The unofficial web site of the Quito Expat community

Attention, swimmers....

In Quito, where the average high temperature year-round is under 70 degrees F. or 20 C., outdoor swimming is a rarity.  Usually it is something reserved for guests paying over $100 a night to stay at top-level hotels such as the Marriott and Hotel Quito.

The Marriott is offering Quito Expats, corporations and individuals a membership in the Marriott health club that entitles one to swim up to 365 days of the year in the hotel's heated outdoor pool with tropical landscaping.  Pool hours are 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.  Individual membership is over $100 a month based on a 12-month commitment.   A six-month membership is also available.

Membership also includes access to the club's indoor and outdoor Jacuzzis, the latter being situated next to the large pool...weight and exercise rooms...locker rooms...indoor relaxation rooms...and sauna.  Massage and hair salon facilities are available on the club level at above-market prices.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Honey & Honey is a popular café/pastry shop in north Quito at Portugal and Eloy Alfaro, near the Olympic Stadium, Escuela Benalcazar and MegaMaxi 6 de Diciembre.

I visited Honey & Honey for the first time, this weekend.

As the name implies, this is truly a place to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Just inside the main entrance on Eloy Alfaro are counter after counter of pastries and sweets.

Past those counters is a restaurant-style dining area to enjoy beverages and the pies, cakes and other pastry concoctions, including plum pie, brownies and many others.  The place is open till early evening seven days a week.

In terms of quality, service and selection for a pastry shop, this place is as good as it gets in Quito.

From Honey & Honey, it's an easy stroll down Calle Portugal to 6 de Diciembre to get to MegaMaxi (turn right) or a 24-hour Fybeca pharmacy (turn left).

cccmedia in Quito

The mayor of Quito says one million surgical masks will be distributed in the capital due to the possibility of ash exposure, according to Agence France Press.

The announcement came Saturday (August 15, 2015) following the eruptions at Cotopaxi volcano some 35 miles or 50 km from the capital, one day earlier.

Hundreds have been evacuated from the Cotopaxi-area towns.

More details at the thread, How Safe is Quito From Cotopaxi?

Link... https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=492658

cccmedia in Quito

A sign of heightened security in Gringolandia ...

I ordered some take-out food tonight at one of the several Indian restaurants on Juan León Mera near Avenida Colón.  I paid up front as this was my first time at Chan Tandoori and I wanted to stroll the busy Friday-night scene in Mariscal sector while the food was cooking.

As I have done countless times, I asked the host that I might leave my canvas carrying bag inside the restaurant so I didn't have to carry it around for 20 minutes.

The host refused.

"Por el jefe," he told me.  Boss's orders.

I don't know if this is a response coming from post-911 mentality ... or has something to do with Quito being the national center of recent and probably ongoing protests.  In either case, this was the first time ever that a Quito restaurant has refused to store my bag while they were making my dinner.

cccmedia in Quito

Interesting. My first thought was that they didn't want to take responsibility for the bag -- e.g., you come back and say, "Somebody stole my brand-new iPhone!"

Two months after Pope Francis's visit to Ecuador, signs with his likeness are still seen around Quito.

A large billboard of Su Santidad looks down over Parque la Carolina from busy Avenida Eloy Alfaro, with a quotation from his visit to the capital.

El amor nos haces semejantes,
      crea igualdad,
          derriba los muros y las distancias.

                 -- Papa Francisco, julio 2015

Love makes us fellow men,
       creates equality,
             takes down walls and distances.

                  -- Pope Francis, July 2015

Correos del Ecuador has already issued postal stamps in the Pope's likeness, now available at Quito post offices.

There are two denominations -- a simple $3 stamp .. and an oversized $5 stamp with the same close-up of the Pontiff.  The big stamp contains the words Correos del Ecuador on the left border to make clear that a stamp eight times the size of an ordinary stamp is valid as postage.

Expats may want to buy some of the above as commemoratives or to send on envelopes to friends and family in the U.S.  The base rate for mailing EC-to-USA envelopes these days is $2.50, so Correos will collect a minimum of 50 extra centavos for each small to mid-size envelope being sent with Papal Postage.

cccmedia in Quito

Pool and billiards in Quito?  Can do!

For the first time ever,  this week I stopped into a Quito pool hall -- Club Fantasia.

