February 15 - February 28, 2023: Our Winter Trip to Florida- Part 2
	January 4 - January 17, 2023: Our Winter Trip to Florida- Part 1
	Return to the Index for 2023

Well, the purchase of our house in Ecuador has been completed, and some of the initial renovations have been done, so now we have planned a trip to Ecuador to actually move into the house. Fred and I drove to Florida in early January, spent some time there, and then on the 17th we had Ron Drew take us to the airport where we were to meet Greg who had flown that same day into Fort Lauderdale from California.

In addition to bringing some clothes and things to leave in the Ecuador house, we have also purchased and are bringing with us an inflatable bed; even though one of our first priorities will be to purchase actual beds, we will need something to sleep on in the meantime. We had a little bit of a snafu at the airport, but in due time we met Greg at the gate for our 7PM Jet Blue flight to Quito.

Getting to the House in Quito

Of course, the first step in getting to the Ecuador house is to get from Fort Lauderdale, and that's where Jet Blue comes in.

One reason for flying Jet Blue from Fort Lauderdale is that all our American perks transfer over to their flights. So we were all able to pick the seats we wanted and board early, which we did. We found that Jet Blue has excellent at-seat entertainment, and both Fred and I passed the four hours by watching a couple of movies. About 11PM we landed in Quito, and, as we had done last year on our househunting trip, we checked into the Quito Airport Wyndham. We didn't want to try to arrive at our community gate, Santa Lucia Baja, late at night- since our lawyers still had the keys.

The Wyndham is a very nice hotel, and we were able to get a late supper in the dining room, as well as breakfast the next morning.

Greg had two surprises for us at the hotel. One was yet another example of his generosity- a box of 200 $1 Susan B. Anthony coins. Ecuador uses the US Dollar as its currency (which enables it to avoid the hyperinflation to which a number of other South American countries are susceptible). While Ecuador uses US currency, it is hard to negotiate any bills larger than a $20 bill; you basically have to deposit larger bills in the bank and then withdraw 20s, 10s, 5s, or 1s which stores will take readily. So these coins are very useful, and we were very much impressed that Greg had thought to get them ahead of time. We knew in advance to bring a supply of small bills as well, as we would be opening bank accounts on this trip (so we could pay our house expenses from those accounts).

The other surprise was that Greg had thought to have "business cards" made for each of us. Here is the business card he made for Fred. We had decided on our last trip that we'd refer to the house as "Casa 3 Amigos", so Greg put that on the card, along with each of our names, US phone numbers, and email addresses. He designed the cards very nicely, as you can see. We will be investigating obtaining Ecuadorian phone numbers while we are here, which will make it easier for us to contact locals and for them to contact us. If we get these numbers, we can always write them on the backs of the cards.

So we had a good night's sleep and met in the lobby in the morning with all our luggage. We had contacted our lawyers via WhatsApp, and arranged to meet them at the front gate of Urbanizacion Santa Lucia Baja to give us our keys and help us get into the house for the first time.

Before we leave the hotel, I took a couple of pictures that are similar to some that we took nine months ago:

This is the highway in front of the Wyndam as seein in the early morning fog.

The Wyndham is a modern building that looks like a long tube. Here it is from the front.

Since there were cabs waiting at the hotel, we piled into one of those, rather than calling an Uber. The two modes are actually about the same price, usually, although with an Uber you might get a larger, nicer vehicle.

So how best to organize this page? I think the best way is to organize the pictures by topic, without much regard to exactly when each picture was taken. But what will the topics be?

Of course, one section should be devoted to the house itself. We took a good many pictures inside the house, now that the former owners had moved out. Early on, the pictures were of empty rooms, but very quickly they became populated with the many things we had to buy for the house. We obviously had to do a lot of shopping to get things for the house, as it had little save for the furniture that we bought from the previous owners. So there were numerous trips to the Mega Kywi, which is much like a Home Depot, and to Todohogar, which is a homegoods store. Both of these stores are down the road about three miles from us, so we took taxis there and back (particularly since we were carrying so much stuff). We also bought stuff at a furniture store near the old square; we could walk to the store, but obviously the furniture had to be delivered. While I didn't take many pictures on these shopping trips, the pictures of the inside of the house will show you some of what we purchased and either carried home or had delivered. So, one obvious section should be pictures of the house as we were beginning to fill it with the necessities.

Two other sections involved trips up to Quito. One was involved with getting our trust set up (the trust would be the owner of the house and ourselves the trustees, to get around quirky inheritance laws in Ecuador), and another was a trip to the office that issues residency/ID cards (cedulas). So there will be a two sections for these trips.

On a few occasions, we walked down the Chaquiñán Nature Trail from the old town square to Scala Mall (where we also did a fair amount of shopping), and we took numerous pictures along that trail- enough so that the trail deserves a section of its own.

The rest of the pictures on this page are candid shots, taken on walks around Cumbaya, and I think I will just group all these pictures together.

