Why Ecuador Part 2 - Culture and Kindness
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Why Ecuador? I mentioned a few reasons in the first video in this series, such as cost of living, land ownership, and the beauty of the country. In this video I talk about community and the kind generous nature of the people. I also accidentally ramble on about real estate.
What a good video, so honest and upfront. We have had very much the same experience where we are in Ecuador. People tell us, and told us before we moved, that we would be taken advantage of and not to trust the locals. We chose a different mentality and it's been a beautiful two years so far. Our little community and town is wonderful, safe, and we feel incredibly welcomed. It's good to know we aren't the only ones who have had this experience! This is why our place is our forever home, as well.
Do you have the costeño accent yet. Hablé serio pue nano. It’s nice to read an expat having a good life in Guayaquil. Si, en todo lado hay gente buena y mala.
The city has its community too! First day moving in, made a point to introduce myself to neighbor below. Bought something from his shop several times. Waved to neighbor across the street. Bought something from her market stall, had her over for dinner. She's brought us traditional holiday meals. Wave regularly. We check in regularly to next door neighbor. They keep an eye out. In the U.S. I have lived for years having never spoken with neighbors. It's much better this way.
True, in many parts of the city there are great groups of neighbors. I’ve experienced both in Quito, bad neighborhoods where no one talks to each other and everyone keeps to themselves, and really good neighborhoods where we all help each other out.
I live in the center of Guayaquil, and believe it or not, my neighbors are kind and welcoming. I know very well that this isn't the case in all areas of the city. Our relationship has grown over more than twenty years. It's one of the many reasons why I have no plans to move away.
That’s really good to hear.
Thank you once again for an unbiased informative video. The innate kindness of the Ecuadorians whom I consider dear friends is the reason that I am moving to this wonderful country. I've been concerned about the recent increase in violence, but it appears that my targeted area of the Loja Province is still the safest most peaceful part of the country.
In 2013, on a whim, I traveled to Ecuador and amazingly was offered a job days after I arrived. My one month vacation turned into the three most spectacular years of my life. I lived and worked in Quito but did have the opportunity to travel the country. Befriending a few Ecuadorians made it possible to learn the culture from the inside and travel to some places virtually unknown by anyone other than locals. Your videos are making me homesick 😄.
That’s awesome. What was the job? Have you been back since? 2013 was the year I moved to Ecuador as well.
@@FallofftheMap I forgot to mention, I lived in Tumbaco for a bit less than a year. Absolutely loved it and felt very safe and comfortable there. It looks like that may be where this video was made.
@@FallofftheMap Teaching English at EIL Ecuador, an institute on Mariana de Jesus near Mall Jardin. I have not been back since then but I would really love to. My original plan was to retire there. I just retired last month. After leaving Ecuador I became interested in the Philippines. I'm now married to a Filipina and the most sensible thing would be to retire there. My wife and my daughter arrived here in the US about a year and a half ago.
@@timrupp4219 many of my friends from various overseas contracting gigs retired to the Philippines and love it there. You do realize that now that your wife is in the US she will spend the next 10 years in the honeymoon phase with America and refuse to let you retire in the Philippines.
@@FallofftheMap I'm sort of torn between the two countries. I love the weather of La Sierra but Filipinos are much friendlier than the ecuadorians were. Safer too, the first thing I noticed is no need to hide your phone like I had to in Ecuador. That's probably the worst thing I can say about Ecuador, I prefer to focus on the good things. I hear you about coming to the US but actually she's not too impressed with the US. She misses the Philippines a lot, not just her family but the lifestyle there. We just purchased a pre-selling condo so when it's ready for occupancy in about 3 years that's our goal. Unless I can talk her into Ecuador 🤣. Actually I do want to bring her to see Ecuador for a week or so. We can probably swing that next year. A bit more backstory, the short time that I did live in tembacho I worked at Charlotte English School. I taught English there to all ages in contrast to when working at EIL I specifically taught aviation English. Being a licensed pilot and making the right connections once in Ecuador is how I landed that gig.
Integrating as an expat is difficult at best and impossible at worst. You have one of the best takes I've heard from someone that is actually doing it. Cheers and keep it up.
I like all the insights you provide on living in Ecuador, you have alot of experience. I recently retired with my wife here , renting on the coast. I am building a house in the town of Manglaralto. I feel this sense of community here. I have made a few friends thru my wife who is originally from Colombia. I also met a couple other expats here as well. Yesterday I went to a coffee shop in Manglaralto called The sweet place, i met an expat there who said he lived in Manglaralto for 16 years , he said its like living in the town of "Mayberry" in Ecuador. I kind of agree. Hope it stays that way .
