New members of the Ecuador forum, introduce yourself here — 2nd quarter of 2015

Hi,

I have been kicking around the idea of relocating in the near future for quite some time now. I retire this year, and just have to convince my husband that it is at least worth looking into.

My profession is teaching. His is ... are you ready for it? ....Wal-Mart! Yep, the big USA Arkansas-based retail store.

Anyway, I would just like to try something different. Maybe Ecuador will be it.

Hi everybody, hope you all are enjoying your Expat lives. My name is Ross. I am retired, Single male and serious about becoming one of you all. I have done a lot of research on obtaining Citizenship and visa information. My main concern is about how and where to buy real estate. Is it safe to buy a house with land outside the city or is it safer for expats to remain inside the city? The city I am interested in is Cuenca? Also what is the best way to buy a house without paying too much?
Thanks, Ross

Hola, me llamo Kevin.

       Cheers to all members of this great blog. I am lucky to have found it. I am a 48 year old Canadian Constuction worker in the sewer,water and road building industry. I am married but have never had kids. Except for our two cats lol. Until recently, I have been guilty of going through life not really planning for a future in which I would not be working. Ive always just shrugged it off saying things like "ah I'll work till I drop". Until a couple months ago a random facebook post caught my eye. It was about how popular Ecuador was becoming as a retirement destination. upon limited further investigation, I feel like I actually might have a glimmer of hope to be able to afford to retire somewhere. I am now going to start a 12 year plan. My goal is to have most if not all of our house paid off so we can sell it and use the money to buy a place in Ecuador. Plus I will use my RRSP plan to help. And I can take my CPP at sixty and except the penalty. Does anyone have advice for me? I know its early days. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Will the influx of baby boomers totally ruin that country by the time I am ready to go there?

Welcome, New Members Ross53, Bedbug68, Webfoot Warrior and Kay.

Several of you posted questions along with your introductions.  However, the Home Office in the Mascarene Islands is restricting this thread to new-member-introductions only.

To maintain peace with the island office and still respond to your needs, a new thread has been created, titled Fielding Your Questions:  New Members Want to Know.

Here's the link:

   https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 89#2612045


                                                                            .

Hi, name is Brian and I new to this blog.  I work in Altus, Ok....20 years USAF and civil service.  Will be retiring in Jun 2015 and looking to possibly move to Ecuador.

I don't know about you, but I think that Ecuador is a much better option than the well-trammelled Costa Rica and Panama.  I thought seriously about Nicaragua and went there twice but there is a lack of infrastructure and I do not like the chicken buses for my old age.  For me the climate was a large part of this choice also.  Nicaragua is too hot except for the Northwest and I did not like the rainy aspect of the rainy season.  Estelí, in the NW, is a university town of 50,000 but the parque central you would not want to rest there.  Yet my Nicaraguan friends in Ottawa and in Nica just love it, it is their home.  Parts of Mexico are too dangerous or too expensive or too hot.  Guatemala and El Salvador, etc are not wholly safe at all. 

I am sure that after enough research and perhaps visits you will be able to decide what is good uniquely for you.

HelenP

Initially thinking of Paraguay, but believe its hot most of the time, where as Equador has several climate areas....Trying to
get everything together for a trip their the first part of July....Brian

bedbug68 wrote:

Hola, me llamo Kevin.

        Plus I will use my RRSP plan to help. And I can take my CPP at sixty and except the penalty. Does anyone have advice for me? I know its early days. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Will the influx of baby boomers totally ruin that country by the time I am ready to go there?

Many baby boomers will be dead in 12 years.
You have a good plan, much like my own, but you might need to be flexible about where you will be going in 12 years, the world changes.  Would you have picked Ecuador 12 years ago?

Hello everyone,

As advised by cccmedia, please feel free to give your views about Ecuador on the following thread :

- Fielding Your Questions: New Members Want to Know

Let us keep the section New members in Ecuador forum for introduction of new members and a brief presentation.

Thank you
Bhavna

Hello all! Thank you for adding me to your group! I have been reading for hours (and learning lots) all the marvelous information so many have to share. Here is a little background on us and any/all info offered is much appreciated as we continue to learn about our new future home.
My husband and I are Hispanic (Cuba & Argentina respectively) so thankfully language is not an obstacle. We live in Florida, USA and are VERY interested in moving to the Loja, Vilca, Malacatos area within the next year or so now that all 4 of our kids are on their own. We are looking for 20+ acres as having lots of land, peaceful surroundings and beautiful vistas are what we're after. As much as I've read and learned there's nothing like being there. So...that said, I just booked our 2 week vacation beginning July 9-23! I realize it's not a lot of time, but as a school teacher (I'm also a graduate jeweler) it's when I'm able to take the trip and about all the time we can spare this year. Last day of school here today!
Not sure yet whether our move will be as retirees or if we will continue to work. I guess most of that depends on how much money we end up saving and how useful our skill sets are there (teacher, tutor, jeweler). Would love using the skills we have for some self-employment opportunity that will allow us to provide a needed service in our chosen provincia while creating a little income to sustain us.
Naturally, I have a ton of questions so we are able to make the best use of our time while we're there. I am in the midst of making a general list of questions in hopes of getting helpful answers. It won't be long now!  Until then!

