Best Place in the World

Yahoo and Google are different in interesting ways.  Google has that trim, slim, economical home page that loads up quickly, yet gives you many options such as News, Images, Videos, Maps and so on.  Yahoo, on the other hand, takes a while to load up all the ads, but finally displays all kinds of interesting factoids, stories and breaking news.  It's a more "social" place that gives one the latest entertainment business gossip, cute and entertaining videos on diverse subjects, as well as sections on news, dating, health, shopping, weather and more. It's even been reported that men generally prefer and use Google, while women tend more toward Yahoo.

Around June or July, 2010, Yahoo had an article on the Best Places in the World to Retire. We looked over the articles and found that Cuenca, Ecuador in South America had been voted #1 at least a couple years running. Subsequent searches found numerous mentions of Cuenca. International Living seemed to have the most info available -- downloadable PDF's, an "Owners Manual" for Ecuador (PDF) that cost somewhere upward of $60 and much more at their site.

Being just weeks away from retirement we began to study Ecuador and Cuenca in particular.  In retrospect it seems that International Living painted an idealistic vision of the city and the country. In fact some expatriates living in Ecuador have been critical of International Living's understating the cost of living; avoiding discussions of crime and the socialist left-wing government; of the 33% poverty rate among Ecuadorians -- all strategies to help International Living sell more trips and seminars -- or so it's said.

All that aside, we studied the country and eventually decided to visit for several weeks so we can make our own decision about Cuenca, Ecuador and its people.

So we're preparing for our trip. It will definitely give us yet one more adventure in the dream. We're excited about new places to explore, new people to meet and enjoy, a new culture to learn and become part of, the possibility of living there for a year (or a few years, or longer), perhaps having a place that family will enjoy visiting, maybe doing some volunteer work, being able to grow flowers, fruits and veggies all year around...and much more. A nice way to enjoy retirement.

Or not. We'll see.

So in the meantime this little blog can be our "diary" of preparation...the adventure itself...and our reflections on it.