The story of Salinas is one of “extraordinary coincidences.”
We decided to visit Salinas, a 2 hour drive from Guayaquil, based on a House
Hunters International episode we watched over the Christmas 2010 holidays. At
the time, Karl did some quick research on the city – inspired by the
availability and inexpensive prices (e.g. $100/sq ft) of coastal property. With
our trip to S. America, we added Salinas to our itinerary, but did little to
prepare.
Here’s how the story unfolded:
-
Karl was locked out of his liebat.com e-mail
account that had some of his initial December research – he waited until
arrival in Ecuador to try to retrieve the info.
-
But we had no connectivity in the Galapagos
Islands – none. So we charged our PC on the last day on the boat with hopes to
download the info upon arrival in Guayaquil (the airport city).
-
We landed in Guayaquil – PC fully charged, but
not our personal wi-fi card. Two hours in the car to Salinas turned out to be
another missed opportunity to do/find the research.
-
We arrived in Salinas, but without money to tip
the driver. We had tried to get money out at the Guayaquil airport, but the ATM
was down. So we didn’t even check into the hotel. We dropped our bags at the
front, then went with the driver to the downtown area – about 10 minutes away –
in search of an ATM.
-
About 3 minutes from the hotel, we realize we
had 20$ emergency stashed away. But by then, we were already in the car &
on our way to town (and a bit miffed by the drive, no money, and the hotel not
being in the center of town).
-
Finally, we hit the ATM in downtown Salinas,
tipped the driver, and decided to cool off a bit with a walk along the coast.
We were less than 20 minutes into our stay and less than 5 minutes into the
walk when….
-
We passed a couple. Karl turned to Lila and said
he thought it might be the couple from House Hunters International episode.
Lila stopped in disbelief, asked the probability, to which he replied 90%. It
was good enough odds that…
-
Lila ran a half block back, asked if they spoke
English, then asked if they were on HHI. It was them, and Karl even remembered they were from Chicago.
-
After a few minutes chatting, we asked if they
knew any real estate agents that could help us last minute with a similar
household search. It turns out they are real estate agents! On the show, they
were the buyers (not agents). They offered to show us around the next day - Thursday at 9:30am.
-
Without any prep or background, Kimberly came by
our hotel at 9:30am. We talked through some options before she took us on a
whirlwind adventure to 15-20 options (homes/condos/raw land from Salinas to
Olon (~1.5 hr away). It was an amazing overview of the area. By the time we
finished the day (~6pm), we saw many options that piqued our interest, but weren’t
set on any one specific property.
But the story doesn’t end here…
On Friday morning, Kimberly and Hector show up again at
9:30. They have about 5 places they want to show us. After visiting a condo at
the Yacht Club, we are given the choice of property 45 minutes out of town, or
5 condos in town. We opt for the property – which blew up the rest of the day’s
schedule. The property was incredible! The owner recently decided to sell off 8
portions of her bluff (which she’s owned for 15 years) overlooking the small,
quaint fishing village of Ayangue. The property overlooks a charming beach - a
calm, sandy, and shallow cove. The land is super reasonable for ocean front /
beach access. We spent quite a lot of time there, and ended up rushing back to
the hotel (to catch the van to the airport).
Yet the story still doesn’t end here! Back at the airport in
Guayaquil…
As we were walking down the jetway to board our flight to
Quito, Karl pauses at a picture on the wall. It’s Ayangue! In fact, it’s a few
from the beach where you can see “our” bluff on the right hand side. The
picture wasn’t labeled, and it could have been anywhere on the coast. But we
knew it was “ours” from the shape of the cove to the houses on the opposite
bluff.
We boarded the plane laughing about the Salinas adventure
and how it unfolded. It could have turned out to be 2 days by the pool/beach
eating ceviche. Instead, it was a series of coincidences that appeared to
suggest this should be our second home. J
We're still discussing whether this is the right place for us, but definitely fell in love with Ecuador and think it's a great investment!
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