All my exes live in Texas
Stay tuned my friends …
I escaped the United States of America, a country I dearly love, swore to protect more than once and defended in ways most people don’t know exist. By the time my battles become public knowledge, there is a chance the country I gave so much to defend will be a forgotten page in a propaganda yarn written by the victor. No details to bore the manipulated, no excuses to use your favorite labels. I have seen the enemy and ignorance is bliss.
Be happy my friends …
Ecuador hit my radar because my son fell in love with an amazing lady from Guayaquil. When they decided to marry, there were 50 people to attend from my family, 450 from her family, the wedding venue was obvious. As father of the groom, I hosted 500 people at the rehearsal dinner at the Yacht Club in Guayaquil then participated in the wedding ceremony on the beach in Salinas at a beautiful resort. Of course, I was immediately struck by the beauty and diversity in the country but the most lasting impression was the quality of the people I met. These people exhibited a heartfelt warmth, a happiness, that I have found in few worldwide populations. When I returned to the USA, returning to Ecuador hit the priority pole.
Years later, my niece in Austria participated in a government work/study program that took her to Ecuador for two years where she fell in love with Cuenca. As I began to look for retirement alternatives, I took her advice and began to consider Cuenca as an option. The Houston, Texas, USA area (Sugar Land) where I grew up is mostly a polluted swamp, one of the hottest areas on the planet due to the most massive air conditioning in history, totally consumed by huge clouds of mosquitoes and hydrocarbon vapors. The retirement priority list had heat and mosquitoes on the top. Cuenca had neither.
I didn’t come to Ecuador to live. I came to Ecuador with a medical death sentence and less than twelve months to live. I came to Ecuador to die among nice people and affordable healthcare that included alternate medical options. Much to my complete surprise, I got better and have outlived my American death sentence by more than twelve years. There were many factors: reduced stress, excellent healthcare, healthy food with actual trace minerals that disappeared in the USA many decades ago, limited synthetic crops, high quality water with trace minerals, regular exercise in reduced pollution, no chem-trails in the sky, the list goes on. I can introduce you to roughly a dozen gringos with similar stories, mine is not unique. Move to Ecuador and get better, there is significant evidence.
Two days after the decision fell, I arrived in Cuenca and checked into La Casa Cuencana on Brother Michael street (Hermano Miguel, seemed fitting) where I stayed for a year as I got to know the area. I stumbled into the Abraham Lincoln school where I met a lovely Spanish teacher/anthropologist and spent four hours per week trying to reclaim my Spanish, fully deleted after learning French and German. To this day, speaking any other language is insane, at least until the mental gears switch. I can include five different languages in one sentence and never know it … until people react like they just met a mental patient. I didn’t get the multilingual gene. Many different computer programming languages probably didn’t help.
The pandemic hit while I was living in Hermano Miguel at a location with a huge ornamental garden and high walls that isolated city sounds, like walking into a house in the countryside. I spent about 20 years in American for-profit healthcare, research, bio-terrorism research, healthcare facility management. Never do that. I also logged about 50 years in alternative medicine including cancer treatment. Never do that either. When the lock downs hit, I was seriously alone and isolated. Tranquilo can be overrated.
It was during the lock downs that we began to discover immigrants, mostly Venezuelan, with small children huddled on the street. Everything was locked, the city was a ghost town, no food or water, no shelter. A friend called my attention to it first and began to deliver food and water to these people. Today, the effort is called Compassion Kitchen where I and many others work together to produce and deliver around 5,000 meals per month to the less fortunate on the street. We are making a real difference that is cost effective with zero overhead. If you can help, contact the King of Potassium Pistolas, Peter Dudar, 098-091-6648. These people are part of my monthly budget every single month, rain or shine.
