University life

The Universidad San Francisco de Quito is possibly the most pleasant place to teach in Ecuador. It is built in a mixture of classical styles, but was actually constructed within recent years. The main campus of the university is located in Cumbayá, a town, twenty minutes by bus from Quito.





Although, it is only twenty minutes from the city, it is 2,000 feet lower in elevation. This means it is significantly warmer than Quito.  Although virtually on the equator line, elevation above sea level makes all the difference here, this can be between sweltering heat at the coast to permanent snow on the Andean peaks.  But at 7,200 feet, Cumbayá has it just right. This climate, combined with the neoclassical architecture, gives it a very Mediterranean feel.






I teach English at the university. Luckily for me some academic classes are taught in English, so I teach Psychology too. In fact, I was able to design my own classes and curriculum, and the students generally speak good English so the language barrier has not been a problem.





This is the most expensive private university in the country and has the richest students. It is expected that many will want to go and take postgraduate courses in the USA. Hence, courses taught in English are valued by the students and management. However, this may not be the case in less privileged private or state universities, were teaching in English may not be common.

This dog, lives on the campus. He is described as 'sometimes friendly' though I've never met him on any of those times. I gave him a dog biscuit once and he spat it out and walked off. He seems to resent the presence of humans on his campus.

Bag Arrived

My luggage eventualy arrived last night, God bless Continental Airlines, less than two months.

Back in Quito

I'm back in Quito and the weather is fantastic, a nice change from the British freeze. My suitcases didn't seem to make it back though. That is the third consecutive intercontinental trip in which my bags have gone travelling independently. We flew with Continental this time, they really are crap. For one of the legs, a five hour trip, you had to pay $7 with a credit card to active the in-flight entertainment system. Our stewardess chewed gum throughout the flight.

Happy Christmas

I’m back in Birkenhead (UK) for Christmas. It should have only taken 18 hours or so to get from Quito to Manchester (via Madrid and Heathrow). However, runway snow and other hassles put paid to that plan. In fact the plan fell apart pretty quickly. It should be simple leaving Quito, as they have an intercontinental airport, slap bang in the city centre; an air disaster waiting to happen, but awfully convenient.

So we set of at 6pm on Friday for a westbound trip to Europe. However, the flight from Quito to Madrid stops to pick up passengers at Guyaquil airport, which is on the coast and consequently to the East of Quito. And it wasn’t so much as a quick stop as a disembarkation then waiting for a different aircraft to take us on the actual flight to Madrid. We are behind schedule, tired and 200 miles further away from our destination than when we started.

But eventually we take off for Madrid. On arriving there we find that our connecting flight is cancelled due to snow at Heathrow. But this is not so bad, we would have missed it anyway, and we get given a night in a hotel and tickets for the next flight in the morning (7am). Trouble is, that flight gets cancelled too, then the next one, and the snow situation is getting worse at Heathrow. We eventually wangle a flight to Amsterdam and when there ask if we can change our destination from Manchester to Liverpool. Presumably because of all the flight chaos none of the airlines had any issues or extra charges, they just wanted rid of stranded passengers.

We arrived at Liverpool about 10pm on Sunday, 24 hours later than planned. In that time we visited 5 different airports in four countries and had at least eight different boarding cards each. But at least we made it. Unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky. One case limped home four days after us, the other two are missing in action, presumed dead.

Work Visa

Ecuador is an interesting country to come to work in. But the work visa situation is a major a problem. Whereas many countries actively encourage the arrival of native English speakers, Ecuador’s overly bureaucratic systems actively stifles it.

We came in on 12-ix visas which you arrange in your own country via the Ecuadorian consulate. However even these are expensive and require a lot of paperwork. They let you enter the country and study or work for six months. But then of course you need to obtain a full work visa to stay any longer, and that is where it gets tricky. There really is a lot of paperwork this time, and now you are based in the dragon’s lair* of bureaucracy (Ecuador). Doing it on your own probably isn’t an option; you will still be queuing up somewhere when your current visa expires. So there are two other routes. You can pay a lawyer several hundred dollars and they will bribe the correct people and make it happen.  Alternatively, you find an employer who will do the paperwork; this is what we have done.

