2 Cartagena Brief Follow Up on Electronics

Following Up….

Obviously Mike could not really go very long without a phone… and since he no longer can charge his camera, his iPhone was to be his back up… So, at about 5:30 (after some research), we headed to the “other part of Cartagena” — across Avenida de Venezuela.. where real people live (as opposed to the idyllic well-preserved colonial old town).. to find either a camera store or an electronic store.. or both.. We thought we had it figured out and that it was about a mile or so on foot… so off we went.. Along the way hearing incredible choir singers voices wafting through plazas.. It was quite wonderful (although I thought about Oakland’s newcomers who have been complaining that Oakland church-goers sing too loud and they can hear the singing in their new condos)…

Anyway, we walked and kept asking.. and finally someone directed us to a sort of a mall  — three stories, with lots of different shops all independently owned. We went to the camera store, but no real luck there… They had fairly cheap amateur cameras so Mike decided to wait.. Then we asked for an electronic store and Mike bought two iPhone cables for charging (about 1/4 the price of these things in the US — I almost bought some for everyone we knew. Then Mike showed the guy his iphone whose plastic (thin glass?) top started to separate from the phone and the phone was clearly disintegrating.. The guy looked at it and then told Mike to follow him and off they went for about 30 minutes while I dawdled in the shop and charged my phone which was now dead.

So they fixed Mike’s phone… Here’s the story.

The guy in the electronic store took Mike down to a basement level … then they crossed an alley… and entered a shop that was lined with stalls that were about 3′ x 6′.. on both sides… Behind the counter in one of the stalls were two guys -=- one on a laptop reading instructions… The other had a phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder talking to his girlfriend (the whole time)… He picked up Mike’s phone.. looked at it.. and immediately told the guy who brought Mike there (obviously his friend) that Mike’s battery over charged and expanded pushing out the glass front. In between talking to his girlfriend he told Mike’s guy that he could replace the battery and fix the phone for 60,000 COP ($less than $20)… Mike said “Go for it..

He then (never stopping the conversation with the girlfriend) proceeded using a tiny screw driver, a double edged razor blade, a toothbrush, and a tube of some miracle clear glue. He removed the battery, replaced it with a new battery (which had to be purchased by the other guy at a stall somewhere across the street). Once the battery was in, he had to delicately fuse the glass? with its backing using the superglue applied with the double edge razor blade…

He then snapped it shut — handed it back to Mike… Here’s the photo of the guys