During the last three months, we spent two weeks in the capital city of Quito, Ecuador (population of 2 million) and ten weeks in Cuenca (population of 500,000), Ecuador’s third largest city.

We really enjoyed our time and the people we met in Ecuador and have a few cheers and jeers to share.

After our time in Colombia, we decided to change our travel plans a bit while in Ecuador. We wanted to interact more regularly with English speaking travelers in Ecuador and to take our Spanish classes in an established school so that we could meet more people.

In Colombia, we spent our time with three friends, Angela, Chris, and Doug, but we didn’t meet many other Americans and our Spanish classes were one on one individual classes, so we didn’t meet other students. For six months we spent all our time together, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and we felt that we needed a bit more interaction with other English speakers in Ecuador. As much as we wanted to befriend locals, we found it difficult to meet and interact with Spanish speakers because they need to have the time and be patient enough to interact with people who speak their language haltingly.

Travel blogs are filled with stories of chance encounters in subways and at cafés leading to experiences with locals and their families. While these are great stories, they create a romantic picture that makes people think that all travel leads to these experiences. We commonly read about travelers who plan to have local experiences and hope to meet locals in the next town or country. However, because we stay in Airbnb apartments (at our age we need privacy and quiet) we don’t meet other travelers like we would if we stayed in hostels.

Of course, locals want to show the best their country has to offer, so they give advice and directions. But that is different than being brought into their personal space. Bonding while ordering coffee with a barista is different than being asked if you want to join the family for dinner on Sunday.

While in Colombia, we tried a few methods to meet locals. We went to several Meetup.com events and to a few language exchanges where locals meet with English speakers and practice English. These events didn’t lead to many friendships, so we decided to meet more Americans in Ecuador by contacting them in Facebook expat groups and by going to more English-speaking events.

So, our first day in Cuenca we met with an American at a restaurant popular with expats and met four Americans living there. We also signed up for group classes at a Spanish school. By being more proactive in our actions to meet English speakers, we did meet many Americans during our 10 weeks in Cuenca. We also participated in several tours of nearby towns, hot springs, hikes in the national park with other students from our school. Our interaction with English speakers helped us to feel that we were a part of Cuenca and to enjoy restaurants and tourist destinations with others.

Expats in Cuenca

Cuenca is the smallest city we have visited so far and a popular destination for American retirees. About 1% of the Cuenca population is American expats. Some expats have lived in Cuenca 10 years and live very comfortable lives. They like the small-town feel of Cuenca and they welcomed us as soon as we arrived.

It is easy to adapt to life in Cuenca. Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar so there is no conversion or exchange of money. You can live here without really knowing Spanish. It is easy to find doctors and dentists who speak English. The employees of many restaurants and businesses speak English. In fact, quite a few Americans have started their own businesses in Cuenca.

Noise in Cuenca: The Beat Goes On

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head and you repeat it over and over and over again? Well, there is a song in Cuenca that stuck in our heads—It was the Gas song of Cuenca. Cuenca does not have gas lines into houses, apartments, and buildings and therefore, gas is delivered by propane tanks.

Trucks with filled propane tanks drive up and down the streets and any person needing gas flags them down. The trucks constantly played the Gas Song over the loudspeaker attached to the truck and every day, all day long trucks drove up and down the streets playing the Gas Song.

High-Quality Spanish Schools

While in Cuenca, we attended two different Spanish Schools which both were very good. The schools were more than just classrooms, they also provided tours around Cuenca as well as demonstrating the traditional food and drinks of Ecuador. At Simon Bolivar Spanish School, where the teachers and staff were excellent, we participated in cooking classes on Thursday evenings and cocktail classes on Wednesdays. We learned to make some traditional food of Ecuador such as Ceviche, Patacones, Llapingachos, and Moto Pillo and well as several local cocktails.

Upon completion of our classes, we had a brief graduation ceremony. We are proud to say that we finished “first” in our individual classes of one. Hats off to our wonderful, patient instructors.

Ecuador is a beautiful county full of waterfalls, the Andes, and beautiful mountain streams. The people are very accepting of Americans tourists who struggle with Spanish and they worked hard to make us feel accepted. We will always have a soft spot for Ecuadorians and hope to return some day. But for now, there are too many other countries to explore and we are off to Peru.