We arrived at the brand new terminal 3 in Las Vegas just after 3:45 am ready to check in for the flight to Panama City, Panama. Needless to say, the terminal was almost empty.
The flight to Panama City, Panama was about six hours. As we flew in on our approach to Panama City, we caught a view of the massive Panama Canal out of the aircraft window. It was hot and humid when we arrived at the terminal, but not as oppressive as the heat one would find during summer time in Toronto.
An hour later, we boarded another aircraft for the flight to Quito, Ecuador's capital city. We arrived in Quito as the sun was beginning it's fall from the sky and heading quickly towards dusk. A taxi driver was waiting to pick us up at the airport asked by our American host who runs a hotel there, to bring us to his hotel. We arrived at the hotel, a supposed brand new hotel and that was where we had our very first "reality check".
The hotel was really nothing more than a large eight or ten room house. Set in the countryside, hidden behind the large walls on each side and protected by a gate. I thought to myself.....all this place needs is a moat!
It was immediately evident to both of us, that this place resembled what you would find in any local town in Mexico. So, no big deal. No it wasn't the Ritz Carleton, but neither were the prices.
The owner of the hotel was a soft spoken American fellow from Ohio - fairly young, mid 30's to mid 40's who had lived in Ecuador for about two years. He told me he had also taught English as a second language in China. He's OK I thought! He introduced us to his girlfriend, a pretty young lady, who obviously did the cooking and helped him clean the rooms. They asked if we would like supper. After asking what was on the menu, he told us it would be chicken (pollo) and rice (arroz) and french fries, but to give him about an hours notice if we wanted to eat. Donna quickly shot me a glance and we gracefully declined supper, although we had not eaten anything but a sandwich since the night before. We did ask him if there was anything to imbibe upon prior to getting some shut eye. He said "oh yes", and pointed to display of red and white wines he had in one of those home-outfitter wine racks you sit on the counter top. Have you any cold (frio) wines? I asked. Yes he said! He pointed to the glass fronted refrigerator in the corner of the room. We quickly grabbed a bottle of cold white wine and a couple of cold beer, and headed to our room upstairs. Ah yes, the room. Reality check number 3.
We opened the door to be greeted with two beds. No, no I thought to myself, there must be some mistake. Nope, that was indeed our room. No mistake! Who's going to take the single bed and who gets the double we asked simultaneously? too tired to draw straws, we both jumped into the double... yes a double not queen. This was a far reach from the kIng bed we had got used to and just given away at home.
We filled our glasses, toasted each other drank it up, switched on the TV and fell asleep. During the night, I got up to go to the bathroom. Reality check no 4. As I switched on the light and closed the bathroom door I saw the sign on the door. it read. PLEASE DO NOT FLUSH YOUR TOILET PAPER DOWN THE TOILET - PLACE IT IN THE RECEPTACLE PROVIDED. Ewwww! That would have been Kath's reaction back home if she saw this I thought to myself.
People were coming and going all night. The following morning, we were flying out to Cuenca to meet up with our lady lawyer who is handling our file. We had asked the American fellow if we could have coffee in the morning. He said it would be ready at 5:30 am, which would allow us to drink it before the taxi driver turned up.
When we came down to the living room, there were about 6 or 8 suitcases in the middle of the room. They were presumably from the people who arrived in the middle of the night. They obviously were tired, checked in and headed for bed. I asked if they were locals that had arrived?. No he said, they are Americans who are doing just like you - moving to Ecuador. They arrived at 3 am this morning. The taxi driver turned up promptly at 5:30 am, we loaded our suitcases and bid the American goodbye.
Lina our lawyer has a doctorate in law and specializes in Immigration. I was so looking forward to meeting her. I wanted to unload all these vital original documents for a fear of losing them or having them stolen.
