Here we are in cuenca

So we took the overnight bus from quito to cuenca. We left on the 9:45 bus from Flota Imbabura which is basically a grey hound with washrooms and reclining seats so we can rest. We arrived in Cuenca at 6:30 in the morning. We took a 2$ taxi ride from the bus station to the downtown area.  Now the only problem with arriving so early is that it was next to impossible to find a coffee shop that was open at that time. Finally after much walking we found one. Coffee was good but the pastries were better.  From there we walked up and down to the streets to find a descent hostel. We found the going rate to be between 60 and 80 a night for a family of 4. But we finally found a cozy little place called hostel Chordeleg on the corner of Gran Columbian and General Torres. The owner gave us a room with private bath and 3 beds for 45$ a night. The going rate for the room was 60$ a night, really gave us a good price and no Gringo tax. The rooms are built around a center court or patio where you enjoy the complimentary breakfast and wifi was included. Really for the price what more could you ask for. The owner allowed us to check our bags early and we got access to the room at 9 am after it was cleaned. So you could say early check in.

Inside the Hostel

After dropping our bags it was time to tour the city. We made our way around the downtown and found a nice market and lots of scenic areas, a change from what we've seen in quito. We also made our way over to the Rio mall. A full service mall where we enjoyed a Mega meal lunch at a chicken and burger shack for $10 which gave us 2 burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, 2 pieces of chicken and an ice cream dessert. From there we looked at an apartment another $2 taxi ride. Arriving in the area we found a park for the kids and quite the nice homes. The apartment is quite new perhaps 3 years at most and has 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms along with everything we need including a washer and dryer, something not all units have. The owner wants $400 a month and will include hydro, water and unlimited internet. I would say sold. So all goes well we will be moving here Sept 1.

Now that we found an apartment time to explore the town. I found a little coffee roaster in town who grinds and bags his coffee at 3.50 a lbs. Might have to see about exporting some of that. It was a good coffee and I brought a bag home. We also found a nice pizza joint where we had lunch. Three slices of pizza, 2 burgers and a Pint and I mean a pint of beer all for $8.50. So yes there are good prices for food here you just have to look. Its very easy to spend money without paying attention. Supper last night was 25$ but here's the difference. Basically for a keg type meal you pay a Montana's price for a Montana's type meal you pay a Mc Donald's price and then if you want look a little harder and you can find the local flavor for below 10$ for the family. All three are good choices it just depends on what you want and how far you need your money to go.
Tomorrow we meet new friends here again before we head back to quito for our final few days. We have a decision to make this week. Stay in quito in one of the valleys, move to Otovalo which was really nice or move to Cuenca. We'll keep you posted.

In the crater of a volcano

Well its been a few days and eventful it was. Where to start.
Friday we had the pleasure of meeting some friends who were our first contact in Ecuador from Canada. They have had the pleasure of traveling the country and in the 12 months they have been here the have seen everything from the amazon to the coast and everything in between. It was nice to hit it off right away with them. all this thanks to to friends who had spent 6 months in costa rica and met a and a in Panama. As I mentioned they have had the pleasure of traveling all over.

Thursday and Tuesday we had the opportunity to work with Spanish friends in the area doing survey work searching for English speaking people. As we were placed 1 English speaking with 1 Spanish speaking it forced us to practice and learn our Spanish even more. What a pleasure that was.

Saturday after our meeting we went for dinner at a mall and enjoyed some good American food - burger and fries. Boy the jungle is hard. Funny story I decided to take a picture of the pizza hut and I had a guy staring at me thinking I was from the jungle and had never seen a pizza hut before. After that we went to a fair which was great as it was free entree and rides were 0.35$ each for kids and $1.50 for adults. After which we went go carting for $6.50. Of course I won.

Sunday we made our up north to a town called otovalo were we went to the market. Wow. Spent to much and by too much I mean maybe $100 for alpaca scarves, hats, blanket, and a shale. So that being said I would like to see about setting up distribution if interested. Its almost a better deal than my Chinese silk ties for those who know about that. In otovalo we met up with our friends a and a again who had scouted the area on Saturday for the big market. Almost double the size of the rest of the week. We went for pizza in a little non Italian Italian restaurant. Again we met a gentleman there from Montreal who was scouting the land. Had an interesting conversation with him. After which we headed back to the hostel for the night. Nice place just very hard beds. That being said it looked like they were slowly replacing the beds in the rooms.

