Country Archive
At home in Ecuador: How Mike Sager's inner gypsy led him to Darwin's Paradise
Date: 06/01/2007
A motorcycle-loving, rock-n-rolling free spirit…and honorary Ecuadorian. That about sums up Mike Sager, an expat whose tale began some 10 years ago, in his hometown of Huntington Beach, California. It was from here that Mike embarked on a quest-to forge a new life far from the masses that had crowded once-verdant Orange County.
Read OnMost IL Readers Move to This Perfect Valley
Date: 05/14/2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Vilcabamba, Ecuador
What a sight: a beautiful, sun-bathed valley stretching off into the distance, surrounded by magnificent mountain peaks as far as we could see. The giant geological formation Mandango overlooks the valley, and a sparkling river crashes toward the Pacific. Off in the distance, tucked away at a perfect 5,000 feet, sits the tiny village of Vilcabamba.
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Base Camp, Cotopaxi
Date: 03/22/2007Said to originally be the home of a knight and his 13-year-old wife, the hacienda is located a few miles from Mt. Cotopaxi, which, at almost 20,000 feet, is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.
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That $50,000 Beach Home IS Out There…
Date: 03/20/2007The coast in Ecuador is without a doubt, the most overlooked and undervalued coast left in the Americas.
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Turn Your Empty Suitcase Into Cash
Date: 03/13/2007You can make fantastic profits from global treasure-hunting…and Blue Abele, an attendee at IL’s first Import-Export Workshop last year, is proving it.
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The Best Damn Fishing in the World
Date: 03/06/2007It was 1957 or 1958--Calderon isn’t sure which--when Hemingway and two friends came to Salinas to fish.
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Ecuador's sleepy Pacific coast-come here to honeymoon, write a novel, or die happy
Date: 03/01/2007
"Agua, aguita! Helados, heladitos!" cry the food vendors on the bus. "Papas, papitas!"
Ecuadorians love diminutives. However, there's nothing diminutive about our bus driver and his assistant. They are big boys and they drive the ancient bus over the potholed road at top speed. We are now watching them eat meat stew at a dusty road-side canteen, where they've taken an unannounced break. Across the road, I spy the local government house of Manabí, in a building not unlike a disused railway station. Next to it is a beauty school, "Always Happy."
Read OnLife in a 17th-century Hacienda
Date: 01/23/2007My favorite place to stay in Ecuador is Hacienda Cusín.
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