This is my Ecuador blog. For most of 2010 I've been learning about Ecuador and the possibility of living there. At the end of 2009 for the first time since I was twenty and foot-loose I had the means of living where I chose for the winter. So I lived in Madrid for three months. It was very interesting & educational but not too warm. It was also fairly expensive. Those factors, the climate and cost, made me consider Latin America for the winter of 2010/11.
At first I considered Panama. In the mountains west of Madrid I met a native of Panama. She had me pretty much convinced that I should spend my next winter abroad there. As I investigated the country on the web I learned that Gringos had been pouring into Panama, in a flood, for ten years. What had been very attractive, over that time, became less so. Then there was the climate, humid. I reconsidered Panama. When I looked around I found the new Gringo magnet was Ecuador. The qualities and circumstance of the country made it a magnet. It also seemed that 2010 was still early enough in the Gringo Tsunami that Ecuador's qualities could persist, at least for a while.
One experience expats have to compare is the reaction of family and friends when they first announced they were pulling up stakes and leaving the country. It does go to the heart of some of our cultural comfort and assumptions. When I told everyone I was going to spend the three months of winter in Madrid one co-worker ask, "What will you do?". That struck me as so interesting. Not, how will you live without the familiar, the language, the cultural....but how will you pass the time. It was a great question to push thinking. I proposed that I would (and subsequently did) pretty much what I do here. Spend time with friends and associates, draw and paint, learn Spanish, surf the web, visit interesting venues (museums, exhibits, galleries). I knew from previous experience overseas that people everywhere are friendly, usually very friendly and welcoming and curious. This truth is the gate thru which everything else flows, leading to an enriching experience and much learning.
In this blog I want to record my thoughts as they occur. I will go back and forth and hem and haw, roll and yaw, but eventually land somewhere specific. That's just my way. Look for the bits of useful information and references. I do drift but the sea of ideas and imagination is very wide and the ports are conjured so we will arrive eventually. I have one of my daughter's cast off laptop computers for the trip. I will buy a portable page scanner (I draw) for the trip too. With these I should be able to contribute my day to day or at least weekly experience. I hope you find my efforts interesting or useful as you require. Thanks
No comments:
Post a Comment