Ecuador? Please tell me about it!?

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Lestat

Well, life here is no more different than on any other Latin American country: political problems, conspiracy, economic problems, insecurity, etc. The political situation is a little delicate here now since we are creating a new constitution, everything her is too controversial because the president is making a lot of problems for implementing his socialist reforms which some are incredibly outrageous and controversial (pro centralism and a large increase in taxes, some of them would allow the government to get up to 70% of what you inherit and) but he has a LOT of supporters, so he can pretty much do what he wants if nobody sets some limits for him. I live in Guayaquil, which has received a lot of attacks from the president for the simple fact of him not being so popular here. The worst thing is that he is from Guayaquil and is making everybody here hate him. So as you can see, the political situation is seriously messed up.
The banking situation here has calmed a little bit, we do not want to have another baking crisis as the one we had at the end of the 90's, there are still some problems, but luckily not as the ones we had before.
The climate is different according to the region (Ecuador has three main: The Coast, The highlands and the Amazons). The weather in the coast is generally hot, these days its been hot as hell (more than 30 degrees) and is not raining as much as it would normally do (blame global warming). The temperature in the highlands is generally cold, these days very cold as Iâ€™ve heard (between 5 and 10 degrees in Quito).
We have here any channel you want if you have cable or satellite; the biggest cable company here (TVCABLE) provides a LOT of channels from around the world, Nickelodeon is one of them. You can watch whatever you want here if you can afford it.
Someone mentioned the crime problems here in Guayaquil. Yes, we have problems, but we are working on them, the streets are much safer now than they were 10 years ago. Although it is a big problem, it is not as big as many people say, is not as if the entire city is a kill zone where you get robbed every block; there are safe parts and unsafe parts. New York is much more dangerous, all of my friends who have gone there say that. You just must follow the these basic rules: always travel in groups with someone who knows the city, always keep your stuff with you and if you carry bags keep an eye on them, be extra careful on nights and do not go everywhere showing a lot of money or an expensive thing; that attracts thieves and muggers everywhere. If you are careful and know how to move in the city, nothing will normally happen to you. I've only being robbed on the streets once, and it was because I was careless and because of bad luck, my neighborhood is virtually safe and Iâ€™ve never thought I could be robbed where I was robbed. Crime is common in every big city of third world countries, believe me, there are more dangerous cities than Guayaquil.
Ecuador is a beautiful country despite all our political problems. Guayaquil is a good place to visit, we have a great night life, there are lots of beautiful places to visit, there are tons of things to buy in either small shops on the streets or in one of the many malls the city has, and people here are normally nice. Ecuador also has great beaches, lots of historic towns(Cuenca is a must see), volcanoes and mountains to climb (BaÃ±os is very famous and even has hotsprings), and some of the most unique animals in the world. Thereâ€™s a surprising amount of diversity that can be found here even though it is a small country.

omarchavezmcse

You can get Nickelodeon, Sci-Fi. MTV, CNN and all channels in English via Satellite TV (Dish Network, EchoStar and others).

Climate is a little in the hot side (think Arizona/California) and lifestyle depends on the city you'll move to. Quito is a big city, Cuenca is a small colonial city and there are others, tell us where you'll be living at and I can be more specific about banks and life in general there.

needlewings

I was just researching it myself. It seems the climate is comfortable all year round because of being near the equator. They do not have to have air conditioning or heat! More like spring type weather year round. They have great TV and broadband which I was surprised. I don't know about specific channels like what your are asking but I know they have CNN and a broad range of channels for less than $50 a month. Besides Spanish, there are is a lot of English spoken there. They are always looking for teachers teaching English as a second language, however the pay isn't that great and would be like getting $3-$5 and hour. Cost of living is affordable. You could find a 3 bedroom house with a guest house for around $34,000 and you could live like a king for a house around $250,000. You could easily live on about $1,000. a month. Have a maid, gardner, etc. Get your nails done for about $3.00. To stay in a hotel, would be anywhere from $30. for a modest one and a really nice one for about $60. a night. Here is some good information for you too on a lot more about living, obtaining employment, etc. http://www.goecuador.com/living-ecuador/index.html

none

I went through guayaquil on the way to the Galapagos islands. The crime was so bad, they told us not to leave the hotel. We did anyway, just to go to a market. We saw the manager toting a huge gun. Scary place.

Free-d

I can only answer this question with a question; your question unfortunately.

Can you get channels there like Nickleodeon and the Sci-Fi channel?

That about sums up the interest you have capped on anyone answering on this topic.

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