As we entered the airport at Quito for the flight to Cuenca, I learned lesson No 1. Men do not wear shorts in either Quito or Cuenca. We were strolling through the airport trying to locate the check-in desks and I saw hundreds of people looking me up and down which made me feel kind of uncomfortable. It was not until I started to look around that I realized, no-one was in Shorts.........except me that is. dawb! as Bart Simpson would say.....and my slacks were in the checked baggage. Oh well, I won't make that mistake again. Ecuadorians are very self conscious about their dress and their shoes.
On arrival in Cuenca, we were met by our lawyer's driver and immediately taken to her office. Lina, our lawyer is a nice lady. She also owns a Real Estate Company. I handed her the original documents and she looked them over. "I would like you here on Wednesday August 21. We will apply for your permanent residents Visa's at that time. You will have to get up early and be in the lineup around 6:30am. The offices open at 8:30 am. I will meet you and join you in the line at 8:15 am" she said. "Your documents look in good order, Now enjoy the rest of the day and relax. My driver will take you to your hotel" (The Santa Monica).
Once our application is in she said to expect the Visa approval in 3-4 weeks. Once the Visa is in your passport, you have just 30 days to apply for our Cedulas (ID cards that by law every Ecuadorian or resident of Ecuador must carry at all times) That process takes 2-8 days, and it must be done in person, so....now our one month trip to Ecuador has become a possibly two month trip by the time everything is settled......if everything goes smoothly.
That afternoon, we toured around through the Park of the flowers (Park Des flores) and to some street vendors where Donna purchased a couple of Panama Hats for $10. Don't know if you are aware, but The Panama hat is made in Ecuador. The same hats (sombreros) were on sale in San Diego for $200. I saw them there three days before.
Then we hit the Coffee Tree, a favourite haunt of Ex Pat Gringo's. We sat outside on the patio and people watched for a couple of hours as we sipped our cold beer and wine. We listened to the chatter, much of it in English then, we headed back to the hotel. On the way home, we dropped into a Jazz club and had supper for $6 each. We spent an hour there listening to the a base guitarist and a 70 year old pianist playing Jazz. They were very talented. Then, we left for the hotel. We were tired and it was the end of our first 24 hours in Ecuador. I did not dare broach the question what do think then honey? I didn't want to know.
At 6:30 am sharp, Patricio (a man) the taxi driver turned up at the hotel and we loaded up the taxi with our suitcases and headed for the airport once again, this time, to fly to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. The flight was quick, just 40 minutes on a small prop airliner. I am not sure if Donna was trying to lift my spirits but as we were all stood in the aisle ready to deplane, she turned to me and said "do you realize, you are the tallest guy on this aircraft?"......I looked around and yes, at 5' 10" It was true. YES, I thought silently. I've made it. I was stood in the centre aisle of the aircraft looking down on these small Ecuadorian men. I mused for a moment - maybe I could get in the offensive line of the stampeders, and then again hmm. Maybe not. It was a fleeting moment of joy though.
Guayaquil is a port city of about 3.5 Million people, not somewhere we would want to be. We had decided that rather than catch the bus for the two and a half hour ride to Salinas, upon arrival, we would rather be met by a Taxi. The American girl who sells real estate in Salinas and who is managing the property we would rent sent her driver. The two and a half hour trip by taxi cost us $50. The bus would have cost us $8.50 each.
We pulled into Salinas, picked up the keys from the real estate office and headed to the apartment. Below are some pictures and views from the apartment, a 2100 sq.ft unit which has probably never been cleaned in the past year. It does have glass walls that slide back so the living room is wide open to the Pacific. These pictures are all taken from our living room in Salinas. As you can see, dusk is setting in here.
4:00 am - and Donna at the new Terminal 3 Las Vegas in a last bid to win money in lost Wages (Las Vegas). She walked away happy with $280 profit in her purse.
Good on yer babe.
The flight to Panama City, Panama was about six hours. As we flew in on our approach to Panama City, we caught a view of the massive Panama Canal out of the aircraft window. It was hot and humid when we arrived at the terminal, but not as oppressive as the heat one would find during summer time in Toronto.
