Manta, Ecuador...No Me Gusta.

People ask me if I'm from Esmeraldas

 (Apparently all the black folks are in Esmeraldas:-)

Our plan was to head down the coast to Manta, stay a couple of days there, then head out to see our family in Bahia and possibly make Bahia our home. Manta is a city known for its beaches, ports, and fish...so we were excited to go check it out! We paid our money for the Manta Express and was told to be back (across the street from the American Embassy) by 8am the next morning. 

The next morning we arrived with about 10 other people. There were 12 of us loading up into the van.  The driver took all of our luggage, threw it on top of the van, tied it up, put a tarp over it so the luggage wouldn't get soaked if it rained.  We all climbed in and started on our 4 hour trek to Manta. The Manta Express was pretty comfortable. Lots of leg room for me but not for Hector. If you are
a bigger build and would like a roomier ride, than it may be better for you to take the bus throughout your travels of Ecuador. The bus terminal in Guayaquil is called the "Terminal Terrestre". You can take the bus from the Coast to Quito for very cheap ($8 pp). We did not get to experience the bus rides on this particular trip but let me just tell you it was an experience when we did! I will tell you about that later. 

One hour out of the city, we could see a big difference.  The poverty level took my breath away.  People living in houses smaller than the average garage back home in the States, maybe more closer to the size of 2 small storage units in the back yard. We would drive through little shanty towns and see people trying to sell fruits and vegetables they planted and grew. What a big difference from the city of downtown Guayaquil! I was told that some places in Guayaquil were like this as well. We also saw real cowboys! Imagine this: We are driving in the middle of a two lane highway and traffic is slowing down.  Right in front of us are a herd of cattle and cowboys on their horses trying to cross a busy street!!! I took some video and  on the video you can see the cows and on the other side a big bus driving; the cows were even looking both ways or so I thought!  They did really good, they made it across in one piece...no slabs of beef on the road today! LOL

The driver of the van was a young man who couldn't have been no more than 18-20 years old. Maybe he was younger...I don't know, but he was a pretty cool kid.  When we went through the towns, he would pull over to the side and motion for one of the young women on the street to bring to the car home-made empanadas or breaded food with meat that they were selling. The empanadas were only .20 so we all brought a couple of them...they were really good.  I hoped that I wouldn't get sick and I didn't.  But you have to be very careful of buying food on the street as you do not know how long the meat was sitting out or how clean the utensils or cookware is...it's a chance you may not want to take.  The guy told us that he buys from her all the time and that she is very trustworthy. We took him for his word. :-/

So we finally arrived in Manta! And..... I wanted to keep on driving to Bahia! I did not like it at all.  I will take Guayaquil over Manta any day.  We already had made reservations the day before at a nice hotel ($28 per night) but Hector had to convince me to stay. It was about 3pm when we arrived and the city was so crowded and congested; it was not the cleanest city either. The dock/port was nearby  full of boats and bigger boats, which I liked. Thank goodness the hotel was really nice. Not as spacious as the one in Guayaquil but it was nice with air conditioning.  The people there were nice too!

Our Chateau for $28 per night...not too shabby!

So instead of 2 nights we just stayed for the one night. It felt like an eternity because I did not like the city. We checked in, and then decided to go to this little restaurant on the corner for dinner.  We are in the fish capitol of Ecuador, so we were told; and decided to order fish and shrimp.  Well, the Spanish that Hector speaks is different from the Ecuadorian Spanish, instead of getting shrimp, I got something out of an alien movie! They had all these tiny claws and long antennas; looked like it was going to attack me.  They were called Langostinos! Hector of  course enjoyed them! Go figure!



Langostinos

I switched plates with Hector to let him chew on the creepy crawlers and ate the bass which was very good...thank goodness! We decided to walk around just to get a feel of Manta...and let me tell ya, I was not feeling it! It didn't feel safe to me. The streets were very dirty; we even saw an old man peeing on the street! I guess the motto here is, "When ya gotta go, just go...right where you stand!" Hector was like...ok, let's just go back to the hotel.  We stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and took advantage of the amenities within.  Later on that evening before it got dark, I sent my brave Hector out in search of food. He came back with a whole chicken and a half; we could literally feed 10 people with that chicken! (I am telling you the food here is no joke...be forewarned...you get a lot of food for your buck) So we took the half of chicken and gave the rest to the staff on duty that night...they loved it! 

