Visa step one: complete!

July 15th was a good day!  We saw online that our check for the investor CD had cleared our bank in the US over the weekend, so we should be able to complete our purchase of the investor CD.  After a breakfast of corn flakes, fruit and "La Lechera" (partly skimmed sweetened condensed milk) -

 - we were off!  We walked to the Banco Pichincha (about two miles) and met our translator, Gaby, before sitting down with our banker, Carlos.  After ten minutes of review and confirmation, we had our deposit certificate!

(Check out the rate of return: 4.85%!  Take that, Wells Fargo!)

The only thing that we're waiting on now for our visa application are notarized copies of our translated apostille documents.  Since the check for the CD wasn't supposed to clear until the 17th, Gaby thought she had another couple of days to get them done.  Once we had our CD, however, she said that she would finish them quickly and that we should be able to apply for our visa either by the end of this week or early next week.

Another step completed!