On that part of the coast Olon was my favorite town but I haven’t spent enough time out there to have an informed opinion.
@@FallofftheMap yeah the town of Olon is a really cool town. A great mixture of locals and expats. We take our dog to the vet in Olon.
Thanks a lot!!
This makes so much sense and, I cannot wait to meet these people!!
This has been my dream since I was a teenager and, I am really keen on doing this move to Ecuador 100% right.
I don't expect to find the best place the first day and look forward to slow-travel the country to find the right place and the right people 😊
The Ecuadorians I have spoken with so far, are the loveliest people on this planet and, as I will be retired when I come down, I will have all the time in the world to find THE place...
Thanks again for sharing..if I hadn't been convinced before (I was) then I sure am now...🤗
Awesome!
Great video.
I have to say that Ecuador varies wildly from the coast to the sierra, and to the Amazon. My impressions are that people on the coast are more jealous and will try to take advantage of you with a smile. The Amazon is very complicated; there are communities that have been “attacked” for their lands, oil, farms, and minerals. They can be wild people, so you have to research before you move there. The sierra is the best, with more humble, educated, friendly, and dependable people.
I know that I’m generalizing and that there are good and bad people everywhere, but...
Please, if you are coming to Ecuador, don’t set high expectations. This is a developing country. Don’t get frustrated because some people are ignorant, greedy, or try to take advantage of you, because that will happen. Finding your place takes research, effort, and a humble attitude.
Yeah, that has been my experience too. The sierra is by far my favorite. I am trying to invest in Napo province but not for a place to live.
You've got a great spot on the farm there brother, your neighbors are wholesome from the looks of it, nice stepping up and offering to help repair his roof. Good stuff!!!
He’s a really good neighbor. He helped me out while I was building the house, let me store a bunch of stuff in his shed.
@@FallofftheMap Nice
Great video! Invaluable advice! I like how you think. I was thinking of moving to Vilcabamba and rent for a year or so. There are many inspiring RUclips videos about that area, but I know I have to get there and see it for myself.
Thank you. I really enjoyed hearing about your particular community’s traits ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gracias por hacer enfancy...como somos los Ecuatorianos..Thanks..that's they way we are...🇪🇨
de nada, pero no entiendo la palabra "enfancy".
Again, it is incredible to me how much you understand the culture. I was born in Ecuador and raised in the US, and the few times I have been there to visit, I go like, hum!🤔... Sometimes, I don't even understand my own. You are correct! Everything moves slowly, and the simplest things sometimes seem challenging. On the other hand, the sense of community and peace in some places in Ecuador is priceless. Thanks so much for giving a little info on Real Estate. For the future in Real Estate, I have a lot to consider. :)
You’re welcome. I have an older videos talking about real estate in Ecuador. It’s not a great vid because the sand flies were harassing me so I was moving around too much. I plan on creating a new video on the topic once the current crisis winds down and more people start thinking about moving to Ecuador again.
@@FallofftheMap@FallofftheMap " Sand flies" lol - My family and I went to Playas last year and rented a house for a few days, and we also had to run away from mosquitos; they were eating us alive! 😅
aiming here also for many of the reasons you said as well.
What’s your plan? Will you move to a city or the countryside, or a little of both, like me? Do you plan on buying or renting (I strongly recommend renting for a few years first)? Are you retiring here or making this a home base while you work online or travel for work? Sorry if I’m barraging you with questions.
Was just cruising through Polar Field's sharepoint (im their full time electrician now) and found your how to video for the AWO UPS battery swap! Got a kick out of that. This whole arctic/antarctic adventure started with your videos and good advice. Wanted to say thanks again Jesse, and i hope youre well!
Oh wow, that is awesome. I’m always really happy to hear from people that were motivated by my videos to choose this sort of life of adventure.
Really missing that here in the U.S.
so glad i experienced it, sure makes it hard to see what it has become
I experienced it growing up, but only because I lived in a unique community. Once I moved to a typical neighborhood I hated the way our neighbors behaved. There was no sense of community.
I think you fit in so well and adapt to culture and look out for people around you because of your contracting work. I think thats a similar lifestyle where you really need to look out for those around you and build that community.
Very true. My time contracting taught me that adaptability was the most important skill, it was what determined who was successful and who couldn’t cut it. That same skill determines who thrives living in a place like Ecuador and who can’t get the hang of life here.
Great perspective as always.