So with these initial grouping choices in mind, let's begin.

The House and Its New Furnishings

We began the purchase process for the house in May, 2022. When we returned from the househunting trip, I created an album page for that trip, and on that page you can see some of the other houses that we looked at. When we selected this one, I created a separate page just for it, and on that page you will be able to see the entire house as it looked while its former owners were still living there. That page will also have a good deal of information as to just where the house is. If you have not visited that page already, and would like to do so now, just click on this link to visit the house. I'll open that page in a new browser tab, and when you are done looking at it, you can just close the tab.

But if you don't want to look at that page just now (and even if you did), I'd like to orient you as to just where the house is.

First off, it is in a suburb of Quito called Cumbaya. Cumbaya is in the Tumbaco Valley, which is a valley outside Quito and about 1500 feet lower. The elevation here is about 7500 feet. There are three or four highways that connect Quito and Cumbaya, the most utilized of which is one that climbs the ridge towards Quito and then goes through a tunnel to enter the city. Quito is huge, but Cumbaya has only about 50,000 people.

When the road from Quito finally gets towards the bottom of the valley, it arrives at one of the two large shopping malls in Cumbaya- Paseo San Francisco. (The other large mall is only a mile or so further down the valley and just a few hundred feet lower; that's Scala Mall.) If you continue through the Tumbaco Valley, you come to the actual town of Tumbaco, and once you are through that, the road starts climbing again, leading to the International Airport and to destinations south and east of Quito.

Anyway, we are in the southeast corner of a gated community right behind Paseo San Francisco; the community is called Santa Lucia Baja. Most of the homes are single-family, although there are a few multi-family structures. Our house is one of three that are inside yet another gate; all three were built by the developer of the community and all three were originally owned by family members. Two of them still are. When the developer died, his widow didn't want to occupy the huge house by herself, so a small house was built for her on the site of the tennis court that used to be in the little compound, and her house was bought by a General in the Ecuadorian Air Force (please, don't ask; I have no idea why Ecuador needs an air force)- General Barallas. That's who we bought the house from.

The other two houses are still owned by the developer's sons- Dario and Nicholas. We've met both of them, and they (and their families) seem quite nice- particularly Dario who lets us know if he sees anything go on when we are gone. Nothing usually does, as some unknown person would first have to get by the guards at the main gate, and would then need either keys or a ladder to get over the gate to our little compound.

When you come in through the main gate, you walk southwest up Calle D ("D" Street), turn the corner to the southeast, and ahead of you, down at the next corner, you can see the gate to our little compound.

There is a pedestrian gate at the left that requires a key, and an auto gate that requires a clicker to open. Either way, you find yourself in the little common parking area with our house right in front of you, Dario's house to the right, and Nicholas' house to the left. Nicholas and we have carports, while Dario has a parking area kind of underneath his house. Both Dario and Nicholas have rented out rooms in their houses to students who go to the University of San Francisco (which is just across the main road north of Paseo San Francisco and so very convenient for them).

Let's go inside the house and have a look around. I'll mention it when you see stuff that we have purchased on this trip. We'll begin with some pictures taken on the first floor.

First Floor

This picture was taken from near the door to the kitchen, and it looks along the main hall, past the stairs, and to the upper sitting area at the other end. You can see the main sitting area past the front door at left, and this side of the front door is the dining room (which is now empty).

This picture was taken at a different time, but not far from where the picture at left was taken. At right is the door to the kitchen and at left is the archway that connects the dining room to the "family room" area that is adjacent to the kitchen. You can use the stairs to orient yourself in both pictures.

This picture was taken from a position near the stairs, which are behind Fred (who took the picture). Across the opening to the basement you see the dining room, and you can also see the family room at the left.

This picture Fred took from the upper sitting area, and you can see the curved wall with glass blocks that shields the entry to the powder room. You can also look along the length of the hall leading past the stairs to the family room just outside the kitchen.

The curved wall with glass blocks is just one of the interesting architectural details in the house. From behind the wall, just outside the social bath, is a picture of the glass block wall as you would see it upon exiting the social bath.

Taken from the dining room, this view looks past the front door to the ground floor sitting area. The opening to the basement and the stairs are at the right.

This picture looks directly across the opening to the basement to the stairs leading down to the basement and up to the second floor. The tubular railings seem retro, but they seem to fit the house well.

We've just occupied the house, and of course have little furniture with which to populate it. One essential, of course, was a television, and we decided to utilize the "family room" just outside the kitchen for this purpose. At the moment, all we have is the television itself and three recliners that we bought a week into our first stay here from Pycca- a home store over in Paseo San Francisco. We have internet, so such TV as we watch is either streaming or downloaded.

The Kitchen

The kitchen is where we have set up shop for the time being. The Barallas' left us the kitchen table, and so we have set up our laptops here and, with no other place in the house yet suitable, spend most of our time here.

