Cuenca, Ecuador vs. U.S.A. - lots of Mexico similarities

Back to Cuenca... my interest was piqued earlier this year so I bought a book about it on Amazon Kindle... yes there are some amazing parallels to Ajijic (eternal spring, mountains, sky) but here are the things the book claimed that made me rule it out 100% for me:

1. You pretty much have to fly to and from the US. No quickie 12-hour car ride back to Texas. The flights are not cheap.
2. You get to bring in only two suitcases and the clothes on your back.
3. If you want to import a car, it has to be brand new, and the duty is 100%.
4. If you want to bring any household goods, they have to come by shipping container which is $5000 (and I think the duty is again 100%).
5. Bureaucracy, crime, poverty, etc. seems about 10x what it is here.
6. Internet, phone, services in Cuenca are good but goes to almost nothing at the city limit.

That's what I can remember off the top of my head. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions.

Merry

merry wrote:Back to Cuenca... my interest was piqued earlier this year so I bought a book about it on Amazon Kindle... yes there are some amazing parallels to Ajijic (eternal spring, mountains, sky) but here are the things the book claimed that made me rule it out 100% for me:

1. You pretty much have to fly to and from the US. No quickie 12-hour car ride back to Texas. The flights are not cheap.
2. You get to bring in only two suitcases and the clothes on your back.
3. If you want to import a car, it has to be brand new, and the duty is 100%.
4. If you want to bring any household goods, they have to come by shipping container which is $5000 (and I think the duty is again 100%).
5. Bureaucracy, crime, poverty, etc. seems about 10x what it is here.
6. Internet, phone, services in Cuenca are good but goes to almost nothing at the city limit.

That's what I can remember off the top of my head. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions.

Merry

Great info Merry, Personally I wouldn't even set foot south of Chiapas after a friend of mine died from a horrible infection, actually two, and at least one of them was acquired while looking for a house in Equador. YIKES, no thank you.

Also for folks like me who like to watch my home town station on TV. I can do that here, using the Canadian Shaw Direct system. Not in South America

Now here, we are so far south that many DISH US network stations don't come in here, even with a big satellite dish. DirecTV US is better, I get most of the HD stations on a very large dish. Forget getting anything in South America without a 50 foot dish. Oh sure, one can use the internet, but that limits what you can receive, especially live in 1080p HD on a large LCD TV screen.