Life in Ecuador,
Stories of the Bitter and the Sweet

Life in Ecuador, like life in any other country, can sometimes deliver the sour when we are anticipating the sweet. This can be quite shocking, especially when our expectations are high but our "reality check" button isn’t fully functioning.

While living in Ecuador I've occasionally been fooled by a fruit that looks and smells just like an ordinary orange. I bite into it, expecting it to be an orange and reward me with a rush of juicy sweetness, only to swallow a mouthful of pure lemon juice! Surprise!  It's really a lemon masquerading as an orange.

The optimist’s slogan, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," is definitely applicable to life in Ecuador, and what delicious lemonade you can make!   

I find that the challenges presented while traveling and living in Ecuador offer two basic choices.  I can complain, blame, worry, manipulate and make myself really miserable when life doesn’t give me what I want.

Or I can take the negative little surprises that come my way with as much equanimity as I can muster and set about making that lemonade. 

When I can manage to meet adversity with creativity and a certainty that I’ll somehow overcome, even triumph. . . I usually do.

Readers can gain wisdom from the experiences of those who have made the move to Ecuador and have a successful and happy life in Ecuador.  Pro-Ecuador is collecting the stories of people who have moved to Ecuador to live or to retire. 

Some are expats from other countries.  Others are Ecuadorians who left their country to live elsewhere before returning to live or retire in Ecuador. All these individuals offer unique perspectives and share gems of wisdom that can help us become global citizens. 

These Ecuadorian tales, some cautionary, some amazing and some transformational, are offered in a spirit of inspiration and encouragement and also as an early warning system for our readers.

They, too, have been handed a few lemons in life but have managed to transform them. Curious and courageous, many of these adventurers have listened to their hearts' desires instead of to the admonitions of their minds. Following their impulses to leave the familiar and explore distant lands has brought them to Ecuador.

Claus and Maria Elena and the Place of Singing Waters

What could possibly entice a European/Bolivian couple to create a life in Checa, Ecuador? The story of Claus and Maria Elena Egger is fascinating in itself—their fated meeting in Barcelona, fleeing the dangers of Colombia and finally settling in Ecuador. But the charmed life they created for themselves and their children in Ecuador, on land that Claus calls the Place of Singings Waters, is an amazing tale of shared vision and its eventual unfolding into Pakakuna Gardens.

They've transformed a barren wasteland into an incomparable garden. It now blooms continually with a great variety of flowers and trees and has been their home for almost three decades. As of late, a new kind of blossoming is occurring as the Eggers make another dream come true.

Pakakuna Gardens is becoming a holistic international community. It will be complete with its own wellness center, clinic, store, stable and beautiful houses and villas. And even more gardens.

Don and Anita: Altruistic Entrepreneurs

He was a guard for the queen of England and a pilot. She was a properly-brought-up girl from north of London, trained as a professional nurse.

They met at a military dance and fell in love. Since then, their marriage has been filled with travel, excitement, challenges and the kind of personal success most of us only imagine in our daydreams.

The course of their lives was altered when Anita was injured during a plane flight. What followed and the influences that led to their move to Cotacachi are revealed in their story.

Now they are in Cotacachi, combining their talents, ambitions and know-how in the fulfillment of yet another dream, one that will have far-flung effects upon the citizens of Cotacachi.

Read their personal story here.

One of those hidden places in Ecuador that is definitely worth the effort to locate is Gianduja Chocolatier, Jeff Stern's Ecuador chocolate factory in Quito.

Jeff is a graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine in the U.S. but is mostly self-taught. He studied and worked with several major chocolatiers in Washington, D.C. before opening his own factory in Quito.

He and his family live in Cumbaya, a 10-mile drive from Quito, but from his factory windows, we could see Jeff's wife of 11 years, Maria, playing with their two children, ages 2 and 4.

The house Maria grew up in is conveniently located right behind the chocolate factory, complete with lawn and loving grandparents, so Jeff has the best of both worlds, enjoying his work but seldom far from his family.