For Expats it has the advantage of being just one block or so from Gringos' favorite upscale shopping district in the capital -- Avenida Naciones Unidas.

The place has eight playing tables with "café - bar" included.

It's on calle Japon one block north of Naciones Unidas, opens 11 a.m. ... closes 11:30 p.m. most weekdays, stays open till 1:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. 
Tel. listed:  2436611.

cccmedia in Quito

Ten Things I Did Not Expect As An Expat
            Living in Quito

10.  How little I would use Quito's most popular transit line, the trole, after the first couple of months.  It's just too crowded most of the time.

9.  How few checks I have written.  Expats usually get savings accounts, not checking accounts.  Payments are handled with auto debits via your bank and through comprobantes issued by a bank when you deposit cash into a payee's account.

8.  How delightful it is to have 68 F. weather every day.  All I pretty much every need most months is having a light nylon jacket handy.

7.  How many men want to shake my hand -- including my building janitor, the guy watching someone fix the spa, that stranger on the street.  But not any given taxi driver.  His hand is out to collect the fare.

6.  How comforting it is to have U.S. television shows via DirecTV -- The Today Show, 99 percent of NFL games, the first five minutes of The Tonight Show (the Donald Trump jokes segment), The Sopranos and Ray Donovan, as prime examples.

5.  How little I use my space heaters.  It's so mild in Quito that I have probably used the two little heaters for a collective three hours in the past year.

4. How much renovating I would do in the first two years in my condo.  The water-heater flood caused me to replace carpeting with new wood-type flooring, get a new water heater, and have various walls repainted after mold was scraped away.  I replaced the dirt-showing kitchen floor with something better two months ago, and the ugly-color-green countertops are being replaced this month.

3.  How difficult it was for about a year getting money from Quito ATM's.  I finally found one at MegaMaxi that's reliable if you don't ask for more than $300, evidently solving that problem.

2.  That I had 100 massages in the first two years.  Get one weekly and that's the number.  At $20 an hour, you can do the math.

1.  And the #1 surprising thing I found in Quito...

Although my Spanish has improved tremendously, when I meet someone from the coast with their odd accent and machine-gun-style of speech, I usually still have no idea what they're trying to say to me.

cccmedia in Quito

Living here in Guayaquil, yup, it is easier to understand those who live in the sierras…….
Ama la vida…..

AMDG wrote:

Living here in Guayaquil, yup, it is easier to understand those who live in the sierras…….
Ama la vida…..

All due respect, AMDG, could you be somewhat more specific?

cccmedia in Quito

Senor CCC, I intended to support you point earlier, that in Guayaquil, they seem to speak faster and far less clearly than I experience when I visit cities in the mountains such as Quito, Cuenca, Ambato……..
For me, speech in Guayaquil is like a deep southern accent, at times more difficult to understand…….
It has taken me a long time to understand people talking here in your most beloved of Ecuadorian cities, Guayaquil with all it's loving heat, kind humidity, and charity……
On the serious side, I find Guayaquil very gringo friendly……but I would say that about all of Ecuador equally..
As for the weather, yup, hot and humid……but for me, I'll take it over the cold anyway…..figured that out in the Army when I was sent four times on all expense paid vacations to Central America…..
As many from the sierras visit the coast for a respite from the cool, I hope to take a journey to the sierras this week for a brief respite from the heat…….Cuenca? my wives choice, Banos for me…….would guess it will be Cuenca since she does not ask much…..

AMDG wrote:

Senor CCC...It has taken me a long time to understand people talking here in your most beloved of Ecuadorian cities, Guayaquil with all it's loving heat, kind humidity, and charity……

yup, hot and humid……but for me, I'll take it over the cold...figured that out in the Army when I was sent four times on all expense paid vacations to Central America…

We like it when he lets his sense of humor shine through.

Comfort and transit strategies of Quito ...

10.  Sit in the front seat of taxis.  The drivers don't mind it ... you get a good view ... and you have direct access to the radio volume knob if you don't p*** off the driver.

9.  On a crowded municipal bus, look for extra 'seats.'  Often there are partitions in front of seated sectional-front-row riders -- at between knee and waist height -- where you can take a break from the standing routine.

