My 1st week living in Ecuador

Things have been moving along here in San Clemente quite swimmingly since I moved here a mere 8 days ago.  As I stated in my last post about my time in Orlando things have been falling into place for me to begin my new adventure here.  I expected to be batted in the head at some point by Murphy’s Law bit that has not been the case and I am so pleased.

First I want to thank 4 people who have made my move so easy to this point.  First is Heinz, the man that I rented from when I came for my 45 day “living” stay in Feb/Mar, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  I had emailed him to see if the apartment was available again and he told me no but that I was welcome to stay in a room in his house as long as I needed to while I looked for a place, and for free.  I’ve been very comfortable here and will actually hate to leave.

Second is John & Mary who befriended me 1^st on an Ecuador Expats page before I even arrived in Ecuador the 1^st time back in November and who have helped me so much in a number of ways from then until now.  When I left Ecuador in March they stored everything that I’d brought with me from Belize so that it was less that I had to move as well as the few household items that I bought while living in the apartment.  They took me to all the shopping areas so I was familiar with where to buy my fruits and veggies as well as the 2 big grocery stores where I could buy everything else.  You have no idea how big a help that was to me.

Lastly to David who agreed to help me obtain my Retiree Residency Visa.  As I obtained the necessary documents in the U.S. I had them scanned in and I emailed them to him to have them translated into Spanish so everything would be in order when I got there.  I only had 15 days left on my initial 90 day visa so I wanted to have everything ready so I could jump right into that process.  He also made a visit to one of the offices to ensure that the police background check that I obtained was sufficient for their needs. Had it not been I was looking at another 45 days or so in the states while I waited for an FBI background check. The FBI website said the request would take 28 calendar days and then I figured that it would take up to 2 more weeks while I sent it off to the U.S. Secretary of State office in Virginia.  But my FL County Sheriff’s Office was sufficient. So anyway, seven days after I arrived in country he took me to Manta where we visited the offices that I needed to visit for additional documentation, approvals, and notary stamp and finally to the office where I submitted my application for residency.  His knowledge of the process made it so easy for me that when he asked how difficult the process was on a scale of one to ten with one being the least I told him that it was a zero.  I had all of my paperwork in hand and approved within 2-3/4 hours.  Now I have to wait up to 30 days for the paperwork to make its way through the bureaucracy and for the call to return to have my visa entered into my passport.  Within 30 days after that I have to apply for my Cedula (the paper that all Ecuadorians and resident expats have to carry) and he will help me with that too.  He also took me to see several houses and apartments that he knew were for rent in an effort to find a place to call home.  Without these people I would have been in knocking my head against the wall for quite a while in order to get to the point that I am now.

Now on to what I’ve been up to since arriving on the 7^th.  When I arrived at the airport in Guayaguil I was met by Ramon, who’d driven me around in Feb on various errands, and driven to San Clemente.  Instead of having to spend a night in a hotel there and taking a 5 hour bus trip the next day I was in Casa Punta Bikini within 3-1/2 hours of arriving in the country.  Next was beginning the process of searching for a new home.  A day or 2 after arriving, and resting up from my trip, I met Ingo at Heinz’ house, who was renting the apartment below.  He took me around to a couple tiendas (small stores) and asked the owners if they knew of any houses for rent.  We saw a few that were well below the standards that I set and then we met a man who Ingo told that I was looking for a “gringo style” home.  He took us down a small street and though a gate.  I immediately felt at home and that this was the house that I wanted.  It’s a 2 story brick home built in the last 2 years or so.  The downstairs was a large open sitting area and kitchen with a ½ bath.  I immediately saw the possibilities!  The upstairs was completely tiled and had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a large balcony on the front of the house.  All the bedrooms have double beds and sliding glass doors to the balcony.  We called the owner and made arrangements for him to come to town to discuss price on Saturday.  Saturday came and he and his wife arrived and we discussed monthly rental.  He started out high and we started low.  The most I wanted to pay was $400.  He started at $500.  Ingo spoke for me since my Spanish language skills are still close to nil.  The conversations on both sides were pretty animated at times and I figured that there was no chance for an agreement.  But we talked some more and his wife became the primary for their side of the discussion.  We assured him that I wasn’t a gringo that was going to fill the house with people and have constant parties.  Me, I’m looking for a nice quiet life just like I lived these past years in Belize.  So anyway I had Ingo give him my final offer and they said they would go home and discuss it together.  Today, Sunday, in the midst of the Soccer World Cup, that has the streets quiet and deserted here since Saturday, Ingo received the call that they accepted my offer.  So we are to meet this week and sign a contract.  I should be moving in in July 1^st and I’m a happy Fatboy!

