Waiting Time in Mesquite, Palm Desert, San Diego then Onto Ecuador.

Salinas

The drive from Calgary was smooth as we headed for the US border crossing at Coutts Crossing, just south of Lethbridge.  We had picked up a Uhaul trailer for our trip south, packed it with stuff we could not give up or thought we might need, hooked it up and left Okotoks, Alberta around 9:00am July 13th.  

We expected questions when we arrived at the border but they never materialised which was a relief as I did not want to unload the whole trailer again.  We handed over our Nexus Cards and Passports to the US Customs official, he asked a couple of questions, asked us to lower the rear windows, peaked inside the truck then bid us goodbye and sent us on our merry way.  

We reached Dillon MO. ten hours later, and were glad Donna had the forethought to use her Ipad to book a king bed in the Best Western while we were on the road, as we snapped up the last one available that night.    

The next morning, we hit the road early. The drive through Salt Lake City was also clear.

The Mormon Tabernacle Left of Centre with the Dome.

I wondered why Calgary would not do an HOV lane system on the Deerfoot like the one we were now on. It would certainly ease traffic issues and one nice thing about the way they have traffic organised is - large trucks or vehicles pulling any trailers are not permitted in either of the two left hand lanes at any time making the flow of traffic much more fluid.  

HOV Lanes on Interstate 15 through Salt Lake City - Minimum two people per Vehicle to travel in this Lane

We eventually pulled into Mesquite at 5pm local time on Sunday July 14. It was 111F. We stopped quickly at Smith's Groceries, grabbed some items to tide us over until the next morning and headed for home. 

It was delightful walking into our home once again.  We had not been there for the past seven months.  It was nice and cool, clean and hardly a spec of dust as the homes are built airtight, to conserve energy.  Our neighbours had been kind enough to go over and switch on the central air conditioning for us before we arrived.

The front of our home in Mesquite.

After unpacking the trailer the following morning, we dropped it off at the local Uhaul dealer as soon as we could.  The manager's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he looked at the tires on the wheels of the trailer we had rented from Uhaul.  There was absolutely no tread on the tires.  I had not noticed this when we picked it up.  The manager asked how far we had driven the trailer.  We told him we had just driven 1495 miles from Canada.  He shot a glance at me as if to say you did what?  He shook his head and told me he would have never let this trailer out in that condition, he went on to say the trailer was in an outright dangerous condition, that the brake lights and indicator lights did not work and that the Calgary dealer should never have let this trailer out in this state.  He could not believe that anyone would be so reckless.    

I would not have minded but for the fact that when we picked  up the trailer in Calgary, I specifically asked the girl handling the handover "have you checked both tires, wheels and tire pressures?"  ......Oh yes! she said, then she quickly asked me to jump into the cab of the truck so she could check out the lights, flashers etc. which she said were all working fine.  Another lesson learned - check it all yourself.  This is the second time we have been let down by this company, so Uhaul is now toast in our books. 

The temperatures in Mesquite are holding steady around 108F to 113F.  It is expected to stay that way for the next month or so or get hotter which makes sense, after all we are in the Mojave Desert.  

We did lose some plants in the heat one month ago when temperatures reached around 119F, so our next job is to buy more plants and get them planted in Sept. once the weather cools to the mid 80's.

Donna relaxing in the front courtyard or our home

If you would like to take a tour of our Sun City subdivision, click on this link. http://goo.gl/b6ykDC It's a great place to relax, and if you are a golfer, it's heaven on earth - a small town with seven or eight golf courses.

Unfortunately on the way down, maybe because of the heat, our windshield cracked, but after enquiring with Ford of Canada, It was evident we were still under the first years warranty on our truck and we were below the 20,000 km limit so the local dealership replaced the windshield free of charge.  They actually sent their glass guy to our garage and he replaced the windshield right there.    

On our drive to San Diego, CA, to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary August 7th, we will leave Aug 4 and we will spend two nights in Palm Desert.  We have to bypass two massive fires burning near Palm Springs and Palm Desert, so we hope we don't run into traffic issues or smoke problems en-route so we must ensure we have a full tank of gas so we can keep the air conditioners running in case we are caught on the road in a line-up, because in this heat, you would not last long in a vehicle without air.
  

This picture was taken a few days ago and the fire has not yet abated but I don't think that the township or City is in imminent danger.

We will be in San Diego Aug 6 and 7 somewhere nice then on Aug 8, we will drive the seven or eight hour journey back to Mesquite to prepare for the trip to Ecuador.  

We will book into a hotel Aug 12 in lost wages (Las Vegas) as we fly from Las Vegas to Panama City, Panama then, after an hour or so stopover it's on to Quito, Ecuador's Capital City 9500 ft up in the Andes.  

The person dealing with our Visa applications is sending his nephew to meet us at the new airport just outside Quito.  

