Just Starting Out

So begins the saga....  We have been thinking about moving out of the country for over a year.  Pat has been wanting to retire for a couple of years now.   And we aren't sure if we would be able to do it the way that we want to and live in the United States.  SO, first Pat mentioned Costa Rica and Panama last year.  I thought he was just talking and dreaming.  But as the year went on, Ecuador was coming to the forefront as a possible location.  International Living magazine said that we could retire on $17,000 a year.  That sounded very appealing.

But, our oldest daughter,  Elizabeth, was preparing to get married this last September.  And we were pretty comsumed with the details of the wedding throughout the summer months.  So I didn't have the time to give serious thought to moving out of the country to live.  But, after the wedding, Pat brought it up again.  And alot of things were going on at the time and I thought, "Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea".  So we both started talking seriously about checking it out.

We made plane reservations to go this coming February for 2 weeks.  We planned on spending a week in Quito and a week in Cuenca to see which one we would like the best.  But over the last 8 weeks, I have been reading alot of great blogs about Cuenca.  And Pat has been reading more about Cuenca and we think that is the place where we will probably end up.  So, we are only going to spend 4 days in Quito and 10 days in Cuenca.  The ex-pats who are already living in there have been writing some wonderful blogs about their moving experiences and how much they love living there.

So I have decided to write a blog about the process too.  Hopefully, it will not be too boring and will contain some valuable information if someone else is thinking about moving to Ecuador too.