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First Two Weeks in Ecuador

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I've been a travel writer since I was 29. In the late 1990s, as I was approaching 50, the purpose of my peregrinations shifted from general travel -- updating guidebooks, writing stories about exotic places, checking out the latest hot spots -- to tracking the growing movement of expatriates beyond the borders of the United States.

I began searching the world for the best places to gain financial privacy, diversify assets, take advantage of a much lower cost of living, and live comfortably and safely.

In my quest to find the right country for me, since 1999 I've visited Argentina, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, France, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Monaco, Panama, the Philippines, and Uruguay.
 
But it wasn't until I made it to Ecuador in February 2010 with my partner Shirlee, that I knew I'd finally found what I was looking for. The Articles in this Category cover our initial exploratory trip to Quito, Imbabura Province, and Cuenca and environs.


Articles

  ARRIVING IN QUITO

Shirlee and I went to Ecuador, initially, to attend a four-day conference on expatriating sponsored by the venerable and recommendable International Living (IL) group, which publishes a monthly magazine and holds similar events, mostly in Latin America, several times a year.

  EXPANDING OUR HORIZONS

We had breakfast at Casa Sol, tramped the streets to get a feel for the city, altitude, smells, and people, then returned to the room to freshen up for our first lunch during our first full day in Ecuador.
  THE CONFERENCE
The next morning, Wednesday, the International Living conference commenced. After being one of perhaps 80 people at the one I’d attended in Belize and 125 in Panama City, I was stunned by the number of attendees, upwards of 500 potential expats in Ecuador.
  DITCHING THE CONFERENCE
On Friday’s conference schedule were speakers extolling Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy, France, and Thailand as retirement destinations. Of course, the morning after declaring my ardency for and allegiance to Ecuador, it almost felt like adultery to consider the virtues of other potential paramours.
  THE RENTAL CAR
The International Living conference ended Saturday night. Sunday morning we walked to Budget to pick up our rental car.
  THE ROAD TO OTAVALO
Diez de Agosto, a main north-south Quito thoroughfare, was closed to vehicle traffic, in order to be open to cyclists, skaters and bladers and boarders, families out for a stroll, picnickers -- all those Quiteños emptying all those buildings behind first-floor battlements, coming out into the street of a Sunday.
  OTAVALO
I’d made reservations at Casa Sol in Quito for Casa Sol in Otavalo and it was a good thing I looked up the directions on the website: Casa Sol Otovalo turned out to be in Peguche, a couple klicks up a steep hill outside the main town.
  THE MARKET
While contemplating the farmacia experience, we were walking toward the Plaza de los Ponchos on the narrow, but not congested, streets of downtown Otavalo.
  COTACACHI
From the mercado, we were off to Cotacachi, a 25-minute drive that crosses the Pana and cuts over to the other side of the valley at the foot of Mount Cotacachi.
  IBARRA
We found Ibarra to be a heavy-duty Ecuadorian city, ninth largest in the country with a population of around 200,000 and nary another North American in sight. We suddenly felt so far from the tourist corridor that we wondered if any Otavalo shoppers or Cotacachi pilgrims ever made it this far, another whole half-hour up the Panamericana.
  DRIVING BACK TO QUITO
Now we were in heavy city traffic, no more three-lane highway for us. I had to keep reminding myself that Quito was 30 miles long and the north side of the city, where the airport is, stretched for half of it. Signs were few, far between, and mostly directionless; the trick, for when you do it, is to stay to the right to avoid the underpasses that peel off to the east and west, which I discovered after having to turn around once.
  FEELING RIGHT AT HOME IN CUENCA
The plane touched down at Cuenca’s Mariscal Lamar, the cutest little airport you ever saw, especially for a city of a half-million.
  A PLACE FOR US?
In 2008 Stern, Germany’s version of Newsweek magazine, rated Cuenca the best place to live in Latin American for foreigners, while National Geographic included Cuenca in its list of the world's top 50 historic cities. Lonely Planet named Cuenca one of the 10 top cities for travelers in its 2010 Best in Travel guide.
  GETTING TO KNOW CUENCA

After breakfast with Dave Morrill at the Kookaburra, we took a walk to the Mercado 9 de Octubre, which the guidebook said opened only on Thursday (it also carried the inevitable caution: “It’s wise to take care in the market areas, particularly Mercado 9 de Octubre”).

  RENTAL PROPERTY

Friday morning, we had our first complimentary breakfast at the Sakura sushi restaurant. It was a little weird partaking of our fruit, juice, croissant, and eggs in an eatery permeated by an odor of raw fish. But the food was fine, the restaurant was right across from the river, and as is often the case in Ecuador, the outside temperature was perfect, which makes most experiences here seem even more idyllic.
  DAY TRIP
On Saturday morning after breakfast at the sushi joint, we took a cab to the airport ($3 this time) and met the Avis agent, who’d learned her English in New York middle and high schools and rented us a five-speed Chevy something, smaller than an Aveo.
  MIRADOR DE TURI

The next morning, we retrieved the car from the lot and went to church. Not just any church, but the bright white Church of Turi, perched on the Mirador de Turi, high on a hillside south of the city.