Best place to live in Ecuador...

Well, hopefully this story signals the return of good coffee in Ecuador:

http://yourescapetoecuador.com/coffee/8 … y-growers/

chuckdee wrote:

Well, hopefully this story signals the return of good coffee in Ecuador:

http://yourescapetoecuador.com/coffee/8 … y-growers/

I got an email notice saying that chuckdee had posted on the 'Best place to live in Ecuador' thread, and I said to myself, "I'll bet that post will have a link to yourescapetoecuador.com."

And I was right! What do I win?

Bob

BobH wrote:

chuckdee wrote:

Well, hopefully this story signals the return of good coffee in Ecuador:

http://yourescapetoecuador.com/coffee/8 … y-growers/

I got an email notice saying that chuckdee had posted on the 'Best place to live in Ecuador' thread, and I said to myself, "I'll bet that post will have a link to yourescapetoecuador.com."

And I was right! What do I win?

Bob

Chuckdee really likes that website I have noticed. Chuckdee still hasn't told us what his/her relationship is with that website, if any. I wonder if Chuckdee has even been Ecuador?

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Is there a road from San Lorenzo, Or do I have to go to Ibarra first

misha16 wrote:

Is there a road from San Lorenzo, Or do I have to go to Ibarra first

I missed whatever this question is referencing, but from San Lorenzo you can drive east to Ibarra, south down the entire coast, or you can cross into Columbia going north. The roads east and south are in very good condition. I've never gone north, so I don't know. On the road from Ibarra, watch your gas level. There are measures in place to prevent cocaine production. We were restricted to 10 gallons at the gas station in Lita. Also, expect to be searched by the police on that road see passport thread.

Hi,
I meant what are some of the ways to arrive to Merced de Buenos Aires, as I will be traveling near that area next January, Can I avoid going to Ibarra. Can I get there direct from San Lorenzo?

Thanks

misha16 wrote:

Hi,
I meant what are some of the ways to arrive to Merced de Buenos Aires, as I will be traveling near that area next January, Can I avoid going to Ibarra. Can I get there direct from San Lorenzo?

Thanks

Yes, if you're coming from the San Lorenzo side, you take that same San Lorenzo/Ibarra road. At Guadual, turn right (south). Guadual isn't really a town. It's just a hotel and a government checkpoint. You'll be following the signs for the Cascade of the Virgin. It's a well maintained but steep dirt road. It starts out kind of dry and ugly, but slowly changes to green mountains and farms, and eventually cloud forest. After, maybe an hour, you'll cross over the pass. There's another way there, as well, but it's longer and I don't know it yet. There's a 4 room pension in town, and I think there's a 5 room hotel on the hill above town.

If you're property hunting you won't see any for sale signs, but that doesn't mean that nothing is for sale. It's all word of mouth in a tiny place like this. I found a couple small 15k houses, but I think they were a little overpriced for the remoteness and size of the town. Vacant land runs between 9000 per hectare and 200 per hectare depending on size, remoteness, soil quality, and the slope. I picked up a beautiful spot, but I have to hike a few kilometers to get to it. It's not unusual in this area to see cabins with electricity in locations where it's difficult to get in and out even by horse.

thanks

I've been following this post for some time and I have to ask, what the h3ll happened to it?

misha16 wrote:

thanks

Here's a map, but it doesn't show the little road from Guadual. Looks like there's a road from Lita too.

docputter wrote:

I've been following this post for some time and I have to ask, what the h3ll happened to it?

It went the way of the Phillies and the Eagles.

Yeah, just good enough to make you want to peek once in awhile:).

Somewhere on the blog mention has been made of the air quality in several of the big metro areas from the buses and vehicles in general.

Mention has also been made of potential and/or ongoing improvements in air quality from updating the buses ...

Can anyone provide an update or status report regarding one or more of the major cities ...


Thanks

Spent 2 years living all over Guayaquil including Samborondon. It was a daily routine to have the house mopped and dusted for soot.

