Vilcabamba and Izhcayluma

                                                  Vilcabamba

After a year of curiosity, we finally enjoyed our trip to Vilcabamba.

Joined by our friends Lawrence and Ed, we boarded the 9:30am EliteTours van for the three hour non stop to Loja. The $12 ticket was a bargain! Elite Tours (R.Crespo y Santa Cruz)  was recommended by Hoseria Izhcayluma. We were efficiently delivered just inside the "Castle " gates of Loja.

Just around the corner, toward the gates, we discovered the Continental Hotel and enjoyed a pleasant lunch from an extensive menu. Now, for the $20 taxi down hill to Vilcabamba.

Sunshine welcomed us to the beautiful valley and town square. Yes, we saw a few picturesque farms, villas, and charming octogenerians. By the fabled centigenerians were missing. More recent posts indicate the oldest resident is a mere 96 and the average age in the valley is mid eighties. The myth and charm of this valley attracted many backpackers and hippies a generation ago. Now the culture of this beautiful pueblo appears slanted a bit toward alternative lifestyled Gringo.

We snagged a reluctant four door white pickup taxi for the brief dusty construction-choked ride up to the backpacker resort. The sweeping views over the patchwork valley hinted of the farming in forgotten times. Double rainbows at sunset drew us up the hill for placid photos.  Ahhh...

Izhcayluma's open air restaurant was a joyful slow-motion respite. Their German entres were excellent, while some selections were routine. Generous breakfasts included juice, fruit, cereal, breads with jams and choice of eggs or crepes. Our cabana was comfortable and the porch hammock drew me to an afternoon siesta.Enticing descriptions and photos may be found at www.Izhcayluma.com

Oh, the sunshine and warmer temperatures at five thousand foot elevation were a breather from rainy season in Cuenca, but the bugs were waiting. They too enjoyed their meals as the sun set over the valley and we dallyed over dessert. We forgot our Deet spray.

The town may be toured in an hour or two, but the Mexican "Secret Garden" restaurant is a must. Amazing burritos! Around the corner, downhill from the square, is a surprisingly delicious eight dollar buffet at La Roca. Don't miss it.

Ed managed a two hour challenging horse ride from town. We all enjoyed a custom two hour farming tour through the valley with our driver Rafael.

It was an obstacle course in a couple of spots. Ecuador is concreting the road all the way to Peru! Probably for the large copper mining industry.

Relocation to Vilcabamba remains doubtful, yet a visit is irresistable. Ecuador is  a gorgeous country!   

RUC-Rise...We are in business!

                            SRI (IRS in Ecuador)

If you are a law abiding residente de Ecuador, but want to minimize income taxes, there is a solution for you!

A RUC or Registro Unico de Contribuyentes registers you for business without a trip to Quito. If you earn under $10,000 a year, you pay no income tax to Ecuador. And you qualify for the Rise ("re-say"), or small potatoes personal business registration.

Our monthly taxes of $3.50 must be paid at any bank. We simply provide our 13 digit Rise number and make the payment. Best of all, there are no tax forms to be filed. Can there be anything that simple from the government? Imagine that in USA or Canada!

We are teaching English part time, so our friends at Arco Language Institute walked us through the process. We visited the SRI (think IRS) on Remigio Crespo Avenue, waited in a short line to "take a number" and took a seat. Shortly later, we were beeped to line 17, where an attractive and efficient young lady assisted us. We provided color copies (and displayed originals) of our passport, Cedula and Censo. No cash needed.

The only delay was for our electric bill to prove we were living here. Oops, we had to make a separate trip to get a factura of our paid bill at the Max Uhle utility office. Since our gas and water bills are paid with our apartment dues, nothing else would do!

So now we can bill you for our services, but only in small amounts! Don't ask us for free English lessons ... we may be tempted.

ARCO Language Institute

ARCO Language Institute

Life is full of surprises.   Our latest resulted when we received an email that English teachers were being sought.  VERBO was beginning a language institute teaching English, but with a phonics methodology originated in the United States.

Gina Ugalde, the Director of the Institute, invited us to come to her office to learn more about it.  After one conversation with her, we were hooked.

Next was a two day seminar with Gina’s cousin-in-law, Steve Nine, an American.  He married an Ecuadorian and has lived in on the coast for the past 8 years.  His mother has taught in the US school system for over 25 years.  She developed this methodology years ago and it is widely used in the States.

ARCO hosted an inauguration at Verbo church.  250 interested persons appeared to hear more about ARCO and learning English.

Approximately 100 students signed up and ARCO was launched on February 7, 2012.  Gary and I teach on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4 to6 p.m.  Gary has a class of 5 and Sue has a class of 6.   Then we team teach a class from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. with 14 students.

Maria Elisa, daughter of Margarita Toral (an editor of El Tiempo) spent some time in the United States.  Although an Ecuadorian, she speaks excellent English.  She is a part of the staff, working with many children who have elected to take English.

The English classes are very well organized – every teacher follows the detailed class plan.  The structure includes 70 phonograms, dialogs, poetry, songs. Teachers are allowed to be creative and bonding with the students is a top priority.

Phonograms are an essential element of the system.  If you have had Spanish lessons, you understand that all the vowels are pronounced the same way ALL the time.  An “a” always has an “ah” sound, etc.  Yet in English, an “a” can have three sounds, making it difficult for Ecuadorians to speak in a way where their words are understood.  They are learning ALL the sounds of the English language, pronouncing them and learning to recognize them in words.  There are 44 sounds in English and only 24 in Spanish.  And 70 ways to spell our 44 sounds!

