Are you ready? I am.
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| Octopus Garden - Courtesy of Divetime.com |
"I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus's garden in the shade
I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus's garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade
We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus's garden near a cave
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| My Octopus Garden |
We would sing and dance around
Because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade
We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
(Lies beneath the ocean waves)
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they're happy and they're safe
(Happy and they're safe)
We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden with you
In an octopus's garden with you
In an octopus's garden with you"
by Richard Starkey/Ringo Starr
A lot has happened in the past ten days. So much that my husband and I have not had time to write anything new for our blog.
I guess you could say we have transitioned into the next phase of our adventure in Ecuador. Well, that would not be an accurate statement. "You" are not saying anything about it. I am.
The problem I face is this. I do not have time to write because we are so busy. But because we are so busy, I have a lot to write about.
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| High Tide. Very High Tide. |
I am one of those "list" people. Someone who is forever mentally organizing all those little bits of shiny junk that are swirling around in my head. All the events, sights, sounds, people, places, sea turtles, birds, cats, paperwork, trees, sea turtle nests, flowers, shells, bands, waves, sunrises, immigration, sunsets, fruits, vegetables, bicycles, keys, cars, cedulas, stores, hats, lamps, driftwood, 12-IX tourist visa, pottery, garbage, gardens, bingo, buses, houses, rain, attorney, shacks, walls, bits of rope, more bits of rope, passports, sea glass, dead fish, live fish, music, waves, sand, and as much as I have tried to ignore them - small colorful rocks.
Every day, for just a moment, panic sets in as I try to find one of my four notebooks so I can make my lists. Lists of things to remember for some future reference that I may or may not remember why. My husband is kind when he blogs about my lists, He praises me for taking "copious notes". Though, on some level it must be annoying to him. It is annoying to me. Especially when I cannot find one of my four identical spiral notebooks to write those copious notes.
Then there are the digital photos to sort through. Literally thousands of them. We are not crazy picture-takers by nature.
I am an amateur photographer relegated to using the camera on my Motorola Droid cell phone. Sometimes it takes 30 or 50 shots on a camera phone to get 2 or 3 decent pictures.
All my SLRs are carefully packed in a bin, stored at my mother's house in Florida. I would love to have them even though I know I would get very little use out of them. Film is expensive. Developing film is expensive. Finding someone skilled to develop my film is difficult at best. I could set up a dark room and do it myself. I certainly have the space in our house. What I do not have is the equipment - here.
You guessed it. Packed away in a bin in Florida.
I am not complaining. My husband does not have any of his bass guitars, amps, recording equipment. They are not even packed in a bin in Florida. They are in the hands of some other musicians. Maybe in Florida. Maybe not.
So this Raven (me) collects her bits of shiny junk and artistically (in her mind) arranges them around the house. The need to create was so strong yesterday, that she built a very tiny bench - do not laugh - for shells.
She built it out of pieces of wood that had washed on the shore of the beach in Crucita. Okay so the junk does not have to be shiny for a Raven to pick it up. Just interesting in some way.
"Why is a Raven like a writing desk? I don't know."
Right now a Raven is more like an Octopus. At least in the collecting of shiny bits of junk and bringing it home.
None of this is the reason we have been busy.
It is impossible for two people who have worked all their lives to go somewhere and do absolutely nothing. Maybe for the first few weeks.
After that, the mind starts to go a little numb and I can actually feel the cogs breaking away from the gears. I have the added disadvantage of not being able to do very much physically.
Writing this blog has been great for both of us. We have a creative outlet. We think the readers enjoy the stories, and hopefully we are providing helpful information for anyone who wants to visit or live in Ecuador.
Enter a new purpose.
Our friend Tamy has started a company of her own. She works hard and is actually well on her way to having a successful business. She has clients. Probably more than she thought she would have at this early stage. Tamy is very smart and knows that if she wants to consistently reach her target audience, she has to do some marketing. She has already created a branding logo - which is fabulous. She is now working on her website.