A brief view of the Panama Canal as we approach Panama City
An hour later, we boarded another aircraft for the flight to Quito, Ecuador's capital city. We arrived in Quito as the sun was beginning it's fall from the sky and heading quickly towards dusk. A taxi driver was waiting to pick us up at the airport asked by our American host who runs a hotel there, to bring us to his hotel. We arrived at the hotel, a supposed brand new hotel and that was where we had our very first "reality check".
We pulled up in the taxi facing a very high wall and wooden gates probably ten feet high. "new hotel" I thought to myself, then boom, reality check two. Someone opened the gate and the taxi drove in. We quickly got out of the vehicle to be greeted by a small American fellow. I nearly asked where the hotel was, but it became blatantly obvious, we were looking at it. New, not quite, maybe 60 or 70 years old. It was the business that was new, "Welcome to our place he said......let me help you with your bags".
We entered through the front door directly into what was the reception area that doubled as a living room. There was the kitchen, the stove, the counter top over at the back and a fairly spacious room with two couches set at right angles to each other. Nothing spectacular but, we were tired and really, the only thing we needed to do was relax.
We were presented with the register to sign in and while Donna was taking care of that, my eyes wondered around the room trying to assess what the bedrooms were going to be like. Actually it did not really matter as we had played our last card.......we were there and the gates were ...........locked.
The hotel was really nothing more than a large eight or ten room house. Set in the countryside, hidden behind the large walls on each side and protected by a gate. I thought to myself.....all this place needs is a moat!
It was immediately evident to both of us, that this place resembled what you would find in any local town in Mexico. So, no big deal. No it wasn't the Ritz Carleton, but neither were the prices.
The owner of the hotel was a soft spoken American fellow from Ohio - fairly young, mid 30's to mid 40's who had lived in Ecuador for about two years. He told me he had also taught English as a second language in China. He's OK I thought! He introduced us to his girlfriend, a pretty young lady, who obviously did the cooking and helped him clean the rooms. They asked if we would like supper. After asking what was on the menu, he told us it would be chicken (pollo) and rice (arroz) and french fries, but to give him about an hours notice if we wanted to eat. Donna quickly shot me a glance and we gracefully declined supper, although we had not eaten anything but a sandwich since the night before. We did ask him if there was anything to imbibe upon prior to getting some shut eye. He said "oh yes", and pointed to display of red and white wines he had in one of those home-outfitter wine racks you sit on the counter top. Have you any cold (frio) wines? I asked. Yes he said! He pointed to the glass fronted refrigerator in the corner of the room. We quickly grabbed a bottle of cold white wine and a couple of cold beer, and headed to our room upstairs. Ah yes, the room. Reality check number 3.
We opened the door to be greeted with two beds. No, no I thought to myself, there must be some mistake. Nope, that was indeed our room. No mistake! Who's going to take the single bed and who gets the double we asked simultaneously? too tired to draw straws, we both jumped into the double... yes a double not queen. This was a far reach from the kIng bed we had got used to and just given away at home.
We filled our glasses, toasted each other drank it up, switched on the TV and fell asleep. During the night, I got up to go to the bathroom. Reality check no 4. As I switched on the light and closed the bathroom door I saw the sign on the door. it read. PLEASE DO NOT FLUSH YOUR TOILET PAPER DOWN THE TOILET - PLACE IT IN THE RECEPTACLE PROVIDED. Ewwww! That would have been Kath's reaction back home if she saw this I thought to myself.
People were coming and going all night. The following morning, we were flying out to Cuenca to meet up with our lady lawyer who is handling our file. We had asked the American fellow if we could have coffee in the morning. He said it would be ready at 5:30 am, which would allow us to drink it before the taxi driver turned up.