Hi all!

Over the past short while (and two horrible Canadian Winters) it has come to me that I need to be somewhere else when the cold weather hits.  Hence my plans to spend the Winter months in a much warmer climate - most specifically, Ecuador - and for now until I get a chance to explore more, in Cuenca.  I have learned a bit from two local Ecuadorian friends who have a small business in my neighbourhood (they have a home still in Quito) and I will be spending considerable time over the next Summer and Fall months with them and preparing as best I can researching to ready myself for an initial stay.

I pick up languages easily and am reasonably conversant in French already (with a University degree in Modern Languages from years ago when I was much younger).  What I have delved into this far with Spanish seems to be quite manageable (dos cervezas, por favor LOL!) and I will be involved in a local meetup group that offers conversational Spanish in a friendly, local club. 

I taught at the college level throughout most of my life, am sociable and laugh easily at both life and myself, and am looking forward to making new friends in both the Ecuadorian and Canadian/US expat communities.

So many questions I have ... and there's not enough room here to ask them all, so suffice it to say that if you have some life and experience in Ecuador that you might share with me, all of it would be much appreciated if/whenever I approach you with those questions.

Warm regards,

Señor Ramon (The name given me by my Ecuadorian friends), but hey ... you can call me Ray!

Senor Ramon wrote:

So many questions I have ... and there's not enough room here to ask them all...

Si, Señor.  This New Members intro thread is not for questions.

So we have a new thread called Fielding Your Questions....  Just type those three magic words into the magic Search Expat.com box at the top of the page, and then click on the search icon to the right of the box.

At that point you can post as many questions as desired.

Welcome to the Ecuador forum, Señor.

cccmedia in Quito

Gracias, cccmedia.

Much appreciate your advice.

SR

Hi Bonnie...I also going on a fishing expedition here,62 single trying to educate myself to the pros and cons/live in NY
hate the winters...pretty flexable personality..concerned about mostly the alttitude..not jumping in without all the tools..this is a good place to learn!_Enica

Hi all,
Myself, my wife and our 3 year old daughter are currently planning on moving to Puerto Lopez, Ecuador sometime early next year. Just purchased property in Lopez and currently designing a home that we hope to start building sometime this fall. Look forward to reading all of your experiences!

Names is adham,in moving to Ecuador on 17th of June 2015, I'm a semi professional tattoo artist, 20 years old, fell in love with Ecuador 2 years ago and started planing on moving there since then, I plan to reside and work there maybe invest also 😊

Hello,
I'm Judith from Richmond, VA. Although I'm 65, I'm still an adjunct at the local college as I enjoy teaching ESL students from different countries. I studied Italian many years so there's some acoustic interference in learning Spanish but I'm eager so that I can interact with the locals. Like some posters, I find health care ridiculously overpriced (have you read the recent article on msn.com about 1000% markup on health services in the U.S.?!) and Medicare is mediocre at best, and as you know, you've got to pay for that 80% coverage. Dental services are also unaffordable. Taxes in VA increase yearly. We pay personal property taxes and now a restaurant tax (having the privilege of purchasing prepared food).  Real estate has skyrocketed.  I sold my house a while ago.  I've lived/taught in other countries and traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and the Middle East over three decades.

I was thinking of retiring in Panama since I have a very limited income of SSN and small teacher retirement, but it's too tropical for me and places like Boquete are unaffordable.  I'm not looking for a gated community within the confines of an area far away from local culture and villagers. I find the information about climate, culture, etc. in Cuenca to be appealing. I love the beach, mountains, birdwatching, walking, meeting other people, and learning about civilizations rich in history and architecture.

I wonder if there will be opportunities to teach university part-time and engage in social activities in Cuenca.

Thank you for all the valuable information on this site.

Regards,
Judi

Hello. My name is Shireen. My husband and I will be moving to Cuenca at the end of June. Our dream is to open a health food store in Cuenca. I make several of my own products, which I hope to sell. We would also like to build a sustainable organic farm.