Monday brought more travels. We went up to Cotacachi and had the opportunity to go to the JW leather goods store. I have yet to see the online prices but apparently we got our items at a third the regular price. Picked up book bags for me and heidi. We also went up to a crater of a volcano. It is now a beautiful lake the is protected and the colour is amazing. In the middle of the lake is 2 islands that are pretty much untouched by man - kinda reminds me of the Jurassic park movie. We took a boat ride around the lake and met a couple of Jewish guys who were on a 7 month tour of south America and gave them a ride back to Cotacachi from the volcano. Poor them stuck with the 11 of us and having to listen to us about the bible. It was a good time. They even seemed to enjoy it.

We finished our day a nice restaurant on the side of the water. I would say kinda like a keg just better. And the pricing was good. After which it was a long drive home but well worth the drive. So much so we are considering moving out there as our new home. Just waiting on a few call backs.

We are now legal

It's official, we are now legal for the next 6 months. If you are Canadian and want to make your way down here this is my recommendation. When in Canada make your way to the Ecuadorian Consulate and apply for the 6 month 12-IX. This will make things much faster. All we ended having to do is go to the immigration office on Friday which took about 2 hrs. We needed our approved VISAS from the consulate in Canada, our Passports, full color copies of our passports of both the picture pages and the entry stamps all three of them, and we also had to fill out the Direccion General de Extranjeria. From there we waited and got pictures taken and had to pay a 4$ fee. We then had to return on Tuesday to pick up our Certficado de Empadronamiento which was about another 1.5hr wait. But this time all that was needed was to confirm the info and sign for. Interesting enough here you need ID for everything from getting a rewards card to using your credit card at a store.

Speaking of reward cards we went to the movies on Monday to see Madagascar 3 in Spanish and it was great. the cost was 4.25 each but because of the reward card we paid 2.99, so 12$ for the whole family that's the cost of 1 person back home. Then we got a 6$ combo of 1 Popcorn, 1 soft drink, 1 hot dog and a 3$ phone card which I needed for my phone as my time had run out.

Yesterday we went out again and met a English speaking Ecuadorian who owns a restaurant. He was very pleasant to speak with and even accepted a study. So as much as we have to search for those who speak English when we do they are always kind and want to talk about the bible.

I will say that after yesterday there are 2 things back home I will not complain about anymore. 1) The traffic, it took us 1.5hrs to get from the South end of the city to the North in the morning and that was on a bus. 2) I will not complain about Ottawa bus. The bus here at traffic time make the 95 look like a walk in the park. None the less, it was fun just makes for long days.

And as per my last Blog, we got a TV. The landlord here knocked on our door a few nights ago and said she had a gift for us and gave us a TV to use. We get 4 local channels but they are good to a tune our ears to the language.

Next week we will begin to see the rest of the country side. We have a trip Otavalo and hopefully Cuanca as well.

Asta Luego

Adjustments

It's a amazing when we think of the need of water. A minor adjustment here and it makes you realize what we need clean water for. Everything here is done with bottled water from making coffee to brushing our teeth, simple things that we were use to just going into the kitchen or bathroom and turning on the water to complete our task has changed. That being said bottled water is cheap enough a 20L bottle is $2.50. But it's the mind set, get a glass of water go to washroom and brush the kids teeth. The shower IF it's going to be hot MUST be on a low pressure setting as it runs through a small on-demand heater cup. And I think the toughest has been shaving. I have 2 choices cold water or no mirror. The sink with Hot water has no mirror and the sink with cold water has a mirror. I've tried both not sure which is better.

Service was another interesting adjustment. We arrived on a street corner for our rotating service group where about 20 of us met. From there we proceed to do some survey work looking for English speaking foreigners in the area. That being said we were 10 of us walking up the street knocking at every door. Definitely different. We had one local cab driver who spoke English accepted the articles and then came to the meeting at 2PM at the Kingdom Hall. After the meeting said he would be back every week, so this was quite exciting. Heidi also had the opportunity to speak with a gentleman in English, French, German and Spanish. Not something we get to do every day.

This is a view from the street where we toke the bus to go to the service group. There's another adjustment. Bus ride of 50 mins and then a 5 min taxi ride to get to where our group was. That being said the whole trip cost us $2.00 for the 4 of us. And to give you an idea it would be like going from Orleans to Kanata by bus and then taking a cab to Stittsville.

After service and lunch it's off to the meeting which was a 5 min car ride and we were with friends who had a car and are actually from the Kemptville area so that was neat. They have lived here for 9 years. Nice to meet friends like that as they can give us direction as to where to go and not to. The meeting was good we had a speaker from New York and his wife were there. They are leaving to go back home in 3 weeks as they have been here for a year and now are going home to pursue the goal of BSCC. 

This is inside the hall. Very Nice.

