The Ecuador Adventure Begins

What David and Joan do in Ecuador

Hot Sauce in Bahia

    We have been in Ecuador for about 8 months now and it has been quite a mix of adventure and ennui. Originally, we came to Ecuador by boat (see hotsaucechronicles.blogspot.com) on our way to the South Pacific. I had a couple of health issues left over from Mexico and before, so this seemed like a good place to get some help.

     I had a toothache while in Mexico, which the dentist determined would require a root canal. He said it would take 3 weeks after the infection cleared up. It was getting late in the season for favorable weather and we did not want to spend the stormy season in Mexico where we were very hot and steamy most days, did I mention the ferocious mosquitoes? It was kind of like Houston or Baton Rouge in the summer, but 10 degrees hotter. The dentist drilled out the root and gave me antibiotics to prevent infection until I could get the job completed in Ecuador. I had managed to pick up some nasty stomach cooties the last week in Mexico which seemed to miraculously fade away as we got ready to depart. It appears that the antibiotics I was given for the abscess had almost killed off the amoebas I had acquired in Mexico. At least enough to let us get out to sea and on our way prior to the return of Monteczumas revenge. I had another batch of amoxycillin just in case it flared up, so that helped provide a little relief.

    Upon arrival in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador, I sought out a dentist to complete the root canal. I found a great dentist/ortho guy, who did the root canal without incident. Very competent guy, spoke no english, only cost $200 for the whole treatment. At the same time I went to the local hospital to deal with the amoebas, where I was referred to the emergency room. They did lab work and decided that I did indeed have evil invaders at work inside me. The doctor wrote me a script for amoxycillin. I told her about the two courses I had already taken and she went straight to the miracle shots, which blasted it out in a couple of days. Total cost was zero, don't try this at home, lol. It still took weeks to get my digestive balance back in order. After prolonged cooty infestations, you really have to work to get the good bugs back, largely thanks to a pharmacist Joan went to in Cuenca.

Cuenca bridge to the colonial city

    Why Cuenca you may ask? It is a beautiful colonial city in a valley about 8 thousand feet above sea level, with some of the best medical care available in South America. We were ready for some cool mountain weather and a change of scenery. We also came to seek treatment for my achilles tendons which had become very sore from inactivity resulting from an injury to my foot. Unlike some physical problems, inactivity and rest make it worse instead of better. We also wanted to seek out a dermatologist for some skin work. Sailing in the tropics can be very hard on your skin. Being on the equator high in the mountains gives it one of the highest skin cancer rates on earth, which means the doctors get lots of practice diagnosing and treating it.

    The medical system here is very different from the health industry in the USA. It is all about caring for patients here, while it seems to be all about the money back in the states. The first stop was a dermatologist, which meant just showing up at his office and getting a consult for $30. He told us to come over to his other office for treatment the next day. We went over and got some funky spots frozen off. I had one particularly large one on my shin which required several treatments about a week apart, with a follow up a week or so later. Total cost? the $30 consult fee covered it all.     I went to an orthopaedist for my tendons and got referred to a Physical Therapist to try to work it out. After about 10 sessions, I was much better, but needed to stretch and exercise for a few months to finish it up.

View from the road to Loja

    While we waited for the follow up with the dermo guy, we went to Vilcabamba, the so called sacred valley of eternal youth. While hanging out there, I came across a small property high on a hill with drop dead gorgeous views of the valley. It was a small lot beside a public trail with a rustic cabin and no road access. After taking Joan up to look and a few more visits, we decided a small piece of paradise would suit us nicely and made an offer for it. We struck a deal and agreed to do the transaction when we returned in December, after visiting friends and family in the USA.

Misc pics of Yamburara Alto property

    Getting time to relax and think about the whole situation led us to the conclusion that we probably didn't want to sail to the south pacific as much as we thought. Many of the islands have limited food supplies and are very poor and will likely go hungry later if they sell food to us. A boat like Hot Sauce is built for fast passages, but can't carry heavy loads. It involves some long passages and we aren't as confident of our self sufficiency as we once were.

