Margarita Island, Venezuela

BY Karl Ike

Do you know the average life span in the United States is 76.9 years? That’s 28,068 days and I have already lived 21,900 of them, which means that I have only 6168 days left and I really want to make the most of them. That is unless I get T-boned at an intersection going to a job that I don’t like and get to work with a bunch of people that I do not socialize with away from work, but I get to do the same thing every weekend except for two weeks a year on my paid vacation. Then I get to clean out the garage and sleep late. I really don’t think I will ever see 76.9 cause if I don’t get T-boned going to work, a cancer will probably rot a part of my body away.


One thing I do know. I can’t retire in another 5 years, as I haven’t put enough away to retire which means that I will have to work the rest of my life at Wally World asking people want “paper or plastic” That’s why I want to make the most of my 6168 days left. I know that I cannot live on Social Security in the US so a couple of years back I decided to see what the rest of the world has to offer as a way of life. I went to England, France, Germany and Amsterdam but they are right up there with the US. Costa Rica I wasn’t impressed with, Canada is way too cold and I did live in Mazatlan Mexico for a year.

Mexico is not as cheap as it used to be however liquor and cigarettes are still cheap: helps get that cancer thing going and medications are cheaper to help kill the pain.

Mexico is definitely out.The Bahamas and Virgin Islands are right up there with Hawaii and my last name isn’t Trump so affordable living isn’t there either. I was stumped?

One day checking my e-mail, an old friend, Scott Boswell sent me a note. Scott and I met while we were both living in Mazatlan but this message wasn’t from Mexico? Scott & Kasey were e-mailing me from Margarita Island Where in the world is Margarita Island? As it turns out Scott had been looking for the perfect place too.
He had checked Central America, Equador, Argentina and a friend of Scott’s recommended this Caribbean island. To make a long story short, Scott went to visit for 6 weeks, came home, sold everything and moved back. Now he’s recommending it to me. You make your own decisions. I’ve made mine.

Scott started describing this wonderful island with a temperate climate year round located outside the hurricane corridor with beautiful Caribbean beaches, great restaurants, casinos and much more. Located off the coast of Venezuela in line with Trinadad, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba. Now Scott is from Texas and ya’ll know how a Texan can stretch a tale so you have to read between the lines? He started spinning more tales. Like when he filled the gas tank on his Toyota Land Cruiser and it cost him $2. I had to yell “Horse apples Scotty! There ain’t no such thing as gasoline at $.09 a gallon. Don’t tell me that. Your Texas president wouldn’t allow that!”

Then he tells me that a bottle of beer at a beach bar is only $.40 and he and Kasey can go out to dinner at a great Italian restaurant for $20 (with a bottle of wine). I thought Scott might have had a few too many of those forty cent beers? Then this clown tells me that you can buy a nice 3-bed/3-bath house for $40,000 or a nice high-rise condo for $25,000.


“More horse apples Scotty. Stop lying to me!”

Then he tells me that I can have a cute full time maid to clean up my mess for another $4 a day. I told this Texas windbag , I’ll be there Friday! My work buddy, Leo and I needed a vacation and I desperately wanted to prove that Scott was full of hot Texas air so we booked a flight!

OK! So hold onto you wallet! Airfare from Las Vegas is only $530 round trip to Caracas. It cost me another $56 to take a 737 hop to this pearl in the middle of the Caribbean. So, for $590, I get to take two giant steps backward into this supposid third world country. We landed on Margarita Island Venezuela on Friday. The name alone was worth the price of a ticket. Wonder if Jimmy Buffet is here? If not…….Why? This little dot on the map looked pretty good from the air and a whole bunch bigger.

The island is about 40x60 miles with hundreds of white sandy strips called beaches, turquoise water and several big green mountain with scattered villages and towns. I was expecting a dirt runway with a couple guys in camo uniforms carrying machine guns. Cool! I like thrills. Much to my dismay, it was a very nicely appointed, very clean, air-conditioned airport that made many of the US airports look bad.

