Episode 06 - Is It Safe to Visit Foreign Countries?

Have you ever woken up one day and decided to flip your life upside down for an adventure abroad? Well, that's exactly what we, Jim and Rita Santos, did, and we're taking you along for the ride. Our journey from selling our home in Knoxville to budgeting in the sunny climes of Panama is no ordinary tale. We confront the unexpected—like a simple water leak turning into a full-blown disaster, all while living the expat dream. It's a candid look at the realities of retiring to a foreign land, with all its perks and quirks.

Safety isn't just a buzzword; it's a patchwork of cultural context and media influence we often overlook. With a decade of travel writing and insights from my book, "Living Abroad: Challenging the Myths of Expat Life," I peel back layers of fear to examine what safety truly means across different borders. You'll hear about our brush with petty theft in South America and how blending in isn't just about fashion—it's a survival strategy. By embracing local customs and staying savvy, we navigate through common tourist scams and share essential tips for keeping your guard up, whether you're in bustling Guayaquil or strolling through your neighborhood.

Before we part ways, consider this an open invitation to walk with us beyond the podcast. Venture over to my author page, where the conversation on slow travel and life's unexpected turns continues. We're here to share the wisdom gleaned from streets less traveled and to answer the burning questions you might have about taking the road less taken. So until our next escapade, keep your passport close and your sense of adventure closer. Safe travels, friends!

Transcript

Jim Santos: 0:20

Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm your host, jim Santos, and in this podcast series you can follow along as my wife Rita and I work out our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Are we bold, forward-thinking pioneers or just plain nuts? Let's find out together, shall we? Hello, and welcome back to Travels with Jim and Rita. Once again, I want to start off by thanking everyone for their support. We're now being heard in 19 countries around the world. Now, if you've been enjoying the podcast, keep sharing on social media and recommending us to your friends and, in fact, if you're not enjoying the show, then recommend us to people you don't like. That'll show 'em!

Jim Santos: 1:15

Now a quick update on our attempt to sell our home back in Knoxville. We've had some lookers another showing, just yesterday in fact but no offers yet. We're not terribly concerned at this point, as winter sales are tough anyway and the housing market is very slow right now, especially with high mortgage rates. We did have something happen that pointed out why, even though on one level I hate to give up our home, it really is better to sell it than to mothball it while we travel, even beyond the financial boon of having the cash to invest in our own interest. This past weekend, at a showing, the realtor noticed some water on the floor under our sink. A helpful neighbor stopped by to look for us after all, it's a little hard for us to check from Panama and he turned the water off just in case. The next day, a plumber came out and discovered that a pressure regulator had gone bad and the high water pressure damaged a valve, causing a slow leak. The problem is fixed now, but the issue is that if we were just trying slow travel while keeping our home in the US, it may have been months before we found out about this leak. The damage could have run to thousands of dollars. Our plan A is still to sell the house, but if we have to go to plan B, this adds another level of complication. We'd have to arrange to have someone come by the house at least once a month to check things out thoroughly, not to mention we would have to keep checking in on our ring cameras and being available to respond just in case of emergency.

Jim Santos: 2:36

Meanwhile, here in Panama, we're past the halfway point in our stay at the beach in Playa Coronado. Currently, all three air conditioners are working knock on wood, so hopefully we'll be able to squeak through. We are a little surprised that we are pretty close to being within our proposed $3000 a month budget on this visit, even though we paid more than normal for the accommodations. This has probably been helped by two facts of life here in Coronado. First, if you don't have a car, there's really nothing to do but take walks, swim in the pool or ocean or stroll along the beach All free activities. The second money saving factor is that there are only two restaurants within walking distance and the food is not particularly good in either. One Well, two and a half restaurants. There's a place open for breakfast and brunch we haven't bothered with, since breakfast at home is our norm anyway. So, in spite of spending about two and a half times what we would normally spend for the Airbnb, we'll probably finish the six weeks of our visit only about $400 over budget, maybe even less, and that's less than $70 a week.

Jim Santos: 3:39

Alright, so enough catching up, let's move on to today's topic how safe is it to travel around in foreign countries? If you've read my profile, you know that I have been writing about travel for over 10 years now. I've attended international living conferences in the US and Ecuador, giving more than a dozen talks on life overseas. In the course of meeting people at those conferences and answering emails from readers, the most common question I've been asked boils down to will I be safe living in another country? So much so that when I wrote my book Living Abroad Challenging the Myths of Expat Life, I devoted an entire chapter to the subject, using our experiences in Ecuador and elsewhere to shed some light on this concern. So phone the neighbors, wake the kids. It's time for a special treat. Here's an excerpt from that book, the chapter entitled "Danger Will Robinson.