Much appreciated
Thanks for info
You’re welcome
You are absolutely correct. We had visited the community that we moved to on the coast many times. This gated community has changed a lot since we purchased the land in 2017. A hotel was built in our community that now hosts events. Music is played until early morning hours at deafening levels. Construction is seven days a week directly in front of us. We had been told no weekends or nights. Mamy other services promised don't exist and we still have to pay the full HOA. Local people are very sweet. Owner of our community is from a big city and definitely sees us and other gringos as a resource. He encourages his employees to ask owners to 'borrow' money. My question is, are the courts really so corrupt that legal action is futile? We should have rented for a year before purchasing.
My experience with the courts has been that they are not helpful. When I was totally new and naive in Ecuador I tried to buy a hostelería in the Intag. The only lady selling it was using Remax. Remax insisted I pay 10k earnest money. We wrote up a contract that explicitly included all the furniture and equipment for the business. The seller immediately broke the contract by clearing out all of the furniture and did a few other weird things like cut down all the fruit trees. I requested she return the earnest money since she broke the contract. After about 7 years of paying various lawyers I managed to get 7k of the 10k back but never actually got to go to court. Other case in point, my wife tried several times to get parental rights removed from her ex. He abandoned the family when my stepson was a baby, left Ecuador, and has never paid any child support. He comes from a politically powerful family in Ecuador. Despite no-showing to the court date, the judge sided with him.
@@FallofftheMap Thank you for your expertise. I am sorry about the painful experiences you have endured. Especially, the child support case. That is heart breaking.
The owner of this community is politically well connected. Our only hope is to sell and move.
Teaching English at EIL Ecuador, an institute on Mariana de Jesus near Mall Jardin. I have not been back since then but I would really love to. My original plan was to retire there. I just retired last month. After leaving Ecuador I became interested in the Philippines. I'm now married to a Filipina and the most sensible thing would be to retire there. My wife and my daughter arrived here in the US about a year and a half ago.
I read this comment and totally thought I responded, but for whatever RUclips glitchy reason it appears my response was lost. There’s a lot of similarities between the Philippines and Ecuador and if I do eventually move the family somewhere safer it will probably be there because of the ease of language adjustment for my kids while changing to a much more calm and safe culture.
@@FallofftheMap exactly, it's an easy fit. And actually there are higher elevations where the climate is cool so there are options in that respect. We'll be based on Cebu City. That's the only place I've experienced in the PH that reminded me of the US. Somehow for me it has the feel of California. IT Park is their tech area, I suppose that's the connection.
ah, great followup to the last... question answered
Good to hear!
Keep drooping these gems 💎 brother!!!
I’ll try to. I’m a bit inconsistent with uploading videos. Sometimes I’ll put out many, like now, if I’m feeling inspired. Other times I go months without making a video. I have to feel like I really have something I want to say or something I need to show people to do this.
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
Community ❤
Ps great chanel .
Thanks.
Great video.
Thanks!
the community integration is the problem with most foreigners forget about when they move to another country. happens a lot in southeast asia.
Yeah, I spent some time in SEA while I was trying to figure out where I wanted to live. I felt like it would be too difficult for me to integrate into the cultures and communities I experience there.
Thank you for answering one of the questions that I had 👍👍
(What is your community like?)
You’re welcome. It’s a question I really should have answered long ago, though it definitely took a bit of careful consideration to explain clearly
Best girlfriend I have had so far is from Ecuador. Had awesome Incan features. I should have married her, but it would have been an anchor. Maybe later. Interesting take on street dogs. If the dogs are mean it is a bad place. If the dogs are nice it is a good place. I like the simplicity of that.
Yeah, you probably should have married her.
In New York, we have friendly people here, but most are cold and stay indoors because it's mostly winter and grey for more than 6 months. Usually, people are welcoming and friendlier in warmer climates. I'm not Caucasian, I am Asian. I want to get out of NY for about 30 yrs now. It does not feel like home. I want to feel like I'm in South Asia again
Interesting. I had to stay in Albany for work a few years ago. I thought it was one of the most unfriendly places I’d ever been. I really didn’t like it.
Is communication challenging there? Is it hard to learn spanish.
It is challenging. English is not common. However, if you have a good attitude and are creative there is always a way to communicate. Learning to speak Spanish isn’t terribly difficult it learning to understand when others speak it, especially if they use slang or mix in a lot of indigenous words… that’s challenging.
Robert Frost - Good fences make good neighbors. Welcome to the U.S.
