Category: Ecuador for Investors

Good question. You want me to keep it real, right?

I remember a few years back someone robbed me while in Guayaquil, I called the police, and they never showed up…and from what the locals told me, this isn’t that strange.

The good news is that the situation has improved over the last few years with the Correa administration. In fact, they have hired SO many police it seems to some that Ecuador is trying to employ their entire male population as policemen.

President Correa has also raised the salaries of the police, gotten them better equipment and cleaned out a lot of the corruption.

The police won’t bother you in the street or ask to see your passport, and can help you in a sticky situation.

In general, the situation has improved over the last few years by leaps and bounds but is not perfect.

To answer the question, can you trust the local police in Ecuador, I would say …”More than a few years ago but still not quite as much as you could maybe in the US (but I’m not Rodney King)”.

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Wouldn’t it be great to know what the current worldwide demand is for “Ecuador real estate” and how its changed over the last few years…from an unbiased source (not from someone trying to sell us something).

Well, leave it to an internet geek like myself to find that for ya’.

Entering the new year, this week I thought it’d be interesting to do some analysis and report on where the market is right now for Ecuador property and how it has done over the past year.

While researching with some of the tools Google provides to advertisers for optimizing their ad campaigns, I stumbled across some info that I find just… staggering…

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The leading provider of cable TV in Ecuador is a company called TVCable.

Another good service provider is TelMex.

They have stands in most of the major malls in the cities and towns of Ecuador.

You can hire their services quickly and easily…after purchase they will install the service in your house free. With TelMex you can go month to month without the need of a long term contract while TVCable has you sign a contract but you can break whenever you wish with no penalty (but always verify this with your specific sales agent before signing!)

In the case of an early termination, just give back your equipment and that’s it.

The cheapest plan costs is $12.99 for the basic 41 channels, which includes many local channels and Disney, E!, Fox, Discovery, Nickelodeon, TNT, History, ESPN, CNN en espanol, FX.

You can also upgrade your plan for about $10 more and get channels like National Geographic, MGM, and Cinemax.

And for $10 more you could get all the main HBO channels and for $8 more get the Playboy channel.

TV Cable also offers internet and telephone services as well.

Best to inquire about these services in person once in Ecuador.

If you’d like to recommend a different company please do so in the comments below, thanks!

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I call the US from Ecuador mainly using Skype. With Skype you can call any phone in the US from anywhere for 2 cents a minute. The quality is good if you have a reasonably fast internet connection.

Other options for longer term stays include buying a Vonage phone or Magicjack to make unlimited calls to the US for a small monthly or quarterly fee.

Also, in Quito, you could try the Mariscal area where there are numerous call centers that charge 7 cents a minute to call the States or in Cuenca try the Centro Historico…

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There were 5 key steps in my flight search that I think you will need to know so you can save too:

1. Know when to go. Try not to fly during peak times. Peak times in Ecuador are when the Ecuadorians living abroad come home to visit their families. These times are from mid-December to the first week of April (Semana Santa (Easter week)). Expect prices to be higher during this time.

2. Buy round-trip air tickets. I’ve found that round-trip fares are often the same price, or at times even a little lower than one way fares.

3. Fly from Miami or New York. The cheapest direct flights leaving the US for Ecuador fly out of Miami (MIA) or Fort Lauderdale (FLL) airports, with New York a distant second. I have saved $$ buying two separate tickets, one from my home (in Montana) to Miami, and a separate one from Miami to Ecuador. For example, I recently flew roundtrip BZN (my city) to MIA $292. MIA to UIO (Quito) $357…for a Total including taxes=$649. If I would have bought roundtrip from Montana to Quito the cheapest flights available were costing $850-$950 USD.

4. Know where to look online. I start my flight searches at Kayak.com, which is great because it checks for flights across many different sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and Orbitz all at once. Kayak also allows you to check for flights to nearby airports and allows you to see prices for dates both 3 days before and after your desired departure. After finding the cheapest flight on Kayak, you may want to hop over to the airlines’ official site to see if you can buy it straight from them for cheaper, sometimes I have been able to.

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