaragua and in Guanacaste there were no telephone land lines, let alone, tv cable or internet connections. If she wasn't in Granada working, I would have to take a bus or taxi out to the family house to find her. Those were my only options.
Fast forward to 2010 and on friday past we went to the Claro office and took advantage of a promotion they were having on their "pre-pay" internet service for "wireless" connectivity. The dongle was free but we had to pay $40 for 15 days of service. We brought a laptop with us from the States. The dongle worked fine in Granada but then came time for testing it out in Guanacaste. We took the computer out to the house on friday afternoon and proceeded to connect the dongle and perform the various mouse clicks necessary to "attempt" to connect to the internet and to learn if the signal existed en el campo.
Lo and behold ...IT WORKED!!!!! Now for the best part............
My wife's sister is living and working in Costa Rica and the people she works for have a computer with internet connection. So we were able to contact her through Yahoo messenger and start a "skype-like" chat and live conversation with streaming video. The whole family packed around the computer to strain to see the image of my sister in law and to hear her voice and she was thrilled to be able to see all of her family as well. The kids were all excited and jumping up and down and shouting "Tia, Tia, Tia and my mother in law was in tears for the "miracle" she could hardly comprehend. As I have often said before, my mother in law is a women who lives in the ways of the past and who up until a very short time ago never had a cement floor in her house, nor indoor bath, nor cooked with anything but wood in an outside kitchen. For her, the computer and the video were barely comprehensible.
So now we will be leaving the laptop and the dongle and also a magic jack phone adapter (that we also brought along) at my mother in law's house when we go back. So that my wife can call her anytime and see her on the computer and talk as long as they both like.
We sent one of my nieces to computer school this past year so she is educated enough to be able to operate and manage any problems with the computer or it's connections.
It was a great day in Guanacaste on Friday for all of us!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by dubereyes
Bookmarks