A great house in Cuenca anyone?

A paragliding friend of mine asked that I help get the word out regarding his apartment for sale in Cuenca. I said that our readers are mostly looking for coastal properties... then he showed me photos and I agreed. The place is quite impressive, extremely high quality, in a great neighborhood and comes completely furnished and ready to go. A great option for someone ready to have a landing pad ready and waiting for their arrival to Ecuador... though I'm still partial to the coast!

Here are some photos:

This is the building. He owns 1/2 of the second story (on the right hand side of the photo).

The building is in a great neighborhood and has river frontage and a small park.

Here's a bedroom

the kitchen

hallway

The apartment is 120 square meters (1290 square feet) in an exclusive area of Cuenca. The park in front of the Yanungay River is relaxed and safe. There are 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. The master bedroom has a large closet and hydrospa. The hall, living room, and bedrooms are completely furnished with high quality products. There is a washing machine and washing station, garage access, and storage room. Furniture includes 3 beds ranginf froma queen to a twin, bedside tables, a dresser with mirror, one sleeper sofa, a desk, bookshelves, complete livingroom furniture set, complete kitchen set, refridgerator, oven/stove, microwave, blender, washer/dryer, 2 29" Sony televisions, 1 DVD player and surround sound.

The price is set at $89,000 and there is a $49.25 monthly maintenance fee. He is moving up to a larger apartment that is currently under construction and would be happy to rent the place from the new owner (potential $300/month income) until December of 2011.

Feel free to write me with any questions: tom@ecuadorbeachfrontproperty.com

An overview of the last two months

Wow! We've been busy! We sold most of the lots we had available in May and June and Lynn and I spent the rest of June and a chunk of July in remote regions of the Oriente doing some intense water quality work. We picked up my folks in Guayaquil mid-July and after some whale-watching near Isla de la Plata we've been here in Crucita working hard to make more lots available.

I had an interlude with Malaria (picked it up while in the oriente... deep in the rainforest) which I could have done without but now we're picking up speed again!

We've finally got some great beachfront properties back on the market. We've focused a bit closer to home and we're offering lots at the northern (lots 5 and 6) and southern (lot 7) end of Crucita. We think that whomever the new owners will be, they'll be excited about their new investments! Check out http://www.ecuadorbeachfrontproperty.com/Properties.html to see the latest. We also have a rentals webpage up now and have updated our services page.

I'll be doing some regular blogs in the coming months and we should have excellent communication over the next few weeks so now is a great time to get in touch regarding lots or any other burning ecuador-related questions you might have. I'll probably throw in some "retro-blogs" as well to share some of the experiences we've had over the last couple months. I hope you enjoy.

Catamarans, sunsets, and composting miracles

Today was a very busy moto day. I started by completing the next steps for acquiring a new investment property that we've decided on. I met one of our past buyers and helped set him up with a cartaker for his new property and checked on the home of another past buyer. 

I also spoke with the local Ecuadorian Coast Guard regarding license requirements for small sailing craft. Turns out that it should be quite easy with minimal paperwork required in Bahia (about 30 minutes away). 

As fate would have it, I ran into Walter, a boat-builder/fisherman in the midst of building his own fiberglass fishing boat. Excellent. Over the next couple days we'll be coming up with a plan for building my first beach cat! I'll be hunting down suppliers for rigging/sails and am very excited to create a small business that employs locals, builds a regional coastal sailing community, and provides high quality beach cats to those who are interested! 

Here's a photo of Walter with his fishing boat under construction.

Last night lights went out again as the road to Crucita gets finished up... an impromptu candlelight dinner was a very nice result

This evening on the beach we found some soft coral that had washed up and was particularly well lit by the...

setting sun.

Tonight became  particularly exciting by Lynn's discovery that the creatures turning our food scraps into rich compost are black soldier fly larvae!!! That's exciting because alot of folks have found that these larvae are incredible composters, the flys aren't attracted to humans or human homes, and the crazy little larvae harvest themselves from the compost... i.e. they walk a plank into a container where they'll wait to be fed to the neighbors chickens!  We've spent a good chunk of the evening exploring their virtues.... motivated by the fact that they do best at temperatures above 68F... which is where we stay most of the year here on the coast.  Check out this video and prepare to be really impressed... best not to do this while snacking on pasta, rice, or any other size/color-related food... or really any food....

Fossil hunting and, of course, food

The food fetish continues and I can't say I'm not really really deeply happy about it! This plate came out after we decided we had nothing in the house to eat!! Gotta love a thorough fridge search and resulting culinary success.

For our late afternoon break from our laptops we wandered on the beach especially because right about now low-tide and evenings are beginning to mix in such a pleasing way. We played with the rock layers including this telling grey layer... ashes from an ancient massive volcanic eruption way in the highlands... You can even see the sulfur concentrated as a yellowish tint in some sections... beautiful and hauntingly powerful.

We proceded to grab onto hunks of sedimentary strata and drag them away from the looose slopes to pick through them in search of ancient shark teeth, fossil shells and fishes, and whatever interesting thing we could come across. We found one fossil fish candidate and decided that we'd need to return with some serious tools and give it a proper search through another evening. Here's Lynn picking through the layers...

The stroll back was wonderful with a good strong wind blowing (too strong for paragliding today). Again, we had the beach to ourselves until we crossed the path of two nice ladies who appreared to have shown up for the evening from Portoviejo. Back to laptop grinding and hopefully some good eating!

Who are you?

As Lynn and I sit here in Ecuador we're wondering who you are. We've met some great folks already by having made the decision to relocate to Ecuador. It takes a certain person to be attracted to life on the beach in a foreign country... so far we've had a great time with those kindred spirits we've had the pleasure of coming across.

Who else is out there and what are they looking for???? I made a crude survey to try and get a feel for who else is out there, on their way, and what they're after. We'd like to help you make the leap.

I promise to give a synopsis of the results... so we can all get a feel for who's there and we're all after here in Ecuador.

Participate! -- >   http://www.ecuadorbeachfrontproperty.com/Survey.html

"The Boca" come sundown

Worked on the website a bit today then headed out on the moto in the evening to check on some house renovations going on for a previous buyer.  It was low tide when I pulled up.  Couldn't help but go for a stroll on the beach to watch the shore birds working on the exposed tidal flats.

Quite a beautiful sunset with the sun dropping its rays through the clouds. I shared that beach with one other person, a local fisherman wandering the coastline... I think he was grabbing oysters from a nearby outcrop while the tide was at its lowest point.

Here's Bill's place nearing completion! He has the nicest down to earth place on this stretch of beach. I'll be sure to post some "before" photos soon!

Two lots just filled and one more available high up on the hill!

We now have three properties available in the San Jacinto area!  Two are at "The Boca" where the river meets the sea and one is up on the hill a few hundred meters from the ocean with a great ocean view!