Jim Santos: 4:33

That man has a machete. My daughter said to me in a shocked whisper. She was on her first visit to Salinas and we were taking a local bus to the El Paseo Mall. She couldn't believe. Anyone just got onto a bus carrying a huge blade, not even in a holster. Can you imagine what would happen if you got on a bus in the US with a machete? She asked it would be on the evening news. She had a point In Ecuador. It was hardly noticed by any of the other writers. Any that did notice probably only thought something like hmm, nice machete, or that reminds me I need to get my machete sharpened. In the States this would have caused a major disturbance, but here it was just a guy on his way to work.

Jim Santos: 5:12

My point is a lot of our thoughts about safety and crime are based on our own culture of fear. In the US, living in Ecuador, we did not watch a lot of American news programs. We didn't have cable or satellite TV, we just streamed things like Hulu, hbo, netflix. We didn't get bombarded 24 hours a day by CNN, msnbc, fox or any of the other alphabet channels for talking or, more often, shouting heads. Instead, we read. We read newspapers and magazines online from all over the US and the world. I enjoy reading history books and biographies of current and former leaders, artists, scientists, philosophers. Oddly enough, I seem to be better informed about current events than those living in the US, at least judging by the misinformation and general level of discussion on Facebook and social media. As a result, I tend to have a different perspective on issues in the news.

Jim Santos: 6:06

Looking at it from the outside, it seems like all day long the media, politicians and internet trolls alike are preaching a gospel of fear. You are told Republicans want to take your health care and social security, democrats want to take your guns and tax you. Blacks are out to take your neighborhoods, police are going to beat you and, of course, immigrants are bringing rape, murder and shariah law. Milk is bad for you, your water may be poisoned, the air is deadly, oceans are rising, states stocks are falling and terrorists are out to kill you and destroy your country. The roads aren't safe, schools aren't safe, airports aren't safe and, remember, most accidents happen at home and, for goodness sake, don't even think about leaving the US. It's even worse than those other countries. Well, I hate to break it to you, but in my experiences, this is not the way normal people live anywhere, but in the US. Sure, there are places where battles are being fought, like Syria, israel, palestine, but I can honestly tell you that we feel more relaxed, comfortable and, yes, even safer in Ecuador and other countries we have visited in South America and Europe than when we visit the US. There are, of course, serious problems of poverty and crime in some countries, like Venezuela and Brazil right now, but there are pockets to avoid in any city of any nation.

Jim Santos: 7:18

I don't want to paint too rosy a picture of life abroad either. I'm well aware that we view it from a very privileged position as white Americans with a steady income. We see poverty, but we also see plenty of hardworking people who just want to live their lives. What we don't see is the constant litany of fear. Women breastfeed on the bus or at the malls without society crumbling around them. Women ride the public buses alone without amber alerts. Parents strip their children to wash off sand at the beach and are not arrested as pedophiles. Rita and I walk city streets, hike in the countryside, eat in shop with the locals, take cabs, ride buses and frequent airports without fear, armed only with common sense. There are assholes everywhere, but for the most part we have been treated well wherever we have roamed. People around the world are just people. They want the same things you do food, shelter and a good family life.

Jim Santos: 8:13

Bad things can happen anywhere and, as I've written before in many articles about the whole is it safe in Ecuador issue, life is 100% fatal. You are going to die someday, but this obsession with fear and death is becoming a purely American phenomenon. If you go to the US Consulate website and look up countries at random, you will get the impression that leaving the country is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. The country you research even Canada, for goodness sake is described as a place where you will be constantly assaulted, robbed and or kidnapped. So I suppose it is no wonder that safety abroad is a big concern of potential expats. Will I be safe?

Jim Santos: 8:54

Rita and I once took a week-long exploratory trip up the coast along the Rita del Sol of Ecuador. We planned on renting a car and traveling on our own, stopping wherever it looked interesting. While we announced our plans to friends and family back in the States, I was surprised at how often we heard some variation of the admonishment to stay safe. Now I know that usually it spent along the lines of drive safely, but there was a darker undertone as well, an idea that we should keep in mind. We're in a foreign country and therefore not safe. That four letter S word seems to be coming up all the time In the US. Politicians scream that you are not safe unless you vote for them. In online forums, expats are repeatedly asked if it is safe where they live. I am constantly asked if large cities in Ecuador are safe, if riding the local buses is safe, if cabs are safe, is it safe to jog with my iPod and so on.