GringoBueno wrote:

Somewhere on the blog mention has been made of the air quality in several of the big metro areas from the buses and vehicles in general.

Mention has also been made of potential and/or ongoing improvements in air quality from updating the buses ...

Can anyone provide an update or status report regarding one or more of the major cities ...


Thanks

From what I've seen, they are requiring newer buses and transport vans, but they are not requiring cleaner vehicles. The idea is that newer is cleaner. The effect is not. It pushes up the cost of opperating, and causes transportation companies to go with cheaper but poorly made Chinese buses that polute more even though they are newer.

I hate the air quality in Quito. I always feel a little sick here. Last time I looked, it ranked number 30 on the list of worst air quality cities in the world.

Jesse,

Thanks for your useful and considerate response.

Hi Jesse. I didn't doubt what you said about Quito appearing on lists of the 30 most polluted cities in the world but I wanted to see for myself. I found this WHO site that has a ranking of 1100 cities in the world based on air pollution. Quito was bad but about 30% of the 1100 were worse than Quit. The closest US city to Quito for air pollution was Fresno, CA. I found the list here  http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/ou … index.html Being geeky I found the list fascinating.

The Largisimo wrote:

Hi Jesse. I didn't doubt what you said about Quito appearing on lists of the 30 most polluted cities in the world but I wanted to see for myself. I found this WHO site that has a ranking of 1100 cities in the world based on air pollution. Quito was bad but about 30% of the 1100 were worse than Quit. The closest US city to Quito for air pollution was Fresno, CA. I found the list here  http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/ou … index.html Being geeky I found the list fascinating.

I tried to follow the information in the link you posted, but the WHO's website was so poorly formatted that I vouldn't make heads or tails of it.

What I remember from a search a few months ago, was that the worst places were in China. That high altitude cities such as Quito and Kathmandu ranked poorly, and that Quito was about as bad as Mexico City and some parts of SoCal.

On the page that link takes you, towards the bottom is a link to download an Excel spreadsheet with all of the data on it that you can sort to suit your curiosities.

This air quality index is updated weekly, so during periods of wind and rain like we're having now, Quito's ranking is better. Right now we're ranked at around #95. #1 being  the worst air quality city for the week.
air quality rankings updated weekly

I've read all the pages and still managed to come up with a question. 

My BF and I are exploring countries for retirement, hopefully in the next five years, and Ecuador is at the top of the list.  We are definitely rural people who enjoy peace and quiet and nature, but don't want grocery stores and decent medical facilities more than an hour away.  We love animals/wildlife, exploring woods and hilly areas, and wouldn't want to live in an apartment complex.  We recently visited Costa Rica and loved how much exploring we could do on ATVs (we both ride ATVs, and he rides motorcyles too).  I'm happy at 70 degrees, he's happy at 90, but we both hate high humidity.  We want to be able to have a house, and at least enough land to not have neighbors right up against us, and have fertile enough land to grow a garden.  But we want to be safe enough to explore the area too.  We are learning Spanish, and don't want a gated "sterilized" experience, we'd want to meld in with the local community (as much as Gringos can).  We'd be fine with a beach life too, but we're mountain people at heart (with the option to visit the beach ).

Any areas pop to mind for us to explore?  We'll plan a trip as soon as we can, but would like to have some areas in mind to visit/research.  Thank you for any tips!

Karen

Karen, I had a bunch of suggestions until I got to "hate high humidity."  Maybe the area from Salinas south, maybe around the town called Playas. There are almost no expats in that town. It's sort of the weekend getaway spot for locals from Guayaquil. If you can get over the humidity issue it opens up some amazing places along the central and north coast, the Amazon side, and the cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes.

I'm spending the weekend way up north on the coast near a little town called Rio Verde. The area is beautiful, though the towns are a little rough around the edges. It's a part of the coast that is still very cheap. I came up to look at a 30k house 80 meters from the beach about 4 minutes outside of town, and 30 minutes from major shopping in Esmereldas.

