Welcome to the blog, guys. My name is Si Kendrick What started out as a simple get-away spiraled into much more. A holiday turned into a relocation after leaving my home country, the UK, and since then I have been living and learning about Ecuadorian culture while settling down, having a family, and living the Ecuadorian way. Before deciding on moving here, take a look at some of my experiences in Ecuador I will give you tips on the way, if i can find my paradise then so can you!
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Thursday, 13 December 2012
Houses and instant residence in ecuador manabi province part 2
If you are interested in buying property in and around Manabi you can read my buyers guide post, that shows you how you can purchase a beach house for as little as 40k, which i turn shall give you residence to Ecuador Following on from the 103 m2 house this is the 2 bedroom 1 floor house priced at 37kin dollars about 22k in brittish pounds.
This house is allot smaller to the previous house it is ideal for single or couples just starting out, but families are also included in this property, like i said the houses shown will provide you with instant residence as you are meeting the minimum requirement! these are model houses driveways etc are all to be completed, but you get the idea!
Dining room living and kitchen
View from kitchen to front door
Bedroom 1
Bedroom 2
Washing area place for washing machine and patio
for more info contact Jessica at jessi23g@hotmail.com
Ecuador Houses and instant residence for manabi province
As mentioned previously i recommend buying a house in a gated community unless you are prepared to buy land and get a house built to your requirements if you are considering moving to Ecuador and are after residence these houses can give you instant residence for a single person or family etc ie 25 grand is the minum requirement from the Ecuadorian government,investing into the country plenty of opportunity here to do this!
For example I have came across this project in Portoviejo in Manabi called San Gregorio located a few minutes away from the San Gregorio university direct commuting route to manta and of course Portoviejo itself. It is an up and coming project, will be sporting a swimming pool for residents park for children and also sports facilities ,This project seems to be quite a popular company originally based in Guayaquil and have completed many projects over the years, first one in manabi i think!
The staff are great some speak English which helps and if you want the houses to be custom made extensions extra rooms etc this can be all worked out there by directly speaking with the architect ,for more information in spanish or english contact JessicaGarcia at jessi23g@hotmail.com and she will answer any questions that you may have.
This is the entrance to the houses where the guard will be there 24 hours a day allowing and denying access!
There are 4 models being built here, but i have information on the biggest house 2 floors at 103m2 priced at 59,900 dollars about 36k in brittish pounds and the smaller 1 floor house at 42 m2 priced at 37,000 dollars
The house to the right is the 3 bedroomed 103 m2 house comprising of 2 bathrooms with wc 1 being ensuite and also wc on the ground floor,
dining living room on the ground floor with kitchen around the corner, out the back and area for washing/ patio pictures below!
Entrance to the house with porch
driveway to be built
Walking into the house groundfloor downstairs wc
Front living room
Patio hand washing in corner area for washing machine and patio
Upstairs window looking out to the front
Upstairs bathroom will comprise of shower, sink and wc
Bedroom 2
Ensuite comprising of shower, sink wc
Main shower room
Next we will see the 1 floor 2 bedroom house any questions see above contact!
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Ecuador Cuisine Guinea Pig also known as cuy!
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Guinea pigs!! Yes, Guinea pigs! The ones that you have as family pets aren’t treated as the cuddly companions you have at home; instead, in the Andean mountains of Ecuador,they’re bred, boiled, and deep-fried for dinner.
Guinea pig, known as Cuy in South America, is a local delicacy that’s unique to the highlands of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Cuy is most often eaten for special occasions, a tradition that dates back hundreds of years to the Incan empire.
Cuy is not only used for food. They warm the house, keep the rats away, and are used for medicinal purposes. Local herbal doctors use cuy in their healing rituals. In one ceremony, a shaman will rub the sick person in question with a black cuy for about 15 to 30 minutes, or until the guinea pig suffocates. He then can diagnose the patient’s illness by cutting the animal in half and interpreting the malady according to the animal's spread out innards.
If this is not for you, then you may like these delicious meals that you will find on the coast Ceviche and Encebollado (hangover food)
Guinea Pig For Breakfast Recipe Book
Ecuador Cuisine Encebollado fish soup hangover cure
Encebollado is a great remedy for hangovers. Its works because the fish oil helps get rid of the free radicals that result from the breakdown of alcohol in the body. Restaurant owners in Ecuador often sell the soup in the morning for this reason, so if you get up early you will see a few sore heads ha ha although it is versatile enough to work for lunch and dinner, too.
