The Best Weather on Earth, Cheap

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Read more about Ecuador in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

My wife, Suzan, and I lived in Ecuador from November 2001 until November 2002.

Life has pushed us around the hemisphere since then...Panama, Nicaragua, three different places in Mexico. But during the year we lived in Quito, we were able to explore much of Ecuador’s beaches, highlands, and mountains—and we flat out fell in love with the place. It’s not only one of the most affordable places on Earth to live...as far as I’m concerned, it has the best weather on the planet.

My friend Margaret Summerfield of Pathfinder just spent some time in Ecuador. She e-mailed daily field notes during her travels that really sent me on a trip down Memory Lane.

So much so, in fact, that Suzan and I have decided to pay a return visit to Ecuador in July. More about that in a minute...but first I want to share some of the observations Margaret made during her drive along the Ecuador coast. It was her first time in Ecuador, so she was seeing things the same way Suzan and I saw them back in 2001–2002. Like I say, it really took me back. Here are some snippets...

“...Ruto del Sol, the main tourist highway along the coast...countryside is bright green...not so much jungle as hills, mountains, grassland and trees, with cacti jutting up in the middle, and an almost lime-green look to the grass.

“The drive is perfect for beach lovers...runs along some of the most deserted beaches I have ever seen...incredibly long stretches of light sand, each one more perfect than the last, and not a soul in sight.

“The road meanders through a series of small fishing villages...San Pablo, Monteverde, San Pedro, Manglar Alto, Olon, Puerto Rico, Puerto Lopez...all small and sleepy...no signs of a major rush to construct or an influx of tourists. In Olon, we stopped to see a project with 39 lots. Good beach, and the developer has 2,000-square-meter ocean-view lots from $50,000.

“Manta is a port town with a long, tan sand beach...oceanfront condos run at an average $1,000 per square meter here...we saw a project called Las Olas, with 67-square-meter and larger units on the beach starting at $73,000.

“...met Kjetil Haugan outside San Clemente, just opened a hotel on a quiet part of the long, tan beach here. He’s developing condos on the hill behind his hotel with access to the spa, restaurant, swimming pool, and beach starting at $79,000.

“Jama is a surfing town...quiet during the week, livelier at the weekends, with a few expats living there. Just back from the town is green countryside, locals on donkeys and horseback or swinging in hammocks in the shade. It’s idyllic...far from the madding crowd. There is an American developer selling lots in a project here starting at $40,000.”

As I read Margaret’s reports, I followed along on an old Ecuador map and relived some of my own memories of the Ecuador coast... It sounds like things haven’t changed much. Still laidback, still beautiful, and still affordable.

Last night, as I shared Margaret’s reports with Suzan, we had one of those “Aha!” moments. We absolutely loved our time in Ecuador, and the weather is the best on Earth. Directly on the equator, you adjust your temperature by altitude. Want it cooler? Go up the mountain. Want it warmer? Go down to the beach. The weather is always the same in any particular place.

And that makes it all the more attractive to us now, during May...the hottest, driest month in Merida, Mexico, our current home town. Temps are breaking 100°F regularly here, and Ecuador’s perfect Zero Latitude weather is like a siren song of cool relief.

So Suzan and I sat there looking at each other last night, and we said at the same time, “A summer place in Ecuador!” Maybe not even on the beach...maybe high in the Andes near Otavalo or Cotacachi.

In fact, our good friends, Merri and Gary Scott, have given us a standing offer to visit their hotel in Cotacachi, El Meson de las Flores, anytime we like. It would be the perfect place from which to explore Ecuador’s varying locations and low property prices for ourselves.

Could things be lining up any better? I don’t think I’ll have to try very hard to talk Suzan into heading south to escape the heat and getting serious about this summer home in Ecuador idea.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Dan Prescher
Publisher, International Living

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