We emailed Anna that we wanted to get the heck out of here, so Anna arranged for the taxi driver that they use in Bahia.  His name is Fabricio (Seriously, one of the nicest guys we have ever met) to pick us up for the 1.5 hour drive to Bahia de Caraquez.  Anna said she knew I would not like Manta; she didn't tell me because I had to see for myself! Thanks Anna! In Manta's defense, I know that many people do like the city and many people come from other nearby cities just to "hang out", go shopping, movies, etc., so maybe next time I will give it a fighting chance?!  Now onto Bahia de Caraquez!!

A walk around the block 

  

Now this is what I called an afternoon Siesta...shhhh

On our way to Bahia de Caraquez!

 

 

Contact info: conciserrano@gmail.com

Our Journey Begins...

U.S. Embassy

Guayaquil

So we are on a mission. We have arrived in Guayaquil and already loving the feel of the city.  It is the second largest city in Ecuador, Quito being the first, and Cuenca being the third. Guayaquil is home to one of our many Bethel facilities (this is where our literature is made; Watchtower, Awake, Bibles, brochures, tracts, etc). So we were excited about that too as we would like our children to set goals to volunteer their time to work at Bethel. So visiting is definitely on our "to do" list.

We stayed at the hotel Sol de Oro. It wasn't a fancy hotel but it was very clean and affordable.  I know some of my siblings would have preferred to stay at Hotel Oro de Verde or something of that caliber, and even at a cost of $100-150 per night, that would be very affordable for them.  But I am more of a frugal person and as long as it is clean, has air conditioning, TV, and is in a nice area, I'm good. So this hotel was $34 per night, I was hoping for something a little cheaper (just kidding), but it was very nice for the price.  Yep, the room was that big! And tile floors too! (I hate carpet)



This hotel had a cute little restaurant on the 3rd floor. Now I must warn you, when a hotel says it has a/c in the rooms...they have a/c only in the rooms! Not in the hall-way, not in the restaurant, not in the lobby, only in the rooms! Trying to eat breakfast in a 90 degree room is not very pleasant...try sipping on hot coffee too! Hector and I looked like toast when we came out of the restaurant! LOL  With affordable hotel stays as low as $28 per night, almuerzo's, 4 part lunches from $1.25-2.50 per person and dinner ranging from $3.50-6.00 per person, you can definitely travel all of Ecuador on a dime.  So we go out to eat Chinese for dinner. Let me warn you about the amount of food you get here! HEAPS!!! We each ordered shrimp-fried rice and wished we only placed one order. We got a mountain of shrimp and rice. There were sooooo many shrimp and they were huge too for $3.50 pp!



Restaurant at the Sol de Oro Hotel

Fashion! I love fashion, being raised in a city we were surrounded by it. I did not expect to see so much fashion when we travelled to this country. I have to say Ecuadorians know how to dress! The fashion here has a European flavor. Tailored skinny leg suits, scarves, big fashion jewelry, necklaces and big earrings.  Do not, I repeat, do not think third world country when it comes to fashion here.  When you come to visit don't just bring your hiking boots and gym shoes!! When we started travelling from the coast back to the city, we could see that fashion was definitely a "city thing" here in Guayaquil and Cuenca.  The men wore very nice business tailored suits and have this 'Italian scarf look' round their necks! Muy Elegante! And the women had their classy suits or dress pants with their high heels and knee boots! Yes, heels and knee boots everywhere! I felt like I was back home in Chicago! The first day we went walking around the city, I felt so under-dressed. But the next day I fitted right in! I stepped out like a movie star..wore my skinny jeans with my high heels, had my little jacket with my scarf wrapped around my neck and my sunglasses! I felt really good.... until my dawgs started barking! (My feet were killing me) I didn't last 30 minutes! How do these women do it? Walk around with high heels on concrete slabs for hours! I needed an S.O.S and high tailed it back to the hotel. Never did that again!!

