Sunday, September 22, 2013

Month 3: A month of paperwork!

We started this month with another trip to Machala (near the coast); 5.30hours drive, and this time we decided to stay for the night.
It was a wise decision as when we arrived to the minister around noon, they told us that we wouldn't be able to finish the application because they needed to cut the electric system off for the afternoon!
So we needed to come back the day after at 8:30am; We were the first here and it took us about 2 hours to make the applications (for the investor visa) for the 4 of us; Unfortunately we were missing some papers again but they gently accepted to take our application and we had to send them the missing papers.
To obtain those papers was another story! and they added 2 more by email the week after!

The Hotel in Machala was descent but very noisy like the city itself!
Driver have they hands on the honk!

Back home, it took us few weeks to get all the papers; We needed to go back few time in Loja (1 hour drive) in different buildings to get them; Some required a week to make; for 2 of them we were lucky to meet a worker who help us go through all the buildings, desks, official papers, line up and more otherwise I wonder if we were able to get them!... I am grateful to have met this person!.

So, now we have to wait few weeks (maybe a month) to get an answer from the Minister in Machala to have our application accepted.

This is a long and difficult process that we didn't imagine like that! It required a lot of patience, road trips and time...

On another side, we were working on the papers to get our container from Vancouver.
And they asked for the immigrant visa that we are waiting for!
Another option was to hold a certain amount of money at the bank to clear the custom tax if necessary and we will have 180 days to show the visa to get the money back!
We try to do this option to accelerate the process, but it didn't work as we expected!
The bank wasn't familiar with this procedure and we needed to go back at least 6 time to get it; to finally give up on it because they wanted us to make a false declaration about our marital status!

But we are getting there!.

In the garden, we had some friends who gave us some cherry tomatoes, kale and Chinese cabbage as a welcome gift (how sweet!) and we bought other flowers and ornamental plants and palm trees.

The green house is finished (some opening need to be fixed); and we need to work inside and get some tomatoes and cucumber plants.


We also harvested the very first fruits in our garden (so exciting!), they were berries; actually called 'Morera". = Mulberries and are very delicate.



And our very first delicious strawberry.
We already have some citrus on some trees and everything is growing pretty fast!

The weather is really like Spring all the time! Some days are pretty windy and it's cooler in the morning and evening. We had few showers and they are welcome!.

Already 90 days that we arrived! Time goes fast! and we are glad to have made the 180 days visa on the consulate of Ecuador recommendation!

It was also the month of my Birthday; I got a pretty flower bouquet;
Flowers are one of the export products from Ecuador; they are pretty cheap compare to US and Canada.
This bouquet did cost only $3.50!

We also hunted down for a car and this was interesting too; As all the cars are imported, they only have few in stock and they don't have all the models available; So we ordered one and it must be here soon... 
Check next month for this update!.

So, here is a little diorama with some pictures of our garden (chickpeas, baby tomatoes, fruit trees...) and some stunning views we have all around.
Also the Yucca tree with their beautiful white flowers...



I hope you'll enjoy this update...
Thank you for stopping by.