Enter Tamera and Jason.
Tamy has hired a web designer, but she has to provide him with content, layout, and the mechanics of how she wants her website to work. She is bi-lingual and her English is excellent. However, as we have discovered while learning Spanish, everything does NOT translate. I will give you an example.
Garage (garaje in Spanish). Seems simple enough. Except that a "garage" in the United States is, well, a garage. It has a roof, walls, a roll up door and sometimes a window or two. The definition of a "garaje" is a private parking space, where a vehicle is stored. In Ecuador that means a secured parking lot or driveway.
Our property has a garaje. There is an eight foot high locked gate to secure the garaje. If we ever buy a car or motorcycle, we can park it in our garaje and it will be safe.
Make no mistake. It is not a garage. An American will see the word "garage" and think what we thought when we first read the description of our property in Crucita.
Translation.
I will give you another example.
We saw a sign today that read: "Deposito basura el receptaculo. Cuide el medio ambiente." We know enough Spanish to understand that the first sentence stated, "put your trash in the receptacle". I did not even read the second sentence. The first one was instruction enough for me. Then Jason says, "what does ambiente mean?".
I had no idea. If I had to guess I would say, "ambient". I turn on my cell phone to translate. Sure enough. It means ambient. What does ambient have to do with trash? I am not sure. I translate "Cuide". It means "care". I translate "el medio". It means "the middle".
Put them all together and you get, "Care the middle ambient". That has to be wrong. It does not even make sense.
It is that translation thing again.
I type the entire sentence into the translator. "Care for the environment." That makes sense.
As a favor for our new friends, Tamy & Jared, we are helping her to create her website content. What else do we have to do?! My husband Jason is the writer of the family. I review content and agonize over sentence structure, word placement, etc. He and I do not always agree. We will leave it at that. All in all we really are enjoying the process; and helping our friends create a website North Americans will understand.
The best part is that we are learning from each other. Our Spanish is getting better every day. It has to. We are going to really need it on Monday.
When the tides are high, and El Nino is in effect, the landscape at the beach changes drastically. Devastatingly is a better word.
This is sort of true of our life right now.
Full Moon. Check.
El Nino. Check.
Extremely High Tides. Check.
Water crashing over the Malecon every day. Check.
FBI Background checks needed for Resident Visas. No Check.
FBI Background checks first promised in 8 weeks; then 10-13 weeks. Still No Check.
Waves crashing over the Malecon. Huge rocks washing away with the tide. Things washing ashore, then being dragged back out to sea. Workers scrambling to rebuild retaining walls to keep the "cliff houses" from disappearing. Water always wins.
No swimming against the tide. No fighting a run-out. You have to figure out how to work with the water. Water always wins.
For those of you who are thinking about obtaining your Resident Visa in Ecuador, you must read Paperwork, Paperwork and More Paperwork. Then add this piece of information.
The turnaround time to receive your FBI Background Checks has increased three times since we started the process last year. We should have received ours last week according the latest FBI estimate. When they did not arrive, I called the FBI. Yes, you can call the FBI. My mother advised me to "light a fire under them". Needless to say I did NOT take her advice. Remember. Water always wins. Work with the water.
Our new estimate for receiving the FBI background checks is around the first week of March. Our current 90 day T-3 Tourist Visa expires at the end of February. I knew that there was a possibility that we would not receive our Resident Visas prior to our Tourist Visa expiration date.
I set aside the contingency money to cover the cost of obtaining the 12-IX Tourist Visa that allows us an additional 90 days to stay in the country while we wait for our Resident Visas to be processed.
What I did not count on was that in 2016 the cost of those 12-IX Tourist Visas increased significantly. I also had not counted on the FBI taking so long to process our requests for background checks. By the way the customer service agent at the FBI office said, and I quote, "we are just opening September 2015 mail now". Okay I understand they are busy.
The final wave over the Malecon is that our Immigration Attorney can not file any of our documents for the Resident Visas until those FBI background checks arrive.
Monday. Manta Monday.