The Manabi and Esmeralda coast fit many of these descriptions, Check out Pajonal/Chirije . Its a hilly dry tropical forest that meets the ocean loaded with wild life, history and archeology. low humidity and bugs.
Esmeraldas is fun, but can get humid. I was up there last month and am going back this Monday to do a little more exploring. There is some beautiful land back away from the beach.  Areas around Monpiche feel like Coast Rica,
One thing you forgot to add in to your criteria is safety factor. As a single guy you can get away with living in a rule area. Not the same if your a girl. There is a reason why gringos move into a gated community.

misha16 wrote:

One thing you forgot to add in to your criteria is safety factor. As a single guy you can get away with living in a rule area. Not the same if your a girl. There is a reason why gringos move into a gated community.

Well, I did mention about wanting to be in an area safe enough to explore.  The BF is the more adventurous one, he'll take off on an ATV or a trail motorcycle and explore paths and roads, speaking to people he meets along the way, and make a day of this.  I tend to only go along with him, not really strike out on my own exploring, and I'd imagine most shopping/errands/socializing we'd be together.  But even together, we wouldn't want to be happily cruising down a road on an ATV and be ATV-jacked. 

I'm sure we'd take all appropriate/possible safety measures for our home if we lived in a rural area, though.  We live rurally now, but have neighbors with guns who look out for each other. 

Thank you both for the suggestions to look into though!  We live in Arkansas and already have to suffer through nasty humidity in the summer (which seems to last six months).  My BF is in Afghanistan right now, where it'll get to 120 degrees, but even he complains when he comes home, it's only 98 degrees, but 85% humidity.  Yuck!

If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know; in the meantime I'm going to GoogleEarth what you guys talked about and start looking into them.  Thank you!!

Ok google mache chindul This is a jungle reserve that is close to the coast in Esmeradlas, not to far from safe areas to live. This area has not been exploited by foreign real estate companies so you will still be able to find a bargain.
Pajonal you will find it between Bahia de Caraquez and San Clemente in a 20,000 hectare tropical dry forest reserve, This is were I plan to build my rural house for me and my sweetheart. You will see on google map that its between the Ocean and highway E15,

From me, definitely not Playas and definitely not anywhere near Esmeraldas.  Ideal location likely Salinas to La Entrada stretch.

HGQ2112 wrote:

From me, definitely not Playas and definitely not anywhere near Esmeraldas.  Ideal location likely Salinas to La Entrada stretch.

Yeah, that's a really nice stretch. I love Olon to La Entrada, and a little farther up to Ayampe, but that area was a bit pricey for me.

I really dislike the city of Esmeraldas, but there are some hidden gems in that area if you don't mind the humidity once you go about an hour north or south of Esmeraldes.

Jesse and HGQ2112, you both say to stay away from Esmeraldas, I'm kind of curious...why?

For people like me and my BF - not at all wealthy (by US standards), casual and friendly people, who are trying to learn Spanish and want to fit into the area (not make the area fit us) - would we generally be accepted by Ecuadorians?  Especially in rural areas like we are seeking?

Karen

3dogsrule wrote:

Jesse and HGQ2112, you both say to stay away from Esmeraldas, I'm kind of curious...why?

For people like me and my BF - not at all wealthy (by US standards), casual and friendly people, who are trying to learn Spanish and want to fit into the area (not make the area fit us) - would we generally be accepted by Ecuadorians?  Especially in rural areas like we are seeking?

Karen

Esmeraldes is polluted. It's an oil refining town, and it smells like it. I got a very unfriendly vibe from the locals, not just towards me, but also towards my Ecuadorian wife and father-in-law. Maybe it's that coast verses sierra animosity. We had to stop several times to ask directions, and about half the time people would just look at us like we were stupid and walk away without responding. The city also has a reputation for drugs and crime.

I can't really answer your question about being accepted. There are places where I felt like I was accepted warmly after only a few days, and there are places where the locals looked at me like I was from outer space. There are so many different communities in Ecuador with totally different attitudes, it really depends both on where you go and how well you navigate the local culture. In my opinion, making an effort to adopt the language and culture goes a long way.

