Why we decided not to move to Ecuador after two trips there

Wow!, I was thinking about Ecuador, but seems when you move to another country you never feel like home. You always gone be stranger

pol_can wrote:

Wow!, I was thinking about Ecuador, but seems when you move to another country you never feel like home. You always gone be stranger

This is absolutely not true for everyone. I know a couple of expats who’ve lived here for a long time (15+ years), and Ecuador is very much home. Both are business owners and have nice lives here. I think that’s my destiny too because I love it here, and everything I’m doing now is from a permanent perspective.

I won't get into the intricacies because people are so varied in perspectives but some people simply won't or can't make Ecuador or any other expat destination - home.

What can you tell me about the quality of water in Vilcabamba and/or Loja? I would think considering its location that the village would be supplied by a number of excellent natural springs......granted, its always a good idea to have at least a rudimentary water filter (I have two here in Panama, 1 inline, and another in the kitchen). I know that the water on the coast is sketchy, (Colombia too) and I always drank bottled water, but I would think up in the mountains there would be first class water available as there is here in upcountry Panama.........And I dont consider heavily chlorinated and floridated water, as is found all over the U.S. to be desirable or healthy............

I would lke to know what happened to my post? It says last post by dumluk, but its not there..... yet.....Dont tell me that postings here are subject to more scrutiny than suspicious emails by the NSA? Why not just post a msg on the forum right away like zerohedge or so many others.....? Is it an open free discussion or not?

dumluk wrote:

I would lke to know what happened to my post? It says last post by dumluk, but its not there..... yet.....Dont tell me that postings here are subject to more scrutiny than suspicious emails by the NSA? Why not just post a msg on the forum right away like zerohedge or so many others.....? Is it an open free discussion or not?

If you are referring to this one below, I see it fine.

dumluk wrote:

What can you tell me about the quality of water in Vilcabamba and/or Loja? I would think considering its location that the village would be supplied by a number of excellent natural springs......granted, its always a good idea to have at least a rudimentary water filter (I have two here in Panama, 1 inline, and another in the kitchen). I know that the water on the coast is sketchy, (Colombia too) and I always drank bottled water, but I would think up in the mountains there would be first class water available as there is here in upcountry Panama.........And I dont consider heavily chlorinated and floridated water, as is found all over the U.S. to be desirable or healthy............

Yes, I see two posts. 
Cccmedia, do you see two posts?

Yes, I see both posts.......Susan, pls dont tell me that you are the moderator here too? Or I will give up on forums altogether.......

You may want to review this link

Before this discussion devolves, review the parts on OPINION and ABUSIVE OR INAPPROPRIATE POSTINGS

To clarify an answer to your question, I am a regular contributor to Expat.com.

Susan_in_Ecuador wrote:

I am a regular contributor to Expat.com.

And one from whom all may benefit if they have the wisdom to consider your advice.

Quien no oye consejo, no llega a viejo.

If you only knew the half of it.........but on topic, so nobody on this forum from Vilcabamba? Nobody qualified to speak about the quality of water there?

dumluk wrote:

If you only knew the half of it.........but on topic, so nobody on this forum from Vilcabamba? Nobody qualified to speak about the quality of water there?

Did you not read the following comment posted on this very thread?.  I guess it doesn't specifically mention Vilcabamba but that is where she is.

This appears strange to me.  I live on the Rio Yambala in southern Ecuador and have built a legal water system coming direct from the river.  This is good clean water that runs constantly.   Years ago, I think it was Japanese scientists who came here and said that the water contained selenium, which is apparently good.  Also, I chose Ecuador instead of Nicaragua because of the frightful state of infrastructure in Nicaragua.  Things are much better here.

I guess that one person's paradise is another's hell.  guess it all depends on what makes you happy.  This makes me extremely happy.
HelenP.

