Day 1: Houston, TX

Reporting from the President's Club lounge at Houston Intercontinental.

Current Status of Participants:

Jamie and Pat: Houston, TX

Murray: Miami, FL

Pat and I began our day with a 6am flight to Houston. We both confessed to waking up before our respective alarm clocks went off, and also that we are both working on sleep that was both of low quality and quantity.

We are in the middle of a 7 hour layover here in Houston, so we decided to buy President Club lounge day passes and enjoy complimentary food and beverage. More importantly we have comfortable seats and some space.

The picture above shows how I am occupying myself. The requisite Lonely Planet guide book and Macbook with WiFi to work on the blog. Had it not been for LP guide books, I would have missed so much of the cultural experience in Croatia back in 2003. Perhaps I will compare and contrast Croatia with Ecuador as a start on a dissertation on Comparative Culture Theory.

Flight to Quito departs around 4pm CST and we get in around 2215 EST.

Did you know: In 2000, after a monumental economic collapse, Ecuador dropped its currency (the Sucre) in favor of the US dollar.

Welcome to my Ecuador travel blog

Welcome to the first post of this travel blog which will document our Ecuadorian adventure starting today (Feb 16) and ending in 12 days (Feb 28).

The participants are: Jamie (yours truly) from Raleigh, NC (transplanted Canadian from North Bay Ontario); Pat, from Cary, NC (transplanted from New Jersey); and, Murray (Jamie's Dad) currently living in North Bay Ontario.

This vacation was the brain child of myself and Pat (who we met at an investing conference in Vegas last April). Pat has some interest in Ecuador and my natural enthusiasm for travel led me to suggest "If you ever go back, I would love to join!" Discussions over the summer and fall led to a final decision to take this trip. After much planning we find ourselves on travel day. See my next post for my official Day 1 update.

Here is a question I have been asked a number of times in the past few months: why Ecuador?

A couple of things intrigue me about Ecuador, but first a little background. From the map above you can see where we will be. We will be on the Pacific Coast of South America, surrounded by immediate neighbors Peru and Colombia. The geography is very interesting. Essentially half of it is in the Andes and half is coastal beach. A few other things about Ecuador: it is home to the Galapagos Islands, has the US$ as its currency and has very eco-friendly environmental laws. It's densely populated in the 2 major cities (Quito and Guyaquil), however it is apparently very rural elsewhere. And then of course the beach/coastal towns which we are very interested in.

For myself, I have always wanted to travel to places that are not "standard". For example in 2003 when I decided to take a 5 week trip to Europe, I chose Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia, instead of the more traditional France, Germany, Italy (as an example). So Ecuador seemed absolutely perfect to me! Costa Rica?...Everyone goes there.

So why Ecuador? Essentially we are looking at some potential real estate opportunities down there. We are expecting to find compelling prices on beachfront condos and property as compared to those in Florida (for example). Part of the goal of this blog will be to take you through our progression as we travel the Pacific coast of Ecuador looking at all kinds of properties in different places.

But let us also be realistic. We are going to relax and have some fun as well. We definitely want to get a good feel for the culture there and whether it in fact is a good place to possibly vacation on a regular basis.

So with that in mind, please join us as we tour Ecuador!

Jamie, Pat and Murray