We got home after a long day tired but not wiped, had dinner with the boys a relaxed for a bit before going to bed. And that is the final adjustment We have no TV and our internet is pay per meg so not really going to stream video and pay for it. So we are stuck talking to each other :). Not so bad, I still enjoy Heidi's company. That being said I may splurge and buy a TV before we leave.

Well time to paint the house today. Our landlord has been very helpful and since she is renovating we figured the least we could do is paint the house for her. The fun begins.

Chow

So here we are in the Southern Hemisphere. Our first 36 hrs and it's been quite interesting. Our Journey started with a 3 AM wake up to go to the Montreal airport on Wednesday and after spending 1.5hrs in 3 different line ups our plane left at 6 and off to Miami we were. Upon arrival at Miami we had a 6 hr layover not bad, but we had to exit and wait in lines for another 1.5hrs to get tickets and go through security again, a bit of a pain but it was done. The plane to Quito was quite nice, in fact probably one of the better planes I've taken. Captain even invited the boys into the cockpit to take pictures

Our arrival in Quito was interesting. Wind made our approach difficult and we had to turn around and try again so we were delayed in landing by 30 mins. The plane also had many Americans which were in town for the Ecuador Conference from International Living. We had the pleasure of meeting a few who were excited about what we were doing.

Now the fun stuff. Our contact/friends were patiently waiting for us with balloons and flowers it was really nice. We took a bus/taxi home which was about a 30 min drive and of course this is were we lost our first and only piece of luggage. Keefe in his daze left his carry-on, on the bus. Fortunately all that was in it was his Nintendo DS, a blanket, and a few books. I nice little tip for the Taxi/bus driver. We got to our home and went pretty much straight to bed after working out a few kinks.

Our first day. We woke in the morning to explore our new home and on our roof top we found this beautiful view   A snow capped mountain and many more around us. Not snow capped though. No snow here except on the mountain. We went by taxi for our first shop, the taxi cost us $1.48 each way. The grocery store was basically a Cosco called SuperMaxi. Having to get the regulars plus our monthly items our first shop cost $100. But of course we forgot items. So at supper we were making spaghetti and salad but had no dressing or spaghetti sauce so I attempted to go and buy some at the local depanneur. I came home with Ketchup and Vinegar, Heidi had a good laugh now we have a 2 month supply of ketchup.

All said and done so far so good and the coffee and beer is has good as or even better then I thought it would be. We will keep you posted with more fun and pics. Stay tuned.

Final Farewell

Well this is it. Down to the final days. Next post will be from our new home in Ecuador. Our friends have had some wonderful gatherings for us to say goodbye which we have appreciated greatly.

In these two weeks we have taken our final steps to make our way to our new home. My wife has applied and been accepted to teach English online. So she will have a 2 hr a day position to teach people in China how to speak English.

Tomorrow we will get a criminal record check which we will get certified at DFAIT and then at the consulate as back up if we wish to change VISAS while in South America.

Since Ecuador uses the American dollar we decided to open an American dollar account here and will do as we have read online. The plan is to open up a local bank account in Ecuador where we will transfer the funds we need for the month on a monthly basis.

So I guess this is it. See you on the other side.

Preparations

Two weeks gone by and the day is drawing ever closer. Here are a few steps we have taken in preparation of our Journey.

We were able to make contact with friends of friends who put us in contact with other friends. From there we managed to find a rental house for our first month. So at least upon arrival we know where we are going.

Visas, this was a tough one. Since we are in our 30's we cannot apply for a retiree Visa as we don't have a source of income, we only have what we sold our home for. And as we have no work contacts or specialty we could not apply for a work Visa. This really left us 2 options Volunteer or Tourism. The volunteer vise would give us up to 2 years if only there was an organization we could have hooked up with. So after everything we decided upon the Tourism. We are going in for 6 month Tourism Visa which we can extend by 3 months once we are there. Everything goes well we will find ourselves the needed opportunity to extend this by whatever time we like when we arrive. The Tourism Visa was quite easy just a matter of going to the Consulate with the required paper work and applying.

The plan ticket was not too hard either. For this we decided to pay the extra 30$ a ticket and go to an agency. Which ended up saving us as we are now leaving from a closer airport than initially planned. We also decided on taking extra insurance for the first 2 weeks until we land and get our feet wet, then from everything we read it is quite reasonable to have Pay as you go health care.

A final step we decided to take was order a Simm card from eBay. This way upon arrival I have an active phone ready to go. I have purchased a QuadBand cell phone and purchased an unlock code online from cellunlocker which now allows me to use my phone anywhere in the world.