Category: Investor News/Analysis

 Most say the quake epicenter was near the Ecuador-Colombia border.

They’re wrong.

It actually was a bit further south on the coast as the greater-Esmeraldas area actually didn’t sustain much damage.

Interesting how one town on the coast was barely affected near  a town that just got pounded.

The area most effected was the north central part of the coast from Pedernales-Canoa-Bahia-PortoViejo-Manta which got slammed.Yet interestingly Crucita, also in the area, didn’t sustain much damage.

Just south of Manta towns like Puerto Cayo and Olon shook but didn’t sustain much damage if at all.

The south coast (Salinas-Santa Elena area) escaped largely unscathed.

The highlands and Amazon regions also sustained little to no damage.

Here are actual experiences from around Ecuador:

Here in Quito, Ecuador, as I mentioned before, I felt the quake, but didn’t think much of it at the time, actually I had felt worse in this area.  The wine bottle danced on the table, but didn’t fall,the lights flickered, then everything was back to normal, no damage here.  It wasn’t until people started texting me with the news that I realized it was more serious on the coast.

A friend in Esmeraldas told me her area was fine and that actually the city of Esmeraldas made it largely unscathed.

A friend in Guayaquil said, “I was at home and it really started to shake, I could hear things falling to the floor from other houses, then the power went out for a half hour.  My neighborhood was in tact, a few blocks away one house lost a wall, that;s about it.”

A friend in Cuenca, David from Cuenca Car Share shared that he was sitting at a stop light and he thought the road was vibrating from some construction work.  No visible damage to buildings.

Lillian Asihene in Quito Centro said, “I am in Quito Centro Historico and live on a hill.  I was sitting at my computer and suddenly felt my house slightly shaking and estimated the time to be about thirty seconds.  I sat just wondering when the shaking would stop.  Since I am very familiar with earthquakes after living in Los Angeles, California, for 35 years, I knew exactly what I was experiencing and was not afraid, but did hope that the shaking would stop soon.  In the mean time, I e-mailed my family and friends in the States to let them know that an earthquake had occurred and that I was OK.  I was definitely relieved when the shaking stopped.  My area was spared the damages that occurred on the coast.”

Donald Logan in Olon on the southern coast said… “Nancy and I were in Olon, on the coast.  We were sitting for dinner at Eddies Taqueria, and Eddie had gone out to get shrimp.  When the large chandelier, chairs, and drink cooler began to move around violently, we quickly went to the doorway for an instant then bolted into the open area in front of the restaurant.  We watched the trees, power poles, and their lines swinging wildly as the quake went on.

We had alerted the rest of Eddies family at the same time, and neighbors and friends huddled in the clear for some time.  Power was out in many sectors of the town till midnight, and we watched as many of the residents pushed to higher ground anticipating the possible tsunami.”

A friend in Ayampe on southern coast said… “We were on the beach and felt the sand jump, then we all run for the hills thinking there would be a tsunami, but that was it, no visible damage in area.”

A friend in Puerto Cayo, a town 1 hour south of Manta, said, “all good here, power and internet went out but I’m not seeing any extensive visible damage to buildings.”

Russ in Manta said, “We live live in Manta on the forth floor,  the building.   It is our apartment building and now it is not livable.”

Roger Lewis in Vilcabamba said, “Had a glass or two of wine, taxi home and standing in the kitchen I thought to myself bloody hell that was damn good wine !!!”

Ed OConnor in Cuenca said, “Here in Cuenca, we are on the second floor of our apartment building. We could feel the building shake and things were vibrating. The TV was shaking and I got up to hold it to make sure it didn’t fall over. When I got up I had the sensation that I was drunk and the room was moving. ”

A friend in Cotacachi said, “I was sitting on the couch when for a moment I experienced what was like an underground train going under me and then I thought, “no, I’m in Cotacachi, not London.”  I was in an adobe one floor house and everything was just sort of moving and the ceiling lights were swinging.  We didn’t lose power here, neither people in London, since if you’re leaving there, you can Search Roommates Listed on MoveFlat to find the perfect roommate for you.  I realized it was an earthquake and I’d never experienced one.  I went out onto the porch and saw across the lawns other porch lights swinging and everything was just moving and seemed kind of blurry.”