When we came down to the living room, there were about 6 or 8 suitcases in the middle of the room. They were presumably from the people who arrived in the middle of the night. They obviously were tired, checked in and headed for bed. I asked if they were locals that had arrived?. No he said, they are Americans who are doing just like you - moving to Ecuador. They arrived at 3 am this morning. The taxi driver turned up promptly at 5:30 am, we loaded our suitcases and bid the American goodbye.
Lina our lawyer has a doctorate in law and specializes in Immigration. I was so looking forward to meeting her. I wanted to unload all these vital original documents for a fear of losing them or having them stolen.
As we entered the airport at Quito for the flight to Cuenca, I learned lesson No 1. Men do not wear shorts in either Quito or Cuenca. We were strolling through the airport trying to locate the check-in desks and I saw hundreds of people looking me up and down which made me feel kind of uncomfortable. It was not until I started to look around that I realized, no-one was in Shorts.........except me that is. dawb! as Bart Simpson would say.....and my slacks were in the checked baggage. Oh well, I won't make that mistake again. Ecuadorians are very self conscious about their dress and their shoes.
On arrival in Cuenca, we were met by our lawyer's driver and immediately taken to her office. Lina, our lawyer is a nice lady. She also owns a Real Estate Company. I handed her the original documents and she looked them over. "I would like you here on Wednesday August 21. We will apply for your permanent residents Visa's at that time. You will have to get up early and be in the lineup around 6:30am. The offices open at 8:30 am. I will meet you and join you in the line at 8:15 am" she said. "Your documents look in good order, Now enjoy the rest of the day and relax. My driver will take you to your hotel" (The Santa Monica).
Once our application is in she said to expect the Visa approval in 3-4 weeks. Once the Visa is in your passport, you have just 30 days to apply for our Cedulas (ID cards that by law every Ecuadorian or resident of Ecuador must carry at all times) That process takes 2-8 days, and it must be done in person, so....now our one month trip to Ecuador has become a possibly two month trip by the time everything is settled......if everything goes smoothly.
That afternoon, we toured around through the Park of the flowers (Park Des flores) and to some street vendors where Donna purchased a couple of Panama Hats for $10. Don't know if you are aware, but The Panama hat is made in Ecuador. The same hats (sombreros) were on sale in San Diego for $200. I saw them there three days before.
Then we hit the Coffee Tree, a favourite haunt of Ex Pat Gringo's. We sat outside on the patio and people watched for a couple of hours as we sipped our cold beer and wine. We listened to the chatter, much of it in English then, we headed back to the hotel. On the way home, we dropped into a Jazz club and had supper for $6 each. We spent an hour there listening to the a base guitarist and a 70 year old pianist playing Jazz. They were very talented. Then, we left for the hotel. We were tired and it was the end of our first 24 hours in Ecuador. I did not dare broach the question what do think then honey? I didn't want to know.
At 6:30 am sharp, Patricio (a man) the taxi driver turned up at the hotel and we loaded up the taxi with our suitcases and headed for the airport once again, this time, to fly to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. The flight was quick, just 40 minutes on a small prop airliner. I am not sure if Donna was trying to lift my spirits but as we were all stood in the aisle ready to deplane, she turned to me and said "do you realize, you are the tallest guy on this aircraft?"......I looked around and yes, at 5' 10" It was true. YES, I thought silently. I've made it. I was stood in the centre aisle of the aircraft looking down on these small Ecuadorian men. I mused for a moment - maybe I could get in the offensive line of the stampeders, and then again hmm. Maybe not. It was a fleeting moment of joy though.
Guayaquil is a port city of about 3.5 Million people, not somewhere we would want to be. We had decided that rather than catch the bus for the two and a half hour ride to Salinas, upon arrival, we would rather be met by a Taxi. The American girl who sells real estate in Salinas and who is managing the property we would rent sent her driver. The two and a half hour trip by taxi cost us $50. The bus would have cost us $8.50 each.