Christmas parade scene in Cuenca

Volcano view

Tiny street food vendors

llama crossing

Fanny, our Banos horseback guide

River crossing

Street mural in Banos

Fresh tuna in Manta

turning trees into boats

New keel for this one

San Clemente beach

    We really like being in Ecuador for many reasons. The people here are generally open and friendly, with very few who appear angry or dangerous. It is very rare to see anyone in a spirited argument. Many times I have been approached by strangers in the park wanting to know my life story and share theirs with me. Good spanish practice as well as culturally enlightening. The don't hesitate to ask how old you are, how you make a living, how much money you make or what your property cost. A different concept of privacy, for sure. The cost of living is dramatically lower than many of the places we have been, expecially the US. Medical care is excellent, affordable and readily available here. The climate is absolutely amazing. We are right on the equator, yet due to the altitude it is always warm in the daytime and cool at night. Even in the rainy season, it is always comfortable. We were cold in Cuenca at 8500 ft., but not a problem in Malacatos at 5200 feet. 

    This has to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth. We are constantly amazed at the scenery and spectacular views. The government is stable with little or no regulation or social engineering. It is much more like a community government with all for one and one for all. If you do want to do something that affects the community, you must get agreement that it is not detrimental to the community, but there is almost no regulation other than common sense items like you not blocking the road or interfering with the irrigation system. You are free to do whatever you like on your property provided it doesn't negatively affect the community. Build anything you like on your land, live anyway your like, no ones business but your own. 

    The mild climate means you don't need heat or a/c. Many houses don't have windows, just curtains or nothing. The electricity we use is hydroelectric so there is almost no carbon footprint for its use. The water comes from high up in the mountains where there are no people so there is no water treatment or transportation costs. We filter our drinking water just to be sure, but we are told that they never use the chlorinization system as it always tests safe. Our water comes from above the water treatment plant, so we just get pure natural mountain goodness. The growing season is year round, so gardening and local produce are always available. There is no industry in this area, so the air is extremely clean, particularly so up high above town where the property is. We just love it all. Perhaps the south pacific will wait.

    While in the US, I began to have some stomach cramps and indigestion around where my appendix would have been, had it not been transferred to medical waste facility a few years earlier. I was terrified that I would have to go to a hospital in the US and be bankrupted by the medical industry. Fortunately, we made it back to Ecuador, where we stayed in a beach apartment in Playa Manzanita, near Manta, while we applied for a visa extension. This all went smoothly and we were granted another 180 days to pursue our dreams. You cannot stay longer than that without applying for residency, which we will probably do next trip. We then went up to Cuenca to check out my stomach. Turns out that the appendectomy scar had herniated and would need a do over. Went into the hospital a few days later and had a large plastic patch put in to repair the swiss cheese like leftovers from the prior surgery.

"You cannot pass" sez Gandalf 

View from the hospital room

    Two nights in the hospital, large private room and all the surgical stuff including surgeon cost about $1600, less than two months of my last insurance premium in the US. A couple of weeks of hanging out in Cuenca, and we were off to pursue our hillside fantasy.

Loja city gate

Furnished rental complete with cows

     We found a small house in Malacatos, near Vilcabamba for rent for $225 a month. When we got to Vilcabamba, we were told that the owner of the property we wanted to buy thought the price we had agreed on was too cheap and we could afford about 25% more if we wanted the property. I was told that this was not uncommon, but I felt like a deal is a deal, and we decided to look around some before buying anything. In that process, we came across a more accessible, yet more remote piece of land about 10 times as large for the same price. The first place was about 1300 square meters, while the one we bought is 13,400 square meters or about 3 1/2 acres, enough to insure a measure of privacy. The only neighbors we can see are across the valley at least a kilometer away. The original place had no road access and no possibility for one as it was up a steep trail. We were no longer feeling like 400 meters up a steep, sometimes muddy trail was acceptable for us, as we aren't getting any more mobile, and getting building materials on site was going to be a challenge. The new property is about 800 feet higher than Malacatos, and should be a little cooler and drier. The property is a good example of micro climates as the building site is dry and airy, while the bottom edge along the creek is damp, cool, and full of butterflies and ferns.

