You’re welcome. I wasn’t keen on the family going with me because I really didn’t know what to expect and I was worried it might be a bit dangerous. Fortunately it was anything but dangerous. Mompiche is doing a great job of protecting tourism and policing itself and it’s probably safer there than it is in Quito.

So true!

I visited Muisne once a few years ago. I can’t imagine what it was like 40 years ago. Mompiche to me feels like Montañita or Canoa 10 years ago… a struggling tourist town with a lot of potential if it could just catch a break.

You’re welcome. Mompichi is definitely a great place to spend some time while saving money.

You’re welcome. Yeah, I was actually surprised at how relaxed and safe it was. Mompiche as a community is doing a good job of policing itself in order to protect tourism. I’m sure this year’s carnival had less tourism there. Many people are afraid of Esmeraldas province right now.

I can only react with amusement when someone gets annoyed with me for sharing my honest opinions and impressions. If Mompiche has suffered from corruption for years and it has stifled development then perhaps the community lacks the organization and willingness not change. I’m not blaming you specifically, but the community as a whole, the community that tolerates such corruption and the corrupt leaders they keep choosing. Some places just don’t have the capacity to break these sort of cycles. Most of the mountains towns and communities would simply hold mingas to solve these sort of problems. Near my farm we would wait forever for the municipal leaders to fix the roads so we have a minga twice a year and do it ourselves, same with our water system, and with cleaning the streets.

@@FallofftheMap Typical American. You spend 5 minutes in a place and suddenly know everything about it...

@@roniad9722 I never claimed to “know everything” about Mompiche. I simply gave my opinions and impressions as a visitor. You seem really sensitive and upset about this, as though you feel like it’s not ok for people to have an opinion that differs from yours.

You’re welcome!

Awesome. I used to live on the N coast of Ecuador about 90 minutes north of Esmeraldas city. At the moment, I wouldn’t choose to live in the areas around Atacames or Sua. There’s simply too much insecurity in those areas right now. Mompiche is probably the farthest north “safe” town. If I were to do it all over again I’m not sure if I would choose Ecuador. I think Ecuador is still safer than Colombia for foreigners, especially if you want to live in the campo or on the coast, but the Philippines has a lot going for it. If you want to own land, sure, Ecuador still has a lot going for it especially in the small mountain towns and in the Amazon. If you don’t mind leasing a condo and outright land ownership isn’t a dealbreaker the Philippines is probably a safer and lower cost location. For me, owning my farm is important, and I don’t want to deal with complicated ownership rules. I also prefer the mild climates in the “valleys of eternal spring” over the coastal cities so the areas I like tend to be safe as opposed to the coastal towns where the cartels are more active. Feel free to ask questions. I try to take the time to answer and share my opinions and advice.

@@FallofftheMap I came to Ecuador from Southern Colombia, on a motorized canoe. The captain was smuggling clams into Ecuador, through the mangroves. Once in Ecuador, we rode in canoes to the bigger boat to Esmeraldas, where I entered legally. I caught some political flack in the little towns, taking small canoes to the larger boat. At one point, four of us used machetes to stand off a crowd of drunks, more boozy than political. On the trip after mine, a rebel group robbed the boat and killed one crew member. As a merchant mariner, I am accustomed to dealing with bandits, principally during returns to home (the ship) from a tavern. Risk is an integral part of adventure, more of an ethic for a single sailor than a man with a lovely family.

@@tomjeffersonwasright2288 man, it sounds like you should have a KZfaq channel and share some of your stories. In the towns and cities of the north coast things have changed quickly. The level and type of violence is very different than it was a few years ago. This is ground zero for the narcos. It’s currently one of the most important parts of the world for the drug trade and most towns have a strong cartel presence as the fishermen have been recruited or extorted into ferrying loads of cocaine out to ships waiting offshore. As the cocaine markets shifted from the U.S. to Europe, the violence shifted from Central America and Mexico to places like the coast of Ecuador.

It was nice. Looking forward to visiting again soon.

I actually really like driving in Ecuador when I’m alone in the car; it’s an adventure. I do get stressed when I have my family in the car with me because then each close call makes me afraid for them.

@@FallofftheMap I understand I would like to take my teenage son, who lives in Seattle, WA, but I wait until he is older and understand that Ecuador (his mom's birth country) is a beautiful country but also dangerous if one doesn't pay attention.

