The Dark Side

 While I remain stateside working at an inner city Portland hospital, things are still smooth sailing for Brian, back in Ecuador.  I am grateful for this extra bit of time with Gabrielle and Damon, living with them in their tranquil, loving home.  I do miss the weather, sunsets, and going to bed with my spouse, and all that Manta has to offer.  However, as I mean for this blog to be realistic, life is not that great for all ex-pats.

I cannot deny crime has increased since we began our journey, and there are some unsettled moments in other parts of the country.  For reasons I have already outlined, our specific area remains relatively safe, certainly safer than downtown Portland.  But I cannot argue that it is weird to live in a country, and travel to cities where I actually am concerned about getting kidnapped.  If I leave our area, which to be honest there is not much reason to do on a day to day basis, I am a target.

It is hard to relay stories of crime, because they are not my stories to tell.  They are first person accounts that are very raw to the people they actually happened to, and I don't want to put a blow by blow on my public blog, it seems somewhat explotive of their trauma.  But I have listened to these stories, and have had several, wow, we are not in Kansas anymore moments.  So there is going to be some vagueness.

Before we begin, however, I am going to cover one part of Ecuadorian culture that plays a part in making things comfy for wrong doers - it is not a culture where you can call someone else out.  There are not nasty yelp reviews.  If you disparage someone's business, or business ethics, etc. you could be sued.  So people don't publically say much when they have a negative experience.  There also seems to be an odd sense of shame being a victim, like you should've been smarter.  Add to that most of the ex-pat groups with public postings, such as Facebook or What's app absolutely do not want to become a venue for people to air dirty laundry, in part to protect them legally, and in part to make groups a positive place to be.  Complaining gets very quickly out of hand, I have found out.  What starts out as a post saying, hey, heads up, a friend was mugged at knife point in such and such area, or beware of getting ripped off while trying to access x service becomes a post where people say the same useless cliches "there is crime everywhere around the world" or make racial remarks, sometimes disparging the honestly of Ecuadorians, sometime disparing the sense of entitlement of Gringos/ex-pats.  The conversation can become unproductive so very, very quickly.  So it tends to get shut down.  All of this makes it harder for ex-pats to pass on information of negative experiences.

Let's start with housing.  One of my earlier posts I explained the pros and cons of renting vs buying.  Renting is touted as the ideal for the first year of living here at least.  Both Brian and I have been rethinking the wisdom of that.  When you rent, there is a high probability you will end up in a less than ideal situation, and that colors your experience of what it is like to live here.

As I have mentioned before, one of the biggest cons to renting in this area is how frequently units get sold.  We have now met several people who were well settled in a unit they really liked, and the owner decided to sell, and they could not find anything they liked for rent in the desired area.  And then when presented with a lease, of course it is in Spanish.  One of our friends took said lease to an attorney, and found out it had all kinds of very nasty clauses in it, like he would be responsible for earthquake damage, or raises in HOA fees, etc.  He took a hard pass.  Another had a unit become unihabitable due to a leak, and had a hard time getting out/getting something else.  Another had the owner want them to leave the unit for a bit, in the middle of a lease, so his family could use it for vacation.  And when they said no, kicked them out as soon as their lease was done.  We have also heard several stories over not being able to get deposits back.  Of course, we had that experience in the US as well, with the rental we had in the 5 months between selling our home and moving to Ecuador.  But there is an added sense of stress when all of this is happening in a language you are not fluent in.

And I feel the need to point out that for us, the most explotation we experienced since we decided to move to Ecuador did not happen IN Ecuador, but at the Lakes Apartments on Cornell and 185th, out here in the Beaverton/Hillsboro area.  I could go on for pages about all of the nasty things they did, but this blog is about Ecuador.