This being South America soccer is a religion.  Everyone, including the expats, plan to sit in front of TVs at home, in friend’s homes, and bars to watch the 3 games a day for the next couple of weeks.  I’ve never been a big fan of soccer but I sat with Heinz and saw my 1^st ever full soccer game on Saturday.  Actually I watched all 4 of them.  Today we watched the Ecuador match against Switzerland and I was as disappointed as everyone in San Clemente, and I’m sure all of Ecuador, when the home team lost their match.  Heinz decided that he wanted to BBQ ribs and potato salad so we made the early morning trip to Charapato for the meat and veggies.  I love that place.  What an experience.  I’d been there several times when I was here last so was excited to go.  Anyway, between games we ate dinner and headed back to the TV for game 2 after we were done.  A few minutes later Ingo came up this the good news about the house.  Now I’m a soccer fan and am on cloud 9 about having a place to call home soon.

Most, if not all of you, know I was having blood pressure issues while I was in the states.  As a matter of fact I’m in Ecuador against my doctor’s advice.  But I assured them that as soon as I left the country and got back to Ecuador it would drop. I told him that my BP wasn’t an issue in Belize as I had it monitored there the entire time I lived there and that it was only a problem when I was back in the states with all the stresses of normal that affected me when I was there.  Well it dropped almost 90 points as soon as I got here.  Now with the stress points of obtaining my visa and finding a house it will drop more.  I’ll monitor my pressure for another week and then contact him with the results and possibly reduce the amount of medicine that I’m taking to control it.  My peaceful and stress free life here will be nothing but beneficial to my health and wellbeing as I resume my fishing and laying in my hammock.

So that’s how my 1^st week living permanently in Ecuador closed out.  

The Fatboy In Ecuador signing in!!!

I’m now living in San Clemente Ecuador!  It officially became my home on Friday June 7^th at around 9:30pm when I arrived here from the airport.  So let my new adventure begin!

I did really well on the sale of my belongings in Belize and even sold things that I thought would never sell.  I should have remembered back to the yard sales I’d had in my previous life and remembered that if you put it out someone was going to buy it.  “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure…”  Luckily a lot of people paid with good old American cash so my conundrum over where was I ever going to be able to change Belize dollars into American was made easier. Trish was practically begging guests, the beer and soda delivery trucks, and anyone else she ran across to help ease my pain and she did REALLY well.  That and a few business owner friends helped drop my Belize cash to a level that I could easily handle. I knew that I was going to travel to Cancun by bus for my flight so that would use up some of it as would my last few days of living in Belize. I did however make it to Orlando with $100 Belize which I sent to friends who will use it next time they visit there.  Anyway,  after all the running around I’d done on my last days in Hopkins I was pretty beat.  So I planned to leave 11 days prior to my flight and take that time for a holiday in Playa Del Carmen.  I wasn’t up to that long 14 hour 3 bus ride to Cancun, and because I’d made a fair chunk of money on my garage sale I decided to fly to there.  So I booked my flight from Dangriga to Belize City International and then to Cancun on Tropic air.  I left Hopkins on the 7am bus and was in Cancun by 1:30pm and in my hotel in Playa by 3.  What a difference traveling that way was!  Five hours versus 14 hours!  And I wasn’t anywhere as worn out as I usually was after those long bus rides.  And hey, I deserved it!

So 11 days of sitting around Playa doing absolutely nothing really did me a world of good. I knew that my trip to Orlando was going to be both mentally and physically challenging so I needed the rest to prepare myself for it.  I did venture out of the tourist areas a few days and took collectivo buses all over the place.  Saw the huge apartment complexes that the locals live in, stores they shop, and restaurants they eat in.  That last sentence fragment about the restaurants was the best surprise of all.  I found 4 restaurants that blew away any of the places I’d ever eaten on all of my trips to Playa including the blue cheese bacon burger at the Tequila Barrel Sports Bar.  My favorite stop was a seafood café that made THE BEST seafood soup.  It was made thicker than a normal soup by the addition of white Mexican cheese.  And I added a small plate of rice to it so it was a meal fit for a Fatboy.  My second favorite made an outstanding Mole (pronounced molay for those that don’t know) Chicken, which is a chocolate based sauce.  Now you all know that I am a chocoholic so this dish was right up my alley.  And the cost of my meals in these 4 cafes was $4 or less including a fruit drink.  You can’t beat that!  I also met an American doctor lady in a clinic that invited me out to dinner and we ended up sharing a couple of dinners and a movie before she left.  That was a nice unexpected interlude.