Scott picked us up in his Land Cruiser. (And with no dingle balls and Oh-ugah horn. Come on Scotty. This is supposed to be third world and we’ve all seen Romancing the Stone!) Scott drove us 6 miles to a very nice hotel in Polamar, a cosmopolitan city of 200,000 with high-rise condos and hotels. I kept looking for the third world? It’s here somewhere? Our hotel Marbellamar was a very nice hotel with open-air lobby, swimming pool, restaurant and bar, parrots, concierge, travel agency and more. Well, I didn’t catch Scott on the car but I sure can get him on this hotel. This place ain’t cheap!

The front desk clerk said a room was 70,000 Bolivar’s (B’s) a night. What? My hand started shaking as I reached for some money. (I had exchanged $100 at the airport with some money-changing guy) So not being familiar with the exchange, I had to do the calculator thing. (We changed our money at the rate of 2200 Bolivar’s to the dollar) The room came to $31. Per person right? No. It was for two people. Stick around……it gets worse!

We spent 3 days at this hotel and then decided to try another so we moved to Katarama Hotel. A smaller hotel with a nicer pool, breakfast was included, pool bar and a larger room with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room with American TV for 60,000 B’s ($27) a night for two with breakfast. We spent the next 7-days here. If it got any cheaper they would be paying us! We rented a car. Scott took us to El Yaque, which was far from Yuckie. A beautiful sandy beach known for wind surfing, great beach restaurants and girls using dental floss for bathing suits so we stopped for a cold one. A beer was 1000 B’s ($.40) so we had six. I was wondering if any of those girls did any house cleaning? On the way back we needed to get gas for the Avis rental car so we pulled into a gas station where they still give you full service. While a girl washed the windshield and filled the tank I went into the convenience store for a cold beer.

The convenience store is like any 7-11 or Circle K in the States and is very well stocked. The official Venezuelan currency exchange rate is 1920 Bolivar’s to the dollar. You can exchange almost anywhere for 2200 to the dollar. Scott was getting us 2500 to the dollar. So when we paid for the gas, the girl squeezed 2483 Bolivar’s of 91 octane into the tank. About $.99 for a tank of gas! The beer was $500 B’s ($.20) When was the last time you got a tank of gas and a cold beer for under $1.25?

Never! Until today. Scott had gotten me again! I was wondering if girl who pumped our gas, cleans houses? Now I understand why Venezuela has won the Miss World competition more than any other country! They have some beautiful people even if all they wear is dental floss or a gas station uniform. At night, after a wonderful Italian dinner with a bottle of wine for $16, Leo decided to go home and I decided to go to Senor Frog’s. One thing I noticed is Margarita Island is very family oriented. I have never seen so many men out entertaining their daughters! I am really too old for Senor Frogs but I failed to see any age gap.

A beer there was the most I spent anywhere and it was 2000 B’s ($.80). If you like disco’s and loud music, that’s the place. Right next door there are two wonderful outdoor restaurants as well. Very cosmopolitan/European style. By the way, nightlife really starts at midnight and goes until the wee hours of the morning. From there I went to Margaritaville and the band didn’t start until 12 pm. And no, Jimmy Buffet was not there but he would love it.

Coming from Las Vegas, Sin City, the town that never sleeps, I decided to go to the Hilton Casino. I dropped the car off with the valet and stepped inside. The casino, while smaller, was very similar to US casinos. Blackjack, Caribbean Poker, roulette, and tons of slots in a beautiful building on gorgeous grounds. Complimentary cocktails served by beautiful women who I wished cleaned houses. The fun part was playing blackjack with $10,000 bills ($4) After having my fill of cocktails and losing 100,000 Bolivar’s ($40) I decided to call it a night. We also ate lunch at some small no-name beachside restaurant by one of the marinas where Scott took us. It is the kind where you fan the flies away to eat. Guess what? No flies but we met people from around the world there. Most of them live on their boats that they sailed from London, Florida, Georgia and other islands.
What an extremely interesting group. That is why we ate there about five times. Leo had never been outside the United States and had never had fish cooked with the eyeballs, teeth and lips. He was ecstatic and lunch was $8.