So we found a cute little coffee shop here in Guayaquil. Yes, we are big coffee drinkers, well at least Hector is. It takes me a whole day to finish one cup of coffee....so I may not be as big a coffee drinker as the average person, but I MUST start my day with it (and finish it with the same cup:-/) We must have been in a high-class place because we ordered a croissant and coffee and it costs us a whopping $8.00 for the two of us! That's a lot for Ecuador!!
 
Guayaquil is a very busy city and as in every "big city" you do have to take precautions. In researching our move many of the blogs and Immigration Travel websites suggested to be very careful when travelling throughout Ecuador especially the bigger cities (Quito and Guayaquil). Here are a few of the suggestions: Do not get into miscellaneous taxi's and be attentive with all of your belongings because of petty theft muggings. At the airport taxi rides are pretty safe. Once you get to your hotel and decide you want to go somewhere, always have the hotel call a taxi for you. Although you can go outside and flag one down, it's better to be safe than sorry. Always travel in pairs and do not wear excessive jewelry that will draw attention to yourself. Watch all of your belongings; usually the thief works in a pair or groups..while one distracts you with a question or something to catch your attention the other is robbing you blind. So be very cautious of your surroundings.

I really liked Guayaquil. A lot of people are hesitant and afraid of this city. But I guess living in Chicago for 20 years helped me to enjoy the good parts of a city and to be careful and/or avoid the bad parts. Just being city-savvy and using common sense is the key to enjoying any big city.  There are a lot of things to do here, and places to see.  One definite must see is the Mall here in Guayaquil. It is HUGE! They have cinema's here in English and Spanish too! We visited a lot of little shops and there is a park downtown that was amazing.  The architectural structure of some of the buildings are very colonial and gave us that old town feeling.  We noticed a shop that the kids would go crazy for... DVD shops! They are every where throughout Ecuador.  The DVD titles are in Spanish, if you are not bi-lingual you can basically tell by the cover which movie it is.  They costs between $1-1.50. Can't beat that price and for bootlegs they are really good! 

We had a nice time in Guayaquil but it was definitely not a place where we could see raising our children.  So we contacted our cousin Anna and she gave us information for the Manta Express to take us to Manta our next stop which is about 4 hour trip and costs $12 pp.  The Manta Express for all who are travelling on a budget is a great experience.  It is a 12 passenger van that is very comfortable and has air conditioning too! You go to the office (which happened to be walking distance from our hotel) the day before you want to leave, pay the fee, let them know if you want to leave in the morning or afternoon...in our case the morning, which we had to be there 10 minutes before 8am.

**Here are some travelling tips for your benefit.  When shopping around town, always use small bills or change, a $10 bill is a large bill, $20 is even larger... this is for safety measures and also because shop owners usually can't change large bills. Always have the correct taxi amount (i.e., if your taxi costs you $2 do not give them a $5 bill.  You may get only $1-2 in change back...they will always try to over charge you for the ride) so always have the correct amount between $2-3 for a taxi ride.  When we got a ride from the airport it costs about $5 to get to our hotel so that was pretty reasonable as they handled our luggage too, but anything after that within the city should be less than that.

 The city of Guayaquil was awesome, now we are on our way to Manta...YAY!!!


Contact info: conciserrano@gmail.com

The Craziest Idea I Ever Heard!

That's what I and my girlfriend Jazmin thought 2 years ago when my husband Hector blurted out that we should move to another country...Costa Rica to be exact! We both looked at him and started to laugh.  I echoed Jazmin's words: "Tu Es Muy Loco!" (Translated, "You are crazy"). Day in and day out that's all my husband would talk about retiring and moving out of the country.  He would leave websites of beautiful beaches on my laptop (I was never a beach person, I was not impressed, besides we lived in Florida...beaches every where!!).  What did impress me were the "Low cost of living in South America" headlines. I worked 14 hour days in my commercial cleaning and painting business.  We made a nice living but at the end of the month we both wondered where did all the money go.  It was to the point that it was driving me crazy.  We weren't living extravagantly, we were just paying our monthly regular bills.  We were on a hamster wheel! One night, frustrated from looking at my ledger and the money that I "apparently" made that month, I decided to go to one of the  websites to investigate living abroad. I googled rental property in Costa Rica and found some pretty impressive low rentals.  So I started inquiring and searching blogs online and to my surprise a lot of Americans have moved to South America and abroad.  I began striking up conversations with my friends about living abroad and I really liked the feedback I was getting; so after a year, I decided to jump on the bandwagon with my husband's train of thought.  We eventually told our friend Jazmin and her husband Brad and they both screamed, "Tu Es Muy Loca, Tambien!" LOL