So anyway the day of my flight came and flying JetBlue (I love that airline!) I was in Orlando in 2-1/4 hours and through immigration and customs and on the road with my rental car in another an hour.  Things were coming too easy I was thinking and somewhere Mr. Murphy would rear his ugly head and things would come to a crashing halt.  Well it only got better from there!  Well, that is until I hit the VA clinic 10 days or so before I left.  That’s for later though.  Back to my original train of thought. I retrieved a packet of mail from a friend of my son Rich, who moved a few weeks before to the Philadelphia area.  In it I found a copy of my birth certificate that he’d forwarded on to the IL Secretary of State office for me and I’d forgotten about.  I had my 1^st Apostille in my hand!

To digress a bit for those who didn’t read my last posting.  My trip to Orlando was strictly for paper work that I needed to obtain my Ecuador Retiree Visa.  I needed a copy of my birth certificate, a 5 year police background check from the county that I lived in for the past 5 years (did you pick up on that?), and a letter guaranteeing that I had an income of at least $800 per month.  They all require what I consider to be a super-notarization. It has something to do with some international agreement that a bunch of countries signed including the U.S. and Ecuador.  I also had to have the financial letter approved by an Ecuadorian Embassy.  So, since I’ve been living in Florida for the past 5 years (get it yet?) and the address on my FL driver’s license said that I lived in Orlando I had to visit the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for my background check.  All Ecuador wants to know is that a person hasn’t been arrested and convicted of a crime.  I’m not sure how minor an offence it would take to deem a person unworthy of living in Ecuador but that wouldn’t pose a problem for me.  I’d been a good boy in Florida those past 5 years.  I was expecting that document to take a couple of days but within 15 minutes I had it in my hand. Next was trip to the Social Security office for my financial guarantee letter. Again I’m still waiting for Mr. Murphy to bang me on the head.  My problem here was that it had my Hopkins address on it.  Why, if I was living in Orlando, would my letter ever have a Belize address?  I was thinking that this would put a wrinkle in my Ecuador plans.  When I was called to the window to get my letter I asked the agent what I needed to do to change the address on the letter.  He told me that I needed to do it on their website and when I asked how long it would take to go into effect he said 24-48 hours.  So I said that I would cancel the letter request and go home and change the address and come back when it was done.  He asked why and I told him what I was doing.  He picked up my driver’s license that I’d given him as id and asked if the address on it was my current address.  Yep says I and he commences to typing in my Orlando address.  (I’ve always used my son Rich’s address as my U.S. address while living in Belize.)  He didn’t have to do that but he was a nice guy and did it anyway.  Done, printed, and on my way!  Things are getting accomplished too easily I’m thinking but I’m loving it none the less.  Now I venture off to the courthouse in Winter Park FL to apply for a new passport.  Since I had to obtain a monthly visa renewal stamp in Belize, and since I might have been there for at least a day every month, I had plenty of them.  Plus I travelled quite a bit and had stamps from every Central American country and MX so 40 of the 57 stamp pages were full.  I figured I might as well get a new clean one so there was no question about where I lived these past 5 years as well as giving me plenty of space for new stamps from South America.  Almost $200 and an hour later (I expedited it because I wanted it as soon as possible) I was walking out the door.  Next is a trip to Tallahassee FL to visit the FL Secretary of State office for the Apostilles on my police report and finance letter.  I didn’t want to chance anything getting lost in the mail.  My brother Dave lives a couple hours west of Tally in Gulf Breeze, right near Pensacola FL so I planned a trip to visit him for a couple of days.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take the state bureaucracy to do their job so I thought I could drop it off there, have a visit, and pick them up on my way back home.  I found out that my brother Tom, who lives outside of Chicago was coming down to Dave’s for a visit too so that made it all the more pleasant a trip.  Well I showed up at the Secretary of State’s office and was told that the notary in my credit union didn’t notarize my police report and SS letter properly and that I needed to go have it renotarized.  Well here comes Murphy I’m thinking.  So I asked where in town I could have it done and she says hold on and goes and gets her notary stamp and does it for me and for free!  My government providing a service that they didn’t need to do and doing it for free???  And for the 2^nd time in 2 different offices?!  I was getting light headed!  I was in and out of Tallahassee with my last 2 documents Apostilled in less than an hour.  All I needed now was to visit (again I’m not mailing anything) the Ecuador Embassy in Miami to get them to approve my financial document.  My visit with Dave and family was enjoyable.  Lots of laughing and eating and more laughing and eating for 3 days.  I spent the weekend in Orlando and then headed for Miami on Memorial Day so I could be 1^st in line at the Embassy when it opened Tuesday morning.  I’d booked 3 days hotel just to be on the safe side.  Nice hotel in Miami Beach and great Cuban food nearby.  Tuesday morning 9am I’m in the Embassy and I present my document to the man at the counter.  He takes a look at both pages and asks where the Spanish translation pages are.  Huh???  It didn’t say anything about that on their website.  I think I’m hearing Murphy laughing somewhere behind me.  Where the heck am I going to find a place to do that?  At the bank at the opposite side of the building says he.  So I walk to the bank and ask the lady at the desk about translation services.  Yep says she but it takes 24 hours and costs $25.  Not a problem says me!  So back to the beach and a day of reading, smoking cigars, and Cuban food.  Back to the bank at 10am the next morning (I slept in) and low and behold my translation is complete and she notarizes my signature on that one.  Two minutes later I’m back visiting the man at the counter in the Embassy.  He takes my paperwork and sends me to a seat.  Two hours later a woman comes out a door and calls my name and hands me my paperwork.  “Welcome to Ecuador” she says!  Dang this is too easy!  I actually had everything done is less than 2 weeks. 