Scott took us to Sambil, a local third world mall or should I say third world MEGAMALL! This place was huge and beautiful like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with everything that we have in the US and far more.

Hundreds of stores, beautiful tropical restaurants with bridges over water ponds. and a food court to satisfy all your cravings for grease. McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Domino’s and Pizza Hut are here as well as world cuisine. We stuck to local flavor.

There is Venezuela’s version of Home Depot too. Actually, very modern, nicely stocked and almost everything you would need to build or re-model a house. There are other very nice modern shopping centers plus clinics and pharmacies with the same or better prices than Canada or Mexico for prescription drugs. And many you don’t even need a prescription for.
We decided to look at property that you can buy for almost nothing so Scott took us to La Asuncion which is a small clean town about 6-8 miles from Polamar. We looked at a 3-bed/3-bath house in a ¼ acre (1300 sf). One bed/bath was the maid’s quarters off the laundry room. The house had a chain link fenced yard with vines covering most of the fence and a huge playpa roofed patio that served as an outdoor entertainment area. Complete with a huge log table, hammock, TV and outdoor kitchen area.. It was great!

The house had a beam ceiling, 3/3, living room, Spanish tile floors, kitchen, AC, W/D, satellite (Direct TV) phone and needed nothing. Nice neighborhood in a quiet area. Price? $32,000 USD. In Vegas, something similar would be close to $200,000 on a smaller lot.

Leo and I looked at a brand new high-rise condo in Polamar with a two-story underground parking facility with security cameras. A gated high-security community with beautiful grounds and pools(s) weight room, sauna, party room, etc. The condo was 1300 sf with new American appliances (W/D, micro, dishwasher, refrigerator and stove) 2-bed/2-bath, central air, cable, phone and a wonderful view of the ocean and pool(s) from a monster-curved deck. Price? $85,000 USD unfurnished, $100,000 furnished.

In Vegas this condo would be $400,000 easy. Then we looked at an older two-story penthouse, 3-bed/3-bath, den, W/D, window AC, cable, phone, and security-gated grounds with pool. Price? Asking $32,000 The kitchen needed about $2000 worth of tile work done. Scotty had gotten me again! Unbelievable property for unbelievable prices.

Beautiful homes for the price of a small mobile. Maybe you don’t want to buy? You can rent a nice apartment for $100 a month. You can rent a very nice security gated apartment for $200 and for $300 you will have the penthouse.

So maybe rent for a year?

If you are 65 or over the airlines have a “senior discount” with round trip airfare from Caracas to Miami for only $125. Miami is only 3.5 hours away. And they are adding a direct flight from Margarita to Miami early 2005 which will make the time even shorter.

I am still trying to find a downside to Margarita Island. I mentally went through food, clothing, utilities, medical, rent/purchase, cars, TV, and all I could come up with was bowling? Then I remembered that I saw a beautiful bowling alley at one of the shopping centers.

Bottom line is, Scott took one look and moved completely. Leo has never been outside the United States. He took a look and has his house on the market and will be moving by June of 05 when his SS starts. Hopefully, I will be there sooner.

One thing I do know is that I can live very comfortably on SS in Venezuela. And the other thing I know is that I would rather be sitting on a beach having a cold beer or fishing, rather than asking people if they would like “paper or plastic”.

Another thing I have to point out is we were getting 2500 Bolivar’s to the dollar and the official rate is 1920 (which fluctuates) so our dollar automatically is worth more. We needed to exchange some money, we cashed in $400 and got 1,000,000 Bolivar’s.

