From Ecuador to the United States - Overmans Home for Christmas

Dear Readers of Our Blog.

After surviving a devastating earthquake in Ecuador, we desperately want to go to see our family and friends for Christmas back home in the United States.  We have set up a GoFundMe account to try to achieve that goal. 

Last year we decided to move to the coast of Ecuador. This decision was reached after a lot of research and soul searching about what and where our lives needed to be. We chose the small fishing village of Crucita Ecuador, in the Manabi province. There is no mail delivery in Crucita. No large stores.  No malls.  The electricity goes out a lot.  But the land and the people are beautiful.  It is a simple life.  We were very happy.  

On April 16th, at about 7:00 pm we were watching a movie when we heard a loud boom, as if someone had just dropped 20 ton boulder next to our house. Then the house began to violently shake back and forth, as the booming sound increased.  I did not even realize I had fallen to ground when I heard my husband Jason yell, we have to get out of here, it's an earthquake.  I know I was in shock.  I also know that in a split second I had to make the decision to leave my cats and run out of the house as quickly as possible.  

We were safe for the moment.  We found some of our friends/neighbors.  They were safe too.  We later found out that one of our neighbors who we did not know personally, had been struck fatally by falling debris. 

The next few days were a total blur.  More earthquakes occurred.  No water.  No electricity.  No phones. No place to buy food.  We had no way to contact our family back in the United States to let them know we were okay.  We have friends in Portoviejo. We had no way to know if they were okay. Portoviejo is where we go to shop for food and supplies.  As with many of the roads and highways, the road to Portoviejo was collapsed.  A car had fallen into it.  I do not even know if the people survived.  I hope that they are okay. 

El Centro Portoviejo - where we used to shop

We are basically cut off from the surrounding towns.  Even if we can get to them, the places where we shopped are gone.  There are plenty of tiendas (little stores) here in Crucita and they eventually began to open.  They run out of items quickly. Cat food is nearly impossible to find.  When we do, it is almost $3 for a 2 cup bag of food. We have four cats.  

We are getting by as best as we can.  It is costing us more to live here right now. The added expenses are making things difficult. I know things will get better, as things do after a natural disaster. I just do not know when.  

The road to Portoviejo from our village Crucita.

What I do know is that we are barely getting by right now.  There is no way we can afford to fly home to the United States in December.  The prices of airline tickets continue to rise.  The availability of tickets continue to decrease.  If we are not able to buy tickets in the next month or two, we will not be able to see our family and friends in December. This will be equally devastating for us and for our family.  We cannot express how much we miss them.  We know they are missing us and have been so worried about us since the earthquake occurred.  We are hoping to have a happy reunion in December. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.  If you or someone you know can help us make it possible to get back to the United States, by making a donation to GoFundMe, we will not only be grateful, but we promise to show our appreciation for your kindness by paying it forward.  When we are financially able, every penny you donate to us, we will donate to other families in need. 

We thank you for all your support.

A monument to the fisherman of Crucita

Tamera's Take: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Cats, & Things Go Wrong Sometimes

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Tamera's Take is about being here.
Are you ready?  I am.

Listening to "Someone Saved My Life Tonight - by Elton John & Bernie Taupin".  I am listening to this song on Pandora Internet Radio.

Now you are saying to yourself, "I thought she could not listen to Pandora Internet Radio in Ecuador".  

You cannot.  But yet, I am.  More on that later.  Keep reading.

Madman Across the Water - North Crucita Beach

In 1973 the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released.  I was in elementary school.  I fell in love with the song.  I fell in love with the album.  I joined the Elton John Fan Club.  My dad bought the 8-track for me so we could listen to it while riding in our red Chevy C-10 pick up truck.

I do not think my dad was a big fan of Elton John, but he loved music and he knew how much I loved Elton John. For some reason my dad hit the skip track button on more than a few songs.

Elton John-Goodbye Yellow Brick Road-Mercury Records

I would not understand this until much later. Who has not experienced that "ah-ha" moment as an adult.  A year after I got Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, my grandmother (Grammy) asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  I told her I wanted the Caribou album.  I was slightly disappointed when I unwrapped my present and in place of "Caribou" was "Greatest Hits".  Grammy later told me that she could not buy the other album because one of the songs had a bad word in the title.  I will let you figure out what song it was.

What is the point of all this?

Road Signs Are Not Always Familiar

The point is, that because I got Greatest Hits instead of Caribou, I was forced to hear something different and push the envelope a little into unfamiliar territory.  Some songs I liked, some I was not so crazy about.  But I DID get to hear them and make up my own mind.

