Why Did We Move to Ecuador?

     Many people have asked why did you move to Ecuador, or how did you choose Ecuador?  Some days that feels like a really good question, and other days, we know exactly why.  I would definitely say we have to give most of the credit to John Curran, who graduated with me from Waupaca High School back in 1981.  When I got on Facebook and became friends with John, I was really enjoying following his posts about living in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, a small mountain village.  We soon started corresponding, and John very patiently answered my endless questions.  Soon, my John was interested and before we knew it, we scheduled a scouting trip to the coast of Ecuador.  Through many, many hours of internet searching on climate and everything else, we zeroed in on the Salinas area.  We rented a condo for a month on the malecon in Salinas in June.  Fortunately we hooked up with the best real estate agent in Ecuador (Kimberly Quintana), and if you have seen the Salinas, Ecuador International House Hunters episode, you will see Kimberly as the client looking for a condo. She not only was a great real estate agent, but has become a friend as well.  When she first showed us the house we bought, we saw all kinds of potential.  It was  a couple hours after we saw it that it came to John that it would make an awesome Bed and Breakfast.  Afterall, it had four good sized bedrooms all with private baths.  And enough other rooms to make everyone comfortable.  Not to mention that it is right on the ocean with a beautiful beach right in front.  We knew the house would take a lot of work, so before we left Ecuador, we met with a contractor to get an estimate on what it would cost to rennovate the house.  Before we even got back to Phoenix, we had the estimate and had decided to purchase the house.  Unfortunately, the day after we got back, John had a heart attack (not related to the cost of the rennovations or anything : ), but everything was caught in time and a stint repaired his 90% blocked LAD (widowmaker) artery.  After that, John was even more excited about making our Ecuador move a reality.  I guess having flirted with death, you realize how short life is and you need to make the most of it.   So here we are, living in the bedroom of our house while all the remodeling is going on.  I am pretty sure our contractor believes it is a blessing and a curse to have us here, because we see everything.  It has been an adventure, nonetheless.  Ecuador is a third world country, and I would never sell it as anything other than that.  But it is beautiful, has a wonderful charm and great people.  John Curran had been very honest with us and we had no expectations that we didn't fulfill. 
    Another question we have gotten a lot, is when will your Bed and Breakfast be up and running?  That is a great question and I wish I had a great answer. A few months?  We have added quite a few things to our list of rennovations since we have gotten here.  One of the biggest things we changed was replacing all the tile in the whole house. (one of the curses of staying here is we got really sick of it really fast). It is outdated and a touch busy :).  We will also be added a swimming pool in the back yard along with a Bocce ball court.  It previously had a basketball court back there (not in good condition) and we really had no use for that.  Our 40 foot container is already here in Ecuador and we are hoping it takes a few weeks to be processed through customs because we are not ready for it. 
While we were still in Arizona, we decided to name our Bed and Breakfast "Las Palmas del Mar" (The Palms by the Sea), since it had some large palm trees in the yard.  Unfortunately, when we arrived here in October, the palms had taken a turn for the worse (simply due to neglect).  Well, we already had our logo, t-shirts printed, cups printed, etc... so we weren't changing the name! So we ended up planting ten new palm trees in our front yard.  It looks great and we can legimately keep our name.  I do have to give a shout out to my dear friend Trina, who so patiently designed our logo for us. After many tweaks we finally got it just the way we wanted it.

    So here we are, after 4 1/2 weeks.  We have met so many wonderful people.  Ecuadorian and Expats from the U.S. and Canada.  We look forward to meeting many more and enjoying our adventure here in Ecuador.