Why We Moved - Episode Three

When we last saw our couple from the Saturday serial they were stuck in a cabin with the winter wind roaring outside.  As the big fish eye lens opens on this episode, we find them standing outside the cabin with the sun shining and the snow almost melted. All seems well until we see another buckboard coming up the muddy trail and stopping in front of the cabin. In the buckboard is an evil looking thin man, dressed all in black, and sporting a big handle bar mustache. He seems surprised to see our couple and, although there is no sound in our serial except for a tiny piano playing sound track,  it soon becomes evident that this is his cabin. As he strokes his mustache and leers at our heroine we can see that he wants money (or something else!) to let them stay there. Our hero brings out a very thin cloth wallet and begins counting out money. When he is finished there is not much left in the wallet. The evil landlord gives them a long look with special attention on our heroine and, with a last twist of his mustache, heads back down the trail. Our couple look at each other and at their thin wallet. It's obvious he will be back. What will they do?

(Photo is Pre-Covid)

Which brings us to the third reason we moved to Ecuador: The Cost of Living.


 Remember, with both Ken and Sharon not working, our monthly income was going to be reduced by 60%. As you can imagine, not an insignificant amount. All essential services had to be within our meager budget. (No more waiting until the next pay cheque). Daily expenses here in Loja are minimal.      There are markets, food stores, pharmacies, medical clinics, dentists, hospitals (we think six in Loja, both private and public) everywhere throughout the city. In fact, there are pharmacies practically on every corner since the Covid-19 pandemic began.                                                                               

                                                                                  And, veterinarians everywhere.  The cost for a check up at the vet is $5.00, with a blood test the cost skyrockets to $10.00, with the results in 24 hours. Dylan had an examination, ultrasound, then needed intravenous medication twice within two weeks and received oral medication for two weeks. The total cost ... wait for it!...$45.00! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           No more leaving the grocery store with 2 bags of food costing $50.00. There is an abundance of meats, seafood and fish, produce, legumes, pastas and fruits often with the choice of deciding the quantity too.


This photo shows one purchase at the local market  for Vegetales! Verduras! 

Lemons .50, 15 limes .25, 1 lb fresh peas .25, 4 peppers .25, celery .25, 6lbs tomatoes $1.00,
4lbs yams .50, 1lb acorn squash .50, broccoli .30, bananas .40, 4 zucchini .40, bread (buns) .80  The total? Wait for it ...............$5.40!   The flowers cost $1.50



Meals in restaurants or to take-out vary from $2.50 - $8.00. A typical mid-day meal (almuerzo) is $2.75 - $3.50. This would include a hearty soup, followed by a main meal of fish, prawns, meat or chicken with fresh vegetables, rice and salad and a choice of juice or coffee.
Snacks (bocadillos) - Sharon's favourite is a bag of fresh chifles with salsa which are fried plantano chips, or chicken or cheese tamales, or humitas, or an empanada all for .50 each!



Currently we are on private health insurance ($250.00 per month which covers both of us). We do not yet have the national health care insurance ($75.00 per month). But we can afford the basics without the coverage. Sharon recently had her teeth cleaned with x-rays taken and this visit cost .....wait for it......$60.00!

So there it is. The third reason we are here in this quiet friendly place and enjoying every minute.

And spare a thought for our intrepid couple from the buckboard. After pacing back and forth with much gesticulating and some tears we find them walking down the road into the sunset. As the camera zooms in we see a piece of paper drop out of the woman's handbag and flutter to the ground. The camera zooms in to reveal a poster advertising free land for homesteaders in California. We pan up to see the dust rising from their worn shoes as they disappear over the hill and the fish eye slowly closes. Will they make it? Tune in next week.

Why We Moved - Episode Two

 When we last left our intrepid pair their buckboard was going over the cliff and it looked as though they were doomed. But this week we are back with a different camera angle and just as the horses and wagon plunge over the precipice we can clearly see our brave couple leaping to safety. As they get up and gingerly brush themselves off, we can only marvel at their lucky escape from what you see pictured here. You will now appreciate the second reason they have moved to Ecuador, and that is... The Weather.
   Both Sharon and I have lived the extremes of weather provided by the lovely north country in Canada. Me in Alberta and then the Yukon and Sharon in Ontario and then Baffin Island, Nunavut. Both of us have trudged to school in -30 and have a host of fond memories from our time there... when we were younger. And therein lies the heart of the problem. Things that were fabulous and fun when you were twenty or thirty somehow lose their luster when you are sixty or seventy. The opposite is also true. While we were sailing down to and through the Panama Canal, we spent several years in the heat. When it's 35 C with 85% humidity, you have to get up at six am, work for an hour, then find some shade and lay gasping for air until 6pm, when you struggle to get another half hours work done. Then, before it gets dark, you allow yourself a cold rum and coke. Not particularly productive! The amount of working time and the cold Cuba Libres suited me fine. It was the gasping for air and running with sweat that I hated.
                                                                                       
So now the search was on for the perfect weather. But what is that? The weather in BC is gorgeous in the summer. The problem is the summer is 3 months long, with another month of hoping.  Then there is a month of maybe at either end followed by six to seven months of "we gotta get outta here for a least a couple of weeks before I go stir crazy or just rot away".  After much reflection we decided that a lovely spring day in May or early June was perfect, when the temperature is around 20 C and the air is clean and fresh. Right, so where are we going to find this paradise?
   Well, guess what, if you go into the central valley of Ecuador, that's exactly what you get! For ninety percent of the year the temperature is around 20-23 C during the day and 14-16 C at night. What could be better?