We pulled into Salinas, picked up the keys from the real estate office and headed to the apartment. Below are some pictures and views from the apartment, a 2100 sq.ft unit which has probably never been cleaned in the past year. It does have glass walls that slide back so the living room is wide open to the Pacific. These pictures are all taken from our living room in Salinas. As you can see, dusk is setting in here.
Night comes very quickly here. One minute it's light, then it's dark. 24/7/365
This next shot is taken from our living room
What more could we want than this?
Tuesday (tomorrow) is a big day. We are up early and have to catch a bus for the return trip to Guayaquil, then a flight back up into the Andes to Cuenca. It's also my 65th birthday. We will join the line of people waiting to get their papers approved at the government offices on Wednesday then we will fly back to Guayaquil and catch a bus back to our apartment in Salinas. We anticipate having to stay here for a further 4 - 6 weeks and hopefully then, we will have our permanent residents visas, and the real adventure will start to unfurl.
Yesterday we took a walk along the Malecon It was about a two to three kilometre walk,. We turned around for the journey back and decided to swap over to the other side of the street for the journey back. We walked about a 1/4 mile and saw an open bar with what appeared to be many people like ourselves busy in conversation.
The girl outside the bar asked if we wanted to come in for a drink. Why not we said, and we found ourselves immediately in the midst of many Ex Pats all interacting with each other. We had a great time. We met lots of people eager to help us out, fun staff who had smiles that seemed larger than their faces could hold and they all had time. No rush. The first word you must learn is Mañana. Most people who know Spanish think that Mañana means tomorrow. Actually we have already learned that mañana in real terms means not today....sometime in the future.
Donde Esta El Banos por favour? I asked the waitress. She pointed in the direction of a small circular wall with no signs on. As I headed toward the wall looking for the gents washroom, I heard the grey haired Ecuadorian behind my back say in Spanish....."that guy speaks Spanish. I know him from somewhere". NOT I thought. upon my return towards Donna sitting chatting at the bar with an older version of Dave Murray, a very good friend of ours from Calgary, the grey haired man stood up as I passed by........he held out his hand and said. I'm Eddie, this is my wife. Please join us. Not wishing to be rude, I sat down and found out that his wife is one of the local dentists. He does odd jobs to keep himself occupied and he like many Ecuadorians creates his own opportunities. OK, more beer. More talk..... Believe it or not, he and his wife had recognized my face from one of the Ecuador Groups I had joined on Facebook....amazing.
Eduardo and his wife Paola Berreto (dentista) with Donna. Lovely people, salt of the earth,
All of a sudden, one of the waiters comes over, I believe he is from Argentina. We speak...trying to learn our language are you? Se was my reply. I speak German fairly fluently, so this is not a big deal, at that point he slipped seamlessly into German as if to test my truthfulness. Bad move. I had lived and served in Germany for a long time. He asked me a question in German to which I replied in German. Paola, not to be left our, immediately came back with a German statement. So there we were, this waiter, an Argentinian I believe, the dentist, an Ecuadorian and me, an Ex pat Brit now a Canadian all speaking in German in Ecuador. Very strange but we had a lot of fun.
Well, today was relaxation day. One of the ladies in our building Cathy, took us on the bus to the Mall in La Libertad. Donna got to try out the ATM and bingo, money came out. Great. Now we know we will not be destitute as it worked perfectly.
We walked around the local shopping mall and quickly came to the conclusion there is no such thing as XXL here or if there is, it's a well kept secret. Oh well, I have two options, trim down and fit into XL tee shirts or, buy them in the US. That also applies to shoes. Here, they are very expensive.
I have probably bored you too much by now, so it's time to sign off. What to do, what to do. Nothing until tonight when we are meeting up with a bunch of Ex Pats at a restaurant and bar for Ribs. More next time. Keep safe and for those of you who were worrying about our safety, Don't. Guns are banned in Ecuador and it's as safe to walk down the street here as is is in any district in Calgary.
Buenas Suerte.