Glad you liked it!

Really good corviche there too. Super popular place for cheap comfort food.

Isla Portete made me sad. Such a beautiful place with terrible garbage problems.

@@FallofftheMap That is sad to hear. I went in 2022 and it felt like the Caribean and was so very clean. I wonder if the tides have brought in a lot of the garbage from the flooding of some of the coastal cities.

@@k_and_m8745 most of the garbage is local, it’s from tourists and the restaurants on the island.

You should. This is the time of year when the surf is up and people go to Mompiche for the left breaking wave at the edge of the bay.

Do you know a good place to stay in salinas

I don’t. I’ve stayed in Salinas twice and both times I found it to be a bit expensive and touristy. I can’t recommend either pace I stayed because they both kind of sucked. The Living Loving Abroad channel is based out of Salinas and might be better about to give you good advice if you look them up and ask.

@@FallofftheMap thanks so much take care

Yes, in general I prefer the central and southern coast as well, though the wild north coast has its charms and places like Mompiche are great for budget travelers and those that like a laid back hippie surfer vibe. It’s not where I would like to live, but it’s not bad for a visit, and there is a lot of untapped potential for fishing tours and exploring wild parts of the jungle and undeveloped beaches.

Weird. I feel the same way but in reverse. Every time I’m in the US I’m exhausted by the problems with homelessness, the poverty, the crumbling infrastructure, and I’m so relieved to get back to Ecuador. Yes, the funky bathrooms are a fair point and yes, the construction of pretty much everything is poor quality, but from my perspective I see resourceful people accomplishing a lot with very little. In the US it feels like the people have every advantage and yet squander all that opportunity fighting with each other, fighting against progress, fighting senseless cultural wars, while the county gets worse and worse.

It’s hard to answer because Ecuador is the only place they know. They were both born here and are Ecuadorian citizens. The most difficult thing is school. The public schools are terrible. We pay for a private school but so far we are yet to find a school that we like. In some schools my kids encountered bullying because they don’t “look Ecuadorian.” In other schools we were disappointed with the quality of the education. On the bright side I don’t worry about school shootings, or drugs, or dealing with a lot of mental illness or depression about the state of society and the future. Despite the frustrations with finding a good school within our budget, I wouldn’t want to raise my kids in the U.S. I’m not sure how limiting it will be for them if they choose to go to a university in Ecuador. At the moment my oldest is debating between trying to join the special forces in Ecuador or going to a university in Mexico. He’s my stepson and is not a U.S. citizen. My youngest has duel citizenship and definitely wants to live in the U.S. when he’s older, though I don’t know if he’ll choose to go to a U.S. university. He’s a bit like me in that he’s very impatient and bored in school and much more likely to end up in a trade school or apprenticeship than a university. Definitely give careful consideration to the cost of education in Ecuador. School is by far our biggest monthly expense and that’s for 2 kids. If you’re not homeschooling you may find adequate education prohibitively expensive. It’s cheap by US standards for private school, we pay $300 per month per child and an additional $80 each for transportation (totaling $760 for school and transportation), but that ends up costing far more than rent for a huge apartment in a good neighborhood. If I could get my kids to collaborate, I’d send them to an online school, but they both hated doing that during the pandemic and refuse to even consider it. Hopefully your kids are a little less stubborn than mine so that you have more options for their education. Sorry if that was a much more complex and long answer than you were expecting. Good luck on finding a path that fits your family.

Thumbs high mudderruckers!

It has been raining, but the water on the road is from a high tide and waves crashing over the sea wall.

😂

Thanks. Fixed it.

That happens on most of the small town beaches on the north coast. There are many little communities with no road so driving down the beach when the tide is out is the only way for them to get to town.

¿Por qué asumir que no hablo español? My Spanish is adequate. Not great, but enough to communicate.

Street dogs are a thing all over Ecuador. There hasn’t been much of an effort to spay and neuter and many people don’t treat animals well. Ecuador has a long way to go on that front.

Really, that’s the impression you got? I went there to help someone out with the wiring of their house. I didn’t want to bring my family as I mentioned, but they insisted on coming with. I made a video because if I’m going to take a trip I might as well bring the KZfaq audience along for the ride but that was not the purpose or plan. How’s this super judgmental thing working out for you?