8.  Transfer between the Trolé and Ecovía bus lines at Alameda park stops.  This requires a two-minute walk through the park (not recommended after dark) and is not a free transfer.  But in daylight is a pleasant break from the packed buses and a rare chance to transfer between Quito's two most popular lines.  Cost of "transfer" is 25 centavos.

7.  If you don't want to encourage the practice of begging, don't engage.  No eye contact, no discussion, just move on with your day.

6.  Ask the security guard for directions in the proper way.  There are a confirmed two zillion such guards in Quito.  Just show him you have the slightest Spanish ability by saying, "Discúlpeme, vigilante..." -- excuse me, guard ... pronounced dee-SKOOL-peh-may, bee-hee-LAHN-tay -- and he'll knock himself out trying to help you.

5.  Get familiar with MegaMaxi Seis de Diciembre.  It has got the best selection of foods, many imported, at reasonable prices.  Not cheap though.  There's a custom-cuts meat counter/seafood area.  This Mega also carries all kinds of electronics, computers, appliances, furniture, kids stuff and household supplies.  Near the entrance are super-safe ATMs.  Plus there's a food court upstairs and a variety of other stores downstairs.  And plenty more.

4.  Take Easy Taxi home from MegaMaxi.  Forget about braving the elements or getting turned down by street taxistas who don't feel like going south.   The info desk will call for your cab.  There's even a place to sit, around the corner from the lower elevators, if you need to wait a few minutes.  Be generous to your mozo after he unloads your mercancías into the taxi trunk or maletera.

3.  Manage the volume on your taxi's radio by being deferential at the start.  Greet the taxista with "hola" or the time of day -- "buenas tardes" in the afternoon, for instance.  Realize that these (mostly) men have an often- boring job and have become addicted to their radios.  My latest move to turn down the volume is to place my fingers near the volume-knob and say "Con permiso" -- with your permission -- and then promptly turn the volume down, sometimes all the way.

2.  Carry a light nylon jacket or an umbrella for rain protection.  The jacket has the additional advantage of keeping you warm when the temps drop, late in the day.  Also, such a jacket is typically lighter in weight.

1.  And this list's #1 comfort tip....

Avoid the intense rays of the Equatorial mid-day sun.  If you like staying cool, avoid doing extra walking in the 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. window, and whenever possible, walk on the shady side of the street.

cccmedia in Quito

Probably the most famous diamond and jewelry district in this hemisphere is a long block of West 47th Street in New York City.

Here in Quito, the equivalent is the blocks around the intersection of Avenida Guayaquil and Calle Olmedo in Centro Histórico.

Store after store selling and buying gold (oro) and offering precious stones.  Jewelry of many kinds.

Most of the stores have low-key signage, letting their offerings do the talking from the store windows.

But now there is a chain of gold stores that breaks that mold.

OroCash.

They have stores on both Guayaquil and Olmedo.  Large gold lettering that says...

Aquí Su Oro Vale Mucho Más.
Compramos y Vendimos Oro.
Tasamos Sus Joyas Gratis.
¡Más Efectivo!

Your Gold Is Worth Much More Here.
We Buy and Sell Gold.
We Evaluate Your Jewelry For Free.
More Cash!

cccmedia in Quito

Edd said that he found a great airbnb house in a residential neighborhood near Parque Carolina in Quito.  Great 3 bedroom house, don't know if this is a good source of housing for a couple on an exploratory trip to Ecuador.  The owner is an expat living in the suburbs, so the house should be available for extended lengths of time.

Commercial Christmas in the Air....

During this first week of November... a huge, decorated and lighted Christmas tree is already up at the interior main entrance to MegaMaxi 6 de Diciembre (Benalcazar stop of the Ecovía bus line).  The tree is 25-feet tall and has a lighted star at the top.

Upstairs on the main shopping level, the mall's big, seasonal Christmas store is open, just past the food court.

Inside the MegaMaxi food-shopping areas, Christmas trees are for sale at $10 to $25 -- per month! for 12 months.  They are artificial.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Commercial Christmas in the Air....

Inside the MegaMaxi food-shopping areas, Christmas trees are for sale at $10 to $25 -- per month! for 12 months.  They are artificial.

cccmedia in Quito

So the trees cost between $120 and $300?

mugtech wrote:

So the trees cost between $120 and $300?

Your math is impeccable, sir.