View down from new property

    We negotiated the construction of a road and the water hookup into the price of the new place, so we were pretty happy about how it was working out. The new property is a little higher and drier, so we think it will be perfect for us. It turns out you need a 4 wheel drive to get up to the new place so some of the logistics, like getting a taxi to take us up and retrieve us was a bit more difficult, as not too may taxis are 4wd. Still, you can get a lot of taxi rides for less than the overhead of acquiring a 4x4.

The new road with the trail on the left showing the southern border of the property

Building site at end of driveway

View up valley to Podocarpus Park

Lots of yummy berries surround us

waterfall on our seasonal creek

    The road went in and we closed the deal with the promise of the water yet to come. The road turned into a challenge, as the local junta or governing group gets do decide where the road access for the driveway is and they picked a spot much further from the building site than we had planned. It ended up costing them about $4000, instead of the estimated $1200 we had been quoted. When the original contractor ran into solid rock along the ridge, he bailed. 17 sticks of dynamite and some jackhammer work fixed that, but another tractor guy had to be brought in to finish it. We were certainly glad that we weren't in charge of that project.

Clearing brush next to building site

This is why we need a gate

Digging a post hole in the rocks

Another post hole on the other side of the road

    The next week we hired a maestro to assemble a crew to put a gate up on the road to keep the cows out and to clear the building site so we could get a real feel for the place. The second day of work, we were up supervising when a torrential downpour turned our new road into a bit of a river with couple of waterfalls.

Walking down with the guys

   The guys were wet and cold and there was no taxi to pick then up at the appointed hour. Upon calling the taxi guy, we found out that the lower road was impassable and we would have to walk down. At least we had ponchos, unlike our dauntless workers. It took a while, but when we got down it was clear why the taxi hadn't come up, as there was a river running down the road with rocks the size of basketballs rolling along in it.

    Kind of a bummer to see our new road all messed up in the first week, but we later found out it takes years to get one established. It seems that a lot of Ecuador is in motion in the rainy season. The next day the road was passable but rough, and the work resumed. I had the cutters clear a path down below the road for access to some of the lower areas, and the diggers finished up the holes. Then next day, the crew went up to a eucalyptus forest and gathered some poles for the gate and future building projects.

tools of the trade

clearing a trail

finished hole on the downside

4 of the 6 eucalyptus poles

Moving the poles down the drive

all together now

gathering large rocks for concrete in holes

the rock pile

    The next day they moved the poles down the drive to the gate site. They brought 4 poles 6 meters long and 2 poles 8 meters long, very heavy green eucalyptus. When the poles were moved, they gathered large rocks to use in the holes with concrete to set the poles. They also brought a pickup load of sand and one of gravel. The promised water, however was yet to show up. 

    At this point we felt that we needed water and didn't need any big rains while we were playing with the concrete. I told the crew we were done for now, and I would let them know when the water showed up. Yes they could have carried buckets of water from the waterfall by the road above the property, but we were also concerned about the weather. Several locals told us summer was the time for this kind of work, never in winter. You may wonder why it is winter south of the equator at the same time it is winter in the US. I suppose the government office in Quito which sets the standard is on the north side of the equator which happens to divide the capitol. It sort of makes sense, as the winter is the rainy season and the summer is the dry season. I suppose the equator is an arbitrary line like a time zone, and the actual line is kinda fuzzy. 