One million of anything can, and will, go a long ways. And it did. For 50,000 B’s a day you can live comfortably and $800 a month on SS is 1,536,000 Bolivar’s at the official exchange rate. At $800 in the US, you will be pushing a shopping cart and eating cat food out of a can.

Leo and I figure that if the whole economy falls apart, which isn’t likely because Venezuela has a lot of oil, we have two choices. Move a couple islands over where tourists have been coming for decades or come back to the US and find a shopping cart on our Social Security.

And that Scott! One thing is, I will never doubt him again and another thing is that bag of hot Texas air has made a complete liar out of me cause nobody is going to believe me, without going there.

If you have any questions, you might want to e-mail Scott at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com as he really helped me (and you don’t have to read between the lines) or e-mail me as I am going through the moving process. I would be glad to help.

To contact Karl Click Here karl_ike@hotmail.com

GEITHNER ON SOCIAL SECURITY/MEDICARE

All Baby Bommers - This is very important to read and understand. The US government's assessment of the solvency of the social security and medicare systems. We Baby Boomer's cannot afford to place our future in the hands of the government. Sec. Geithner states that medicare will be insolvent by 2017..Social security by 2037!!

We all need to find alternatives to retiring in the US. There are many great options. We continue to preview and discuss these in this blog.

This is not intended as "the sky is falling" hype. . This short video provides more useful information based on real data provided by the US Government. It affects us all and should be used to help plan and assess every Baby Boomer's future...

Bankrupting of America

If you think the current mortgage-related sub-prime meltdown has been bad, you haven't seen anything yet. The current state of the federal government's finances looks suspiciously like the mortgage sub-prime mess. We need to learn from the lessons of the smaller crisis in order to prevent an even bigger one. First, the mortgage-related sub-prime problem was caused in part by a disconnect between those who benefited from issuing the loans and those who bore the risk. The same situation exists with the federal government's finances. Today's taxpayers benefit from our current high-spend, low-tax, "mortgage the future" practices. Tomorrow's taxpayers will pay the price and bear the burden. Second, mortgage sub-prime was facilitated by a lack of transparency about the related risks, both in connection with home borrowers and with investors in mortgage-backed securities. This is also the case with the federal government's finances. The government is in a roughly $56,400,000,000,000 financial hole that is growing by $2 trillion to $3 trillion every year nothing is done to address it. These are just two of the disturbing statistics in "The State of the Union's Finances", a publication by the nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which can be found at www.pgpf.org. Third, Bear Stearns found out the hard way what price you can pay when you lose the confidence of your lenders and wind up in an escalating negative cash-flow position. Investors in mortgage-backed securities also found out that a AAA rating doesn't mean what it used to. The federal government is already experiencing a negative cash flow for Medicare, and Social Security will go negative within a decade. These negative cash flows will pick up dramatically when "baby boomers" retire in big numbers. Finally, with mortgage sub-prime, corporate and government risk-management devices failed to kick in and prevent a crisis. Today, too many elected officials are standing by and doing nothing to defuse the ticking time bomb associated with our government's finances. What are they waiting for--a crisis? When will Washington see the writing on the wall and start taking steps to reverse our deteriorating financial condition? Will our next President have the courage to talk straight and make tough choices in order to ensure that our collective future is better than our past? We can't afford to wait until this super sub-prime challenge boils into a crisis that will result in severe hardship for tens of millions of Americans. Hopefully, we'll get some real leadership on this issue soon.

ECUADOR REAL ESTATE

Cotacachi Real Estate For Sale

BY GARY SCOTT

Cotacachi and Ecuador real estate prices are on becoming higher. Construction material, cement, steel and wood have been skyrocketing in cost. Plus new duties imposed on imports such as pipe are raising material costs.

Our recent Cotacachi real estate tour looked at a number of Prima Vera II - to IV condos for sale from $46,500 to $54,500. Here is one of the four new Prima Vera blocks. This is Prima Vera III.