I have blogged a lot about how swell everything is here. I have posted beautiful pictures to illustrate my point - and maybe to prove that I am not lying.

Friends and family back home keep asking, "do you still like it? is it everything you thought it would be? have the rose colored glasses come off yet?"

I can now honestly say that I never had them on.  At times I wish I had a pair. But that is not me. Never has been.  Never will be.

The remains of the stairs to the Malecon.

One of the reasons I came here was to get away from so many things back home.

To live my life.
To live my life.
To live my life!

There.  I have said it.  The cat is out of the bag.

No one is here to slap a piece of tape across my mouth. No one is here to call my husband on a Sunday morning and threaten him if he does not put a gag order on my comments. My comments.  My opinion. The ones that I was supposed to be entitled to as an American.

The sad part is that other people have so much control. The sadder part is that all that control was not real.  Oh it is real if you want to "be included".  It is real if you want to "fit in". Be told - who to like, what to say, where to go, when to be there.

Do not get me wrong.  We are not perfect.  However a person can only take so much pressure before the world turns at a different speed.  Life looks and feels gray.  It gets easier and easier to become someone you are not.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Yes we have alienated some friends back in the U.S.   Not intentionally.  It is just what happens.  If you are planning to move to a foreign country, be prepared.  Not everyone is going to understand your reasons.  Not everyone is going to be supportive.  Some people are going to forget about you (almost) completely.  But not everyone. That is the good part.  Your true friends will love and support you from afar.  No matter how far.  Those same friends will be there for you if things go all 6's and 7's and you have to abandon your dream, and move back home.

I hope that never happens, but if it does, I know who I can count on.  "They're coming in the morning with the truck to take me home."   In the meantime, maybe some fences can be mended.  I hope so.

Water Pump, Junk and Stuff

Speaking of mending and going all 6's and 7's...things go wrong sometimes - even in paradise.

There are good days and bad.

We have met a lot of people here in Crucita.  Some have become good friends.  Some are acquaintances with the potential of becoming good friends. Some at least know who we are, and now smile and say hello (along with a few other things in Spanish) when we see them.

We feel pretty good about all this.  It does take a bit of work.

For one thing, we are often lost in translation.  When someone says something to me and I have no idea what it was, I do my best to memorize the phrase and look it up as soon as I get home.  Then I make sure I write it down and use that phrase in the future.

Hey it works. As long as you can remember the phrase by the time you get home.

Our Spanish is getting good, but let's face it, we have a lot to learn.  The slang is killing me.  The accents from one town to the next is another nightmare.

A word of warning.  Be very sure what you are saying before you say it.  One misplaced word and you could find that you have just insulted one of your neighbors.

I think we have recently done just that.  We do not know exactly what we said or did but it is obvious that two of our neighbors, Eduardo and Flores, are not very happy with us right now.

We know when it happened.


We know it had something to do with either a fishing net or an invitation to dinner. Since they do not speak English, and our Spanish is not good enough yet, we have not been able to reconstruct the conversations in our heads to figure out what went wrong.

Something is not right here.

Luckily we have had problems with our water pump for a couple of weeks.  Luckily?  Yes.

Most houses have cisterns.  These are tanks that hold water to be used for the house.  Some cisterns are above ground, some cisterns are below ground.

The cisterns above ground are filled by a water truck that makes deliveries during the week.  The cisterns underground are filled through a city water system automatically.

The water is technically potable.  Where the problems come into play is the delivery system of the water.  Basically the underground pipes.  Crucita has been working (at least since we got here) to replace the underground water pipes and the above ground electrical system. All this work has caused a few days without water.  A few days without electricity.  But it is no different than back home.  Maintenance has to be done.  We have learned to handle the inconveniences.  We both have camping skills.  Not to mention a few hurricane experiences.

Anyway.  Back to the water pump.

One of our neighbors, Fernando, happens to be a musician AND a plumber.  Another bonus is that he Ecuadorian and speaks English. Because he is a musician, Fernando and my husband have already become friends.

Fernando is also going to be fixing our water pump on Monday.

This came about with a lot of negotiation between us, our friend Tamy (who is also the property manager), the landlord (who speaks no English), Fernando, and three previous attempts (by our landlord) to fix our water pump without success.

The landlord agreed to let Fernando fix the problem and let us deduct the cost from our rent.

It occurred to us last night that Fernando might be able to help us resolve the faux-pas that we created with our other neighbor, Eduardo.  Since Fernando is Ecuadorian and speaks English, we are going to ask him to go with Jason to meet with our neighbor to translate the conversations. I think it is best if the men handle this.