The most sofisticado trees are a few inches taller, have frosting and artificial pine cones.

cccmedia in Quito

Hi Journeyman,  Are you planning any meetups in Dec?  Thank you.

I will get with the gang: cccmedia - gmcsw - edgar winters - AT - and various other members, And anyone that may want to come out and say boo- or fleas navidad...

..speaking to gmcsw just now on skype,

we feel we can be available to go on SAT 12 DEC 2015 @ 2pm to "MexiCali & G-Spot"  located at Diego de Almagro E8-10 y Calama, Quito, Ecuadorhttps://www.facebook.com/MexiCaliQuito/?fref=ts

Saturdays seem to draw a bigger crowd due to many of the Quito Expats work, or occupied M-F doing something.

My wise old uncle made an observation back in 2008: "Jack, where in the world are all of those folks sandwiched into those 90ft articulated buses going?" / reply: "To go get copies of their cedulas"

Let me know who all and how many may want to participate, and I can let the owner Nick know how many of us to plan for, have enough help on hand, and not run low on chili cheese burkers to die for:)

Season's Greetings,
[email protected]
see Ecuador: http://JourneymanJack.com/

toll free from U.S. & Canada:
770-828-7913,
Ecuador Off: 02-380-4088,
Claro: 098-806-6508,
Movistar: 098-743-3009,

Thanks.  We will be in Galapagos on Dec. 12, back in Quito on the night of Dec. 15. So after that or Dec. 2 or 3 work for us.

Kitsy, a U.S. Expat, moved to Ecuador ten years ago and has lived on the EC coast and currently in Quito.

I'd heard that Ecuadorian men loved Gringas, but Kitsy's story still surprised me.

A middle-aged Floridian who has kept her youthful figure, Kitsy had to learn coping mechanisms to reduce the  number of macho advances by Ecuadorians.

For instance, she learned that as soon as a taxi driver started asking her questions, to let him know she's a woman not interested in marriage.

Before she learned these coping skills, she was being hit-on so frequently that it was disturbing to her.

"With a North American man, you can know him for months before he asks you out."  In Ecuador, she says, a man will often ask you to marry him the first time you meet him.  Do you want to get married, he may ask.  How about right now?

Kitsy kept a running count.  At the high point, 37 taxi drivers and other Ecuadorian men proposed marriage to her.  In one week !

Source:  conversation with Kitsy (not her real name) on Thanksgiving weekend.

cccmedia in Quito

Tell 'Kitsy' not to even consider moving to Turkey. Worse by far.

Sorry to report in that "MexiCali & G-Spot"  located at Diego de Almagro E8-10 y Calama, Quito, Ecuador, has decided to close up shop. However close by neighbor Marks English Bookstore is still in the same spot after 25+ years, just 3 doors down west on Calama, Mark is a wealth of information: http://theecuadorgringo.com/2010/10/21/ … wired-age/

But, there is all ways fine dining at: --"Rusty's Hamburgers first opened its doors to the public in the city of Quito, Ecuador, on the corner of the streets Amazonas and Cordero, the 25th of April, 1979.  It was the first restaurant of hamburgers “made to order” in Ecuador and thank God, from the beginning it caught on quickly.

Previous to its opening, Rusty Miller, a photo-journalist, was the owner of a successful restaurant in Santa Barbara, California and also a manager of a prestigious hamburger chain around San Francisco... http://hamburguesasderusty.net/en/quienes-somos.php

CCCMedia, are we going to try to put something together for Christmas, NY's or maybe next time?
Season's Greetings,
journeymanjack.com

Jack, there are two holiday parties between now at the end of December, welcoming Expats here in Quito, including one tonight, December 16th.

I'm sending you the dates, organizations and contact information via PM messaging.

cccmedia in Quito

Would you send us the information on the expat parties - 1 tonight and the other - too please?  Thank you!

For some of the forums, I cannot get in to reply.  The site says under maintenance, yet I can get in here.  Do you know what the issue might be for me with the site?
Also, I am looking to get the info on the driver that emoss28 and Dorothy Peck referred to.  Can you help to get me that info since the site will not let me reply to them?
Thank you, Wendy

I attempted to send you a PM message, Wendy, with the information you wanted.  Even though you've posted 17 times, the system did not give me the usual message option.

The information for tonight's holiday party (December 16th) can be found at the Internations website, internations.org ...