Quito is a city of around 1.2 Million people. The climate ranges from the high 50's to the mid 70's.  It is spring like weather year round.  We will stay there for just two days, then we will fly to Guayaquil, a port city and the largest city in Ecuador.  On arrival, we will seek out the bus for the trip with all the locals and head for Salinas on the coast or "Costa".  

A picture of Quito with the Volcano in the background.

We understand that Salinas is semi arid, is more humid than the Andes and the temperatures range from the Mid 80's to the mid to high 90's 24/7.  It is nowhere near as hot in Ecuador as it is in Mesquite though.  Even if it is just one degree south of the Equator.  That's because you have the coastal winds blowing onshore most of the time which help a lot to moderate the temperature.  

The map below, albeit of not too good a quality shows the location of Salinas which is the most westerly part of the land in the SW corner of the map

  This is a shot of the Malecon and the Condos in Salinas where we may well end up buying, if we like what we see but, we will rent for a while to make sure 
before we take the plunge

We have booked a brand new 2100 sq.ft. apartment on the Malecon in Salinas for two weeks so we can explore some of the City and, look at a few properties and from Salinas, our discovery trip will take us north up the coast to Manta, known as the Tuna fishing capital of the world.  There, you can get a boat and fish for these magnificent Tuna fish as well as blue and black Marlin pictured below.  

The currents are just right for these types of fish, but one wonders how long it can last before (like other places in the world), it becomes over-fished.  

Well, it's time to end this blog.  We look forward to bringing you our next blog from the inside of Ecuador sometime between Aug 16 and Aug 28.

We should have lots of pictures and descriptions for you at that time.  We'll be in touch.  

Have a great summer everyone!

Donna and Ken

  




   

Out Of The House & Homeless In Calgary

Well, the day finally arrived.  We moved the last of our stuff out of the house and the new owners took possession of our home last week.  We have had eight years of wonderful memories at the house and I was choked, as I glanced quickly into the mailbox for the last time, trying to hide the heavy heart I bore, as one of the two new owners bid me goodbye.

It was not all sad, as prior to leaving on the day before possession, we gave our very precious and comfortable king sized bed and double box spring mattress to a young single mom who could not afford a proper bed to sleep in. Her mom found our ad on Kijiji, and emailed us desperate to find something for her daughter to sleep on.  Good for you mom! we thought.  We told her we would keep the mattress until the very last day, and gave her a promise that her daughter could have the bed provided she arranged for the pickup. It was delightful so see the daughter's face as she entered our master bedroom when she saw what she was about to get for free from someone she had never met before.

Helping her with the bed, was her uncle, a short stocky man with searching eyes.  He came to help her load the bed up into a huge F350 that he had borrowed from his brother-in-law.  

As we were carrying the mattress downstairs, her uncle told me he had been a miner in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for 30 years previously and that he and his wife had come west to seek out a new life in Alberta. He had the look of someone who had worked physically hard his whole life. He was a positive,friendly character short, and very stocky - not unlike the Character Gloin the dwarf (although not quite as hairy), the one in the movie The Lord of the Rings, the fellow with the Axe who helped Frodo find his way through the mountain.   

Sadly, he told me how shortly after his arrival out west, he lost his wife to Cancer.  My heart was heavy for him, and at the same time, it was saying to me...yes, we are right to make this move now, because if you wait too long, you may never do it.  

Uncle was here to help his niece.  Good for you Mr. Stranger!  It's people like you who always seem to put others needs ahead of their own, who keep this world together. It's wonderful to meet such colourful people, and for us, I am sure he won't be the last of many characters we will meet on our long road ahead on our way to secure a place in the sun.    

Last week we terminated Donna's Real Estate Brokers License, and in the next few days, after the final audit of our Brokerage Trust Accounts, it will be my turn to have my license terminated by the Real Estate Council of Alberta. Inevitably, we will renew them again in a couple of years so we do not lose the qualifications we have. It was too hard to obtain to let go.  We will need time to ensure this is what we want.

Once we left home, we took up residence in a very comfortable hotel, but after two days coming from 2600 sq.ft, to down to about 200 sq.ft., we felt a little cramped, so we moved to a newer hotel with larger rooms, not quite as comfortable, but a lot more spacious.  We ended up staying there for two nights then, we were offered a chance to stay at Donna's sister and brother-in-law's home.  It was nice of them to offer. 

We have moved again, this time to son Jason's home, where we will be until this coming Friday July 5th, when we will head out to Vancouver to hopefully meet up with the Consul General of Ecuador, so we can confirm we have all the papers expected of us when we arrive in Ecuador.  

As most of us know, the past two weeks was overshadowed by the terrible floods that took place in Calgary and many other places in Alberta, when around 100,000 people were evacuated to safety and made homeless by the floods that ravaged our towns and cities, the likes of which we have never seen before.  

