October 8 & 9- Being a Tourista in Quito

On Monday we decided to explore the very large park near the modern section of the city called Parque La Carolina. It is several blocks long and one block wide and has biking and walking  paths, soccer fields, a bike and skate board park, a couple of snack bars and a very extensive Botanical Garden.

At the far north end, there are several statues of rather large people enjoying the fresh air. They make me look rather tiny and ,dare I say, slim.

 

Uwe posed beside some rather large bicycle statues.

 

After walking the length of the park, we went into the Botanical garden- entrance fee $3.50- rather high for Ecuador.

 

There were many paths leading around the native plants, very nicely done.

 

Near the middle there were a couple of green houses- one contained hundreds of varieties of orchids- something that Ecuador is famous for.

 

Here are some close-ups of some of the very colourful.

 

 

And they also had some species of plants very familiar to us from our years in Arizona- Cacti

 

Here are some very large tropical plants- Ecuador does have a portion of the Amazon within it's borders.

 

The next day we took the Quito Tour Bus. Yes, I Know, in your home city you would never do anything that hokey but when travelling......

We bought tickets for the 12 O'clock bus priced at $12/person for the three hour ride.

 

First we headed down several of the very busy streets- I swear Quito's traffic is worse than Toronto's- and at least 1/2 of our 3 hour ride will be sitting in traffic- LOL

 

We passed by some very cute neighborhoods that we will have to come back to explore- that's part of the fun of riding the tour bus- exploring new places you have yet to visit. We next went to the Historical section where we live and stopped by an awesome church.

 

The church, Iglesia de La Basilica, was started in 1892, took 100 years to complete and is the largest church in Ecuador. Since it is only several blocks from our rental, it is definitly worth a return visit.

 

Our bus passed several other churches and squares including Plaza Grande where the President's Palace is.

 

Our next stop was El Panecillo ( the hill & statue at far background of photo). I have no idea how our bus driver negotiated some of these VERY narrow streets.

 

At the top we had 20 minutes to walk around, take pictures and do some local shopping. We did buy an oil painting of Quito including this hill & monument. He started price at $65 but we beat him down to $39!

The views of Quito were 360 degrees- really exceptional!

These are views to the north.

 

 

 

And the statue- Virgin Mary with wings- very strange.

 

And more scenes to the south, east and west.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 8- Some Views about Quito

In my previous post, I neglected to mention some of the fellow Expats we met at Finn McCools. This pub is located in an area of Quito that has many many hostels. All looking clean and rather inviting if you are in your 20's.
So consequently, our fellow clientele at the pub were not the usual Gringo old farts like ourselves, but many young North Americans ( and probably Europeans & Australians).

I struck up a conversation with a young woman and her friends sitting next to us at the bar. She is a teacher from Michigan, who after working at home for two years, relocated to Venezuela and taught English there for 1 1/2 years. She travelled all over that country whenever she had time off, met her boyfriend from Wisconsin there and has now moved to Quito to teach here with him. WOW, it's nice to know that the new generation is as adventurous or even more so, than us old folks!

So now for some views on our current city, Quito. This is the capital of Ecuador , located high in the northern mountains of Ecuador with a population just slightly less than our previous home cities of Phoenix and Toronto. There are many neighborhoods, the historical district where we currently live, La Mariscal ( affectionately called Gringolandia-LOL) and the downtown business district where we went to a very modern Mall with many expensive stores- out of these retirees' price range.

 

 

This Mall is huge- 3 stories and 260 stores plus a very extensive food court which along with the usual KFC, PIZZA PIZZA etc even has a Sushi Bar.

 

The Ecuadorian people are equally as polite and friendly as those in Cuenca and Salinas . In the trolleys, as I had mentioned previously , are usually packed tighter than sardine cans, people actually get up to offer seats! You really know you are getting old when a young Ecuadorian woman offers you her seat.

 

As far as meeting other Expats- nada! We've seen maybe 2 other couples our age so obviously Quito has not the same organized Expat community as Cuenca and Salinas. We are getting lots of practice with our Spanish.

October 1 to 7- First Week in Quito

  After a 5 month long visit back to our home country, Canada, we left on October 1st to go back to Ecuador- this time to the capital city of Quito.

Quito is located near the northern part of Ecuador at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g294308-Quito_Pichincha_Province-Vacations.html

We arrived around 10:15PM and breezed through Immigration and Customs. I had been a bit worried as we had Uwe's new stereo system packed in one of our four suitcases ( did I mention my husband is an ardent stereophile!).
Our landlord for the month, Liliya , and her taxi driver Louis met us and took us to our home for the next month. After a 20 minute taxi ride through a deserted city (it was after 1:30AM by then) we arrived at our condo. It is located in the Historic District and though in an older building it was fully renovated and perfect for our needs. Poor Louis carried our four suitcases up 3 flights of stairs- no elevators.