Patrick Holland in Salinas said, “Minutes before, I had just taken a new medication. So, I felt dizzy. The building did sway a little. It only lasted for a minute, here in Salinas.

My mom worked for 30 years in the USA as a school teacher, and retired with a few hundred thousand in savings, 2 properties, 1 mortgage, and a $3,000/month pension.

Obviously, I’m not going that route.

But I feel the key to an early retirement is a passive income of at least $3000 a month without it depending on the highly volatile world markets (stocks, bonds, metals).

So this year I’m focused on just that, creating an income of at least $3000 a month passive income (meaning you get it and don’t have to do much of anything)… here in Ecuador.

And I’ll keep you updated on all the wins and losses.

Most entrepreneurs and independently employed lean on rental properties for that income.  I don’t think that is the way to go here in Ecuador because rents are low and tenant laws problematic.

So my focus is going to be primarily on retirement homes, agriculture and Ecuador web-based businesses.

This week I launched my first try at it.  A website for folks who want to rent cars in Quito, Ecuador.

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Detailing your car interior is therefore the first step in cleaning car interior effectively. To clean the car you will need a vacuum that will blast off the inevitable dust that is clogged in the seats, on the dashboard, in the boot, on the floor of the car and on every seam that may harbor dust particles in your car. It is prudent to use a plastic vacuum device as opposed to the metal type in order to keep the fabric in your car from tearing and scratching. Vacuums for the car are a must have, for cleaning car interior. These are not bulky equipment and they use very little power. If you have been keeping your car relatively clean then the vacuuming process should take 20-minute tops. What else is mandatory for cleaning car interior is taking care of the dashboard and the console. These parts of your car are highly susceptible to damage from the heat a may because cracking and the ugly fading that comes with an overheated console. Therefore, these need to be treated using UV sunscreen and such like chemicals that protect the rear and the front glasses from the sun’s rays. You can use a device to apply the sunscreen evenly or you can just use a rug.

Perhaps the most time consuming activity during cleaning car interior is watching the carpets. These have arguably the most dirt and will require almost 2 hours cleaning time to get rid of the dirt completely. This process involves using a vacuum first to blow of the dust thus making your scrubbing job much easier. You will also need car shampoos and detergents to take clean the mats entirely. Drying off the car mats can be done by the use of a dry-wet vacuum or a heavy towel and you are done with the mats. These are the most important areas to factor in when cleaning car interior. Other nooks and cronies are the window frames, panels, and plastic or vinyl coverings that are around the car. These need to be wiping using wet rags to too. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that the chemicals you use for cleaning the car interior are not corrosive and will not affect the vinyl or plastic covering as well as the other fabrics in your car.

The premise: Rent a cars at the airport are PRICEY, yet the little domestic rent a car places in the city are much cheaper.  So I made a deal with one in the city to deliver and retrieve their cars from the airport here in Quito and I’d make 12% commission on sales I made.  Essentially the idea is to bring the city prices here to the airport  area.  For instance, in the city, the economy cars you can get for $23 a day plus 12% tax (with 60 km).  Same car is about double that in the airport.

The costs: Domain name ($15/yr) built website myself in wordpress (free), signed up for a gmail account and a live chat account (not yet implemented in site) $15/month. That’s it.

The strategy: Once deal was made and site launched I found a bilingual Ecuadorian friend of mine who wants to make extra money who answers the emails and the calls and handles the bookings. The clients deposit to my account, then I split the commissions with him.

Our clients: Mainly Ecuadorians so we don’t have an instant book now feature, most Ecuadorians prefer to email, call, call again and then deposit in bank account to confirm booking.

The sales: In our first week we’ve sold for commissions of $3.60, $22, $20, $32.  Total $77.60.  Not bad for the first week, we’ll see from here how it goes.

One thing I’ve never seen many web gurus talk about are the incredible online opportunities there are in developing countries selling in the local language to locals.  There simply isn’t much decent competition so it is possible to make an impact quickly.