Much of what we have purchased is for use here in the kitchen. These items include an apparatus for filtering the local water so we can drink it without ill-effects, a microwave, a coffeemaker, dishes and silverware, pots and pans, and so on. While we could drink the water directly, our systems would not be used to the different types of, and levels of concentration of, bacteria in the local water. We wouldn't die, but we might be uncomfortable (see: "Montezuma's Revenge"). Actually, we have discovered that few Ecuadorians drink the water directly if they have the ability to filter it. Most restaurants serve bottled water, and lots of homes either rely on bottled water or have installed filtering systems as simple as ours or much more complicated.

Although the Barallas took their relatively new Samsung fridge with them, they left us the second one they had, and our contractor had it moved up from the basement and put in the kitchen. It is fine, works well, and means that we can postpone at least one major purchase.

Here is a panoramic view of this room that we are spending most of our time in at the moment:

Outside the kitchen, between the kitchen and the carport, there is an outbuilding with two rooms. One is the laundry room and the other is the maid's quarters (with its own bath).

This view looks from the kitchen window out towards the carport, and the two windows are for the laundry room. The large black box is the water heater.

Two major purchases that Greg wanted to make right away were a washer and dryer. In this picture, they have been delivered and set up in the laundry room. Between the time we puchased the house and this, our first visit as owners, we had our contractor clean, re-tile, and re-plumb the laundry room, so it is now all set.

On the other end of the kitchen, near the table where we work, is the door to our outside patio and side garden. The Barallas have taken their patio furniture and grill with them, so we found a patio set over at Pycca so we will have a place to sit and eat outside.

Here, Greg and I are hard at work trying to follow the directions to put the patio set together. It was quite a job.

The patio set is finally assembled and we have set up our outside space.

While we are on the first floor, I should mention that we have a small side yard, with some flowers, an avocado tree, and a couple of lemon trees. It is a little unkempt at the moment, as we haven't arranged for anyone to maintain it. Here are some of the plants and flowers in this side yard:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Back in the kitchen, we've actually started to do some cooking at home.

From our lemon trees, we have harvested some pretty good lemons. I've been squeezing some of them and freezing the juice, and Fred has tried his hand at making a lemon cake:

We've got just about everything we need for the kitchen, although, as we start to do stuff, we are always finding that we are missing some gadget or other.

Here is a view of the kitchen looking out the window towards the laundry, maid's quarters, and carport.

Our avocado tree (at left) is also offering up its bounty, and here is a movie of me making some quacamole from our own avocados.

Here are two views, both taken from the terrace outside the family room at the front of the house, looking towards our little compound's gate. You can see Dario's house at left and Nicholas' house to the right of the gate:

Here are two more views of the outside of the house:

This view looks from the terrace off to the northwest. The mother of both Dario and Nicholas lives in the house at left (on the other side of our garden wall), and that's Dario's house at the right.

There are sliding glass doors that open up the family room to the outdoors, and this view looks past the terrace and into the family room where we have put our large TV.

Second Floor

So we've gone up the stairs to the second floor, and this is a good chance for Fred to take a picture of both flights of stairs- from the first floor up to here and from the first floor to the basement.

We've done some shopping since we've been here, and our bedroom has changed a lot. As you can see, the inflatable mattress is gone, replaced with a proper bed and mattress and some linens. Fred also spotted a very reasonably-priced recliner in one of the stores we went to, and we have picked it up.

We have also gotten a couple of little tables to use as night stands, and they are on either side of the bed. On one of them sits one of the collapsable lamps that Greg brought down; there is an identical one in his room.

Not much has changed in the bathroom, aside from a few things like soap dishes and the like, but while Fred was in there one afternoon he took a picture looking out the corner window to the northwest.

Here is another picture taken from our bathroom windows. It looks alonside the southeast side of the house.

This is the fireplace in our bedroom. It functions, although the Barallas didn't use it. We won't either, and as part of the renovations we want to do on the house we plan on taking it out.

This is the hallway that leads from the bedroom to the bath (the entrance to which is halfway down on the right). There is no shortage of storage in any of the bedrooms.

This is a view from our bedroom window looking to the northwest.

This is the view from Greg's bedroom window. He enjoys waking up to this mountain view every morning.

One problem that we had our architects fix even before we came down this first time as owners was to repair and re-tile the rooftop deck. There were some places where it was leaking, and we thought the problem should be fixed immediately. Here are two views taken on the rooftop patio:

We plan on getting a patio set for the deck so we can come sit up here on nice days. There are also good views in all directions, like this sunset.

This page for our first Ecuador trip to the new house is quite large. To avoid problems when such a large page loads, I have broken it up into sections. Please click the link below to go to the next section of this trip page.

	February 15 - February 28, 2023: Our Winter Trip to Florida- Part 2
	January 4 - January 17, 2023: Our Winter Trip to Florida- Part 1
	Return to the Index for 2023