The next morning we checked out our surroundings. Below is our view looking southwest, very scenic, lots of hills.

 

And here is the view the other way.

 

We took a walk around the La Ronda neighbourhood where our condo is located.

Many pedestrian only streets

 

And many many squares and beautiful churches- actually a great place to live for our month.

Now you are probably asking yourself- WHY QUITO?? Since we already own a beautiful condo on the beach in Salinas, why come here?
We have decided to use our lawyer to help us get our residency permit and he is located in Quito. Yes, I know you can do it yourself now but since our Spanish is next to non-existant and the rules seem to change daily, it is worth the expense of a lawyer to us.

So on Wednesday, we took all our hard- won translated documents ( see previous post) with us to visit Sebastian and start the process. Since we live near the south part of Quito and his office is near the north, we decided to try the public transportation trolley system. We had a map and with Liliya's help figured out the route.

Here is one of the many trolley stations- very organized but very very full- I can now relate to sardines!

We found his office- right behind one of the newer malls- with no problem. So far all our paper work looks OK- we'll find out once he presents to the authorities. We'll need to meet again next week.

On our walk back up to catch our trolley taking us home, I took some pictures of the streets around this much more modern part of the city.

             This is the view of Avinedas Naciones Unidas looking east and next west.

On Sunday, we wanted to go to an Expat type hangout to watch NFL and after some research found Finn McCool's Irish Pub. Again we had to take a trolley ride to get there- Quito is a very large city- over 2 million population.

                                                Uwe and I and our first draft beer.

 

We had some great comfort food- Fish & Chips for Uwe and Shepard's Pie for me.

And great way to end our first week!

 

 

 

SUMMER 2012- Getting our Documents for Residency

Here we are almost halfway through September and finally have all our documents for our residency application in Ecuador- whew!! it's been a blast or ......

The PDF below is very good reading for anyone contemplating what we are attempting to do. Sebastian is our lawyer and has been incredibly helpful.

http://www.garyascott.com/images/2012/08/VISA-REPORT-AUGUST-20121.pdf

As well, the Ecuador Consulate in Canada is a good source of information and will answer any questions via email provided. All of the info below only applies to fellow Canadians seeking help.

http://www.embassyecuador.ca/english/

First an explanation of which visa we are going to apply for and why. After much thought we are both going to apply for an investors' Visa ( 2 separate visas-one each of CD's or property equaling $25,000 each).

Why one each and not one plus dependent? Our good friend Connie, an American living in Salinas, lost her beloved husband to cancer last January. Because she was a dependent on her husband's visa, she not only had to deal with her grief but also with the incredible beaurocracy involved in getting her own visa. Since one of us is going to die first, we are saving the surviving partner the hassle of doing what Connie had to do.

Second, why an investors' and not a pensioners'? Although I qualify for a pensioners' visa my husband does not so in order to save paperwork/translations etc, we are both going for the investors' visa using our Salinas condo.

One thing to remember for the pensioners' visa. If using your government pension, it MUST be at least $800 ( plus $100 for a dependent). If you are Canadian like myself, and you get $550 in CPP and $500 in OAP you CANNOT use two separate government documents. You must get the Canadian government to issue you one piece of paper listing both.

Our visa type decided, our paperwork was relatively easy.

1. Criminal record granted by the authority of the place you have been living on the last 5 years, dully apostilled and translated into Spanish, the translator must recognized the signature before a Notary.

 

2. Closing Deed, original, duly registered. DONE plus no translation required

 

3. Certificate from the Real estate Registrar granted no more than 30 days before the application is submitted. Sebastian to get for us once we arrive

 

4. Municipal Land Tax 2012 DONE plus no translation required

 

 

Since we had lived in various places during the last 5 years, we couldn't get a local police record and decided to get an RCMP record instead. If applying at the RCMP this can take months to receive. However, if going to the many outlets such as those listed in the website below, it can take just over one week.

http://www.commissionaires-cgl.ca/

Just make sure you insist on your finger prints going digital to the RCMP. This outlet will take your prints and photo and submit both to the RCMP via internet and in just over a week, you will get your criminal record ( or lack there of- LOL) including a copy of your photo and finger prints- very official looking.

Next step is getting your documents translated. We used the following service- they were fast, reasonably expensive and did both the certifying and notarizing of each translated document.

http://www.wedotranslation.com/rates-fees.htm

We had to scan our documents and send them to this service via email. They sent us back an invoice of their cost. Once paid via credit card, bank interac transfer or mailed check, the translation was done. Once completed, a translated copy was emailed to you to check before certifying/notarizing was done,  Once OK'd by you, the translations duly certified and notarized were sent to you via courier service.

Just make sure that each document is separate-in our case 2 RCMP criminal records, 2 separate notarized translated documents.

Of course you are not done yet!

Next, you have to get the notarizing checked and veryfied by the Canada Document center- see link below.

http://www.mgs.gov.on.ca/en/OffDoc/STEL01_045716.html

In our case,  the closest office was 700 University, 6th floor, in Toronto. They will do each one while you wait for a cost of $16 each.