Imagine never having to spend 15 or 20 minutes getting bundled up against the cold or wet every time you have to take the dog for a walk or go shopping. Just slip on your shoes, maybe a light sweater at night, and off you go. T-shirt weather almost every day, but not hot enough that I have to expose my spindly white legs to anyone. Those of you who have seen me in shorts in the summer will be letting out a loud cheer right about now.
   During the day there is no need to run from one shady spot to the next as the sweat pours down your back. Stroll beside the river as a light breeze ruffles your hair.                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                       Now I want to say right here by way of a disclaimer that nothing is perfect. Not even here. Since the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere, we have just gone through a winter here in Loja. Before I describe the hellish conditions I want you to remember, and have some sympathy for us, when we remind you that there is no central heating or double glazed windows here. With that in mind, picture the fact that we have just suffered through a Month(!) of temperatures that would challenge the strongest among you. Daytime highs rarely reached more than 16-17 C, and at night the temperature plunged to a bone chilling 10-11 C. We were required by these desperate circumstances to go to our last resort, wearing a sweater inside and putting an extra blanket on the bed!! So you see, we are still roughing it. But we summoned up our northern experience and spirit to help get us through. Like the cowboy and his sweetheart in the serial, we were huddled in our cabin while the storm raged outside. With food and firewood running low and wolves howling in the night, we thought of our loved ones back home. 
     Will our handsome couple see another day? Stay tuned for episode three to see if we froze to death. It doesn't look good.                                                                     

10 Reasons Why We Left Canada and Moved to Loja, Ecuador

"The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things".

Banos, Ecuador

We have had a lot of questions about why we decided to uproot ourselves and move to South America, and specifically why we chose Loja, Ecuador.  It's not the city that most expats choose but it held some attraction for us for very specific reasons. We have spoken about some of this in previous posts. But I am getting way ahead of myself. 
Don't worry, we are going to do this in 10 installments as opposed to one long blog that no one will read to the end. Remember as a kid, the Saturday morning serials at the movies, where the cowboy in the buckboard went over the cliff at the end of the episode and you had to come back the next Saturday to see how, or if, he survived?  (Come on, some of you are as old as me!)  Well, this is kind of like that. We'll jump off a cliff each time and you will have to come back next week and see if we survived.

Episode One

Terry Kelly flies in to Visit us in Panama

   This all began in 2018 when I turned 75. By that time we had been living on a boat for about 15 years and although we loved the life style it was time for a change. Both of us were bored and I have to admit that I was tired of the stress that comes with trying to keep up with all the work that it takes to maintain a large, older boat. We had both had a taste of the travelling lifestyle when we went offshore for three years on our sail boat and it seemed like we were working just to pay bills and had little or no time to be with each other and enjoy life. Sharon had accomplished almost all she wanted to at South Arm Community Center so it was time to get selfish. I personally have no problem with being selfish, which most of you can attest to, but it was harder for Sharon. But I have learned through the years that once you get Sharon turned in the direction you want, just tie yourself to her and hold on for the ride.
   The main thing we wanted was an adventure. We wanted to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, challenge ourselves, see if we still had the spirit that made our offshore sailing such a satisfying experience. We wanted to strip ourselves of the things which were tying us down. I also hoped that learning a new language would keep my brain from becoming porridge. We had taken a three month tour of South America by bus while the boat waited out hurricane season in Panama and had had a great time, so we looked there first.

Top of the Andes between Chile and Bolivia

   Now South America has a lot of stunning countries and adventures that are free for the asking around every corner. On our bus tour we had been to Santiago Chile and Valparaiso, Mendoza in the Argentine wine country, the Atacama in the Andes, Bolivia, Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines in Peru, and had only scratched the surface. So we sat down and started to think about what we needed to do to make this happen and what we were actually looking for in a new home. A little plug here, a magazine called 'International Living' can give you all sorts of ideas.  It can also become addictive, and on a cold winters night when you look up from pictures of sun dappled beaches and watch the rain pouring down, it can stoke a dangerous sense of dissatisfaction. You have been warned!
   So, Reason Number One boils down to ... ADVENTURE

But that word means a lot of things, to a lot of people. So, in future episodes, we will boil down in greater detail what it meant to us, and what we needed to be sure of before we took the leap. We had a lot of 'must haves' and we will go through them all and explain how Loja fit the bill. Suffice to say that, for us, the buckboard had gone over the cliff. Tune in next time to see whether we survive!