“Oh man,” I thought as my heart sunk into my chest while driving in Ecuador. As I peered through my rear-view mirror I saw a cop car on my behind with the lights blaring.
“What did I do now?” I thought. Is it simply “driving while foreign?”
Yes, cops have been known to swindle foreigners out of a few easy bucks for no driving infraction whatsoever, they know we can be an easy target (an Ecuadorian if pulled over for doing nothing would be like F-off!).
But then, the cop car sped around me, he wasn’t after me at all.
Relieved, I didn’t know this was a normal occurrence in Ecuador until I lived here a bit, which brings me to my first annoyance in Ecuador, cops that ride around with their sirens on, for no reason, the norm in Ecuador.
Here’s a few more things that annoy me enough to make this list…
2. When people in Ecuador don’t accept my dollar bill that has a microscopic rip in it.
3. When banks don’t accept my check (or one another person gave me) because the signature was missing a dot of the “i”, or a tiny missing loop… yes they actually check signature form here!
4. When lane-sharing motorcycles pass me to the left when I’m about to turn left.
5. How a “hot” shower to an Ecuadorian often translates really to a mildly room-temperature one.
6. Conversely, how in many places the water pressure will be so low you have stick your bare-a$$ to the shower wall in order to get the one little dribble falling from the shower head.
7. How buses gladly sell you a ticket and let you up on even a long distance ride when there are no more seats, and you find yourself holding onto the rails in the walkway for dear life while your neighbors comfortably sitting down reach over and pick pocket you.
8. Also, how city buses don’t bother fully stopping to let you off, I often have to “time my jump” so not to land face first in an open, unmarked sewer hole.
9. When neighbors leave for the weekend and leave their dogs out to roam the streets and fend for themselves often ravaging in your garbage which is only slightly worse then leaving them locked on their roof to bark all night hungry. But this will depend on your neighborhood, in some neighborhoods having your dogs in the streets is not allowed but you will also find many townhomes that allow aggressive dog breeds. So in reality, you have to choose what works for you.
10. How when parked at a red light and upon the change to green you often literally don’t have time to lift your foot up and press the gas pedal before someone behind you is honking at you to go.
11. The horrifically gory, mindless, Chinese action movies Ecuadorians ALWAYS have blaring in the long distance buses.
12. The absolutely horrendous local Andean music the city buses often have blaring at all times of the day.
13. Ecuadorian men who dress like women, YIKES, Thai men they are certainly not!
But despite these annoyances and a few others which you usually can get used to. I love Ecuador and would prefer living here 100 out of 100 times over living in the USA!
Hasta pronto, if you liked this you’d love my Insider’s newsletter on living and investing in Ecuador,
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