Encebollado has to be my favourite dish out here i could live off the stuff, it is the national dish of Ecuador, where it originated. not to hard to make, encebollado has only four primary ingredients: fish, tomatoes, onions and yuca. The soup is both pungent and spicy in flavor.
The base of encebollado is a mix of tomatoes and onions, and the Spanish word encebollado is roughly translated as "onion fish soup." This mix, known as sofrito, also calls for spices common to the Ecuadorian region, such as cumin, chili and cilantro. Salt also is included. In some versions, the cook also adds some fresh chili peppers.
Albacora, or tuna, is the traditional encebollado fish. One reason for this is that tuna is so plentiful in the waters near Ecuador. With tuna, a common fish, as the primary protein, encebollado is a relatively inexpensive soup.
In addition to the sofrito and tuna, encebollado recipes include yuca. Yuca is a root vegetable found in much of South America. A highly coarse and fibrous plant, yuca provides the starch for the soup and is a major source of carbohydrates.
To make this simple fish soup, one first prepares the base. This requires frying the tomatoes, onions and spices in some oil. Only medium heat is required during this step.
After you have done the base, add water to it and boil the tuna for about 15 minutes until it is cooked all the way through. then add the cilantro to the resultant fish broth during this process. Then the tuna is taken out and drained, and the yuca is boiled in the fish broth until the roots are tender but firm. After the yuca roots are cooked, they are removed from the broth so that their coarse strings can be removed and the roots chopped. Adding the yuca and tuna back to the broth with some salt completes the main part of the fish soup.
You can also add pickled onions and tomato to the batch. Salsa sometimes is used in addition to or in place of these toppings. Another option is topping the soup with some additional chili pepper slices. you can sprinkle the dish with a little lime juice, and finally add chifles to the mix tastes lush! give it a go tell me what you think thanks for looking!
Ecuador Cuisine Fish Ceviche
On to how to make fish ceviche
Ingredients:
2lb of white fish fillets (corvina, halibut, sea bass, tilapia, sole), cut into small square pieces
2 red onions diced very finely
4 tomatoes diced very finely
2 bell peppers, assorted colors, chopped very finely
20 limes, separated into about 10 limes to cook the fish and 10 limes for the ceviche marinade
1 bunch of cilantro (also known as coriander) chopped as finely as possible
Salt and sunflower oil
Preparation:
Place the raw fish pieces in a glass dish and cover it with salt and lime juice from about 10-12 limes, the fish should be completely covered by lime juice.
Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator, let the fish marinate or cook itself in the lime juice for at least 4 hours.
Mix the onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro with the juice from the remaining limes and let marinate for about an hour.
Once the fish is “cooked” in the lime juices rinse it well and mix it with the vegetable marinade, add salt and sunflower oil to taste.
Serve with chifles. and don´t forget the rice for more recipes might i suggest using the
Here for shrimp Ceviche recipe
The Ecuador Cookbook: traditional vegetarian and seafood recipes
An easy to use English / Spanish cookbook featuring traditional vegetarian and seafood Latin American cuisine; step-by-step instructions; easy to find ingredients; and original illustrations
Ecuador Cuisine Shrimp Ceviche
Here is a basic recipe on how to make shrimp ceviche maybe not exactly the same as my mother in laws but just a guidline you will need
4 limes
1 lemon
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped, don't de-seed
heavy handful of chopped cilantro
10 oz. ketchup
salt to taste
Directions
Boil water then turn it off and put your shrimp in the pot for only one minute (they should not be completely cooked!) and remove from water to a strainer.
Put shrimp and chopped onion in a medium/large bowl and squeeze the juice of limes and lemon over the top. Salt a bit, stir, and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. (It's important that you put onion in with shrimp in this step - if you wait and add it later it won't be the same - the onion "cooks" with the shrimp in the citrus juice.)
Remove from fridge (that's obvious, right?), stir, and add your chopped tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, ketchup, and a bit more salt to taste also have some rice made up to mix in and we use chiflets like crisps but made from plantain. should look something like this
Jobs a good en not sure how many people this will feed but im guessing 4 plus, next i will talk about ceviche with fish also a dish called encebollado which is by far my favourite i could just eat that allday. give it a go see what you think thanks for looking!
