Gringolandia, Cuenca's Clicks, Missed Items From the United States, Missing FurBaby Casper, Our New Happy Healthy Life in Cumbe, Cuenca Canton, Azuay Province, Ecuador, and a Big Request

Okay so despite our best efforts to try to move from the hotel in Cuenca into one single rental place and not four or five as so many other expats we encounter, has failed. We really did try to find a perfect home the first time around. After four months of living in hell, we finally found a better place to call home. This one has no black mold, no complaints of dogs barking (when it's not our dogs) and no one tromping through the hallways drunk at 3am.

The Yellow House in Cumbe

We are ecstatic!!! We live in Cumbe, Ecuador now. The valley we now live in is surrounded on all four sides by beautiful Andean mountains. We have corn fields on three sides of our home. Plus, we live at the end of a road so there is little traffic and it feels very safe.

Wow, I can't say enough positive things about our landlord and his family. They are some of the nicest folks we have ever encountered. They are like family to us. All we do is mention an issue and they help. They built a cistern for the house and it has improved the water pressure and supply. We don't have to worry about a lack of water now. To thank them we made some American Chili with rice and it was devoured. It is winter here in Ecuador now and the day we chose to make the chili it was raining and cold. A perfect time to enjoy a hearty warm meal. 

Hearty Beef and Bean Chili

We plan to host another gathering with our landlord, his kids, and their kids as well.  Plus, our close friends Soledad, her husband Jim, and their two cute little boys.  A house this large is perfect for gathering large groups of people and having a good time.  We do need to get more furniture and dinnerware to be ready for such a large group.  Maybe in October we can make it happen.  I hope to post some photos afterwards and write about it on here.

We moved into this house with some blind faith for things to happen.  For example, there was no phone line.  No internet, nothing!  We tried to get the local utility to supply internet.  A financial incentive was even discussed.  No avail for them to install the net on our street not to mention the yellow house with the only gringos living in Cumbe in it.  We waited for almost two months and within two days of discussing our concerns with the landlords, satellite internet was installed and we were online.  While its a bit slow, there is no limit on usage so it makes us all really happy.  It's also very stable so we are very happy to have it.

When we came to Ecuador we didn’t bring a television.  That has bite us in the butt a bit. We have had to set aside much money for the visa process and we have bought some furniture and a refrigerator.  We still have to buy a washer and dryer, stove/oven, and maybe a deep freezer, as well. Oh, I almost forgot, a TV!!!  Mama would kill for a TV, right now. No Apple TV, we are using a computer to watch movies on but its volume is pretty low and it can make some movies really hard to watch.

Casper with His Little Alien

That reminds me of a family emergency that came up while we were offline. Amanda, Heather's sister had a Furbaby Casper, a cat that Heather, Mama, and Amanda had raised since he was a kitten. Casper was pretty old and had some serious health issues and he finally passed away.  It only took a short while for the news to reach us here through a grapevine we had created for emergencies.  Our grapevine and connection to the outside would has been Soledad.  The next morning after we got the news Heather and I scooted off to La Yunta to use the internet so she could try to Magic Jack call Amanda and they could talk.  It was heart breaking to hear of Caspers passing.   He was a fun, curious, and loving cat that stole your heart in seconds. We will miss him very much.

Really our only outside contact to the world has been our friends that own LaYunta, Soladad and Jim. They were so helpful in helping us figure out everything from how to rent the "Yellow House," rural cabs, and the internet.  We owe them so much.  They are incredibility busy with their two sons, running both a restaurant and furniture/decor business.  Yet they have stopped everything to help out countless times.  We will be forever in debt to our dear friends.  Thank you for all the help!

That’s a small update that we wanted to share.  We thought life here in the country would be more simple and quiet.  Especially without the internet or TV.  It's funny but being retired is a lot of work! Mama even goes on strike some days and refuses to do anything but sew.  She is determined to relax she says.  Heather and I keep plugging away with the seemingly endless list of things we need and want to accomplish.

The difficult part of living in the country with no vehice is that it is a serious outing to go into Cuenca and do our shopping.  Due to transportation costs we are trying to reduce our monthly number of trips into town to two times per month.  It means we have to hire a rural cab (a 4 door pickup) and off we go for 5-7 hours worth of errands.

We bought a weed whacker for cutting the grass and we ended up spending a day trying to find a cord at an affordable price.  Finally, I realized the best route was to make my own.  Which would cost us a third of the price and it would be two times longer in length.  It does require a bit of creativity to find solutions to some of the problems that arise.  You really have to be flexible and think outside of the box a lot here to resolve issues that back in the states would be a simple trip to Walmart or Home Depot to fix.  This happens a lot here.

I recall a conversation I had with another expat and they expressed disbelief that we had only been here for 6 months given how we had encountered so much and figured out a lot. I chalk that up to all the time spent on the internet prior to coming. While there was a lot of info to be had, a lot of it was misleading or just plain wrong. You kind of have to filter it out and take what you need from it.

We have observed that the expats here seem to gather in clicks.  There are those that are living in "Gringolandia" and they spend most of their time with others living in the same area.  Then there are some individuals that also gather a following of gringos, that hover around them like flies do to something that stinks.  Of course, I am generalizing here and not all gringos follow this click group stuff.  But a large amount of them do.  They seem to isolate from the fact that they live in Ecuador. They only associate with other gringos.

That is not us!!!  We are the only gringos in the entire city of Cumbe. We didn’t move to Ecuador to get to know just gringos.  We want to and work at making friends with Ecuadorians, as well.  It is their country and they allow us the privilege to reside in their country.  We respect their way of living and doing things.  While it might be different from our ways that does not mean it needs to change. We do!!!  And we work on that all the time. I hope other expats who decide to come to Ecuador to live come with an open mind, and try not to become stuck in a group where they do nothing but talk to other gringos.  To us it's fun and exciting to discover new things.  After all is that not one of the best reasons to come here and not just move to some part of the United States that we could afford to eek out a sad existence?

There are so many benefits to living here. The water is clean, the food is tasty, the food is affordable, and the food is free of 99% of the junk that is present in the food in the United States.  Almost nothing here comes in a box or can.  We are all losing weight, feeling better, and are much more active.  The air in Cumbe is fresh, clean and invigorating.  We live in a home that in the United States would cost well over half a million dollars in most major urban areas of the United States.  And we pay a pittance to rent it.  Our expenses here are well under a half of what we would spend in the United States.  Maybe even a third less.

OMGosh Yummy Creamy Jif Peanut Butter

Awesome Sriracha

Honey Bear

There are some things we do miss.  I miss my Sriracha Chili sauce.  And all of us really miss Jif peanut butter.  And the honey here has a heavy flower flavor that we just can't adapt to.  Most everything else we can find or adapt to.  Some things take time to search for.  Some you just do without.  But for us we would love to extend an invation to anyone who comes to Ecuador.

PLEASE bring us some Jif Peanut Butter, Sriracha hot sauce, and honey.  We will give you a tour of a mercado, answer any and all questions, help solve your issues when you arrive, and even buy you lunch.  And of course we would reimburse you for the cost of the items and all your efforts.  It matters little what part of Ecuador you come to, we have friends in a lot of areas and we can most likely find a way to get it to us.  We would just ask family to mail us a package but there is no real reliable postal service, even small boxes are subjected to high taxes and tariffs and there is the issue of the content of the package not making the trip.  After all if someone in the system wants to steal it, its not uncommon or unheard of.  So please, if you come here, message us and discuss with us if you can bring some things here for us.  We would be grateful and we would make it worth your time.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave comments!