Devastated by the terrible rain storms that left Calgary looking something like when Hurricane Katrina had left New Orleans,  many of these unfortunate folk seem to be living in a perpetual nightmare.  They have lost everything, furniture, personal items, pets etc.  Our hearts go out to them all in their hours of need, knowing that for some it will be either months or never, that they will re-enter their homes again.  

When I think of this, it brings to mind JFK's famous reflection on his inaugural address when he uttered the words, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country', and in that spirit we have seen the outpouring of help from people all over BC and Alberta, who came to help. People who are stepping up to the plate to offer assistance to others they don't even know. Our hats go off to them all.  And let's not forget something else; Nature has yet again, demonstrated that it cannot and will not be controlled.

So to those of you who have said "wow big decision" to us in your emails when you discovered we were on the move to Ecuador, we say this.... Ours is but a simple task to relocate to South America.  Yes, it is difficult to sell all you have or let it go for a fraction of the cost, but the people left behind who have been affected by all this flooding are the people who need your thoughts, prayers and assistance.  They are the people who have to cope with ongoing hardship.  

As our careers in real estate draw to a close after 26 and almost 24 years respectively, we give thanks to the friends we have made from all walks of life and to those we have met on our travels and in the course of our businesses. We will treasure all the fond memories in the years to come.  We will be gone, but you will never be forgotten.  From the bottom of our hearts, we both say Thank You very very much for your trust and confidences.  

Some of you have promised to visit us in Ecuador once we have settled in.  It may be in Salinas or Manta or somewhere in between in the "Costa" Region overlooking the pacific or, it may be in Cuenca, 8500 ft up in the Andes, nevertheless, you will be welcomed with open arms.

I read the other day, there are over 1600 species of birds in Ecuador, and a small country like that produces over 10% of the worlds fresh fruit, and vegetables, and has many different species of flora and fauna.

Wherever it is we decide to put down roots, we can be reached by telephone, as we have just purchased a Magicjack Plus at Best Buy for $59.  It's a neat item that plugs into our Macbook, then you just hook up a telephone, choose a number and for $99 for five years, you can call anywhere in North America.  

The Chimorazo Volcano in Ecuador, The Furthest Point on Earth away from the Centre of the Earth.

We chose an Alberta, number with the new Alberta, area code (587), so if you wish to call us from now on, just dial our new number (587) 315-7413 and even though we are in Ecuador or in the USA, it will be just the same as you calling someone in Alberta (no long distance charges).

  

We will make a point of keeping in touch with you when we are there and also, we will hope to touch base with you when we come back on one of our visits to Canada, visits we will cherish when we have more time to spend with our kids and our grandchildren, in fact more time to spend with them than we would have had we stayed in Canada, because we would still have work commitments here.  

So onto the next stage or our trip.  Once we have had our Canadian documents approved, we will visit family in Parksville on Vancouver Island hopefully next week, spend some time with them, say our goodbyes then return to Calgary to pack up Items we want to take south to Mesquite from the storage locker and then we will head to our home in Nevada for a couple of months.  

Doing nothing in Mesquite will surely acclimatize us for the weather to come - Yesterday it was 54.4 degrees C in Death Valley in Nevada and not much cooler in Las Vegas and in Mesquite - that's even hotter than at the Equator where we will be living, but without the ocean breezes. 

We are going there first to wind down a bit and get used to retirement and living on a fixed income.

 
A picture of our Back Yard in Mesquite, Nevada

We will enjoy our yard, the two swimming pools at the rec. centre and of course, the weather, as long as it cools down somewhat.  If it doesn't we have air conditioning, good friends, cheap beer and a poker table to keep us all occupied.........oh and treadmills, weight machines, lots of local early morning walks before the heat of the day closes in.  All good to help us get back into shape.....no excuses now, after all, we are now officially retired.  

After a couple of months  in Mesquite, it will be a quick trip back to Canada to sell our last vehicle, then off to South America before the snow flies.

While we are in Mesquite, we will plan the next part of our journey; where to live initially to get some cover over our heads, the best place to learn Spanish is to live and mingle with the locals in full immersion so we will do that, but we have to find out where to shop, where to look for real estate, the geography of the land and all the other important stuff we need to take in to make some good decisions as to where to put down our roots which may take a year of travelling around and renting for a while.

Later on, we will plan trips to the other countries we have never visited, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Belize, Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama, Bolivia and others too, if our health permits.  let's face it, we only live once.

As I approach my 65th birthday, it is important that we remember, that in Ecuador, I buy absolutely everything and every month at the end of the month, will be able to submit all my receipts to the government and I get the taxes rebated as a senior, so Donna will not buy anything as you have to show your Cedula (ID Card) if you are wanting the refund which is only available to people in Ecuador who are 65 years of age or older. 

One last thing.  If we get bored with retirement, we may even sell real estate down there as there is no licensing restrictions like there is up here.  Who knows what the future will bring?  

Have a great summer everyone. God bless you all and keep safe.