Ok, so that is close to Vilcabamba..........interesting but still not to the point......Im looking for specific information about the quality of water in Vilcabamba.....not the water system that some enterprising foreigner has built for herself outside of town.....drawing on a river......however clean that river may be, it is not a spring.........I am looking for information on the city water of Vilcabamba.......Does it come from various springs or is it drawn out of a river and then chlorinated......? Before being distributed to the local residents...........

You could try doing a search for
ecuador vilcabamba agua potable
and you get some informative hits:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ecuador … p;ie=UTF-8

Ecuador is not so well-organized that any and all information you desire can always be supplied on demand...

You also could contact the Vilcabamba government directly and ask, there's contact information at this their government page:

http://www.loja.gob.ec/contenido/vilcabamba

Thanks Osage, I followed your lead and made an inquiry to the first link, a private water bottling facility in Vilca.......Hopefully they will be able to give me this information.....but then again, they mainly just wanna sell their product I would imagine........As far as the govt link it would be a fun experiment to see what their response level is, but I wouldnt expect much from any bureaucrat, not here, not there...........I am actually more interested to hear from critically thinking people who live there and have already investigated all this. I assume Vilcabamba is full of these people...........

Do any of these comments satisfy?

Vilcabamba is very clean. The tap water is potable, and I saw little litter anywhere. My house is situated in a small community about 10 minutes from the village in an area called Santorun.

(Link)

At first I was reluctant to even drink the municipal tap water, but found out that it did not kill me.

(link)

The fact is, Vilcabamba is only green 5 months of the year. The rest it’s brown. The water comes out of my tap a brownish color despite the fact that it smells like chlorine.

(Link)

Missed one. Same link as above.

Water is the first thing expats need to deal with and take very seriously when arriving anywhere in the world and even in their own country. If it’s not chlorine it’s bad mircroorganisms. Vilcabamba’s municipal water is not safe but the commercialized bottled water in Vilcabamba is safe. Just buy bottled water or move with a cheap and very effective kitchen filter to hook onto your

Thanks Nard......heaps of valuable information on Vilcabamba there.........answers my water questions very nicely.......Too bad it was not what I expected.....but then again, not surprising to find that if you get a bit outside of town, then it all gets better, and cleaner and most likely in terms of land prices, cheaper..........Btw, just on a side note, where I am living now in upcountry Chiriqui Panama, it stays green, at least right here in this local zone, all year round.....even in peak Summer, still green......and rivers on both sides of me........Hey and only 35 min to the airport...........

My two cents for what it's worth.  I wouldn't believe any statistical data from this country if my life depended on it.  Relate it to the polls that said Hillary would win the US election.  I know someone who ran and opened a water company in Quito.  He would show everyone the actual scientific test of the water that was currently being sold in the 5 gallon jugs.  He would then run the tests on his filtrated water he sold.  Many would agree his was better but then would go back to the people they normally bought from.  Recently a contractor here in Manta did some work on my house, and he's Ecuadorian.  He told me that with his newborn, he would only bathe her in purified water purchased from a company in the 5 gallon containers.  He said his neighbors warned him about the company he was purchasing from and he doubted their advice as it was a well known company, until he found foreign debris in the 5 gallon container and tried to take it back.  They told him he must have put it there.  I have a complete home culligan (us based company) water filtration system that covers my entire home.  I would trust no other wAter source.  I also have a counter top water distiller fro the US, but it's limited to the amount of distilled water it can make in 24 hours.  I would never trust any other drinking water source, even Dasani, which is a Coca Cola water product.  Reviews are not in their favor..  always do due diligence and he very careful when consuming beverages with local ice in the glass.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. My father lives in Pedro Balda. No problems with water .

ddagencylv wrote:

Wow. Sorry to hear that. My father lives in Pedro Balda. No problems with water .

That is delusional thinking.  I have a friend who lives there as well.  He used to own a water testing/supply company.  The water in Manta is disgusting.   I moved here I had a filter put justnon my washing machine.  It was dospgusting how black the filter was in less than 6 months.  I have a culligan water filtration system that covers my entire house and replace the filters annually.  Sad thing is I was afraid to drink Florida tap water.

