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Amelia, great to hear from you here. Cameron wants to know if you have had a chance to watch Tim's Vermeer yet. If you haven't he hopes you'll check it out. :) Hope to see you soon!

Your home country is BEAUTIFUL! Especially Challuabamba!

Exactly! We feel like it has added years to our lives. :)

Living your best life!

hat part of Cuenca do you live in or recommend? Moving from MI to Cuenca next month. Tks. Love your info.

@@BPe-ie9je It really depends are what part of the city you'd prefer.....Gringolandia is full of expats and has a tendency to be a little more expensive. Puerto del Sol is definitely more expensive but has some really nice places to live. We have friends that found a great place on Calle Larga....a busy area of downtown with access to everything. Other friends live off of Parque Calderon because it's the main park in Cuenca and a lot of festivities take place there....parades, lighting of the cathedrals, there is a gazebo where people play their instruments and sing music. We chose 20 minutes outside of the city because we wanted a house with a large yard. Large yards aren't a thing here, but there are tons of linear parks, and with four rivers there are tons of paths. I recommend our Realtor highly....Johannes Gorcke. If you contact him on WhatsApp he can send you listings as he gets them. BTW, he speaks perfect English because he lived in Chicago. His whats app number is 98 483 8552. If you message him you can ask to go on his real estate whatsapp for listings. If you are going to be here in a month it would be a good time to reach out. When we moved here we stayed at Hotel Otorongo for a week so we could find a place to rent. We also got our lease reviewed by our attorney (Sara Chaca). Some other friends that just moved here rented a place for a month while they scouted places to live and it enabled them to get used to the city. A few months later they just signed a lease for a long-term rental. Oh, and negotiate. They expect this. They see expats and think $$, so negotiate the price down or make sure it includes, water, electricity, or internet, or all three. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions. Best of luck!

What would be your top 5?

@@i_i8924 Things change constantly, but Ecuador is singularly the riskiest at the moment (see US State Dept. travel advisories) and may be disrupted for a decade (who knows?). I have not explored Argentina since the new President, but it certainly looks interesting. Several countries in Southeast Asia could be good candidates, although just like in Eastern Europe some places in Thailand are flooded with Russians escaping conscription. Picking a top 5 depends on your likes and priorities including climate, transportation and healthcare. I don't like hot and sticky climates (nor rampant crime), so I spend much of my time in the smaller mountain cities of Colombia, but if you are starting from scratch I would suggest investigating Argentina first.

well.. just don't put too much care on the average people 🙂

That's correct, it's all relative. Ecuador recently raised the basic salary which the law says is the least an employer can pay an employee to $460/mo. That means the cost of basic living is commensurate. The government subsidizes certain necessities to make them less costly to the people while heavily taxing anything bordering on luxurious. Electricity in Ecuador is less costly to produce because they use falling water which is a cost efficient method. Yet no less costly to distribute to consumers in terms of the equipment needed. The biggest contributor to lower bills is lower household consumption.

[4:30] Apparently he likes food.

Great suggestion!

Unless they're ex-presidents escaping the lynch mobs.

That makes sense. Consumers pay so much for electricity, but manufacturers must get it for next to nothing. And you'd think this competition thing would get others into the market to get some of these massive profits. Oh wait, crap, they actually have to pay people to work for them. What a crazy system.

its like 5 dollars in Moscow. 5 per month.