How we made it happen

  The story of how this episode of our lives came to be starts with me sitting at my computer in Mooresville, NC and seeing an article about the best places to retire overseas. My first thought was "maybe we really can retire" and so I read the article which was a reprint from "International Living". Cuenca, Ecuador was #1 on the list and I discounted it immediately because, who would want to live in Ecuador and where the hell is Ecuador, anyway. Panama caught my attention because Americans have been there for a long time and I had an idea of where it is on a map. The more I read the more the good and bad points of the list made me look at Cuenca and reconsider my early dismissal of Ecuador. During this research period I was getting the comments " I don't think so" and " I can't leave the kids" from my wife, Joan.
  I found a blog written by Kathy Wesson, who lived in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is only a hop skip and a jump away from Mooresville  I sent an e-mail and asked if we could possibly meet to talk about Cuenca. My e-mail reached them while they were in Ecuador doing their exploratory visit and we met when they returned to the states. We established an immediate friendship over a mexican lunch as well as increasing our interest in Cuenca. Ecuador. Mick and Kathy left the states to start their expat experience 6 weeks later and the friendship continued via e-mail and skype calls.
  All the reports were good from Mick and Kathy and it was decided we would also do an exploratory visit to Cuenca. Joan still had her doubts 2 weeks into the trip but by the end of the 3rd week she was convinced she could live in Cuenca because she not only liked the city but we would be able to travel back to the US and actually see more of our children and family then we could if we remained in the states with jobs tying us down.
  Back in the states we went to work preparing for our move to Cuenca, Ecuador. We now could find it on a map and were sure this would be the right move for us to make.
  We had contacted an attorney while in Ecuador and started the paperwork required for establishing Ecuadorian residency. This would allow us to stay in the country on a permanent basis and to ship some of our household goods duty free. We didn't have a lot to ship but some things are more expensive here than in the states and some of our things we just didn't want to part with. The decision of what to bring and what to sell or give away was  difficult at times but we got it down to one pallet of belongings, which are now in a u-haul storage unit in Mooresville, NC. I took a longer time to find someone who would ship for us at a rate we wanted to pay. Some of the prices were way to high for the small amount we were shipping. We finally called Sandra Baquero, she's in Guayquill, EC. and arranged to have our things shipped at a price that fit our purposes and budget. Sandra walked us through the whole procedure and gave us more information than we ever expected. So the packing a sorting began and went on and on and on. This is not an easy thing to do. We were getting rid of somethings while buying new things to ship to Ecuador. Oh, yes we were also trying to find an auctioneer to sell the things we weren't going to keep. This turned out to be a very difficult and a never accomplish feat. That leads to how we actually sold and gave away our belongings. A continuing saga for the next post.

Dale and Joan