La residencia (parte una)- English version

So here we are,
It has now been 2 weeks that we've been living here in Guayaquil, to start one of the most important step of our trip:

The residency process.

Warning: this blog will make your head turn. Keep in mind that we're living that for real!

In fact, the main theme of our two next blogs is: patience!

Let's step back few months in order to make a summary of our "road to the visa".

First step: Ecuadorian consulate in Montreal

In Canada, we applied for the"negocios" visa (12IX) of 6 months length. Our goal being to buy land and build an ecotouristic farm; therefore, an enterprise.

For the government, that would translates into "negocios" which is commercial exchange and investment.

The consulate of Ecuador in Montreal made us gather lots of paperwork to notarize and translate.

Documents we had to gather and their prices:

Quite expensive? Not that much if we're talking about potential residency. Mainly, the Ecuadorian consulate in Montreal assured us that we would be able to extend our visa upon arrival.
That extension was the magic key to residency.
Well it wasn't!
Our first visit to the government told us that things would be more complicated than that!
Our "negocios" visa (12-IX) couldn't be extended nor could it help to get our residency!

Back to the beginning.

We still don't get how an investor could build and put into action their business plan within 180 days but it sounded like the only option we could find.
Unless we decide to aim for residency. Which is what we decided to trigger here, in Guayaquil.

Second step: Collect of information

List and preliminary comprehension of ecuadorian residency visas:

Therefore, we understood that our best shot would be the visas 9-II and 9-III.

Because we came to invest;
Because we want to grow stuff;
Because buying land is real estate.

But: We learned that if you buy land with that visa, you can't make any change or alteration to it (hence build a house, start a garden) for a year!

But: We learned that we have to deposit a minimum of 3000$ in a state bank account and if we don't invest the full investment amount (25 000$ to 30 000$) within the next 180 days, we could lose our deposit and visa!

We thank our parents who teached us that contacts are better than anything else. Our little 2 month trip was worth it on many levels. Internet and embassies are complicated and fastidious informations are worth nothing next to the personal experience of people we met.
We met Andres at Rio Muchacho who became ecuadorian through the 9-II visa. That nice man bought 25 000$ worth of state bonds with 6% return per year. So not only does he get his residency out of it, the interest also covers his year expenses!
This is wonderful, unbelievable!

Yes, but...
If Andres wants to work in Ecuador, invest in Ecuador, get tan in Ecuador, is residency is conditional; the 25 000$ has to stay untouched. Because, any withdrawal from that investment would cancel his residency!

Then, we met Araceli from La Chocolata in Mompiche. Her husband and herself (two argentinians) made Ecuador their home a year ago and got easily their residency through the profesional Visa 9-V.

I'm sorry, what?
Are you telling us that you don't need to be member of a profesional order to apply for that visa?
You're telling us that all that is needed is university degree?

....
Or almost!

We will give you the process step for our residency in the next blog.
Meanwhile, we enjoy the boring view from our fancy appartment in the middle of Urdesa central in Guayaquil!

San Miguel and her Rio Cayapas

Hola Chicos!

Allow us to dedicate this blog to the memory of Mamie Carmelle.

We've travelled a lot so far in Ecuador, it's been 2 months now. The last segment, the North Coast, was pretty interesting. Here's the third and last part of this adventure post-Rio Muchacho.

San Lorenzo was an ideal departure location to go in the jungle, because it's located in the middle of the Magalares Cayapes Mataje reserve, one of the most densed mangrove reserve on the planet.

Unfortunately, some touristic activities, mostly in parks and national reserves, are way out of our price range. We had to carefully chose where our money would be spent and the mangroves had to be eliminated.
But we heard of San Miguel, which is located 5 hours (en motor-canoe) upstream the Carapas river. From San Miguel, we supposedly would be able to hire a guide for 10$/day and do a tour of the Cotocachi-Cayapas reserve. That's an activity in our price range... well that's we taught.

First of all, San Miguel is not the easiest place to reach. Indeed, you can only go there by boat. The best port to depart from is Borbon's, which an hour south from the end of the world/San Lorenzo.

 
FIrst thing that comes to mind when we stop in Borbon: a nice whisky. A man can miss life's little pleasure. By the way, Simon is avoiding any alcoholic beverage since is arrival in Ecuador. But seriously, this little river port is as charming as a-barely-digest-end-of-bottle from the bad guy of Clint Eastwood movie. The smell is far from pleasant, few teeth are missing but the plot is too good not to enjoy it.