@@filbertneon3813 good neighbors make good neighbors. Poets are often more interested in sounding profound than actually being profound. The truth doesn’t contort itself to fit a clever turn of phrase.
@@FallofftheMap what is truth? Your truth?
Sad🥲The Gringo brothers' story is very sad. Did they continue their project after the 7 years in jail or left Ecuador for good because of the bad experience?
@@2freakout I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything more about them.
@6:00 You dont have to keep visting Guayaquil to know what your gonna get.
But you do, especially with a city like Guayaquil. It’s not really about the city as a whole but visiting specific neighborhoods or even specific blocks. Yes, most of Guayaquil is crowded, noisy, polluted, and dangerous. I wouldn’t choose to live there, but for those that like big cities and that climate there are parts of Guayaquil here and there that are less noisy and more secure.
It's kind of ironic that your man says it's un American to help and cooperate with your neighbour, isn't that what the original spirit of America and what it was built on when the country developed ? Homsteaders and all..? 😊What happened ? 😊
Places change. America changed significantly in the years I spent there. It’s changed even more since I left. And I know there are still some places in the U.S. where that spirit of community a d helpfulness still exists, but it’s becoming very rare especially in most cities.
@@FallofftheMapMy parents live in a nice mobile home park in California. But you rarely see any neighbors except if they're arriving or leaving. "Community" is non existent.
Which provincia is it ??
Pichincha. A little over an hour NE of Quito. ruclips.net/video/0A97zHCxCzE/видео.htmlsi=wtdqhKdWklOWbagv
I was thinking of the Philippines ,but that all day ,,every day ,,,SKIN TAX\\GRINGO ,,FARANG TAX//AS IN CUBA always pay more always get less ,,and sorry never change ,, gets sickning ..they are on my not gonna happen list,,
One of the weird things I’ve noticed in Ecuador is that in rural areas I often find I get the opposite of gringo pricing at tiendas and fruit stands, especially if it’s a place I shop often. I end up getting a better price than my Ecuadorian wife at three little stores around here, usually when the person at the shop is a younger woman. If it’s an older lady or a guy I still occasionally have to negotiate a bit to avoid gringo pricing. For most things most of the time I get charged the same prices as my Ecuadorian wife, though the gringo pricing really kicks in on expensive things like real estate and cars. In areas that have a lot of tourism and expats gringo pricing is much more common, but when you’re the only foreigner in town it usually doesn’t even occur to people to charge more, or if it does they go out of their way to underprice things so that they can demonstrate that they aren’t treating you like that. In particular there’s a young lady that sells me 7 avocados for a dollar (her mom sells me 5 for $1, the normal price), and a couple workers at the local store that I frequent correct when they significantly undercharge me (the store owner is a cool guy so I don’t want to take advantage. Of course the other possibility is that this is their way of flirting. I can’t quite tell.
What.you’re talking is typical of Latin America. It’s part of our culture. Especially in the rural areas. You’ll find the people most willing to share are those with the least to give. Not so much in the big cities bc of crime.
True, I don’t experience that as often in Quito.
I’m not sure why you equate neighbors taking care of each other with Socialism. America was very interconnected and people looked out for each other well up into the 1970s and 80’s at least. In fact for me it wasn’t until the early 90’s with the spread of big city gang violence into smaller communities that was the indicator that something profound had changed in America. This also corresponds to an era in which huge conglomerates bought up newspapers and radio and television stations all over the country, and they were able to ingratiate a narrative of fear into our culture that has only continued to get worse. Constant fear makes people selfish and paranoid. The constant, creeping anxiety that results from this is to take some form of action, not the least of which is to try to elevate yourself over the people around you, which supports economic materialism. People are constantly buying stuff and trying to improve their status over their neighbor for status and monetary gain. I think this is one of the primary reasons that none of us know who our neighbors are today.
Everything you just said is true. What most people miss is that America before the 80s was very conservative officially yet on the neighborhood level it was very socialist. Neighbors helping and catering for each other is a type of socialism… not state socialism, but community socialism. Americans often have a hard time recognizing socialism when it rings their doorbell and brings them an apple pie.
Beautiful country, but would never leave the US. Cant use Medicare there,and don't speak Spanish.
To each their own. I didn’t speak Spanish when I first moved here. I learned along the way. Healthcare is a bit of a complicated topic. Healthcare is far more accessible and affordable here, even going uninsured and paying out of pocket is usually cheaper than the cost you’d face even with insurance or Medicare in the U.S., but the quality of care is often lacking. For routine stuff it’s fine though.