   A few more storms pretty much undid the progress on the gate and I managed to aggravate my foot trying to walk the path the guys had cut. They are like mountain goats, and me, not so much. I went to a Dr. in Loja, got an xray and discovered a large bone spur on my heel which was probably the origin of all this foot stuff. The Loja guy told me to take anti inflammatories and come back in three weeks. We thought about for about a day, and decided to see if the Cuenca ortho agreed that the bone spur was a problem. I e-mailed a pic of the xray to him and he replied come on in, I can help you. He was in New  York for a conference, so we waited till the next Monday to head to Cuenca. He agreed that the spur had to go. Checked into the hospital a couple of days later and got it handled. Stayed 3 nights this time for pain management as bone surgery is really painful. The third night jacked the bill up by $50 over the first stay, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

    Back to Malacatos for some r&r. Decided to stop work on the property until we got the water hooked up and also wait for the weather to cooperate. We were told that no one builds in the rainy season as its just to hard to get anything done. we had a couple more good rains, one of which actually washed 2 of the poles off the road and partially down the hill. I hired a couple of local guys by asking one of the builders if he knew anyone. He turned up with his brother in law to do it for us. He is 58 and his brother in law is 70. I kinda hoped for some young bucks, but could hardly turn them away.

first he built a gate for the cows took 2 hours and cost $20

next is excavate and gather the poles

truck couldn't get traction

they moved them manually with levers

    It took a couple of days, but they are all back together now except the two largest which defy human efforts and will stay put for now. I wanted to get a tractor up to clean up the road a bit and move the last two, but they seem to be too busy right now for such a small job. The old fellows think it is too expensive and can be done by hand, but I feel bad about working anyone that hard when a machine can do it. There are some refrigerator sized boulders on part of the road at present, and I am not so sure they can be moved by hand. The tractor costs $20/hr. with operator, while workers cost $15-20/day. The road project involves diverting the rain river from the road, or directing it safely across with pipes or concrete, and moving the rubble that has tumbled down from above to fill in the downside eroded away by the rain. After you move the rubble, more will come down until it is done, but you must move the old to give it room. Locals tell me it usually takes about 4 years before it is completely stable. 

they cut a bunch of poles to make a living fence

when they set the poles they will take root

we be fenced 

We finally got water installed

Really, here is the water meter

    It took 2 months to get the water installed, and most of it was a complete mystery as to the process. I believe the realtor was working some kind of deal to transfer existing water rights at a cost of $600 instead of obtaining new rights for $2000. In the end we got an e-mail telling us to go pay the actual installation cost of $367 if we wanted water. They thought they had already spent too much for the road and didn't need to honor our agreement to pay for the water also. We sucked it up and paid for it because we wanted to have this checked off our list and ready for future efforts. I violated one of my basic rules from cruising "never do business with gringos outside the US" and this shows why it is a rule to obey.

    We had hoped to build a cabin on the hill before our visas are used up, but we heard stories of project overruns and partial construction left to fend for itself when visas forced the owner out of the country. We should be back in July when we get fresh visas, and then it will be the season to build. We have several local recommendations for the right folks to do it right and quickly.

    When the foot surgery was deemed to be healed enough, I went to see a specialist about "Ondas de Choques" or shock wave therapy to clean up the calceum deposits in my achilles tendons and to generally stimulate regeneration of them. Very painful, but quite fascinating technology. The Dr. trained in Germany and was going to a conference in a few weeks in Milan, so he is quite up on it. Seems to be working well, but time will tell as it takes a while to realize all the results.

    We will be leaving in a week for the coast to get Hot Sauce ready to sail so that we can head up to Mexico and put it in a work yard for painting and to store it out of the water for the season. The mooring ball in Bahia is one of the few things we don't find economical here. We will be able to come play in Mexico next rainy season in Ecuador if we want to.

    My son Steven is flying down to help with the sailing and see the world, so it should be a great trip. We should return to Ecuador in mid July and resume our adventures.