We have spent the past few days organizing and copying the necessary documents to apply for our 12-IX Tourist Visas. Our attorney is taking us to the town of Manta on Monday, so we can go to the Ecuadorian Immigration Office (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility). There we will fill out the necessary forms (with the help of our attorney), have our photos taken, then provide them with copies of our passports, the T-3 stamp on our passports, a financial statement, state background checks (thankfully we had those prior to arriving in Ecuador).
We opted for paying our attorney to assist us with this process, otherwise we would have to go to the Immigration Office in Manta two or three times, and we would have to rely on my limited Spanish vocabulary when speaking to the immigration officials.
We only have to go Manta one time with our attorney. The attorney will handle the rest for us.
I am very thankful we have an attorney.
You could choose to do all this on your own, but I would not advise it.
The forms have to be filled out in Spanish. The documents have to be translated into Spanish. Manta is 40 km away.
Three trips to an Immigration Office in Manta is not my idea of fun. One trip is going to be difficult enough given my limited Spanish. Our attorney does not speak English. I will do my best to communicate with him in Spanish.
I think it is time to take a break and go in search of a few more shiny bits of junk for my Octopus Garden. The tide is low right now. But not for long.
Remember. Water always wins.
 |
| South Crucita Beach at the Cliffs |
I am an amateur photographer relegated to using the camera on my Motorola Droid cell phone. Sometimes it takes 30 or 50 shots on a camera phone to get 2 or 3 decent pictures.
All my SLRs are carefully packed in a bin, stored at my mother's house in Florida. I would love to have them even though I know I would get very little use out of them. Film is expensive. Developing film is expensive. Finding someone skilled to develop my film is difficult at best. I could set up a dark room and do it myself. I certainly have the space in our house. What I do not have is the equipment - here.
You guessed it. Packed away in a bin in Florida.
I am not complaining. My husband does not have any of his bass guitars, amps, recording equipment. They are not even packed in a bin in Florida. They are in the hands of some other musicians. Maybe in Florida. Maybe not.
 |
| I cannot bring this home? |
So this Raven (me) collects her bits of shiny junk and artistically (in her mind) arranges them around the house. The need to create was so strong yesterday, that she built a very tiny bench - do not laugh - for shells.
She built it out of pieces of wood that had washed on the shore of the beach in Crucita. Okay so the junk does not have to be shiny for a Raven to pick it up. Just interesting in some way.
"Why is a Raven like a writing desk? I don't know."
Right now a Raven is more like an Octopus. At least in the collecting of shiny bits of junk and bringing it home.
None of this is the reason we have been busy.
It is impossible for two people who have worked all their lives to go somewhere and do absolutely nothing. Maybe for the first few weeks.
After that, the mind starts to go a little numb and I can actually feel the cogs breaking away from the gears. I have the added disadvantage of not being able to do very much physically.
Writing this blog has been great for both of us. We have a creative outlet. We think the readers enjoy the stories, and hopefully we are providing helpful information for anyone who wants to visit or live in Ecuador.
 |
| Houses on the Cliff |
Enter a new purpose.
Our friend Tamy has started a company of her own. She works hard and is actually well on her way to having a successful business. She has clients. Probably more than she thought she would have at this early stage. Tamy is very smart and knows that if she wants to consistently reach her target audience, she has to do some marketing. She has already created a branding logo - which is fabulous. She is now working on her website.
Enter Tamera and Jason.
 |
| Finders Keepers |
Garage (garaje in Spanish). Seems simple enough. Except that a "garage" in the United States is, well, a garage. It has a roof, walls, a roll up door and sometimes a window or two. The definition of a "garaje" is a private parking space, where a vehicle is stored. In Ecuador that means a secured parking lot or driveway.
Our property has a garaje. There is an eight foot high locked gate to secure the garaje. If we ever buy a car or motorcycle, we can park it in our garaje and it will be safe.
Make no mistake. It is not a garage. An American will see the word "garage" and think what we thought when we first read the description of our property in Crucita.