Jim Santos: 9:46

What is this obsession with being safe Curious? I looked up the word in the dictionary. For those of you who were born after 1985, a dictionary is a book that contains most of the words of your language, listed in alphabetical order and providing information on pronunciation, definition and usage. Not to be confused with a thesaurus, which is not part of the female anatomy, but is instead a book of synonyms. A synonym, of course, is something you can sprinkle with sugar on toast, but I digress. The word safe means 1. Reaching base without being put out. Wait, that's the wrong definition. Here we go.

Jim Santos: 10:22

1. Secure from liability to harm, injury, danger or risk. 2. Free from hurt, injury, danger or risk. 3. Involving little or no risk of mishap, error. Notice how often another four letter word, risk, shows up there.

Jim Santos: 10:41

People want to know if living in Ecuador is without risk. Well, that's an easy answer Hells, no. And guess what? Living in the US is also not risk free. In fact, being alive anywhere is not safe. Let's face it. The mortality rate for being a living person is 100%. You are not safe, you are going to die. This is such a sure thing that there's an entire industry based on making money off the fact that you will die. The insurance trade not only knows that you will die, they also know the odds of when and how you will die. So, although they do pay out, they have tons of spreadsheets and auditors tracking the risk to make sure they charge you enough so that the house always wins in the long run. What the insurance companies get and what the American people do not really understand is the concept of risk itself. There are degrees of risk, but the people as a mass don't seem to grok it. They just want to be safe or, at the very least, assured that they are by someone in authority. This tendency has been growing for a long time in the US. You can try to blame it on 9-11, and politicians certainly do like to use that tragedy for their maximum benefit, but I believe it only sped up a process that was already there Before 9-11.

Jim Santos: 11:52

There were still things like bicycle helmets, knee pads and elbow pads for kids. There were warnings posted at Dairy Queen about the possibility of deadly peanuts lurking in your ice cream sundae, hospitals offering to X-ray Halloween candy, in spite of there never having been a case of someone finding a razor blade, stranger danger alerts and other indications. Look at the prevalence of something as simple as hand sanitizers to keep you safe from germs, even prior to COVID-19. Take my word for it. It was not always like that in the US, I mean, for years the most popular present for kids 10 or over was their very own daisy air rifle. Just BBs right? Ever get hit with on? You can punch a hole through a tin can with a properly pumped daisy air rifle. No, I blame the whole preoccupation with safety on one playful little item, jarts. Again for that post 1985 gang,

Jim Santos: 12:42

Jarts were part of an amusing little lawn game fun for kids of all ages. The Jarts kit consisted of two plastic hoops which you placed a set distance apart on a lawn. Then you took the six Jarts, which were small handheld missiles with a very heavy metal tip and gaily decorated plastic fins in two bright colors for teams! You took turns and I'm not kidding here lobbing these missiles underhanded in big looming arcs while standing at one circle in an attempt to have it plummet down and pierce the ground within the opposing hoop. The tips were not particularly sharp, but the Jart, which was shortened word for javelin dart, which I guess should have been a clue, could fall with a force of 21,000 pounds per square inch if tossed high. Enough Fun, you bet. Safe Not so much, especially since each team stood behind their own hoop.

Jim Santos: 13:34

I had to set myself, and I remember playing a variation with a friend of mine where we each stood with a hoop on opposite sides of the house. We proceeded to take turns, lobbing our Jarts over the roof, blindly trying to hit the unseen target. Of course, your opponent was on the other side, so he could yell out encouragement or insult, as the case may be. This continued until my mother stuck her head out the door and yelled for us to knock it off. Before we sing along with me, put someone's eye out.

Jim Santos: 14:00

There were, rather predictably, a number of injuries caused by this product, enough so that they were finally banned from sale. They were definitely and demonstrably not safe and appropriate action was taken. But getting back to the US and Ecuador now, we are talking about risks that are harder to define, and appropriate steps are not usually taken. For example, according to the CDC, in 2014, over 2.6 million Americans died in the US. More than half of them 1.4 million died from two causes heart disease or cancer. In that same year, 24 Americans lost their lives in terror attacks. Put another way, over 50 percent of all deaths were due to heart disease or cancer and only about 0.00092 percent were from terrorist attacks. That means you would be safer if the TS A were confiscating knives at your local steakhouse instead of at the airport. But do you see Congress rushing to pass laws to make you safe from heart disease, or to provide better funding for research and to causes and cures, or even to support better nutrition? Of course not. It's through their political advantage to make you afraid of something else. Meanwhile, in Ecuador, the best stats I could find from the State Department on violent deaths of expats in the year 2014, the year we arrived, stated that there were six reported. Granted, they openly acknowledged that these might not represent them all just what was reported to the State Department but still only six. Of those half dozen, three of them were suicide, one was a traffic accident and the remaining two were homicides.

