We are going to miss these wonderful $50 a night rooms (with good breakfast), $20 evening meals (with beer) and $1 taxi fares. Sydney is going to be a shock!
Ecuador is a very well-equipped county, with ever improving infrastructure, and it is not surprising that lots of foreigners are choosing to retire here. It is diverse and beautiful, has a good climate, the people are delightful and it is extremely cheap to live. Subsiding fuel certainly keeps the prices down - diesel is $1.03/gallon, 25 cents a litre. Read and weep!
Yesterday we did a day tour - out of character for us, but the best way to get around. It was great - waterfalls, hiking, amazon rainforest, a local indigenous community, blowpipe practice, face painting, a wooden canoe ride over the rapids, an animal rescue place (from animal traffickers) and lots of good information about the traditional cultures, foods, use of plants etc.
A huge day,11 hours, with only one one problem - we had the worst possible companions for the day. A Canadian/Chinese couple who didn't shut up from the moment we met at 9am, until we got back. 'Shallow', 'vacuous' were Andrew's words - 'dumb as dogshit' were mine.
'does it snow here?' (we are in the Amazon), 'have you got Walmart here?' ( I repeat, we are in the Amazon), and incessant chatter about crap all day and no interest in the information or sights of the tour. I will scream if I hear about how perfect everything is in China again - food, people, society, you name it. You'd have to wonder why you had been living in Canada for 15 years if it was so good!
We made a pact before we left home that we would be patient - I nearly blew it, but spent the day grunting in response instead.
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