So this week, after several hours travelling to and from and waiting in government buildings, we were issued with work visas. Work visas with errors on them as it happens, so it’s back to queuing on Monday. But at least we have something. We paid out $230 each to the government for these visas. Our employers may or may not charge us an undisclosed sum for the paperwork. Bizarrely they won’t tell us how much. This is because they now have control over our very presence here in Ecuador. If they fire us, our visas become invalid and we have to leave, we can’t just search for another job. So this gives them considerable bullying power. Add in the mysterious paperwork fee, and they can also refuse to hand over any pay that they owe us, claiming that they are recouping their paperwork expenses.

There probably are some good jobs here, but most of the language institutes are used to having a rolling stock of semi-travellers, who they are not treated as teaching professionals. I also have a University job. They pay more than twice as much as the language institutes, but were not able to provide a visa.

There are other options of course. One language institute here arranges ‘cultural exchange visas’ for its staff. They provide Spanish lessons to the English teachers, hence it’s not work it’s a ‘cultural exchange’. But these only give you six months, and as far as I know are non-renewable.

So how and where you work here is completely dependent on what type of visa you have and who is willing to facilitate it. Effectively you can’t change jobs, and the employer who does facilitate your visa then owns you. Nice.


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*Despite what the idiotic TV show suggests, dragons live in lairs, not dens. 

National Curfew in Ecuador

We are not allowed to leave our flat today; the entire country is in lock-down. Only a select few are allowed outdoors. It’s not another coup attempt or other national emergency. Far more mundane, it’s census day in Ecuador.

To make sure that everybody is included, everybody has to stay at home and wait for the knock on the door. Considering how carefully the census organisers are being to ensure everybody is surveyed, it is strange that the actual data collection is entrusted to school children. That’s right, today every single household is being visited by school children. Anybody found outdoors today, not in either a police or school uniform is likely to be arrested or fined. To show that we have participated, we get a sticker on our front door. Presumably lacking this sticker also gets you in trouble.

Even stranger, to make sure nobody is drunk when surveyed, there is a complete nationwide ban on the consumption of alcohol. The prohibition period is much longer than the actual census period and has been in force since midnight on Friday 26th and lasts until midday on Monday 29th. So I have been in all day, and even if I went out all public transport is suspended and all shops are closed.

Being under house arrest has at least given me the opportunity to catch some Ecuadorian daytime TV, and take this photo. Bumble bee man isn’t just a character in the Simpsons. There really is such a person on Latin American TV.

This TV show is popular is shown across Latin America and always features this insectoid character

Working for the Yankee Dollar

Ecuador doesn’t really have a national currency anymore.  Since the year 2000 the US dollar has been the official currency. This has apparently brought economic stability, but presumably eroded cultural identity somewhat. The bank notes are identical to US dollar bills and they also use the one dollar coin extensively here, unlike in the USA itself. The coins of less than a dollar are minted specifically for Ecuador, and the minor unit is the centavos, not the cent.  Though they are the same size as US cent coins and are interchangeable here.


The main one dollar coin that is in circulation is a year 2000 mint bearing the image of an indigenous woman with child. This gives the coin an Ecuadorian feel. However, it is in fact still a USA coin and displays the words ‘In God We Trust’. The indigenous women pictured is Sacagawea  a North American Shoshone Indian guide who aided explorers in 1804.

The adoption of the US dollar has served to attract many estadounidenses* to live in Ecuador. Particularly, retirees who find that there US pension goes a long way here. The city of Cuenca is particularly popular with retirees from the USA.


At the time of writing one USA/Ecuador dollar is worth about 63pence in British money.  The cost of living is very low compared to Britain. Intercity bus travel costs about $1 per hour. A dollar will also buy you a taxi ride equivalent to a 25 minute walk, or a dozen oranges from a street vendor. You can easily rent a good apartment in the capital, as we did, for under $500 per month. In general things cost only about a half  to a third of what they would cost in Britain. Though some imported goods as just as expensive, brand name sports shoes for example still cost a minimum of $60 a pair.


Pay for teaching English varies tremendously, but the minimum is usually about $7 per hour. One job I had recently paid around $20 per hour. In addition, the tax rate is low. I pay only 8% and even this I can apparently claim back as a non-resident. This is a breath of financial fresh air. I was paying 40% of my pay as tax while working in the UK.
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* estadounidense is a Spanish word for somebody or something from the United States of America. English doesn’t have a word specifically for this, so most English speakers just say American. However, this grates with the majority of people who live on the American continent but are not from the USA.