Las Cabras Viejas

Finally - some linear progress. We have been in Ecuador almost 3 months and have been working on visa paperwork for nearly 5 months in total. Our passports have been in Quito at the Immigration office for the last 3 weeks, our T-3 visas are expired  and no one knows when or if we will ever see our passports again. So where is the progress ? Well, we have been continuiously making circular ( chasing our tails ) progress, taking care of setting up internet, water and electric utilities, direct t.v., only to have to redo the entire process 30 days later. We are approaching the 90 day mark and we are having to redo it all again. I guess because we don't have our paperwork ( cedula and censo ) they don't take us seriously. It really doesn't matter, we knew coming into this country there was a lot of political and public hijinks, we were hoping for the best.

This is a picture of the linear (foward) progress. I finally found some land that had a legally clear title, water rights in writing, legal access and electricity on the property. The process wasn't exactly in a straight line, but of course I am not legal here, so I had to get a Ecuadorian to buy it on my behalf. During the closing process it became clear the Ecuadorians don't like gringos buy property outside the designated gringo areas. I've been told to let a Ecuadorian handle any problems from the neighbors - I got the message - there is only 1 neighbor who is over a half mile away and there is no one else in the entire valley. It is a nice property with frontage on the Pan American Highway and the lawyer who closed on the purchase said I doubled my money the day I paid for it.

Barb and I will go to the canton ( county ) of Nabon to register the property day after tomorrow, then we'll see how things go.