Bulding costs have forced the developer to raise prices on each building. The units are identical but each block has a higher price.

Here are the prices now for these Prima Vera units.

Prima Vera II

Prima Vera IV & V

Prima Vera IV & V

There are 13 units left here at the old prices. Learn here how to view the pricing and receive a 2% discount on the purchase as an Ecuador Living subscriber.

While viewing these condos we talked to American owner Bill Daily about the cost of living in Cotacachi. He and his wife live in a Prima Vera III first floor unit.

Here is Bill and his wife Jo.

This is their condo…with a comfortable view balcony

Two bedrooms.

One bedroom is used as an office…

plus a full kitchen.

Here is their living room.

We asked Bill about utility costs and he told us that property taxes were $38…a year.

Propane is $2.50 for 20 gallon bottle for cooking, heating and hot water. They use about $5…a month.

Water is $6 a month, electricity $20 a month….broadband $49…condo fees $100…so in all there basics are about $185 a month.

Until next message, good living wherever you are.

Gary

Ecuador Cost of Living. The $700 solution.

BY GARY SCOTT

Ecuador’s cost of living is low.

This is a great day to look at Ecuador coastal cost of living because our friends Larry & Shirley Humphrey just moved into their new condo at Vistazul! They are the first residents there.

Here they are at Palmazul, their club house, (133 steps from their condo) using the broadband. Eventually they’ll have broadband in the condos but the units are not yet completed (completion of the last units is scheduled for November 2009).

Since Merri and I are only part timers in Ecuador, I continually ask readers who have moved full time about Ecuador’s cost of living.

Recently our message entitled Cotacachi Cost of Living showed how Bill & Joe Daily live in Cotacachi on about $700 a month.

Another message Cotacachi House and Condo Rentals shows how Lee and Peggy Carper live for even less.

So I was not surprised when I spoke with Larry and Shirley that they told me it was costing them about $700 a month to live (without rent). Their comment was, “we receive over $2,000 from our Canadian pension, live on $700 and save the rest.”

We could call $700… the Ecuador cost of living solution!

Yet low cost living is not even near the biggest benefit of living in Ecuador quoted to me by residents here. A more relaxed lifestyle is often number one.

I could not agree more. Here I am with Ma in the Pamazul front yard… working hard.

I am thinking.

Other times I take my lap top and enjoy the benefits of a broadband global business by working from my balcony… with this view… and the sea breeze… the warn sun and sound of the waves.

Usually I quit working though for the sunset. Here is one sunset shot I took from one of our Vistazul condos.

These condos are now available for rent.

Good health comes in as a reason to live in Ecuador as well. Everyone walks more… eats fresher food. A great article on Ecuador beach restaurants shows why.

Larry and Shirley are from Calgary and had a successful jewelry business there but the pace of life was ruining their health. Since arriving at Vistaazul, Shirley has seen her weight drop 20 pounds and is completely off all the medications she needed when she lived up north. Both tell me they feel so much better… so much more relaxed… filled with energy again.

Merri and I watch them enjoy playing in this surf every day.

Some times alone.

Some times with the local kids.

Some times with just the pelicans and sometimes…

on this totally empty beach.

Style in Ecuador construction also offers some wonderful little things that one would never get in a condo up north… like this window trim.

Each unit has its own special wood carving in the window.

Gardening is another. Here is one block of the Vistazul condos. They look a bit bleak now but not for long.

Here are some of the flowers you see around Vistazul.

So many shapes…

sizes…

colors…

smells.

Plus, I just received this note from Kjetil Haugan.

Gary, thanks..I just got back from Galapagos where we had a small party launching our newest Galapagos cruise ship, the M/C Nina..we have our first cruise tomorrow.

Shirley and Larry moved into their condo yesterday!

We hired a Botanical Phd to design and plant the whole project..he started today.