Not at all. Hasnt had problems yet. Still for Ecuador standards livable. Im in the states and Culligan is overrated. Its a give and take. Or come back to the states as Burger King states "Have it your Way".

Six months is a long time in the life of a water filter.......In my experience here in Panama you have to keep your eye on them continually.....depending on the time of year....In the rainy season they tend to get plugged up and dark pretty quick..........Not such a big deal......You change it....put it in the clean one, and then clean the dirty one and soak it in bleach.....and set it in the sun for a few daze and then its ready to go back to work.......And then another Brit or Culligan filter in the kitchen for your drinking water and the spring water is double filtered..........If I have a problem I would suspect its from all the rum I drink and not the local water...........Btw, where does the Manta water come from? River or deep water wells¡

Lot of people in Cuenca have homemade "bucket berkey" water filter systems  similar to this one. They have someone bring the filters from the states which cost around $100 on Amazon.com



I have two of the Berkey filters in a drawer. One of these days I will get around to building one of  the Bucket Berkeys myself.

My sentiment exactly.

Tisk, CC, where the heck were you walking alone in San Jose at midnight!? (don't answer that). I've only lived in four countries outside of Canada, so it's a tiny sample, but San Jose was definitely the most dangerous place of the lot, and I understand it's getting worse (robberies more violent). There are many nice things about CR however...

Yes, it is getting worse.......When I lived in C.R. in the beginning it was mostly just petty theft, and Panama had a MUCH higher violent crime rate......But Panamas has gone down in the last so many years and Costa Ricas has gone way up to the point that the two countries are now tied statistically.......Nicaragua has less violent crime.......but that belies the fact that there is countless robberies thefts and home invasions........Costa Rica does have its charms, no doubt, but the fact remains that it is an overpriced den of theives...........

Funny how I was in Pamama 2 months ago and a flood of CR are moving there according to locals. Feel very comfortable going down via Espana and Allgood mall all times of the day.

ddagencylv wrote:

Not at all. Hasnt had problems yet. Still for Ecuador standards livable. Im in the states and Culligan is overrated. Its a give and take. Or come back to the states as Burger King states "Have it your Way".

Yes culligan is over rated and I still drank filtered water in Florida.  However, I have 3 huge filter tanks that we had to build a separate building to house as they can't get direct sunlight.  I also have a UV filter on those, but they filter my entire house.  I wouldn't waste the money in Florida but here the water is horrible.  I have no idea where it comes from and at times, they cut the water off in the drier season and if your cistern runs out of water, you have to get the water trucks to deliver water trucks.  When I filled my pool, we used water trucks (supposedly the best and that filtered their water.  My entire pool was green just from the water.  Today, the Water company knocked on my gate to put granules in my cistern for mosquito control.  Of course, now that it's cool weather and the mosquitos are less than half of what they were.  If i didn't have a filtration system I would have said no cause who knows what it was they were putting in there.  At least the culligan is a US product and all my yearly filters come from the US and not China.  I've heard bad stories about other water filtration system companies here.  Even things floating in the 5 gallon supposedly reverse osmosis drinking water they sell here.  I have to be careful cause my husband has a kidney transplant and has to drink a lot of water every day, so my caution level is a bit extreme.

Lived in Ecuador for the last 40 years.  Never got sick on the water.  I do know plenty that have, though.

Seems an odd reason to miss out on living in Ecuador.  I can give you things I don't like about Ecuador but water doesn't reach my top 10.

Plenty of low cost bottled water available if you don't want to go the route of a water filter in your house.  My 5 gal water bottle costs me $1.00 a refill.

Regards,

Kit

My point exactly...

On balance, Colombia has better infrastructure in its cities, including the ‘second-tier’ cities, than Ecuador.

Above is highly overrated. I think few countries in South America are above Ecuador within that context