- You might hate Ecuador,

at least at first.

- Yeah, we heard from some new arrivals

who had some pretty severe culture shock.

- Yeah, so in this video

we're gonna talk about

what might shock you about Ecuador.

- And at the end, we'll share

some tips that might help

you prepare so you don't hop

on the next plane back home.

Before we dive in,

if you are curious about

what's going on in Ecuador,

we share a weekly newsletter

that has current events

that are ex-pat relevant.

So we'll put a link in the description

so you can go opt into that newsletter.

Once you do, you can also download our

Ecuador cost of moving

and living calculator.

- There's gonna be times you are

way outside of your comfort zone.

And we were.

Even though we took our

exploratory trip, there were times

when we were painfully

outside of our comfort zone.

And one of those reasons is because

we were not prepared to speak Spanish.

When we got here, we were all cocky.

Like, oh, we did the language apps.

It's gonna be fine.

Uh, no.

Reality hit and we were not at all ready.

- I really struggle with understanding.

I did when we first got

here and I still do because

all the different regions

have different dialects.

They speak really quickly.

And man, sometimes we both

just stare at each other

with deer in the headlights look because

they don't understand my Spanish either.

- You will find some people

that do speak English.

But Ecuador is a predominantly

Spanish-speaking country.

So do yourself a favor and start

taking Spanish lessons now.

Really, it's gonna make

your whole experience

so much more enjoyable.

Even if you only try to say a few words,

it makes it so much more fun.

And people are so helpful.

They will help you stumble

through and work it out with you,

even if it's a little charades,

to get your point across.

- According to a study done

last year by Education First,

Ecuador ranked dead last in Latin America

for English speakers.

So do not come here expecting

everyone to speak English,

or even the majority of people.

- I was surprised to
learn that the Spanish

I learned was largely from Mexico.

And Ecuador has some

different Spanish words.

So that made things a

little tricky (chuckling).

But we muddled through

and now our Spanish is so much better.

So it's worth it.

Take some lessons and just hang in there.

- Ecuador is a lot more like an older city

in the United States and much less like

a perfectly-manicured,
suburban neighborhood.

So if you fly into Guayaquil and you drive

to Cuenca or the coast, you're gonna drive

through some pretty

rural undeveloped areas.

And you're gonna start asking yourself,

what the hell have I done?

- Some things are gonna

look a lot different here.

You're gonna see buildings

that are unfinished,

buildings without any windows,

or at least no glass in the windows.

Some places may have dirt floors.

You may see dirt roads or uneven sidewalks

and weird obstacles in

the middle of a sidewalk.

One of the things we thought

was really kind of creepy

and weird, at first, was the fact

that a lot of the houses
have these big walls

and then they have broken bottles on top.

And then, they might

even have barbed wire.

So that was a little intimidating.

- We've talked about this

a lot in our other videos.

It's noisy here.

- Yeah, it is definitely noisier

than what we were used to back in the U.S.

And it is not uncommon to hear things

like fireworks at anytime day or night.

And I mean anytime.

It could be 6:00 AM when

the church is telling you

to wake up and get your butt in there.

- Yeah (chuckling).

Yeah, dogs barking, loud

motorcycles, loud buses,

blasting music until

4:00 AM in the morning.

They just have a different threshold

for music and noise here than we do.

- Yeah, and don't forget about roosters.

- Oh, yeah.

You could have a rooster right outside

your window, or a whole bunch of them.

Another cultural difference

that's gonna push you

outside your comfort zone is they do not

volunteer information as a general rule.

So, for example, I went to

get two prescriptions filled.
They shoved some pills in
a bag, sent me on my way

and I got home and realized

only one was in there.

So I went back and I said,

where's the other one?

They said, oh, well, we

don't carry that one.

You have to go someplace else for it.

But nobody told me.

And this happens a lot.

They just don't volunteer information.

Like, you'll go to pay a utility bill.

And you'll say, I wanna

pay my electric bill.

They charge you for your electric bill.

But they don't charge

you for the water bill

or the phone bill.

So you gotta be very specific

as they just don't volunteer information.

(horn honking)

- One of the things that shocked me was

what I like to call the rule of threes.

It seems, at least for me,

that it takes three times

to get anything established.

And I'm just used to it now.

But it drove me crazy

when we first got here.

It would take three times to

get our cell phone set up.

It took three times to go

and get our internet set up.
It took three times to figure out

how to pay our rent, et cetera, et cetera.

I could keep going on.

But you get the idea.

It requires a lot of patience.

- If you're not an
experienced world traveler,

this is really going to shock you.

You can't drink the tap water.

You can't flush the toilet paper

throughout most of Ecuador.

I've been to a lot of

countries and Mexico, Honduras,

Belize, several other countries

in the Caribbean where

you couldn't drink the water

or flush the toilet paper.

So it really wasn't that shocking to me.

And you get used to it pretty quickly.