Please ask the Home Office to restore your PM capability.  I can provide more information to you then.

cccmedia in Quito

wendy-adventurousretirement wrote:

For some of the forums, I cannot get in to reply.  The site says under maintenance, yet I can get in here.  Do you know what the issue might be for me with the site?
Also, I am looking to get the info on the driver that emoss28 and Dorothy Peck referred to.  Can you help to get me that info since the site will not let me reply to them?
Thank you, Wendy

I have just asked the Home Office to assist you.  It's possible there is a temporary bug in the PM messaging system.

cccmedia in Quito

Thanks, as I am not sure how to make that request of the home office.  Can you post a reply with info on tonight's festivities here?

I just joined internations.org and will not be able to log in for 24 hours.  If there is another way to send me the info, that would be appreciated.
Thank you, Wendy

I just joined internations.org and will not be able to log in for 24 hours.  If there is another way to send me the info, that would be appreciated.
Thank you, Wendy

Location... Al Maha restaurant, Avenida Patria E2-22 y 10 de Agosto, Banco de Préstamos Building, 19th floor.

To communicate with the Home Office about your PM message-status, click on the Report button on any post in our conversation and a box will appear into which you may type your message.

cccmedia in Quito

We tried to find it.  Taxi driver had no idea where it was and we don't know Quito well enough yet.  Thanks anyway for getting us the info.  If I had been able to get back on my email before 6:30 (which is when my husband finished with the computer) I would have seen your note earlier.  We would have walked in the daylight and tried to find the building ourselves if it was earlier.

Hopefully I will have more advance notice for the next one.  We had a difficult time with taxis today - they don't seem to know this city very well - 3 bad ones today - wrong turns, lost, or not knowing where the destination is.

@ Wendy-adventurousretirement >

If you have some queries, please contact us directly by filling up this form : https://www.expat.com/en/contact.html
We will be more apt to help you.

Thank you,

Priscilla 

Top Things I Noticed at QuiCentro, Quito Gringos' Favorite Shopping Mall, on Christmas Eve...

The usual warm welcome and smiles from the green-capped manager of Sweet & Coffee.

The server at the food court's Cajun eatery was unclear as to which salad I was ordering with my costillas (ribs).  The choice was potato salad or lettuce and tomato.  She immediately understood when I said it was lo de los colores navideños -- the one with the Christmas colors.

A four-year-old entering the elevator on a four-foot-long plastic motorcycle being pushed by her father.
¿Tienes una licencia para conducir esa moto?  I asked her.  Agencia Nacional de Tránsito quisiera saber.  -- Do you have a license to drive that motorcycle?  DMV would like to know.

The Juan Valdez coffee shop was closing early -- before 8 p.m. -- for the holiday.  Most of the other stores stayed open till 9.

No problem getting a cab.  I exited on 6 de Diciembre just as a taxi was driving up in front of me.  Got right in and off we went.

And the #1 thing i noticed at QuiCentro shopping mall on Christmas Eve....

Dozens of clean-shaven, brown-skinned Ecuadorian men wearing one-dollar red-and-white Santa caps in shops all over the mall.

cccmedia in Quito

December 29, 2015:  A posting at the South American Explorers website states that the organization is closing its Quito clubhouse and operations at the end of this week, ending decades of operation in the Ecuadorian capital.

The Quito president of the Explorers has resigned and no replacement has been indicated.  No 2016 plans have been indicated.

  -- posting at saexplorers.org

A New Year's Eve party previously scheduled for December 31st has been canceled.

cccmedia wrote:

December 29, 2015:  A posting at the South American Explorers website states that the organization is closing its Quito clubhouse and operations at the end of this week, ending decades of operation in the Ecuadorian capital.

From the website: 

Clubhouse manager John Caselli recently informed us that he had resigned as president and executive director of The Explorers Foundation, the non-profit organization chartered by Ecuador's Ministry of Tourism, which has worked with South American Explorers since 2001.

John graciously offered to stay on through January to help a new manager take over. But without benefit of the non-profit foundation, the clubhouse lacks the legal foundation necessary to operate in Ecuador. And so, we have made the difficult decision after 26 year to close the Quito Clubhouse.

Strange sounding to me that the Director's resignation of The Explorer's Foundation somehow leads to its collapse - unless John was the sole source of funding too.