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Low Cost Of Living number one

Last activity 01 September 2013 by carlmiller1944

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smmr

The three top reasons for usa citizens/gringos for coming here are number one low cost of living and just to make our money last longer....biggest MISTAKE MADE in this group is when they get here they are talked into buying anything within 2 yrs WAIT you dont know this country you dont have a visa, you dont have a cedula wait you might not even like it what are you thinking dont buy anything.   people arrive crazy and half regret doing everything.  nothing like old fools.  Remember any one who has money doesnt come to ecuador they go to other countries this is not a beautiful, beautiful country.  Yes start your spanish immediately you need it now sart imnediately...i would say any country you go to learn the language before you go absolutely...they were not honest on that one...i am here 2 yrs and am still taking lessons...but i am not young....Rent is lower then usa but it is going up but its going up every where.....oh the reason it is cheap the apt/condo is pretty bad forget granite tops, beauty, you have to buy refrigerate, range, nondish washer, in some places no hot water so you have to put in hot water tank, this is rental. Etc etc etc i could go on and on i have been here almost 2 yrs you must be flexiable very.  we are like California Wagon people going west...they call us "economic refrugees" now that is true...we took the control of our government out of our congresses hands and put it in ours our destiny making it our way not theirs or a little better.  we did not want to but we didnt have a choice they made laws that just was eating us up and we coukd not live we would be under a bridge with nothing we had to wake up.   but when i got here and saw how many others had eoken up abd how many vets where here i knew i had made the right decision.  this was not the right thing for my country to do to me but canyou imagine to do it to vets wow i was shocked the number was amazing.
So second reason Health Care....you can get it here cheaper in tge usa they take it all and bill you and bill you and ypu must give up your houae your money to get any help your retirement everything...here if you pay cash....or go tp a government hospital tge price is so low example i was in a hospiial for two weeks all the tests appoints with doctors a lung bio
and my bill was $2500. Total including doctors everything no medicine we paid cash daily
You bring all your own supplies kleenex,toilet paper,tooth paste ha it is totally different this is how you lower costs think about it....by tge way 4 in a room yes no tv or phones i was the only gringo in the complete hospital..interesting.   you understand why our congress is failing us completely in with health care when you come here.  medicare does not help you here at all but it does not really help you in america and it iis only going to get worse more expensive but we are going to get less....so why not go some where you decide hiw and when you will die and of what..,there are many drugs you can not get in ecuador...many...but you may walk into their pharmacy and buy drugs without prescriptions it is a completely different system.
Dr appt twenty dollars not bad....that enough for now but interesting......

timo31750

Points you make are salient however, as for walking into a pharmacy and buying drugs with a prescription, don't think so.
I've had dual knee replacements 3 x's ( 1 failure). As a result I took a fairly routine amount of various pain killers over a 3-4 year period all of which were narcotic compounds.
When I presented the empty script bottle for these several variations obviously suffering in pain none could be filled without a written doctors prescription sooo?
Can you add to this about what and how you made these non written prescriptions?

carlmiller1944

Depends on his definition of drugs.
I walked into a farmicia and ask for a pain reliever for my knee.
The doctor, yes he has a PhD, made up a compound in the form of a topical cream that I rub into my knee and I can use it on my feet as well. He gave me the first jar free to try.
I agree with the problems vets/seniors faced in the states and the realization that a change had to be made.
I have my 9-I visa and will have my cedula next Friday. My experience has been nothing but positive since my arrival in Cuenca.
People have been good to me. Life is what you make it and it's so much easier to make a life here versus the states where I could have been living on welfare after my savings ran out.

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