 

 
We will have barely time to ingest an encebollado while waiting for our wave to San Miguel. But surprisingly we would have ordered another meal in that eccletic city.  So at 9h45, we hop on our Poseidon, canoe-cab of Clemente, our new friend. Of course, our super boat wouldn't leave at 10 as promised. But it's Ecuador, we're getting used to it.















 

















And since we're not in a rush... even if it's 5 hours of  water travel.

This trip was particulary interesting and was the most expensive one also. No surprise here since the price is calculated by gas comsumption and not distance.

Simon and Soa, even with thousands of hours of travelling under their belt, are more then happy to say they had their longest river trip on boat.





The view was amazing. Dozens of really small communities are located all along the rio.

 

Mc Donald's

After few hours of speeding on the "highway", we stopped at the local Mc Donald's  (but healthier) on the Cayapas river. Clement took advantage of that stop to enjoy a power nap. Driving is tiring.
. 

Power napping

Apart from that, the river is inspiring and at the same time depressing.

It's strenght and beauty is unbelievable. It welcomes an amazing river flora and allows hundreds of people to live comfortably.

 
Locals use it for everything. It's a road of course, for transportation of merchandise and of people, but it's also a bathtub, a washing machine, a toilet and tragically, like many rivers, a garbage bin.










On the way there, Simon thought a lot about is african friend, water lover, Catherine Ferland-Blanchet a.k.a. Sally Traoré.

As usual, Simon can't sleep at all during the trip. In fact, scientific reviews, done in more than 25 countries, have shown that ways of transportation (plane, buses, train, boat, tuk-tuk, bike, etc.) are like a high dose of cafeine for Simon.
Which contrasts highly with his sweetheart, for which, any motor-transportation, whatever it is, is a high sleeping drug.

After many years, but still at our first big big trip together, we still enjoy those astonishing differences. 

Four hours and forty-five minutes later (not a lot of traffic), at 3h15pm, we landed at San Miguel paradise.

San Miguel financial center

San Miguel's port

This village of 300 persons charmed us on arrival.

The idylic village on the Cayapas river is only part of the charm.

Our 5-star hotel

It's like they were expecting us. Merlie, the spokesperson for the women association of the village was waiting at the dock and brought us up the hundred stairs to the communal hotel.

Like every village, there's a church and a sport field   

Tourism being around for many years now without really helping the community, the women's association decided to build the hotel, modest but luxurious in our heart. The association also provides breakfast, lunch and diner at reasonable prices; althought you could use the kitchen freely.

The money gathered by the association is distributed in a rotative system to the mothers of the families.
Meals are tastier that way!



It's not dark yet, so we take that time to admire the view from our wonderful hotel, hidden in hammocks (we're now far from the boat bench)

After our relaxation session, we're off to get some information on our options to visit the reserve.
We discover indeed that the national guard of the park is also the self proclaimed travel agent. So, we are in front of that nice man, who should manage the park entrance fees period, but no. He is the only one controlling and allowing the persons in and out of the reserve. Price to get there: 50$
Unfortunately,  not a third or any part of that amount goes to the community.


So.
We'll meditate on that.





Meanwhile, we visit the smallest town we've seen and we talk with people, Soa is getting checked out ( no surprise here) and we learn that a man is offering a farm tour for few dollars.
We like farms! So we get tell that this farmer will come by this evening to tell us more about it.

Angel

Soa's monkey-ing.

As promised, Angel arrived during dinner time, then follows a mouthfull price dealing session. Before the end of our meal, we had a price and 8 hours later, we were in the jungle for 3 beautiful hours.

We say jungle because, here you eat what grows and what grows has been there before civilization came in. Angel knows a lot about trees and plants and weird fruits. We're estatic of all the knowledge we're getting.
There goes another dedicace, one to the unconditionable love for every trees of Kate Monosiet..
















We walk down a long river, learning along the way, eating bananas, sugarcane and chocolates (the fruit , not the candy) and, to Simon's delight, meeting with many bugs making us want to sing"Hakuna Matata".

*WARNING TO SENSITIVE HEARTS!