But then let's get into buying.  Here there is advantage using the realator here from the US, who speaks fluent English, and is very tuned into to the expat expectations for transactions.  This is a little uncomfortable, because you want to support Ecuadorian ecomony as much as possible, and defer to the people born and raised here.  But you have to be careful.  Whichever you chose you need to hire an attorney.  They are the ones that check for back taxes, titles, unpaid utlilities, etc.   When they don't do as they are supposed to, it does become a problem.  Then, if you buy in a building, you need to very carefully vet the HOA.  How many units are in arrears of their fees?  How much excess is there in the budget?  One downside to our unit, which we really love, is that for many owners this is a vacation home.  I don't think we really appreciated what that meant in terms of how much the owners were willing to invest in a home they do not live most of the time, and by invest, I don't only mean paying extra for unexpected expenses, but investment in being willing to be on the HOA board, go to meetings, and problem solve.  We have noticed more complaining about "stress" causing health problems.  These are not necessarily issues that would be considered stressful in the US.  For this reason they don't want to get involved.  Also, if you plan to buy, you need to get at the HOA meeting minutes and insurance payouts to determine how much damage was done by the 2016 major Earthquake.  Our building brought in industrial Xrays, and did not have much damage, but other buildings, which may look fine from the outside, had more.  A good real estate attorney is a MUST if you want to buy.

Then, there is building.  We know two people who have had significant delays on finishing their homes, and there seems to be little recourse.  My husband and I are not convinced renting for a year is the best idea, but I am convinced it is preferable to building right away.  If nothing else, to watch homes going up, how fast they take, get a lot of feedback, etc, before putting any money down.  Results will vary seems to be the theme.  There was also a large earthquake in 2016 that greatly delayed the building of a highrise from a reputable builder.  Then, as that was getting up and going again, there was Covid.  Of all the choices, I am the most leary of having a place built, unless one is really financially secure, has thouroughly vetted the builder, and has time to be very patient.

Next up is violent crime.  I think of it as crime with a purpose, it seldome seems to be random.  For executions, they seem to be drug or politically motivated, and not something the aveage ex-pat worries about, as a whole we are not involved in the drug trade or politics.  It is disconcerting, however, to hear of poltically motivated violent crime, as it adds to a perception of corruption, and that criminals are running the show.  Here in Manta, they have really stepped up a police presence to make us all safer, but that is not the case in other places.

The violent crime affecting the ex-pat, and to be honest, the average Ecuadorian middle and upper class citizen is violent theft.  An ex-pat relayed recently he was talking a walk on the beach in a decent, but less populated area, and was sucker punched for his phone. We hear about such things from time to time, people being held up at knife point for valuables seems fairly common, although less so in our immediate area.   This man did not give in, but did need treatment.  I personally have not experienced anything similar, but I walk around with Brian - who really sticks out here, and has an intimidating size (Ecuadorian children think he is Shrek) or a large dog.  Otherwise, just one the beach, I make it a point to not bring more than a dollar or two, frequently leaving my phone at home.  So there is nothing to steal.  When Brian was gone, and I needed to take Maya out for her last walk of the evening, I carried mace.

I began this blog post at the beginning of May, and since I started it 2 things of note have happened.  One, the president dissolved congress.  This is called "muerte cruzada" or mutual death, kind of like a murder- suicide situation.  The president dissolves congress, but after 6 months, he doesn't really get to stay either.  It appears he was avoiding impeachment.  As a side note, I think dissolving congress is a great idea, and I wish we could do that here.  We could then chose random names from votor registration, and probably have a more functional system.  However, for Ecuador, which has been a relatively stable country in the midst of instability, this might not be good, as powerful drug lords fight for territory.  I am not unhappy we moved to Ecuador - I do wonder if we might have been frightened away from it if we were making the decision today.

The second thing is a multiple shooting that occurred at a cemetary very close to our house, that I walk by on my way to mass - it is right across from the church.  They were burying a transit officer, killed in Guayaquil, and this occurred during the actual wake (from what I read).  The most grusome in a growing list of gang related shootings.  Is it more than the number of gang related shootings in Portland?  I honestly don't know.  I ask myself why it feels scarier.  My husband and I are not remotely involved in gangs, drugs or politics.  We are not targets for this type of crime.  I admit, I still feel unsettled.

So that's it for now.  Nothing really has changed.  The beach is still beautiful, food still abundant, I can't wait to get back to my laid back lifestyle (although I must say, being with Gabrielle and Damon has been lovely, and the job has really been reasonable, all things considered).  But I can't deny that the area seems less stable than it did 2 years ago, when we first started planning.  It will be interesting to see what happens.