One way we all decided to “bond” together was to write a song, combining Gary’s, Elisa’s, and Sue’s class to learn and sing it.  The song consisted of words we were learning and a flare of fun!  Now “hams” exist just as much in Ecuador as they do in the United States. 

Next week we embark on our 15^th lesson.   ARCO is a road we are glad we went down.

Radioman

You just never know who you are going to meet in a day.  We experienced just such a day when this morning, we attended Calvary Chapel's morning English service.  A divine introduction!  Sitting behind us with a gentleman named Mark Donham, from Portland, Oregon.

So what's so special about Mark?  Everything!  He shared with us his pilgrimage during his wife's last four years with Alzheimer's.  The disease was a genetic disorder in her family known as "Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease."  Chris' mother died at the age of 53, and her only sister passed away at age 49.  Chris passed away last January, 2011 at the age of 54.

Mark left a successful career to be full-time caregiver of Chris during the last four years in the progression of the disease.  He had always had a great interest in riding motorcycles.  Upon Chris' death, he made the decision to rent his home in Portland, and embark on a world ride with his motorcycle.

The story of his wife as well as the incredible motorcyle ride he's been on is all found on his blogsite: 
http://radiomanridestheworld.com/

Here you will find some great pictures and even learn the origin of "Radioman!"  Also, you will find some moving videos he made in his final times with his wife, Chris.  Mark is also an active voice in The Alzheimer's Association.

Mark has had over 500,000 hits during his eight month adventure.  A fellow rider reported being asked, while crossing several borders, if he was Radioman. 

Enjoy the photos of his last eight months touring the US, Canada, and South America.  We hope to see him again in July. 

Valentine's Dinner at Akelarre Cafe

Our good friend and proprietor of Hotel Inca Real, Tania Sarmiento, is inviting everyone to enjoy their romantic, sweetheart evening at the hotel's Akelarre Cafe.  Below is the menu planned for the evening
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The main entre is Salmon but the prelude to the main course is upscale ending with Valentine's traditional theme of CHOCOLATE!

Tania's husband, Inigo manages the cafe and the food is always delicious.  They both speak excellent English.  Restaurant expertise seems to run in the family as Tania's two sisters with their husbands, also own and operate restaurants.

Hotel Inca Real was the first mansion in Cuenca to be converted to a hotel.  Recently updated, a Valentine evening at Akelarre could be just the perfect place for sweethearts!

Financial Musings

  Financial Musings

 Sunday mornings provide a quiet time for prayer, study, musings, reading “web revolution”- independent media news and outside-the-box thinking. So my mind wanders…bouncing back and forth between my preconceptions and new perspectives.

My musings are anchored by forty years of business and financial thinking, and by a passion for economics and politics. Hopefully, these thoughts will be considered by the contrarian-expats and various escape oriented readers.

During my financial practice, I frequently encouraged clients and friends to insure their portfolio with 5-10% allocated to gold and silver. I even shared how to buy free of commissions. These weather-proof metals insured against inflation and deflation. Sadly, I can count on one hand those who took this advice.  Gold has increased 500%.  Real estate, our favorite investment, is down.

Now it looks like time to also diversify away from the US dollar, as our government constantly devalues it. All investing seniors are being robbed daily by the inflationary “printing press” and by price fixing of interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Jefferson and Hamilton argued vigorously about central banking. Frontier President Andrew Jackson abolished it.

Finally, we must recognize that the traditional media, Hollywood and the US two party political system all exist to promote themselves at our expense. The internet is an unedited collection of thoughts, but has remained mostly free of Orwellian control. Be careful what you eat, what your read and who leads your thinking!

How does that relate to relocating or living in Ecuador?   We must remain proactive for our financial health.

1.       Prepare for inflation in the coming years. Even hyperinflation is possible.
2.       Diversify away from traditional buy-and-hold investments.
3.       Diversify among countries for investment.
4.       Invest in natural resources to withstand inflation, especially gold, silver, timber,
petroleum, etc.
5.       Find unbiased internet sources for economic, financial, and political information.
6.       Banks have had sudden “holidays” in Ecuador (2000), USA (1933), Argentina, etc. Keep several months of living expense outside of banking channels.

              Don’t worry; be happy in planning wisely.

Thriving in Ecuador - Now Published!

On Friday, we posted the opportunity to purchase our e-book:  Thriving in Ecuador:  Visiting and Living in Cuenca (©2012).   We had hoped to have it out on Kindle with Amazon, BUT ran into problems with formatting. 

So…in order to make it available, we have published it now as PDF format.  This means one can purchase it through PayPal and it will be downloaded by email as a PDF version onto a laptop or PC.

We are still working on this “Kindle thing” and hope to have our glitch resolved soon.  If you would like to purchase the e-book now, as a PDF copy through PayPal, BUT would rather have the Kindle version later, we would be happy to refund the cost of purchasing it in the Kindle version when that time comes.  We can refund it through PayPal.

The advantage of the PDF version is that it offers the colors we have used when writing our book.  And by the way, if anyone out there would like to help us with the formatting for Kindle, we would genuinely welcome and appreciate your help.

We believe a $3.00 investment in Thriving in Ecuador will reward you many times over.  We would truly appreciate your feedback.  Revisions can be made prior to publishing on Kindle.

We received our first comment on the book from an expat now living in Ecuador:

“Your e-book is wonderful and I think very useful to incoming expats.  I especially liked your sections on visas, immigration, legal systems, etc.  I think if it was more information it would have tended towards the boring so you were able to capture a difficult subject and give people adequate 'warning' without beating a dead horse. 

I think it will be a popular read for those considering Cuenca or Ecuador in general, as a retirement solution.  Congratulations on a great piece.”

Gary & Sue