Hello to all new members @ TerrazzoGuy, adham, Judi and Shireen

I wish you a warm welcome on Expat.com 

Thank you to each one of you for introducing yourselves and sharing your projects.

I invite you to create new threads on the Ecuador forum if you have any questions or need for informations.

Follow this link :

- New topic

You may as well ask your questions through the Fielding Your Questions: New Members Want to Know discussion thread.

Wish you all the very best
Bhavna 

Has anyone had experience. Staying in Ecuador 90 days leaving then returning for another 90 days.    If possible can you visit Peru/Chile then return. How long is it required to be out of the country
Thanks for info
Sally

Sally Ewing wrote:

Has anyone had experience. Staying in Ecuador 90 days leaving then returning for another 90 days.    If possible can you visit Peru/Chile then return. How long is it required to be out of the country
Thanks for info
Sally

You can stay in Ecuador for 90 days during the 12 month period which starts the first day you show up, that includes as many in and outs as you like.  You can apply for an extension of your tourist visa for up to 6 months and pay for it, I am not aware of the current costs.  Then a year and a day after your initial visit you can start the whole process all over again

Hey all, from Roger.  Retired from corporate america last year and planning my move to the Imbabura Province in mid-2016.  Bought land there on a friend's coffee farm and will build a bamboo home.  Have made many trips to Ecuador, climbing the beautiful mountains there and in Peru.  Time to change directions in life!  A young 55, avid runner, hiker, etc., will be seeking solice at last.  Only challenge will be socializing, nearest expat town is Cotacachi, so if anyone in that community has words of wisdom please advise, I'm all ears.  Hope to meet some of you.   Will be visiting most of the month of September.  Maybe meet at Cafe Eio Intag.  Cheers, Rog.

Hello, My name is Coya.  I am living in the US but I am exploring the possibilities of becoming an expat.  I am single and it is a fearful thing for me, but it is just as fearful staying in the states with the way things are going. 
My father was born in Quito.  I do not speak Spanish.  He did not allow his children to learn his native language.  I wish I had.  I am 63 but still able to learn. 
I live in the country and I love the views of the rolling hills.  I prefer green grass and mountain views.  I am not one who liked to live in the city, I enjoy my serenity and quiet of the country life.

Hi Ross,

I am interested in learning how to become a dual citizen.  I heard it was easier if your parents are from the country.  My father was born in Ecuador.  Is that true?

You ask some good questions.  Did you receive an answer about security outside the city and purchasing a house.  That is what I would like to do.

Coya

imcoy wrote:

Hi Ross,

I am interested in learning how to become a dual citizen.  I heard it was easier if your parents are from the country.  My father was born in Ecuador.  Is that true?

You ask some good questions.  Did you receive an answer about security outside the city and purchasing a house.  That is what I would like to do.

Coya

Coya, wishing you luck in your quest to learn about dual citizenship.  This thread is for introductions, further research on any topic can be found on other threads, a few on citizenship currently receiving numerous posts.  Nice to see a new beautiful woman on the Ecuador Blog who is NOT from Venezuela.

mugtech wrote:

Coya, wishing you luck in your quest to learn about dual citizenship.  This thread is for introductions, further research on any topic can be found on other threads...Nice to see a new beautiful woman on the Ecuador Blog who is NOT from Venezuela.

Coya and Roger, welcome to the Ecuador forum.

Mugtech and I have been tag-teaming it on this thread to advise newcomers about the intro restriction he mentioned, primarily to pacify our amos internacionales at the Home Office on an island in the Indian Ocean.

To better serve you, we have transferred your questions and issues to a more appropriate venue, by which I mean the forum thread titled Fielding Your Questions:  New Members Want to Know.

Please use the search function at the top of this page for a magic-carpet ride to that destination.

cccmedia in Quito

Thank you.  It will take some time to sort out the regulations and the protocol.  Can we not reply to one another? 

Coya

imcoy wrote:

It will take some time to sort out the regulations and the protocol.  Can we not reply to one another?

Of course we can.

Just not on this intro thread, according to the Mauritius Mandate.

I'll see you over at the Fielding thread or the citizenship thread.

It'll all get easier once you exit this New Members thread.  It's sort of a Twilight Zone over here.  You don't want to get stuck here.

BTW, over at Fielding, you will want to scroll all the way down to get to the newest posts, including the comments addressed to you and Roger.

cccmedia in Quito

Welcome, New Members.

If you are posting after June 30th, 2015 -- and we know you are -- please do so at the New Members 3rd Quarter thread, at the following link:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 44#2679547

Hi,

I invite you to follow this topic on this new thread:
https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=529738

Thanks!