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.