Yes, I was tired of trying to live the American dream that was actually an American nightmare.  Working long hours, kids stuck in the house because we were too afraid of what could happen if we were not home. Too tired on the weekend from working; trying to recoup our energies. Kids bored because they have been stuck in the house all week and looking at my husband and I to take them places. This was not living to us, so we decided to investigate this crazy idea a little bit more. I put it out in the virtual world that we were thinking of becoming expats and moving to Costa Rica. Boy am I glad I made that announcement...because my cousin Henry steered us from the wrong country to the very right country. Ecuador!

We both have never thought about moving to Ecuador, it never came up into our minds, our hearts, zip, nada, nothing! Ecuador? I questioned Henry. He proceeded to tell us that he had been studying different countries where he wanted to retire and also where his family could just enjoy day to day living on the beach and Ecuador was the best one out of all the countries he had studied. There was no money exchange rate or conversion because they use the American $, cost of living was definitely cheaper than Costa Rica by a landslide, the weather was beautiful year round (except for rainy season), this country was the easiet to learn Spanish for him and his daughter as his wife Anna was already bi-lingual. He told me so many things that after our first conversation I was sold! But... Hector had talked about Costa Rica for nearly 2 years so even though he liked what he was hearing about Ecuador, Costa was still in his system, so we decided to go country shopping and took a trip to Costa Rica. Let's just say everything my cousin Henry said about Costa Rica was true and then some.  It was soooooo expensive, the exchange rate drove us crazy! We knew that the driving in any country would be a bit much to take, but Costa Rica was insane! We rented a car for a week and took it back after only one day! Pedestrians DO NOT have the right away either, as we were neither safe in a car or walking.  When I thought of Costa Rica, I thought it would be like Jurassic Park, waterfalls every where, lushous landscapes, etc.  We went in search of a waterfall and drove for 2 hours...and got nothing.  We went back to the hotel to arrange for an excursion to the waterfall and the costs were unbelievable! $200 per person!   We left Costa Rica so disappointed and needless to say, Hector got Costa Rica out of his system right away.  Two weeks later we land in Ecuador. The difference was amazing. 

It was the end of rainy season when we got there, from the plane you could see where the city of Guayaquil (the second largest city in Ecuador) took a beating from the rain.  Some roads had been washed out and houses were sitting in the middle of what seemed like a lake, water was everywhere.  My heart sunk. But when we landed, it was not as bad as it looked from in the plane.  Not knowing what to expect in another country when it comes to the weather and natural disasters was constantly on my mind at this point. So I was very skeptical.  Yes, I know I come from hurricane valley, but being centrally located in Florida, we were somewhat protected from the elements. In my  23 years of living there, we've had 5 hurricanes and 4 of them hit Lakeland in 2004 and eventually turned into tropical storms. So yes, we have been very fortunate.  Now we are considering to move to a place where tsunami's, flash floods and mud slides could come from any direction, yes, it was a bit nerve-wrecking to think about, yet, we continued on our trip with high hopes that we could live in this country.  Rainy season here in Ecuador starts in January and ends in March.  We arrived March 1st so it was just ending.

We had 16 days to find out (1) if THIS was the country we wanted to live in, (2) find a cozy city where the kids could keep busy , (3)  Find a nice house or apt to rent, (4) Inquiry about schools; public or private. So we began our journey.

The craziest idea I had ever heard was becoming a reality!

Contact info: conciserrano@gmail.com