A New Kind of Blog

There is a world of information about Ecuador. It is one of the most popular countries for people who want to retire to a place where the dollar goes much farther than in the US, a place for adventuresome families who want to experience a new language and exciting culture. However, much of what you read or hear does not touch on the practical, the problematic, or the local information necessary to make things work. There are many blogs which are basically daily diary’s from people who live here. But this blog will be different. We know how hard it is to get accurate and timely information. We have been through it. All of us who live here have learned step by step and we question whether it is necessary to have every newcomer reinvent the wheel. We hope this blog will help shorten the learning curve. There are many hurdles but all are surmountable. What is required is patience, an understanding of local ways, and a realization that you are going to live in a country which is not the same as the US, Canada, or Britain. Our choice was to live in the wonderful city of Cuenca in the Southern Sierra but this may not be your decision and you will therefore have to look further to find the answers you need for different areas like the coast or the Amazon. Please realize that all the suggestions and ideas are based on our experiences. Ecuadorian regulations change rapidly and must be checked before you make any investments or major decisions. Please email us at Sailorburr@gmail.com and let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Internet update



We mentioned last week that we have recently been having problems with our internet connection and received a number of emails asking us to let them know how we solved the problem. We recently contracted with Empresa, the electric company, because we had heard that they were a better connection than Etapa, the water company, our present provider. Empresa technicians came yesterday afternoon to install our modem but insisted they had to drill a hole from the outside through our apartment wall so they could lead an optical fiber wire into the apartment. The owner’s of the building did not want wires running up the building and into our apartment so, we are staying with Etapa for our internet service. The Etapa technician came later in the day to see if we had a local problem as they insisted that their service was back to normal after a couple of weeks of tower problems.  He shrugged his head when we asked if there was any way for us to get a better connection. In rapid Spanish he explained the compression problem when too many people are on line at the same time and apologized for the fact that mornings and late afternoon were times when service is slower than evenings and mid-day. We’ll give Etapa a try for the next few weeks and keep our fingers crossed that they have solved their problems. For the last year, we have not had problems with our internet connection, only with Skype dropping calls, so hopefully all is going to be OK.

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