Ecuador Q&A Forum

airport confiscation

Has anyone ever had any item confiscated at the airport coming in to Ec? i drink a certain tea but not sure about trying to get a few tea bags in. Once in Mexico, they snagged all my batteries, thanks,...

2 Answers In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

arriving in guayaquil need driver and hotel

I will arrive in Guayaquil march 1 at 8:30, my realtor says to go ahead and stay there for the night and travel to Salinas the next day. I need a driver to pick me up at the airport and get me to a hotel,...

3 Answers In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

bringing in items, what happens at the airport?

Can someone clarify whether or not we can bring in items in our suitcases, like towels, sheets and such without paying or if I have to pay something what is the amount? My rental has no towels, sheets,...

2 Answers In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

dog in B&B

okay Dom, say no if you want! I'll be flying in sometime in March with my pooch, but it will be late when I get in, I'm arranging a driver to get me to Salinas, but I was thinking/hoping to stay in Guayaquil...

1 Answer In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

moving process

I'm in Texas and would like to ship some boxes of household goods/personal stuff in a few months. Probably 10 boxes or so. It will be going to the Salinas area, has anyone done any shipping to that area...

1 Answer In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

Ballenita

I am considering a property in Ballenita, anyone close? And if you've been there what are your thoughts/opinion?

1 Answer In: Ecuador Living By: tracy [44 ]

rg, I can only speak to the area where I am,
Salinas. What I see most common are small pick-up trucks, usually 3 or 4 police, 1 or 2 in the pick-up bed, most are young, I suppose it possible that they’d all be corrupt, but less likely. Most of the cops around my house are there because the residents like them around, they get free cokes and snacks, they come out at sunset and park(nap?)
The driving is pretty crazy so no one gets pulled over for traffic violations. I did see a few high end cars, big mercedes and landrovers, I am guessing, but as long as you look “local” and not stick out there wouldnt be too much of a problem.

Scott I will say I did see beach litter in Salinas, the clean-up was called high tide. My thoughts on poverty are: the people near me go to big open markets and pay very little for good fresh food, many men fish and families go to the beach and play, yes their housing was simple but I’m not sure how poor they think they are.
gas, water and utilities are very cheap, many dont have cars or cell phones, I’m sure bigger cities would have more visible poverty and prostitutes(but I think they are anywhere men are).

hi sel, I went to kyack and they sent me directly to the american airlines site. I plugged in the dates I wanted, and a little graph appeared showing different rates if my dates/times were flexible within a few days-all the sites showed it would be 1041.00 round trip to guayaquil-but the AA site showed if i switched return date I could get a roundtrip for 760 from dallas-miami-guayaquil. You’d be going to quito, so might be different and gas prices have gone up since last month-good luck.

what months are you interested in? tracy

jbar, send an email, may be able to help, tracy

Gail, I’d say your first question is what type of climate do you want, these 3 areas are very different. also what do you want to do? I’m in Salinas and can only speak to that neck of the woods, but if you like to shop, there’s not a lot of that here, and your looking at a 2 hour drive, there is an expat community that is very nice and welcomes newbies in, but it’s a lot of married couples.
it’s watrm and dry here, but if cruising the beach everyday is what you like to do then Salinas is grest, fishing too, that’s what the men do.
Not a lot of cultural events, as I’ve heard Cuenca has and you need to look at Cuencas elevation , some people with breathing issues couldnt deal with that. good luck tracy

Geez Fred, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Is something exploitative if it fills a demand? More and more people want to know about Ec and IL, Gary and Dom are just ahead of that curve and we’re all allowed to make a living.
As for the locals, trust me North Americans can’t have their jobs and it may seem like there are a bazillion folks headed to Ec. but you can go for days and NOT see a north american, trying to import anything is not easy and starting a business comes with even more headaches.
Speculators will always go where they think the money is-but will more than likely hire locals and with a relatively low NA population the squids show themselves pretty quickly.
I think it’s pretty gutsy to go to a foreign country, buy land a try to build something on spec. The worst, most exploitative thing I can think of is if they let walmart in. tracy

these guys summed things up well, if you want to know what possible direction Ec. would go in a $ crisis, read the wiki bio of the President, his background is in economics, including degrees from the US, so he’s probably way on top of dollar issues.
Another thing to consider is he’s lined up with Chavez, as far as wanting a SA currency and Chavez just brought all his gold home from Europe, so some type of gold backed South American currency could be a possibility. Look at all the major players(countries) already -not- using the dollar and trading in their own currencies.
Dollarization occurred pre-Correa and he’s thumbed his nose at the imf and as mentioned Ec has resources, he’s trying to rid the country of the vampire squids that have sucked the money and life out of so many countries. (an excellent book is: Confessions of an economic hitman.)
Just my opinion, but I think a currency shift in Ec is probably on the horizon, but it will be thought out and implemented-who knows might be the loonie!

mart, keep in mind many of the Salinas listings are Ecuadoran sellers and are listed with Guayaquil agents, not Salinas agents, it\’s for the city buyers looking for coastal properties. Here\’s some names of agents in Salinas, there are others I\’m sure, the key is to do your homework. real estate agents hope to sell their properties- so try to narrow down what you want and not what you\’ll be directed to.

http://www.spondylusecuador.com/real_estate_8.html

http://www.ecuadorhomesales.com/index.htm

I\’m less familiar with this group, but I met one of the sales people, but no direct dealing, I couldnt give a thumbs up without knowing more but their site is informative

http://www.ieiecuador.com/

good luck, tracy

I never needed any service, but there is an emergency room right on the main drag in Salinas, so from most spots it wouldn’t take long to get to it. There’s a visible police presence everywhere, my neighbor offers free cokes and snacks so they were in my neighborhood a lot! Many people hire “guardians” often just locals that will ride their bikes or walk around your house thru out the day/night and the main security company drives by/checks and leaves a sticker with a date/time showing when they were there.
There are lots of compound type developments that are very gated with guards.
The police always “looked” like they were hoping to have something to do, so my guess is not long for a response!