Travel

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Moving to Ecuador

I’m moving to Ecuador in January.

My wife Kelsey volunteered for OSSO (http://orphanagesupport.org) in 2004 before we were married. When I came back from Fiji, she took me there for Christmas to play Santa Claus. After we were married we moved to Ecuador for 6 months in 2007. She got pregnant, we came back to Seattle and had two kids. Now we’re going back.

Besides getting rid of all my stuff (wanna buy a surf board or guitar?) I need to buy more hardware – a new laptop, Android phone & tablet for development (just got an iPhone & iMac.) I’m going to try to get monitors there.

I’m going to be looking for telecommute work & test consulting through my company, One Shore. I’m also going to be working on my test management tool, QA Site, and perhaps some other projects. Kelsey will be watching the kids, and we will try to do what we can to help OSSO & the orphanages in Cuenca, Ecuador.

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Cuenca, Ecuador

On October 14th, we boarded the plane to Ecuador. We actually made it there that night. Four weeks, minus two days later, we’ve settled in to an apartment. Actually, we’ve been here two weeks, but decided yesterday to stay, since the house we wanted isn’t done yet, and we hope to save on furniture. This place is $500/month, that one only $300. It was nicer and larger and closer to Kelsey’s friends, but unfurnished. And here, we have a really great view. The image at the top of the page is out of our sala ventana at night.

That’s all I’ve got so far. Kelsey has kept a more faithful log of our adventures at http://kelseyandaaron.blogspot.com

We’re just settling in now, and all we really need is a vaccum cleaner (and to get rid of the mysterious smell wafting up from somewhere below our front baño. I’ve been working website updates for DonLeeArt.com and trying to transfer his domain. Also, I’ve been working on plans for my business, One Shore.

We have passable free wifi internet access from the park two blocks away. The radio tower para la izquierda del Cathedral is Etapa, the phone company, which provides the gratis connection. It’s frustrating sometimes, so I might end up paying for some. Downloads and Skype are still dicey, but using my hacked Linksys WRT54G as a client (it has better antennas then our crappy Gateway computers) helps.

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Back from honeymoon

It was great.  Loved Greece.  The views on Santorini, swimming in Ammoudi, the food, the cave pool in our room (1 night at 500 euros), renting a scooter on Naxos, the unfinished resort that we will complete and open someday,  seasickness on the ferry in rough seas due to high winds after opressive heat and dead calm, dragging the mattress downstairs to sleep on the floor, getting lost on the main roads (not in the narrow, windy walkways) in Mykonos.

And Paris was nice too.  We saw all the sights, but didn’t get to the top of the Eiffel tower.

It’s hard to go back to work, and I want to go to work for myself.

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Plans for Greece

First evening in Athens. Then fly or fast catamaran to Santorini. When we get bored there, work our way back on the ferries. Ios, Paros, Naxos, Mykonos, Tinos. I’m thinking Naxos or Tinos.

I’ve already pre-judged Mykonos. It’s packed with drunks, gays, and cruise ships and decorated with “authentically restored” imitation windmills.

And Paros is the new Mykonos. I don’t think Ios has the cruise ships or the gay scene. I wouln’t mind stopping on Mykonos to see the ruins in Delos, but it’ll probably be a line like Disneyland. The best time to see archeology is the off season. Maybe you can get a ride from Tinos to Delos.

I’m sure there’s a real windmill in Greece somewhere, but probably even the locals don’t remember where it is. Silly British tourists, Cervantes never lived in Greece.

It’s easy to confuse it with Spain if you think “it’s that place where they have sunshine.” Seattleites are probably just as susceptible if less literary.

I’m going to open up a whitewash store in Greece.