I had a great time visiting family and friends in Orlando.  LOTS of my favorite alcoholic beverage Draft Guinness Stout and my usual “must eat” list to work through.  This trip I ate more Cajun and Cuban food than I normally do and loved every bite of it.  Maggiano’s Little Italy, Hollerback’s Willow Tree (German), 4 Rivers Smokehouse (mine and my daughter Carrie’s favorite BBQ joint), West End Trading Company (a bar with 2-4-1 drinks from noon-9pm so $2.50 Guinness and $2.50 Irish Whiskey shots), Red Robin (new to Orlando and some of the best burgers in town plus unlimited steak fries) just to name a few.  This is the only trip in 6 back to Orlando where I didn’t hit Denny’s or IHOP but no great lose because there’s the Breakfast Club in Casselberry that serves great breakfast and lunch at ridiculously low prices.  I also had my Chicago Dogs at Chubby’s Hot Dog in Maitland and Sonic, subs and pizza from a number of places.  Found a REALLY good Chinese buffet that had raw oysters at dinner time and great food all day. And…plenty of 6 shot espresso and Cuban coffee!  So I was able to accomplish all of my list this trip. I also spent a night sleeping on Cocoa Beach with my friend Elizabeth after watching an evening rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  That was really great! The things that I truly missed though were fishing and lying in my hammock for an afternoon read and nap.  I plan to make up for lost time now that I’m in EC.