We have 5 units of the seven nits you recently wrote about left but I will keep at least 2 of them for some clients that reserved up the hill and have not decided yet what to do. This means we have only 3 units left to sell..and a couple of people are almost ready to make deposits..I do expect some fallout from the people who made deposits but anyway it looks very good. I have also negotiated a couple more cash sales from people who wanted to buy. Regards, Kjetil

This means that there may only be one condo unit left with the free Galapagos trip offer. Get details from Kjetil at kjetil@haugancruises.com

Until next message may your cost of living be low , relaxed and healthy as well.

Gary

Margarita Island—after the Vote.

By Scott Boswell:
Well, the excitement has calmed after the “referendum” and things look bright as the country breathes a sigh of relief after the “NO” vote on Chavez's constitutional changes. People smile and say Buenos Dias or Buenos Noches, real estate is once again booming and apartment buildings are going up. Reminds me of the Miami of the 1960's. Prices are still lower here than they were for many Florida properties way back then. The banks will lend money on apartment purchase and some contractors will give 15 year financing—even to foreigners. This is the “new” Venezuela. You must have a Residence Visa and Cedula (Venezuelan I.D. Card) to obtain any of this financing. There is a nice discount on pre-completion prices if you pay cash, and you only need your passport to buy with cash. There will be no “nationalization” of your private property, so relax.

Personally, I prefer to live in a house or townhouse. But a Condo apartment does offer more security if you don't live here full time or don't want to deal with maintenance.
Right now I have a big 2 bedroom/2 bath Apartment for sale here in Playa El Angel. You'll find photos and more information on my website http://www.discovermargaritaisland.com.
It's fully furnished, (even linens, pots & pans, t.v., air conditioning—everything!) It has a pool and is in walking distance to all the shopping, medical care, restaurants and is located in the most convenient and popular area on the entire island. The price is $58,000 U.S.D. This could also be an income property for you. It was rented for last year at $800.00 a month.

I get lots of e-mails from people who want to live on a Caribbean island...or at least think they do. Living on an island can be fun, and at times a real “pain”. Many goods and food items are imported so once in a while some things are in short supply or temporarily unavailable. Occasionally finding eggs, chicken, pork, milk, cooking oil, etc. can be a real challenge, but everyone soon learns to 'make do' and eventually most of the staples manage to re-appear in the markets. We tend to pay more for groceries than the locals do because we buy a lot of imported brands which are more expensive. Even so, food is cheap, liquor is cheap and beer is almost free-about 16 cents a bottle! Sometimes the power goes out for a few minutes or a few hours. When we lived in Mississippi the electricity went off every time we had an electric storm, so it's nothing new to us. At this writing there are ice storms in parts of the Northern U.S., and they can cause power outages for days and weeks. The only ice you'll find here is in your cocktail—which might cost up to a whopping $2 U.S.
We don't have hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, large earthquakes or tornadoes. We occasionally get tired of the same beautiful weather day after day after day... Sometimes we wake up and say, “Damn, another #$!% sunny day in Paradise!”
Our rainy season is Nov. & Dec., plus some summer showers in July/August—those are really welcome!

Living Expenses--
We totaled our expenditures for food, cleaning supplies for the house and 4 rental apartments, liquor, beer, gas for the car and “miscellaneous stuff” and for all this it's about $500 U.S. per month. We don't 'skimp' on food or anything else, for that matter. This did not include car repairs, marina fees and supplies for our boat, insurance, imported appliances, and clothes. Well, not actually that much on clothes...”formal dress” here is when you wear shoes. You could go year 'round in your bathing suit and nobody would pay much attention...unless you happen to look like Pam Anderson, of course!
However, the locals dress well and you must wear proper attire (long pants for men) if you go to any government building.