The Largisimo wrote:

Hi Jesse. I didn't doubt what you said about Quito appearing on lists of the 30 most polluted cities in the world but I wanted to see for myself. I found this WHO site that has a ranking of 1100 cities in the world based on air pollution. Quito was bad but about 30% of the 1100 were worse than Quit. The closest US city to Quito for air pollution was Fresno, CA. I found the list here  http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/ou … index.html Being geeky I found the list fascinating.

Check out Harbin, China for today 10/21 if you can. They couldn't measure pollution because it was over the top of scale for  "small particle pollution" and have only been measuring it since 2012. City was literally shut down because of visibility problems. Don't know much about air quality. It was an AP story.

Have also heard lots of bad things about Esmeraldas. Lots of local crime and narco stuff because of proximity to Colombian border. Have heard that anywhere near the Colombian border is not good.

suefrankdahl wrote:

Have also heard lots of bad things about Esmeraldas. Lots of local crime and narco stuff because of proximity to Colombian border. Have heard that anywhere near the Colombian border is not good.

It's all relative. Tulcan, the main border town, is bad. Ibarra, which is about the same distance from the border as Esmeraldes, is really nice. My mountain property is not too far from the border, but in an out of the way location, and there the town is very socially conservative and safe, in my opinion. On the road between Ibarra and San Lorenzo, I did a little exploring in the town of Lita, and that place felt pretty dangerous. I haven't stopped in San Lorenzo, but I've heard mixed things about the place. At a glance, most of the little towns between San Lorenzo and Esmeraldes, seemed ok. Rio Verde was very friendly and relatively clean. Las Peñas, the town where I'm considering buying another property, seemed very friendly and safe, but it's hard to get the big picture without spending a long time there.

It's hard to really know what is going on. I guess best thing is to trust your vibes and listen to "people in the know" about a place's reputation. It all terrifies me based on what I read (and see in the movies, though embellished probably based on fact) Not as adventuresome as I used when I was your age.

Happy New Years Everyone!! Also curious about where to live in Ecuador, and more importantly, where in Quito. As some background, I am looking for a change as  I have lived  the last eight years in Peru. Am in my late 30's, have my own business, etc so can really live anywhere as long as I have a solid internet connection.

Live in an area called Miraflores, which is a district inside of Lima. Looking for the same.

I have a Peruvian Passport, so from what I know, I can stay in Ecuador for six months without any issue because of the Andean Community agreement. Looking for a place where it's nice, can walk or taxi to cafes.  Not sure if I will buy or rent an apartment yet, as the property in Peru that I would rent for $1,000 to $1,500 per month could quite possibly subsidize a portion of our living expenses. Also have a car, with Peruvian plates. 

Any insight, on best places to live?

Budget is about $3,000 a month, including private (International School) for our young one.


Completely bilingual and find Peruvian culture to be quite similar to Ecuador, so no culture shock at all.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Great to see like minded folks. The world is quite small these days!

How did we get from Narco stuff to air quality????  I am really going to have to watch these conversations....are we judging the air people for school or the boarders and for what sorry I just thought it was funny.

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Hello everyone. Happy New Year to all.  Usually I steer clear of many comments I see on these forums, but OMG asking someone for his wife's measurements am I reading this wrong or what?  If I am understanding it properly that is way way way out of line on this or any other forum.  Some kind of explanation is in order and an apology. 
As far as your questions I am in Bahia so can't help you on Quito.  But gees we are certainly not like that here in this Forum.  Mostly , we give information and try to help each other here.  Good luck on your info. and I speak for the majority of our members when I say you should disregard those rude obnoxious comments posted here.  Enjoy the New Year all!!
Still Living It and Loving It in Bahia,
Charlie

Geo: I don't live there yet, but from what I've learnedin my research, it seems like the area around La Mariscal and Parque Carolina may be most similar to Miraflores.

Apparently that area of the city has most of the upscale restaurants and shopping, as well as being the business center.  Google it and see if it would have what you are looking for.

In six days I'll be there and may be able to be a bit more helpful.