Ecuador: What I Loved (and What I Could do Without)

It's hardly been a week since we returned from three weeks in Ecuador.  I wanted to vacation there to test it out as a possible place to retire.  I was interested in the cost of living as well as the quality of life.  For me, quality of life includes a number of factors including the availability of modern amenities, the ease of getting around and the friendliness of the people.

I like to think I am flexible and accepting of people who are not like me.  My way isn't necessarily the best or only way to go about living, so I accept that people from different cultures live differently than I do.

For example, I embrace how Ecuadorians have a "live and let live" way about themselves.  There just aren't a lot of rules around here, but somehow it works.  I love small government and often think the United States is bloated with bureaucracy.  In Ecuador, I never saw traffic laws enforced, or jaywalking.  I believe one reason the cost of living is so much lower is because of the lack of government involvement in day-to-day life.  Street vendors are everywhere, and I seriously doubt the elderly ladies selling bread from a basket or the five year olds hawking lottery tickets are properly licensed to do such things.

If I were to move to Ecuador, I would almost certainly live in Cuenca.  It is the third-largest city, and has year-round spring-like weather.  Most of what I say below is representative of Cuenca.

What I Really Like About Ecuador

1. Everyone owns a phone, but no one does the zombie-walk down the sidewalk with their head down, oblivious to their environment, as is the norm in the US.  You almost never see people even talking on their phones while in a crowd.  They step aside, into a park or the foyer of a building, to take a call.
2. Ability to live without a car.  I thought my home in Florida was convenient.  It doesn't compare to the convenience here in Ecuador.  Sure, just about everything you need is within a ten minute walk.  But even better, the public buses are just a quarter (and half that for seniors) and a taxi to anywhere in the city is $2 or less.
3. Restaurants - variety AND price.  We discovered a delicious vegetarian restaurant that offers a full lunch, tax included, for $3.50.  Other places are as low as $2.25 for lunch.  By full lunch, I mean soup, salad, entree, rice, vegetable, juice AND dessert.  The variety of food is astounding.  I can't think of any cuisine that isn't available.  We enjoyed Chinese, Mexican, traditional Ecuadorian, Indian, and Italian over the last week.  There are dozens of bakeries and ice cream shops.  Street vendors sell food on almost every corner.  You can't go hungry here.
4. The lack of transients and homeless people.  In three weeks I only saw one intoxicated person, and I never saw anyone who was obviously homeless.  Virtually everyone is well-dressed and proud in Ecuador.  
5. The weather.  This is worth mentioning twice.  In the two weeks we were in Cuenca, there was only one full day of rain.  We visited in the dry season, so I'm sure this is not the norm.  However, the temperature IS constant.  The morning lows were around 50 and by early afternoon it was usually in the low 70's.

What I Don't Like About Ecuador

1. Noise.  I'm not talking about your typical, urban noise.  One night around 1:00 AM, a motorcyclist started revving his muffler-less engine, and it lasted more than an hour.  The streets are so narrow here than the buildings amplified the sound as though it was just outside my window.  Car alarms are louder than anything I've ever heard, and no one is ever in a hurry to deactivate them.  Cars honk at each other constantly.  Approaching an intersection, a car honks to alert other cars they are coming.  Bumper to bumper traffic?  Drivers blare their horns.  Every morning around 6:30, the propane man drives slowly down each street, constantly honking.  The trash and recycling trucks do the same thing.  Fireworks go off at random hours of the night.  It sounds like gunshots, but after doing some research I learned it is just Ecuadorians celebrating their love of noise.
2. Dog poop.  In Cuenca, it's everywhere, all over the sidewalks.  This is a concrete jungle (Cuencanos LOVE their concrete), so there's hardly any grass anywhere.  Dogs just go on the sidewalks, and the owners don't clean up the mess.  I noticed this wasn't such a problem in Guayaquil.
3. Carbon dioxide.  The public buses belch out black plumes of smoke.   It gets really bad.
4. Rude people.  Again, this has to just be cultural differences.  We would be walking down the sidewalk, and a group of women would look our way as they exit a store.  Instead of waiting as we pass, they will take up the ENTIRE sidewalk, walk slowly, sometimes even just completely stop while they talk to each other.  The streets are so narrow that due to traffic, sometimes you just have to stand there and wait for them to move.  And when there is a line, like at a cash register, someone will just jump ahead of you, as though you weren't already in line.
5. The custom of negotiating for everything.  This doesn't bother me as much as some gringos (we frugal misers take pride in getting the best price!), but basically, I've been told that gringos are asked to pay more for things.  I was cautioned to always negotiate taxi fares before getting in a taxi, and to agree to a price before accepting any goods or services.  It just feels like a game that gets played too much.  Sure, in the US, negotiating is expected at times, such as when you buy a car.  But in Ecuador, the custom is to negotiate the price of bananas for crying out loud.  What's wrong with set prices for smaller purchases?