Now comes the fun part.  I’d been thinking about applying for VA medical benefits for a while now to have several new and old infirmities checked on.  For the past 5 years I’ve had to rely on the Hopkins Village clinic, except for my couple day hospital visit Christmas time 2012 for…high blood pressure.  So I wanted to get myself checked out to see how I was fairing living in a 3^rd world country for those years.  I knew I needed a copy of my DD-214 (military release papers that document your service and any medals you’ve earned) and had on in hand.  I wondered how long it would take to get approval and get an appointment with a doctor?  There is a VA clinic right near where I was staying.  It was originally the old Orlando Naval Training Center base hospital and after the base closed it remained as a VA hospital and they opened a clinic as well.   So why not collect some of the benefits I’m entitled to for the 4 years and 10 months that I served in the Navy?  Meanwhile the news was covering the plight of veterans in AZ dying while on a waiting list for treatment at VA facilities there.  Based on the news it didn’t sound like I was going to get any help while I was in the states on this trip. But I could try.  So I show up at the clinic on a Friday morning and found my way to enrollment and sit until my number is called.  I presented my DD-214 to the lady sitting behind the desk as she’s looking it over I ask how hard it is to get approved for medical benefits.  She looked at me and said, “Vietnam service and your awards automatically qualify you.”  She told me that I would be in the system Monday morning and I’d be called on Tuesday to schedule my 1^st appointment. Huh again? What?  My government working at what to would make a snail laugh?  Something’s wrong here.  Tuesday rolls around and I get my scheduling call.  I had to wait a whole 2 days for my 1^st set of appointments.  I was scheduled for an 8am introduction to the VA Healthcare system at 8am, a 9am lab visit where they took what seemed to be an awful lot of blood (12 vials), 1pm with a nurse for health history and vitals, and a 2pm initial doctor visit.  My day comes and I arrive in time and meetings and appointments are right no time, sort of.  That was until I get to the nurse for vitals.  She took my blood pressure and starting saying, “On my!”  (a pause to take it again) and “Oh my!” and then looks at me and gets quiet.  “What’s up?” I asked and she asked if I felt alright.  “Yep, why?”  “I’m waiting to see if you’re going to stroke out or have a heart attack.  Your blood pressure was 220/125 and the top number was 10 points higher the 2^nd time.  Not good!”  So she calls the doctor and he rushes me in for an EKG.  I didn’t think that was the right test but the result made her feel better.  I get back into the exam room and along comes the doctor and he begins giving me my test results.  High BP, type 2 diabetes, no change in my PSA numbers for my prostate cancer, and slightly high bad cholesterol.  I counter the high BP with reading that I get in Belize versus the readings I get when I’m in the states and that I’m sure I’ll have once I get to Ecuador… “What?  You’re leaving the country?  When?”  “A week from Saturday.”  “No you aren’t. “  “Yes I am.”  “We’ll see”   So off to the pharmacy for a BP monitor, a new knee brace; and BP, diabetes and cholesterol meds.  I opened the package when I got to the car too see what treasures I’d received and then threw them in the back seat.  When I got home I tossed the med bag on the bathroom counter figuring I’d start everything in the morning.  Morning comes and I’m light the cholesterol meds.  Back to the clinic for a walk-in appointment with the nurse (which I heard in the welcome meeting that it could always be a lengthy wait) after checking with the pharmacy and lost and found to see if anyone had turned them in.  It’s a different nurse this time and I asked for a BP check while she’s waiting for the doctor to call her back that he’s reordered my med.  On goes the cuff, my arm explodes into numbness from her blowing it up and roll go her eyes.  I laughed and said, “Not you too?!”  She asked what I was talking about and I told her about the reaction of the nurse the day before and asked if she was waiting for me to stroke out too.  So she calls the doctor again and they speak and I get not only the reissue of the cholesterol med but a doubling of the original BP med.  Home for the weekend and time with my kids and friends, crossing off more of my “must eat list:” and getting my fill of Guinness because Ecuador, like Belize doesn’t have draft Guinness. They do however have a pretty good craft dark beer on tap at Meyer’s in town. Meanwhile I’m taking my BP twice a day and entering it on a form the 2^nd nurse gave me and go back on Monday like I was told to do.  My BP reading is still over 220 on the top so I get another, stronger, BP med and a water pill.  See what they are worried about is not so much that my BP is so high but that it’s so spikey.  The top number ranged anywhere from 201-260 and the bottom number from 100-140.  Both the nurse and the doctor said that the spikey readings were more dangerous than if my BP was at a constant high level.  And they’re still fighting me over my plan to leave the country.  Again I promised them that my BP would go back to normal once I left the country and got back to the beach. It started dropping to under 200 over the next couple of days.  Well my friends I’m in San Clemente and my BP is already dropping!  My numbers have dropped to 140+-/95+- and it was a few points lower when  woke up this morning.  Hmmm go figure…

I was carried about 170 pounds of stuff between my big suitcase, a big duffle, my backpack and my laptop bag from Belize and all of it was going to EC.  None of my luggage exceeded the 50 pound weight limit (I bought a scale at Walmart and weighed my luggage the night before my flight and returned the scale for a refund on the way to the airport).  I had to take some clothing out of my suitcases in order to add more important spices that I need for cooking but it didn’t matter because the counter person at COPA Airlines never even looked at the scale when he was taking my bags.  He did ask me if I had a return ticket to the U.S. or a residency card for Ecuador though which supposedly is a requirement when you are leaving the U.S.  I told him no but that I had an approved financial letter and showed it to him and he accepted that as proof of residency.   I was also pleasantly surprise not to have to pay $70 for my 2^nd checked bag like the airline website said I would.  All in all what I thought would be a paperwork nightmare turned into almost a pleasant experience and the only visit that Murphy’s Law exposed me to was having to replace my rental car in Pensacola because of a cut in a tire that couldn’t be repaired.  That set me back about 4 hours but hey, if that’s the worst of it (and it was) I can deal with it.  Maybe Murph was on vacation or figured that I’d suffered enough of his fun.  Who knows?  I did thank him for not interfering.

