Coming to Quito!

Hi,
Coming to Quito on September 1st for 10 days.  Would like to know where ex-pats hang out to make some friends.  My husband is Ecuadorean and I've been many times, so it's like going home for us.   We're also interested in finding an area to buy a small house or apt. for our move next year.  Thinking about Cumbaya, any thougths on that?

Thanks,
Bunny

Hello Bunny.

Welcome to Expat.com! :)

In meantime, you can try to post an advert in the Housing in Quito section. It may help.

Thank you,
Aurélie

Hi, The Mariscal Sucre(gringolandia)area is your best bet to finding other expats. Specifically, a lot of foreigners go to the Irish bar Finn McCools on Joauquin Pinto and Diego de Almagro. Many expats live in the Guápulo area. From my observations and what I've heard others say, the expat community isn't really organized in Quito.  Mostly I just see small groups of expats that hang out together, like people who work together in the same school. We've been here for 6 months and have only made two or three expat friends.  We haven't really been trying that hard to make expat friends though.  I'm not a fan of the Mariscal/Plaza Foch area, but that's where everyone wants to go.  I don't have much knowledge of Cumbaya other than just passing through.  It seems like suburbia.  Many affluent people live there. Probably a good place to have a family.

jm141302 is right about the lack of organization of the expat community in Quito.  I am a Canadian expat working on the new airport and we basically hang out with our own gang of expats.  Most of us live in Cumbaya and I highly recommend this location as it is slightly warmer than in Quito, more in tune with what you are used to back home and yes it is the more affluent suburb of Quito.  In Cumbaya there are a number of bars/restaurants that we hang out at like the Turltle Head Pub, St. Andrews Pub, and L'esceina (the corner) which has many nice eateries.
Enjoy your trip and maybe we will bump into each other one night.