To BRING or not To BRING........

            
          A new friend who is moving to Cuenca next summer asked me to write about the pros and cons of shipping your "stuff" to Ecuador.....okay,  here goes...

First of all I think it depends a lot on what kind of person you are,  how comfortable you want to be, and how adventurous you are.....For me,  there was no question -- I wanted my things and didn't consider moving without everything I could stuff into a 40ft. container.....I am a collector,  antiques dealer,  and there is no way I wanted to try to replace everything we need in a foreign country....

There IS NO advantage price wise to not shipping unless you live in a very small house and own very little......replacing all your household goods is not cheap,  in any country.....more likely you will spend more than the $10,000.00 average cost of bringing a container,  and the quality of goods here is not the same......appliances cost about the same as the US .... furniture is not as comfortable,  and colors in general are limited  (they love orange and brown in Ecuador) as are finishes...

Is it work?   Yes,  and takes planning.....but for us it was well worth it.......Here are some of the things we brought.......
 

This is a sample......there's more,  lots more.....



Here's how we did it.......we came to Cuenca on the 1st of June and moved into a 2 bedroom furnished apartment.....saw our lawyer and turned in the required paperwork to start the residency process....

We spent the months waiting for our residency exploring the city and looking for a permanent  house......Finally I placed an ad in El Mercurio listing my dream house, everything  I wanted,   and waited for the phone to ring.....

We ended up with the perfect house for us......5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths,  large white kitchen,  sunken dining room & living room,  TV room with fireplace,  bar, and 2 offices/dens ....plus a maids room with bath......we have a lovely yard on 3 sides of the house, bar b que area,   and we are part of a family compound with a park in the middle.......and the rent?
$624 per month.....

In late October we returned to Omaha to pack the container and ship it to Cuenca.....it arrived about the first week of December,  and by Christmas we were settled and had the Xmas tree up waiting for our daughter Deborah and granddaughter Cristina to come spend our first Christmas with us.....

As you can see I had a LOT of breakables plus a piano,  glass topped table,  and enough furniture to fill the house,  and we had VERY LITTLE breakage or damage -- no theft.....We used Catalina Bermudez of Ecuador Shipping and she did a great job....

      www.ecuadorshipping.com

Of course there are annoying little delays and rules that make no sense,  but I would do it over again without any hesitation,  and I wouldn't consider anyone other than Caty to help us.....

Linens (especially towels) are not the quality we have in the states,  box springs are not used,  only mattresses,  and upholstered furniture usually has  no  springs....a slab of wood with cushions on top - not very comfortable,  and the size and scale is very masculine.  Small appliances are about double the price here,  if not more,  so bring your toaster,  blender,  iron,  toaster oven,  microwave, coffee maker,  and VACUUM cleaner!

I have read the blogs about leaving everything behind and starting over fresh being so liberating.....that's not me....I don't want to spend months on end looking for furniture and having things made so it takes a year or more to be comfortable in your home.....but if that's what you want you can certainly do that here......My feeling is to bring your stuff and sell or give away what you don't want or need here.....that way  you'll  have no regrets about leaving some treasure......I think it's hard enough to relocate to a new country where life is so new and different -- being surrounded by your old things is comforting and helps with the adjustment.

My husband and I are fluent in Spanish and we had one foreign living experience under our belts.....many  years ago when our daughters were in grade school, we moved to Mexico City for 4 years,  so we knew what to expect.....We loved Mexico,  and we love Cuenca,  but it's NOT THE USA....if you don't like change you may not be happy here....we know how much better off we are here,  we like change,  and feel very lucky that the Lord showed us Cuenca....