My flight to Ecuador took me through Panama and we had an interesting landing there.  Everything was fine until the final decent.  Somewhere around 500 feet from landing the plane suffered several sharp left and right pushes and a few pretty quick short drops.  And when the wheels hit the runway I swear we did a couple of S turns too.  Nice bit of flying by the crew!  When I got close to the flight deck I was going to compliment them on the nice landing but the cockpit door was still closed.  I jokingly said to the steward that they must be in there changing their shorts after that landing and he started laughing and shaking his head yes.  Too funny!  I took full advantage of the usual 4 hour wait time for my next flight and headed to Duty Free for a liter of Irish Cream (Carmel and coffee flavored) and 2 liters of Bailey's to go along with the 50 cigars I was carrying.  Got to have my creature comforts!  I also sat with a 6 shot espresso and an almond biscotti watching some TV that I'd downloaded.  All in all a very restful delay.

The flight landed a few minutes early and I was out of Ecuador immigration and customs in 15 minutes and waited 5 more for my ride to San Clemente.  With all of that heavy luggage I didn’t want to have to take the bus as I did on my previous visits.  It also saved me a night in a hotel, which I usually did because my flights all got in at 5:30pm.  Too late for a 5 hour bus ride.  My private ride took all of 3 hours and I was sitting with Libby at Casa Punta Bikini where I spent the night.  (Looks who’s in the picture at Punta Bikini.  It’s the Fatboy on a previous stay!)   I love that hostel and Libby is such a great host.  I had a great sleep and in the morning I shared my magic coffee elixir with her…a shot of Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey and a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream in our coffee and she made us a tasty breakfast.  What a way to start my new adventure!  AND the right way too!  My friend John (of John & Mary Mac) arranged for a cycle taxi to take me and my gear to Heinz’ house (I rented his apartment when I was here for my 45 day “live in EC” visit earlier in the year but it’s rented already) as he is letting me stay in his spare bedroom while I look for a home.  Mary had invited me to dinner on Sunday just before I arrived in country and John did his magic with his smoker and we enjoyed beef shish kabobs and all the fixins.  It was a great way to end my 1^st full day in Ecuador.

It was very hard leaving my friends in Belize but I was and am very excited about starting a new life and a new adventure and making new friends in Ecuador.  Now it’s time to start the Visa process, and find a permanent place to live, and settle in. David, Libby’s son who also moved here, is helping me resolve both.  He’s been a font of great information on the Visa process.  As I received documentation and Apostilles I would scan them in and email them to him to have them translated into Spanish and have them per-reviewed to get a possible read on whether or not they were acceptable.  The only thing that he came back with was that I might need a broader police report because the one I had from the Sheriff’s Office stated that I hadn’t been arrested in Orland County and not the state or the country.  He suggested that I might get one from FL or and FBI report.  Trouble with those is that the Sheriff’s report takes 14 calendar days and the FBI 28 calendar days plus the delay for Apostille.  So I was looking at possibly spending another month or so in the states.  I was ready to leave for my new home after 2 weeks and I REALLY didn’t want to wait that long.  So he and I decided to work with what we had and let the chips fall where they may.  The good thing is that when you start the Visa process the clock stops on your current Visa.  You get 90 days to use with the next calendar year.  I’d already been here for 2-1/2 months on 2 visits so I should be ok.  But, and I’m not sure because I haven’t checked, the Immigration officer might have given me a new 90 day Visa so I shouldn’t have a time constraint problem if I need to send for an FBI report and Apostille.  Maybe Murphy won’t be back from vacation yet to have some fun with my Visa application.  I hope that’s the case…

This is the Fatboy In Belize signing out and the Fatboy in Ecuador signing in!!!

 

On the beach with a cigar.  Life can't get much better!