But if you're coming

from the United States

where you're used to

drinking and flushing,

it's gonna shock you

and it's gonna make you

feel really uncomfortable at first.

- You're gonna be shocked

that you have to pay cash

for almost everything.

And I was not prepared for that.

In the U.S., I never ever had cash.

I didn't even remember

my ATM pin half the time.

And I'd have to go and

look it up because I used
my credit card or I just
paid online for services.

But here, that is not the case.

Cash is king.

So you may feel uncomfortable, at first,

actually having to go to the

ATM frequently and carry cash.

You don't need to get a lot of cash.

But you do need to have access to it.

And lots of change.

- Don't expect everything to

be super cheap in Ecuador.

In general, your cost of

living is gonna be about 1/3

compared to most places

in the United States.

But some things are more expensive,

especially electronics and cars.

And if you do most of your shopping

at the chain grocery

stores, those are like

the Safeways and the

King Supers in the U.S.,

you're gonna pay more,

even closer to U.S. prices.

If you want to save the most money,

you really have to shop at the Mercados

and the little corner

mom and pop fruit stands.

But if your goal is to save

the most money possible,

Ecuador may not be the best spot for you.

Places in Asia are even cheaper,

like Cambodia and Vietnam,

Indonesia, the Philippines.
A lot cheaper than Ecuador.

- You might feel uncomfortable

because you don't know

how much things cost.

You don't know how much you

should pay for something.

Prices often fluctuate here

and you should negotiate.

And maybe you'll feel uncomfortable

because you don't like to negotiate.

Well, you may end up overpaying

and getting price-gouged,

or what we like to
call, getting gringoe'd.

And you know what?

This is can really suck (chuckling).

It's happened at JP and I.

But fortunately, it
doesn't happen very often.

And not for very much money.

But it can make you feel

like you were targeted

or that you just totally got swindled.

Now we're going to share some tips

to help you mentally prepare so that you

can minimize your culture shock.

- And the first one is

to change your mindset

and look at this as an adventure.

Don't have any expectations.

And know that you're gonna

be outside your comfort zone.

But the longer you're here

and the more experiences

you have, the easier it will get.

- That is so true.

And this is why we highly recommend

taking an exploratory trip.

The first couple of days we were here,

I was pretty uncomfortable.

I had some anxiety going on.

But the longer we were here,

the more I just fell in love with Ecuador.

- Yeah, so it was like my

first date with Amelia.

I knew right away, this

was the spot for me.

- (chuckling) Aww.

- (chuckling) So, yeah,

look at a exploratory trip

more like taking a date for coffee

instead of getting married.

That's a nice thing about visiting first,

is you're only here for

a short amount of time

and you know you're

gonna be going back home.

So it really removes all of

that pressure from yourself.

So you don't feel like you

have to love it right away.

- Our next tip is to learn Spanish.

Don't just rely on those apps.

They're great, but you also really need

to speak out loud with someone else.

So start practicing with

some conversational Spanish.

It will enhance your experience.

- Yeah, there's a lot of
options online for that.

And the next tip is to be patient.

That's something that I

still struggle with here.

I just want things to be much

more efficient than they are.

And I just tell myself it will get done.

It just may take a little bit

longer and maybe three trips.

- Yeah, and my tip is

to trust in the process.

To kind of piggybacking
off of what JP just said.

You just have to relax

and go with the flow.

Know things will get handled

and just be tranquilo.

We recommend connecting
with other ex-pats online

before your exploratory

trip and in-person,

if you're able to, once

you arrive in Ecuador.

And it helps you so much to get

other people's perspectives.

You can connect with people

in our Patreon community

or in different Facebook groups.

Unfortunately, JP and I
don't have time to meet

with everybody in person,

as much as we would love to.

But it's really awesome to connect

with other ex-pats and

make some new friends.

- Yeah, a lot of ex-pats

are more than eager
to meet with you and help
smooth your transition here.

And that's another point we want to make,

is that our experience may

be different than yours.

We only show a small, 10, 12 minute slice

of our entire week in our video.

So we don't include everything.

So when you get here,

you may not experience

exactly what we show in our little videos.

- And finally, we recommend

starting in Cuenca.

- Yeah, Cuenca's a very modern,

European, ex-pat-friendly city.

A lot of English-speaking
Ecuadorians live there.

So it's just a really easy place to start.

- Plus, it's less expensive

than some parts of the coast.

It's very walkable.

There's so much to see and do.

It is absolutely beautiful.

And the people there are so

incredibly warm and friendly

and welcoming, as they are

throughout all of Ecuador.

- Yep, hopefully this video will help

reduce your culture shock when you arrive.

Just, please, give it some time.

Give yourself some time to

adjust and get used to it.

- And if you found this video helpful,

leave us a thumbs up, please.

- All right, guys, hope you
have an unconventional day.

And we will see you all in our next video.

- Chao.
- Chao.