Cat identity disguised to protect the intelligent.

I hate to sound like a traitor to women, but I would hate more to disrespect traditions and customs.

We are in Ecuador.  Men are the head of the household.  Women are respected but their contributions to the family are different.

I am trying to do a lot of balancing lately. It seems a bit contradictory at times.  But I am doing it all with my eyes wide open and no rose colored glasses.

"I've finally decided my future lies, beyond the Yellow Brick Road."

The "CAT" says that if you buy a U.S. VPN for your laptop, you can access Pandora. Not to mention your bank accounts, IRS, etc.that are blocked by the servers.  It only costs about $40/year for the VPN.   Perfectly legal. 

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Carnival Part One - The Key to any Successful Endeavor is Preparation

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New signage set in the sidewalks.

Well, it has been quite awhile since the last post, welcome posts to new readers from around the world notwithstanding. Needless to say we have been busy.  Busy buying our supplies and making sure we did not run out of anything.  Busy making new friends while exploring and enjoying Carnival.  It was our first ever Carnival celebration and like Ano Nuevos, there are a lot of people coming into our small parish.

Unlike Ano Nuevos there does not seem to be a whole lot of tradition involved.  There is a whole lot of preparation involved though. I know everyone always wants the juicy stuff first but it would be very unfair to forget or gloss over the things Ecuador does to make Carnival possible.

One month prior to Carnival kick off, my wife and I were enjoying a bowl of ceviche on the Malecon.  Pretty normal stuff really.  Then we notice an entourage coming down the street.



You know, the "suits" just as seen all over the world.  You do not see that a lot in Crucita and they might as well have had "POLITICIAN" written on there foreheads. They scurried about taking photographs, scribbling notes in their notebooks, talking loudly and importantly on their cell phones.  All except one.  He was clearly in charge.  His entourage obviously.  The one hombre pointing and telling everyone else what to take photographs of, what to scribble in their notebooks, who to speak with on their cellphones.

Curbs and storm grates are painted.

"That," says the proprietor of Restaurante Motumbo "is the Mayor of Portoviejo."  As he says it the entourage is passing in front of us, snapping pictures of a portion of missing sidewalk claimed by the Pacific.  The Mayor looks up and waves at us. We wave back of course.  "He is here to make sure Crucita is ready for Carnival.  To fix things."

Seems fitting.  For one thing this time of year, December through March (summer), brings the highest tides.  The tides get so high the sea covers the Malecon.  Business owners on the strip clean up the sand and debris every morning but the Pacific does more damage.

Sections of road and sidewalk can disappear overnight.  Large boulders, protecting the Malecon roll out to sea.  The surf is so big it sounds like thunder throughout the night.  Fisherman move their boats across the roads and tie them to buildings to keep them safe.

Paint is naturally sandblasted away.  The salt spray devours metal.The Mayor has his hands full.

A section of road and sidewalk the Pacific ate is repaired.

The next day, work crews start rolling in, CNEL is the power provider here and they do not mess around.  New lines and light poles start going up and their trucks are everywhere.  The Government workers are painting curbs, storm drains, and light poles.  There are also hundreds of volunteers.  Businesses are painting, cleaning up sand, and getting ready in general.  This is a daily occurrence but now their efforts are redoubled.


Over the next few weeks the police presence escalates.  Fire and rescue too.  Life guards are training on the beach.  Medical tents are erected.  Safety is clearly the priority.

A new look for a beachfront nightclub.  Karaoke here! 

Delivery trucks are everywhere.  The tiendas ensuring they have plenty of stock.  Front end loaders run through the streets moving shipped in materials about for repairs.  They also go down every side street, leveling and clearing them.  Any lingering trash or construction debris is removed.

On the north end of the beach a huge stage is erected along with high definition video boards and light shows.  Concerts will be held nightly.

Stage gear.  Could it be?  Yes!  Concert time!

It is becoming obvious this holiday is much bigger than Ano Nuevos.  It is also obvious that Portoviejo knows what they are doing when readying the Parish of Crucita. It seems undeniable that Crucita is the Carnival city of choice for all other parishes of Portoviejo.  The people here know it and they are ready.  The houses are filling up.  The hotels are filling up.  The restaurants, the Malecon, la playa, the bars; all filling up.  The revelers are streaming in.  The music is booming. Four days of Carnival in a place where the bars don't close until 03:00, allegedly.



We are finally here.  The workers have stopped.  It is Friday night and the time has come,  Time to find out what Carnival has in store for us.  Chao!

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