Good article, Edd

[GRETCHEN SOLDAT]

I enjoyed and got a lot out of your IL June issue’s article, Edd, “Last Word”. Educational food for thought. My husband just returned from 3 weeks in Ecuador and had some really eye-opening experiences. Good and bad. But taking all that into consideration, we still feel “the pull” and are really excited about relocating eventually, and having a vacation home on the beach there now. Neither of us feels “iffy”, we are “on the same page”, both adventurous, and we are used to “doing without” many conveniences, as we live now 40 min. from any store or services. We don’t have big box stores, and don’t frequent them anyway. Neither of us enjoy shopping, but we do buy organic and use some items that didn’t seem to be available in Ecuador.

Have you seen coconut oil, olive oil or walnut oil in any stores? Is anything organic, or can’t you tell? Is there any raw dairy? I was raised on raw milk and raw dairy but its illegal in our backwards state.

I like your point of not comparing to this country. Indeed, Ecuador is not “cheap America”. When my ex and I moved from California to Colorado to fulfill our dream of building homes (couldn’t afford the land in CA), I urged him NOT to compare them. But he did, always complaining about Colorado not matching up to California, and ruining our time in CO.

We have long known “what we really want”, so that is not a problem. We have rented beach condos every winter, and love that life. Never dreaming we could afford one anywhere in the world! But we can, in Ecuador. But, there are drawbacks, my husband discovered. The beaches have lots of litter, there is little police presence, theft is rampant (I reported earlier his laptop was stolen from the van on a tour and the tour people–not IL–would not help), but violent crime is rare.

One expat there says he always takes a picture with his phone, of a taxi driver’s license and face, in order to prevent rip-offs and theft. So, we can’t be complacent about locking doors, leaving belongings on the beach or anywhere, like we do here (we don’t even lock our doors at home, even on vacation). The condos we are interested in have LOTS of security features, which is great peace of mind.

So hopefully, we are going into this with eyes open, ready to embrace adventure. I want our only regret—as so many expats have expressed—to be that we didn’t do it sooner! I feel I have one foot out the door right now! 😉

[EI EXPERT – EDD STATON]

Thanks for your kind words, Gretchen. For sure coconut and olive oil are available in Cuenca, but I have no idea what you would find on the coast. Can’t say I’ve ever looked for walnut oil. There are lots of organic products–there’s even an organic market here on Saturdays. I have an organic baby Thai salad mix from Supermaxi in the refrigerator right now.

Is there any raw dairy? I see men dipping milk straight out of the cows’ udders from containers on the back of pickup trucks around town. But understand that cows in the highlands are raised for milk; on the coast and in the Oriente they’re raised for beef. In general selection where you want to live is probably going to be a lot different (and honestly more limited) from a good-sized city in the mountains.

You two have a great attitude. All the best on your journey!

Edd

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