Translation.
I will give you another example.
 |
| Shiny Beach Stuff |
I had no idea. If I had to guess I would say, "ambient". I turn on my cell phone to translate. Sure enough. It means ambient. What does ambient have to do with trash? I am not sure. I translate "Cuide". It means "care". I translate "el medio". It means "the middle".
Put them all together and you get, "Care the middle ambient". That has to be wrong. It does not even make sense.
It is that translation thing again.
I type the entire sentence into the translator. "Care for the environment." That makes sense.
As a favor for our new friends, Tamy & Jared, we are helping her to create her website content. What else do we have to do?! My husband Jason is the writer of the family. I review content and agonize over sentence structure, word placement, etc. He and I do not always agree. We will leave it at that. All in all we really are enjoying the process; and helping our friends create a website North Americans will understand.
 |
| T-3 Passport Stamp |
The best part is that we are learning from each other. Our Spanish is getting better every day. It has to. We are going to really need it on Monday.
When the tides are high, and El Nino is in effect, the landscape at the beach changes drastically. Devastatingly is a better word.
This is sort of true of our life right now.
Full Moon. Check.
El Nino. Check.
Extremely High Tides. Check.
Water crashing over the Malecon every day. Check.
FBI Background checks needed for Resident Visas. No Check.
FBI Background checks first promised in 8 weeks; then 10-13 weeks. Still No Check.
Waves crashing over the Malecon. Huge rocks washing away with the tide. Things washing ashore, then being dragged back out to sea. Workers scrambling to rebuild retaining walls to keep the "cliff houses" from disappearing. Water always wins.
No swimming against the tide. No fighting a run-out. You have to figure out how to work with the water. Water always wins.
 |
| Tiny Shell Bench |
The turnaround time to receive your FBI Background Checks has increased three times since we started the process last year. We should have received ours last week according the latest FBI estimate. When they did not arrive, I called the FBI. Yes, you can call the FBI. My mother advised me to "light a fire under them". Needless to say I did NOT take her advice. Remember. Water always wins. Work with the water.
 |
| Water Over the Malecon. Water Always Wins. |
I set aside the contingency money to cover the cost of obtaining the 12-IX Tourist Visa that allows us an additional 90 days to stay in the country while we wait for our Resident Visas to be processed.
What I did not count on was that in 2016 the cost of those 12-IX Tourist Visas increased significantly. I also had not counted on the FBI taking so long to process our requests for background checks. By the way the customer service agent at the FBI office said, and I quote, "we are just opening September 2015 mail now". Okay I understand they are busy.
The final wave over the Malecon is that our Immigration Attorney can not file any of our documents for the Resident Visas until those FBI background checks arrive.
Monday. Manta Monday.
 |
| Two of my very important notebooks! |
We have spent the past few days organizing and copying the necessary documents to apply for our 12-IX Tourist Visas. Our attorney is taking us to the town of Manta on Monday, so we can go to the Ecuadorian Immigration Office (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility). There we will fill out the necessary forms (with the help of our attorney), have our photos taken, then provide them with copies of our passports, the T-3 stamp on our passports, a financial statement, state background checks (thankfully we had those prior to arriving in Ecuador).
We opted for paying our attorney to assist us with this process, otherwise we would have to go to the Immigration Office in Manta two or three times, and we would have to rely on my limited Spanish vocabulary when speaking to the immigration officials.
We only have to go Manta one time with our attorney. The attorney will handle the rest for us.
I am very thankful we have an attorney.
 |
| My people better get this Visa thing fixed. |
The forms have to be filled out in Spanish. The documents have to be translated into Spanish. Manta is 40 km away.
Three trips to an Immigration Office in Manta is not my idea of fun. One trip is going to be difficult enough given my limited Spanish. Our attorney does not speak English. I will do my best to communicate with him in Spanish.
I think it is time to take a break and go in search of a few more shiny bits of junk for my Octopus Garden. The tide is low right now. But not for long.
Remember. Water always wins.
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