AARP today released its list of the Best Places to Live a Simple Life. Tucson, Arizona came out on top of their list… but they may not have heard of Cotacachi, Ecuador.

Gabrielle deGroot Redford, manager of magazine editorial projects for AARP, said that with the U.S. economy struggling, the magazine’s editors wanted to focus on places people could live simply with a low cost of living.

AARP looked inside the U.S. But looking outside the U.S. and including towns like Cotacachi, a little craft village nestled 8,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains almost directly on the equator, might have given a different result.

Here’s a head-to-head comparison of factors that affect quality of life in Tucson and Cotacachi.

Population:
Tucson: 525,00. Cotacachi: 8,000.

Avereage Temperature:
Tucson: Low, January 38.9F High 100.2 June. Cotacachi: Low 53.6 High 68.4 year around.

Number of days of sunlight:
Tucson:286. Cotacachi: 365.

Real estate cost per foot:
Tucson: $138. Cotacachi: $60.

Average commute:
Tucson: 24 minutes by car. Cotacachi: 10 minutes by foot.

Monthly cost of living (including food, rent, utilities, and transportation):
Tucson: +/- $2,300. Cotacachi +/- $800.

Simple fun for less than $10:
Tucson: Drinking a beer at the Hotel Congress, where famous criminal John Dillinger was nabbed back in 1934.

Cotacachi: Drinking four beers at the cantina on the main square, where the owner’s six-year-old daughter, Melina, will demonstrate her latest ballet steps on a chair next to your table, and getting $5 in change.

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