The rest of the story- It is very difficult and frustrating to try to get anything done here. People do not keep appointments or are habitually late for them . Workers are not skilled and it is darned difficult to find anyone who takes pride in his job. You can find some good workers but it is an on-going search. The same is true for mechanics, roofers, electricians, in short, all the 'trades'. Not just my opinion...many people who have lived here for years (and all over the world, too) say that Venezuelans in general and Margaritenos in particular are basically lazy. Maybe it's the climate, but most Caribbean people just aren't very work-oriented. They're like some welfare people in the States...wouldn't take a job no matter what the pay. I don't care if saying this isn't politically correct—to me, politically correct is an oxymoron anyway. A friend of mine used to do a lot of boat repairs in the Bahamas. He says you could leave your shoes and tools on the dock and they'd steal your shoes but leave your tools, because they couldn't sell the tools (nobody wanted to work). It's not quite that bad here—they'd steal your tools too! Almost every place here has a security guard so both your shoes and tools are reasonably safe.

I get inquiries from lots of people wanting to know “can I work/make a living there?” Not knowing these people, that's an impossible question to answer. All I can say is I came here with a very small nest egg to invest and I've done quite well over the last few years. And I've seen others bring hundreds of thousands of dollars and go broke..contact Scott
at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com

PERSEVERANCE

“The only difference between a rut and a grave- is the size of the ditch”

We all experience it - Holidays come & go and we may comment on “how time flys by”. Many of us in the United States live our lives by milestones. New Years Day, Easter, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays and maybe many others. We mark the time passing and the memories that these occasions create. Each year older, hopefully wiser, as we along with our children and loved-ones grow, mature and take on new experiences and challenges. These experiences always seem to bring up the inevitable questions - Where am I going? What am I doing in my life? Where will I be in 5, 10, 15 years…? I have always done this. Set goals, achieved many of them, all the while meeting new challenges and new life experiences that may serve to change my goals and send me down a somewhat different path. I have started businesses and succeeded in them. Purchased real estate, exploited the highest and best use for these properties through deriving income by selling, renting or developing. It is no small feat to overcome the daily challenges thrown at you by life, lifestyle & business. The only way to overcome these roadblocks is through perseverance. Perseverance develops confidence and confidence in yourself develops wisdom. We can all use wisdom…

I recently took a trip to Ecuador. The sole purpose was to investigate the lifestyle and business opportunities in this very unique country. My interest had been piqued by reading the huge amount of information on Ecuador by Gary Scott along with some others. Gary Scott and his wife Merri have lived a very unique and varied life. World travelers, explorers, writers & entrepreneurs. They have lived and worked in Ecuador for many years and written extensively in Gary’s e-zine/ blog and offer themed tours in this country that highlight the real estate and business opportunities for North Americans and Europeans.

Ecuador is a small country, the size of Nevada, with a population of approximately 11 million. The Pacific coast has fantastic unspoiled beaches and myriad real estate opportunities. The highlands (6-10,ooo feet elevation) offer some of the most consistent weather, breathtaking mountain backgrounds and like the coast - great real estate and business opportunities. Many North Americans & Europeans are discovering this great country. They are finding that they can escape the high cost of living in their native countries and live a very fulfilled & much less expensive life in Ecuador. I tend to compare Ecuador now to Costa Rica - twenty years ago. However, I believe that Ecuador has some distinct advantages over CR. No hurricanes or tropical storms, many different micro climates which allow you live in “eternal spring” like environments year round or coastal living without the intense tropical heat and humidity.

I found many things to like about Ecuador. I will be returning in 2009 to investigate this country further. This subject highlights one of the goals of Boomer's Life which is to discover other countries which would allow boomers to live comfortably on their savings and/or social security. I certainly believe this is not only achievable, but I met many in Ecuador that were doing just this. They were living better, healthier & more prosperous lives than they ever could hope to live in their former countries without the government intervention, taxes and bureaucracy.

Food is approximately 1/6 the cost of North America, gasoline is $1.50 per gallon. Did I mention that Ecuador is a “dollarized” economy? Yes, that’s right - they use the U.S. Dollar as their currency. More later…