Next stop is the Ecuador Consulate to get your translated documents legalized. The address in Toronto is 151 Bloor St W unit 450. Again, they will do the legalizing while you wait and the cost is $5US each.

So you think you are done- LOL- not so fast!!! Just lately the rules have changed regarding the additional documents required to receive your 'Cedula' - the ID card required for every Ecuadorian resident.

The following is now required:

Birth certificates duly apostilled and translated into Spanish (apostilled or legalized by the ecuadorian consul)

 

Marriage certificate apostilled and translated into spanish (apostilled or legalized by the ecuadorian consul

Easy you say! Not if you were born in Germany, married twice once in USA, and changed your name only once!
Luckily we both had a certified copy of our German birth certificates and my first marriage certificate and a certified second marriage certificate from Las Vegas , USA.
The only reason I needed my first marriage certificate ( and possibly my divorce papers) is to prove my name change from my maiden name to my married name of my first husband ( refused to change my name yet again when I married my second husband causing more problems!).

We sent all back to our translation people, then back to the Canada Document center and finally back to the Ecuadorian Consulate. The Consulate legalized all of these even though we had NOT gotten the German and USA documents apostilled.

So now we are finally done and waiting our return to Ecuador in October. Stay tuned to how our Visa aquisition tribulations progress- LOL

April 30- Home to North America... for Now

On April 30th we left our beautiful paradise of Cerro Azul and headed to the airport to begin our trip back home to Canada for the summer. Of course we're taking the long way, 4 days in South Beach, Miami and a week in our timeshare in Las Vegas.

So how do we feel about the three places that we spent time living in?

Of course we loved Italy especially the village life where my daughter and her husband live but found that housing costs, utilities and gasoline were way above our budget so we will just have to visit there every once in awhile.

We loved Ecuador. In spite of the third world problems- garbage, poverty, beaurocracy etc- we still found a home there, unfortunately
for us we loved both the Salinas beach area and the lovely city of Cuenca.

And finally Panama, much less of a third world country than Ecuador with wonderful people and many great places to live. The grocery bills were very comparable to Arizona ,in other words cheaper than Canada ( unless you shop at Riva) with wine and beer being half the cost of similar items in Ecuador. That said, living in Cerro Azul permanently was not for us. Though we loved the scenery, hiking ,fresh air and drinking water, we found it too isolated and a 6 month rainy season just didn't suit us- remember we had lived in sunny Arizona for 11 years.

So now we are heading home to Collingwood to contemplate our next move.
My posts will be few during the summer, maybe the odd one discussing ease or difficulty of getting our necessary papers for residency but stay tuned for October when we will start our next journey.

April 23 to 29- Last Week in Panama

The last week of our time in the paradise of Cerro Azul was here.

Because at the start of the week the mornings were sunny we did our favorite thing- hiking. We again did the trail up to the lookout platform but this time we walked right from home rather than drive to the trailhead. This added another 1+Km each way but we needed the exercise.

And when we got half way up we decided to try the other direction, instead of to Vistamares we went to Atalaya- we had no idea and still don't what this was.

The trail started as a combination of up and down but once we got to the sign

it was all downhill. And we knew, what we walk down we MUST walk back up.

So brave souls that we were, we turned and went back.

The best thing that happened though is the finally we saw a critter. And better yet I actually got a photo.

Right in the middle of the path we were following, there it was.

Maybe 4' long and only a cousin to our common garter snake.

We were pretty elated- finally a critter plus I got it on camera.

The next day we took another hike but this time along the subdivision streets. We've done that many times before but always find new roads to explore and houses to check out. This one had a pretty lookout room on top with a terrific view.

And another with another amazing view.

And for the second time in a row we met yet another snake -this time crawling right across the road. He was off to the side before I finally got my camera out.

Mid week we went back to Panama City to pick up our friend Kathy who was here from Canada on business and staying at a new hotel on Playa Bonita which is on the far west side of the city. We wanted to show her a couple of our favorite places.

First we drove to the Amador Causeway and walked around the marina.

We then took a taxi to Casco Viejo- no way was I driving there. We did some walking around, bought some Panama hats ( which we all now know are made in Ecuador) and did some sight seeing in this picturesque old part of town.

We had a couple of cervazas and lunch while there.

The city views in the background are pretty spectacular from this location.

Our last week here it rained at least part of every day. And it was so foggy! But it seemed that this was only true on the mountain- our friend informed us that the city was sunny. Damm that early rainy season- wasn't due until June.

We got a couple more hikes in and saw yet more critters.

This interesting lizard- almost looks like a Jesus Lizard that run on top of the water. This one was right on the road.

And some neighbourhood domesticated critters

On our last Saturday we drove back into the city. We spent some time in the downtown mall called Multicentro.

Very modern and large

And had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe