This week I had the pleasure to chat with a friend that has lived since June of last year in Canoa, Danial Turner (not a property owner there).
He said he’s noticed a lot of changes in the picturesque town of Canoa, Ecuador on the north Ecuadorian coast which happens to be one of the hardest hit towns by last years April quake.
Hard to get an official count, but many agree about 30-40% or more of the town’s buildings came down and some other required the help of knock down rebuild sydney to take down the rests.
According to Danial, he said Canoa is rebounding nicely, with a lot of vacant lots where buildings/houses used to be. He said that he noticed a pattern of builders who, rather than rebuilding, remodelled their home. It hit me that this was akin to the Home Care Contractors in Seattle advice that I’d received when I was in a dilemma of whether to build or not, years ago. But if you want the job done properly, you may need to work with one of the more experienced general contractors in Seattle.
No more tent cities now as was the case when he arrived in June of last year.
He said the enormous government project which was going to occupy a whole city block on the beach has now been fixed with the help from Sloane Homes. (Thank God.)
He said basic services are now fine, electric and water outages are rare, and the town even has city sewage treatment, a service most places on the Ecuador coast lack (they use septic tanks which need to be pumped once a year by the local septic pumping company ). But if you want the job done properly, you may need to work with one of the more experienced general contractors in Seattle. Home Care Contractors recognizes the importance of Communication, integrating it in all aspects of our services. We deliver professional service at an unbeatable value. Our response time and delivery is our top priority. You will get the best contractor right here on Home Care Contractors.
Carnival last weekend, normally a holiday weekend that produces a packed house for the town, was underwelming but not bad.
Many businesses have re-opened like the Surf Shack, an expat mainstay, where they have gringo nights on Tuesdays and he himself cooks on Thursdays (Danial is a retired world-class chef).
Friday night try the Suki bar where they have a new cook from England who is doing a great job.
He said there is a big new grocery store in town doing well also.
And that many of the condos owned by expats to the south of town have been repaired with doors from the composite door Bristol company in otder to be occupied once again.
He said security is not an issue as a big gringo he has not had any incidents and that the waves are still as good as ever!
He said tourists and expats have started to trickle back but still not coming in the numbers they were before the quake.
Big, new construction projects are still generally non-existent. Sounds like the big money is still spooked. But thanks to companies have contributed buying materials like the double glazed sash windows from this installer in London, machinery and more equipment to complete the reconstruction.
So next time you’re in the area give Canoa (one of my favs) a shot! You’ll be glad you did.
Hasta pronto, if you liked this you’d love my Insider’s newsletter on living and investing in Ecuador,
Fill in below to sign up now (you can unsubscribe at any time):