After living alone for too long in a big box with a pretty garden, I moved to Plaza de San Francisco in the historic district with a huge window on the plaza, no garden. The plaza has the official CUENCA sign, the beautiful blue domes in the background, an endless supply of pretty selfie girls, parades, bands and promo events – the opposite of living in a big box with a pretty garden. Love the location, mercado, thousands of restaurants, doctors, all within easy walking distance. If I need green, I can always check out South America’s largest flower market next door or Parque Calderon. (I don’t have to maintain either of them)
One of the best aspects of Cuenca is the gringos. You cannot be normal and move to Cuenca. These people are friendly, helpful, always come equipped with an interesting story and easy to rouse out of their casa. I do occasionally meet transient gringos, people who move here, watch everything on Netflix, get bored and go home. There are also wandering gringos, people who want to compare Cuenca to Thailand and plan to hit Vietnam next. Thus far, all excellent people with an interesting story.
Survivalists, people who plan for apocalyptic stuff, surveyed the entire planet and chose to build large farming communes in Ecuador. Many of the farms are worked by traveling gringos, people who work for sustenance and little pay, move from one commune to another and don’t get into town often. If you find a group of hippies from the 1960’s staring at something, the story is usually similar. They bring an interesting perspective.
Another group of gringos who don’t get to town often work in what I call the Spiritual Industry. Shamen in Ecuador are licensed and part of a Shaman Guild that works to promote quality and accountability in the treatment of visitors using ancient techniques and medicines. Their gringo patients report drastic improvement in mental challenges and physical illnesses, from alcoholism to car wreck injuries. I was honored to meet a few of the Shaman leaders, highly recommended although you usually need a translator. There are large areas in Ecuador that don’t speak Spanish. There are very impressive retreats with incredible scenery, nice accommodations and cuisine that provide an experienced Shaman in a healing environment. I was impressed that the majority of their visitors are repeats by people who already found positive results.
If you retire in Cuenca, you need something valid to do, something to engage your mind as you enjoy the city. If you expect Cuenca to provide endless entertainment, you will eventually be disappointed, you will watch everything on Netflix then go home. The same thing will happen in any city on the planet. If you can adapt to the environment, including the language, and occasionally entertain yourself, Cuenca offers an amazing home world.
My plan was to work on a few projects I pigeonholed during my travels. After setting a few frequent flier records, I was looking forward to planting roots and staying someplace. “We Bad, We International” is not as glorious as it’s cracked up to be. Cuenca is perfect for residence plus short trips to other areas. Take advantage of the diversity in history, geography, culture, language and cuisine Ecuador provides by simply going over the mountain. Consider the possibility that this area was populated by non-humans 800,000 years ago. Consider the possibility that their relatives visit frequently. It is possible to meet a man in a loin cloth who talks about encounters with the Ancient Ones then points out where they live in travel restricted areas. It is possible to meet people in certain valleys close to Cuenca who describe spacecraft in detail, visible any time the weather is clear. Consider the possibility that US astronauts found something on the moon that caused them to make extensive surveys of the huge cavern systems under the surface in Ecuador. Consider the possibility that the Amazon was home to one of the most advanced civilizations on the planet, now completely consumed by the jungle.
Pigeonholed projects thus far, a new education system, autobiography, a fantasy novel, an all electric supersonic passenger aircraft and three music projects that make my fingers hurt. If it rains, I usually have plenty to do.
The scientist cannot be silenced.
The temperature at night in Cuenca bothers me. I’m from Texas. The sun goes up, it gets warm. The sun goes down, it gets cool. Doesn’t work that way in Cuenca. The sun goes down, it gets cold, then at midnight it warms up again. That bothers me. Warming up again without the sun leads me to ask where the damned heat came from. Still working on that one. Ping me if you know something.
As I watch the insanity in the northern hemisphere, the scientist wonders: If there is a large nuclear exchange in the northern hemisphere, where is the safest area on the planet? After lots of (actual) climate research I won’t burden you with, my conclusion is Cuenca, Ecuador, about 400 km south of the equator. We can argue about that later.
For those considering retirement in Cuenca, I suggest visiting for an extended period before you make the final decision. If you do cash out of Didney World and move here, I think you made an excellent call. Paradise isn’t perfect but it comes very close.
Enjoy your time here my friends …