On our return, Simon and Soa will go for a little dip in the Cayapas river. Ok, Soasoa might have gone with her eyes only.... but she still enjoyed it.

White head in the water

Two nights later, we were waking up at 3am for what would be, a very wet ride. A pouring rainfall was welcoming us in the boat, our driver was taking out garbage bags to cover our snail gear and the rest of the stock (including ourselves!).
Simon, once again, didn't sleep at all, hoping to catch a glimpse of spectacular sunset on the river. Unfortunately, the sky remained dark.

But the rain didn't stop Simon from lightening up.
Imagine a deep moment of loneliness. Aside from the driver (thankfully), everybody's sleeping, protected by a plastic sheet.
Alone, this young quebecer remains awake, looking to undress darkness, trying to find dawn.

Alone, he gazes upon the world's drowsiness.

For him, the cold tears of the sky, running on his exposed face, in the middle of a boat heading into the night's mouth, are a hymn to life.
Rarely did he felt so alive in his life.

All of a sudden, the sky stopped crying.
But, Simon's tears continued their way through the early morning. Because, when the rain was bringing him back to life, Simon himself cried for his grandmother's life. Sad from realising that he could be losing her at this moment, or few days later. Happy to have known her, to have been sculpted by her, to have become, thanks to her, the sunrise over Cayapas river.

Few minutes later, the day was finally rising.


 

Our return to Quito was without hiccups (or almost).

So, this concludes our first big steg of our trip.

Little summary:
2 months of travelling
2 farms/ agricultural communities worked
11 town visited: Quito, Pujili, Guantubamba, Canoa, Rio Muchacho, Jama, El Matal, Mompiche, San Lorenzo and San Miguel.
8 beds and borrowed plywood
35 bus hours
9h of motor-canoe
1510 km travelled

Next big step: Guayaquiland the residency visa!

San Lorenzo

Hello everyone,
Here's the second part of our adventure on the ecuatorian north coast.

After Mompiche, we rolled to (almost) the end of Ecuador, until the (almost) border of Colombia, at the boiling city of San Lorenzo.

San Lorenzo is one of the biggest city of Las Esmeraldas province. This province is quite interesting mainly because it is the heart and center of the afro-ecuadorian community.

In San Lorenzo, we feel like we're travelling a lot. This city leaves the impression that we're at the end of the world.

 






















Without a boat, there's no where to go. But even if we had a boat, we wouldn't know where to go because here, Mangroves are ruling the area. We know that somewhere behind all that is the pacific ocean, but we feel like getting there could get quite scary.


 

We like to imagine that the earth is flat and the San Lorenzo's mangroves are where you fall off the face of the planet.

Another tasty idea would be that behind that water wig is located Neverland, that place where we spend our restless days fighting pirates and can't grow old.

We're still looking for tinkerbell!
Therefore, we're still travelling around the globe.

 

Here, when we watch merchants filling up their boats to go who-knows-where, we're in Mali. Simon would really love to have pictures with him to show you guys how amazingly it looks like Mopti's port.

Here, when you walk to the end of the docks and get lost within the river of mangroves, we suddenly feel like we're in Laos, on the Mekong river. At this exact moment, at the end of the biggest island of Sipandon we watch our toes in Laos, while dreaming that we're crossing to the Mekong rapids to the end of Cambodgia, few steps away.

Here, it's also Montreal, at 228 Rose-de-Lima, in front of our primary school of our last 4 years. We wake up at 7h30 to children shouting and playing. We sit on the balcony and watch "gangs" of girls and boys catching up in front of the main entrance. The big difference here, no parents are bringing them to school.

 Oh by the way, physical education here consists of jumping as far as posible in the river, hoping to reach the infinite (or at least to have a free day off school).

 



 




 
 

Here, we're also in the middle of one of the most important mangroves reserve in the world. We secretly hoped to get kidnap by pirates and have a glimpse of the outside world; just to feel a drop of that watery labyrinth. But, colombian para-military kidnapping are more likely to happen and that we couldn't risk.

We didnt't stay long in San Lorenzo but strangely, it felt longer than a 2 day trip. Like we really went to Neverland!





 

When you go arrive at the end, you feel a bit like Forest Gump...can't go forward but can't stop running. Therefore, we turned around and went back on the road again: to the south...
Next destination: San Miguel