By Suzan Haskins
Dear International Living Reader,
About a year ago, I told you about a couple my husband and I met who live in the small town of Cotacachi in the Ecuador highlands. Lee and Peggy Carper, I wrote, live on a monthly budget of about $660, which includes rent, utilities, food, medications, transportation, and even food for their two dogs and a passel of strays they feed.
As you can imagine, Dan and I were impressed…even more so because we fell in love with Imbabura province, where Cotacachi is located. Majestic mountains loom in every direction…and the air is mountain-fresh and cool enough for a light jacket in the evenings. Just about two hours north of Quito (the cosmopolitan capital of Ecuador), Imbabura is home to several artisan villages, including the textile town of Otavalo, where you’ll find the largest open-air indigenous market in South America. Major shopping…in modern supermarkets, hardware and department stores…is done just a few minutes north in the large, bustling city of Ibarra.
We were so impressed, in fact, that we decided to spend our summers here and we bought a small condo on the edge of town with a picture-perfect view of Mount Imbabura.
It’s been fun outfitting our condo with handcrafted pieces made to order by local carpenters. At the local the mercado we buy fresh produce or we eat at one of the many small local restaurants that specialize in home-cooked food. We walk everywhere we go and I’m certain we are losing weight. We feel very healthy here.
There’s just one problem…
Since we have been here in Ecuador, I have been told—not once, but three times—that I got it all wrong when I wrote about Lee and Peggy Carper.
The conversation usually goes something like this…
“Hey, that couple that lives here on $660 a month…they must be living pretty extravagantly. Because we’re living on about $500 a month.”
Ok, I can understand that coming from Bob, a single guy. And even from John and Sue, who live in Vilcabamba and own their home and therefore don’t have a monthly rental expense…
But last week, we met Jack and Eileen.
They rent a three-bedroom furnished house for $150 a month. Jack walks up to a local asadero (tiny restaurant/grill) where he eats an American-style breakfast of bacon and eggs and toast. Cost: $1.25. At the mercado, they buy a big bag of veggies (already cleaned and diced) for $1, which makes a big pot of soup that lasts for several days. Sometimes they go out for dinner. (At the best restaurants in town, a steak dinner with salad and potato is no more than $5.)
A woman comes and collects their laundry, which she returns washed and neatly ironed for about $8. Big 20-ounce bottles of Pilsener beer cost about 75 cents each (less if you buy by the case.) Freshly baked softball-sized buns from local bakeries cost 12 cents each. The bus to Otavalo is 25 cents and to Ibarra it costs 40 cents.
“It’s tough to spend $500 a month here,” they say.
Properly chastised—and after living here the last two months here, I have to agree. And I fully expect that next we’ll meet someone else who is living here comfortably and happily on even less.
Editor's note: John Curran, the fellow from Vilcabamba that Suzan mentions above, will be speaking about his experiences in Ecuador (as will Dan and Suzan) at the upcoming International Living Live Overseas Conference in Las Vegas, Oct. 1 and 2. If you’re just starting to think about living or retiring overseas, this is the event for you. Learn more here.
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