What will we do?

Many have wondered what exactly we will do living in Ecuador, the short answer...whatever we want! But really, besides walks on the beach, hikes in the hills, riding our bikes, shopping the small tiendas (mom and pop store) and the mercados ( think farmers market), bus trips to the larger city 30 miles away ( for visa stuff, and bigger grocery store, sightseeing) and of course siesta in the hammock, we don't plan on doing much. 

Mike has his website building business, most of which he can do on the lap top, (and before I get up in the morning) and according to the expat forums and blogs I've read, there are expat women looking for knowledgeable American hairdressers...so I may only be semi-retired. We have two houses that will be rented and bring income, we have a property management company all set up, and they will collect rent and keep up on any repairs. They will contact us via email if there's anything we need to know or approve, and they'll direct deposit the rental income into our bank account.

We will work hard when we have to, and play hard when we want to, I'm calling it "island time", but it's more about being flexible. "Mañana" is the motto, it literally mean tomorrow, but it's more loosely translated to...not now, I'll get to it later. As Americans our work weeks are longer and our vacations shorter than other nationalities, even the work day is longer, that simply means less time with our loved ones...I don't want to live that way anymore. We want to make every moment count, we are not guaranteed 80+ years, so we have to start as soon as possible! fit as much in as we can  because we could die tomorrow.

Beach life will be different than city life, and that is where we are starting, we have the house in Crucita for 2months, and while there we will search for the next rental. Word of mouth will give us more inventory to look at, and we will have our container arriving, so we can rent a partially furnished place. There is 1400 miles of coastline, who knows where our second "home" will be, I'm sure we will live in one of the larger cities someday, but housing is more expensive, so we will watch the budget and see just how far the money goes before we decide to change. There is a lot we just won't know until we experience it, but that's part of the adventure. You only live once, go enjoy it! Hasta mañana!