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Ecuador life A few reasons why you should choose Ecuador for a holiday
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Ecuador expat crime safety guide
Every country has its own crime, whether it is being robbed, burgled, fighting, etc. I know back home that certain areas are terrible to be in, let alone live in, but this can all be avoided if you understand what to do and what not to do. OK, you are a tourist, and you do stick out like a sore thumb. Try to blend in; it's not a fashion show. Try to keep jewelry down; no big medallions, fingers full of rings or the latest tag watch, or you will just attract attention from passersby. If someone says it is dangerous to walk down that road at night, then do not do it. I made that mistake once and was close to getting robbed. The guy had a gun, but my friend came to the door in time and told the guy I was OK, to which he walked on and said adios! But if you feel the need to, then by all means, go with a few people , just never on your own!
Now, in England, we do not carry guns for self-defense, but some Americans do, so I would advise that weapons will not help you here. Chances are, you will be the person who gets locked up for shooting someone or letting off a round. No one wants to be robbed. I have been told that if someone tries to rob me, just let them do it and they will be gone. Everyone is different, so all I can say is that I wouldn't let someone do that to me. So it's your call what you do in that kind of situation.
money. If you are going shopping, don't put all your money in 1 purse. If you get pick pocketed, that is it, cards gone, money gutted!
Money belts I don't like them as you look shifty every time you are sorting the money out. Put money in a few pockets, spread it out, or if you are wearing socks,it is the perfect spot. If you are using public transport, be alert to what is going on. It happened to me in Quito. I was waiting to get on the electric bus when I was pushed onto the bus. There was a big rush of people pushing to get on. I didn t think anything of it. Everyone either sat or held onto the bar, at which point a man holding a plastic bag was looking very nervous and sweating. As I looked at him, the bus stopped. He got off. I checked my pockets My wallet had gone very sly indeed,had all my cards, cash, etc., and was a total nightmare, but lesson learned: keep valuables safe or get a chain that ties your wallet to your jeans, if you know what I mean.
Ecuador living The real Cost of Living!
Ecuador expats searching property
You learn so much when you experience all of this over here first hand. Back in the UK, I would use an estate agent, but over here, I wouldn't for the simple reason that, without being nasty, they will get as much as they can from you. The funny thing is that most agents are foreign, whether they be American or French, and they still try to rob you blind.
The first step is to look for projects that are already up and running and visit them to get an idea of the price range. Buying from a plan can be risky in Europe, I remember seeing houses from hell being built through the project etc. Well, you will not have that kind of problem, thank God, but there are many options to consider. You may be able to buy a house, say a 3 bedroom, for 25 grand at the start of the build, and as the project progresses,
I myself live in a gated community project, and if I had known the price 6 months prior, I may have been able to have bought 3 of them. Never mind, this is what it's all about learning. Always use a lawyer when buying a house. It is no different to buying a house in your own country. If you don´t understand something, ask and find out. After all, you need this to be right!
So new construction projects in gated communities tick all of my boxes, and some even include a football pitch and a swimming pool, like this one here!
Your next option is to buy land then build on it, great idea as you can build your dream home at a fraction of the cost of buying finished house at the beach up the mountains out in the country so many ideas,
When buying land look in the newspapers or talk to the locals best way if you want Ecuadorian land speak to an Ecuadorian simple, any old houses in need of renovation could be a steal also, the coast is popular and will be very expensive in years to come, but you can get land or houses on the beach at great prices, example i was offered a 2 bed apartment on the beach lovely views couldn't fault the location, but you couldn't swing a cat in that place and was asking for 60 grand having a laugh mate, but round the corner was a 5 bed house with gardens fence and great view of the beach asking 70 grand negotiable seems he would take 50 at the time as it was used only for holidays 4 times a year, but it was snapped up like a shot by a local, here is an example of a house built up in the mountains took the lad 5 years to complete, but what a house just outside of Portoviejo in manabi!
now if this is all too cheap for you then by all means spend the 100´s of thousands on houses with swimming pool it is all there if you want it great places on the beach Bahia is becoming extremely popular for foreign people next few years it will be the place to be, but look down the way San Clemente manta San Jacinto just as nice and not to forget Crucita Puerto Lopez and Puerto Cayo the choice is yours,Ecuador expats searching property if you would like any more advice/information about property in manabi check out my buyers guide post
Owning a Car in Ecuador
Anyhow, the subject I am going to talk about today is cars Owning a car in Ecuador, where to buy, dos and don'ts, prices, and so on. Ok, the first car I bought here was a 1998 Ford F150 truck.
Anyhow, any feedback on events in Ecuador, feel free to post them. This is what it's all about. Thanks, hope you enjoyed Owning a car in Ecuador