Photo: Volcano Cotacachi (16,200ft.)
The Ecuadorian capital of Quito is surrounded by a string of nine volcanoes. The snowy one above is tenderly called Mama Cotacachi by the natives. There is another volcano, Volcan Imbabura (15,121ft. not in this picture), which
is called Daddy Imbabura.
Ecuadorian legend says that when Mama Cotacachi awakens in the morning with a fresh cover of snow, Daddy Imbabura has spent the night with her making love.
That little story embodies the spirit of Ecuadorians, indigenous or not: lovely, sweet, unpretentious and guileless. Gentle by disposition and good natured throughout, they have a way of making you feel instantly "at home", whether
that home is little more than a hut with an earthen floor, or an elaborate hacienda with a thousand acres of land around it.
We first visited Ecuador in 2008, although I had studied the country for several years before the first trip. I was searching for a place where Nancy and I could continue to travel abroad, but with less stress and strain, as getting
older is beginning to make our travels harder.
Living on the East Coast of the United States, travel to Quito is easy because it is "vertical", rather than "horizontal" to get there. A single transfer in Panama is not too taxing because the Panama airport is not the kind of
crazy you encounter in larger US airports, And there is only one time zone difference between DC and Quito, which eliminates jet lag. At at 6 1/2 hours airport to airport, we can do the trip in one day and not have to spend the next two or three days
recuperating. And
finally, the flights are uniformly on time, taking off and landing.
It turns out that there are a number of other, very appealing reasons to travel to Ecuador: With current gasoline prices in the US at near $4.00/gallon, gasoline in Ecuador is $1.48. Do you find that attractive?
Where a night out in any large metropolitan US city can set you
back a big chunk of change, dinner for two (outside the big cities of Quito and Guayaquil, and the beach areas like Salinas in high season), with wine, will cost you less than $20.00, and sometimes so little it is embarrassing to quote prices.
But one of the really strongest attractions is the cost of housing.
You may be aware that newspapers and magazines have recently been filled with stories of the low cost of purchasing and maintaining a home in Ecuador. I decided to check this out, giving rise to Nancy's first trip to South America
and my first to Ecuador.
Making a long story short, we found a beautiful condominium, in a close-in suburb of Quito, located adjacent to an impressive, modern shopping area, (with a Super-Giant type food market and separate Super-Pharmacy). Literally across
the street from us is the University of Ecuador, Cumbaya. Every conceivable service is available from Quito. There are plenty of medical facilities close by, and we are within walking distance from a dozen inexpensive restaurants.
The place is 1600 square feet, three bedrooms (one for grand kids, one for an anticipated live-in caregiver) 2 1/2 bathrooms, with a terrace (large enough for a bar-b-que) that overlooks a small municipal park. The cost was
27% of the condo we have in the DC suburbs, and is 60% larger!
So we bought it, and in so doing, encountered a world totally unknown to us previously, the world of Ecuadorian Real Estate, a world full of potential promise and financial danger.
In Ecuador, anybody can call himself or herself a real estate agent, because there are no licensing requirements. Because of the great temptation of easy commissions, there are people there who are unscrupulous and have no qualm about
taking advantage of a naive purchaser like Nancy and me. And because they think everyone from the United States is rolling in money, they often jack up the prices for the properties they are selling, and continue to move the price up throughout negotiations.
We are not experts at buying property, and fortunately we are not experts at getting fleeced either. But you must be very, very careful with whom you are dealing.
We had a much esteemed notary (required in any important deal) try to cheat us out of extra thousands in charges he trumped up while executing our papers. Please do not be naive
if you are considering buying property in Ecuador. There are too many good opportunities to pass up, so don't worry that the deal you are considering may fall through. Don't rush into anything. And remember the words of someone wise
in such ways who said, "Buy what you see". |
| 