Jim Santos: 15:36

Over recent years, it seems to me that the trend in the US has not been to make you safe from harm. It has been to make you feel as unsafe as possible, and Americans increasingly desire to be told that they are safe. It's like the nation is entering into a second childhood, yearning to be unfolded in the trusted arms of an adult and protected from all harm. And again, that's not going to happen. You are never going to be safe. There will always be risk. What you need to do is decide what is the real degree of risk involved and what are the potential rewards for taking that risk. Choosing to live overseas is definitely taking a risk. It is not a safe choice, but that does not mean that you are necessarily any safer by merely saying where you are.

Jim Santos: 16:20

Another travel writer told me he was approached by a conference attendee who wanted to know if he would be safe living in the small mountain town of Peru where the writer was currently living. Where do you live now? The writer inquired Detroit Brief pause. I think you'll be fine to know. To keep up For what it's worth, my wife and I have found Ecuador to be very safe.

Jim Santos: 16:41

We are comfortable in all parts of our lives there. However, we do not frequent bars, we don't walk around late at night in bad neighborhoods and we don't flaunt our comparative wealth. We live rather simply, enjoying shopping at the local Mercado, just like the Ecuadorians, taking the buses and trying our best to use the language and fit into the culture. Of course there are risks Heck. Just crossing the road here can be an adventure, and I've had wilder rides and taxis and anything you could find in an amusement park. But we feel we face no more risk, and possibly even less, than we would living in the US, and the rewards of our time in this beautiful country have made our lives much richer.

Jim Santos: 17:20

So if you're considering life overseas, I suggest that instead of trying to find reassurances from other, you just go and see for yourself. You don't have to pack everything and take off blindly. Take a vacation or two in your target country or countries. Get out there and look around at the world and see for yourself what the situation is. Yes, you should take reasonable precautions whether you're traveling to Ecuador, italy, the Philippines or even Boston. But for myself, living my life in fear, intent on staying safe and risking regret that I didn't see an experience as much of life as I possibly could. Well, that's one risk. I don't want to take Realities of crime in our experience.

Jim Santos: 18:02

Once in the first week or so, when we made the move to Salinas, we went out for what would become a normal part of our daily lives and after dinner walk down the Malacón. The first three quarters of a mile were along the brightly lit beach promenade with lots of activity and people around. As we neared the end of the walkway and a turn that would take us up a hill and around to the less populated Chepipe beach, there were no street lights and very few lights on the buildings around us. As we rounded the turn and started up the hill, now out of sight from people on the Salinas beach, we heard sounds of someone approaching from the other side, out of the darkness. I'm not ashamed to say we were a little spooked and moved closer together as we cautiously proceeded. We reached the top of the hill and suddenly they were there in front of us Two girls barely in their teens pushing a baby stroller. We felt a bit foolish and we realized that if they felt safe, maybe things weren't so dangerous for us either. At any rate, we continued to walk just about every day in the morning and evening for six years and although we saw many a loud drunk and other fascinating things, we never again felt that frisson of approaching menace.

Jim Santos: 19:08

This is not to say it was a crime-free area. After all, salinas is the biggest resort destination for Ecuadorians and wherever there are vacationers and partiers, there's going to be some crime. Most of this was petty theft and crimes of opportunity. For example, if you set your cell phone down on your table and turned around to talk to someone, there's a good chance it will not be there. When you turn back, ditto with a purse or backpack on the bus, you want to keep it in sight or attached to some extremity. On the other hand, when we visited mitad del mundo outside of Quito to do the obligatory pictures of standing on the line that almost marks the equator, we enjoyed our lunch at a restaurant there so much that when I left I forgot my very expensive SLR digital camera was hanging on the back of the chair. I was completely unaware of this until our server came running out to hand it to me. We did hear stories of home invasions and of people being mugged on the street, but in general those crimes of opportunity were the most likely type of crimes you might encounter. Most of these events are nothing you wouldn't find in any other place, whether in the US, canada or elsewhere in the world. Take, for example, the following story Don't crime for me Argentina.

Jim Santos: 20:20

There are some common cons you can run into that are not because it is so dangerous in a particular country, but simply because it's an easy way to prey on tourists. For example, in September 2017, Rita and I were spending a couple of weeks investigating Uruguay for some international living articles and to satisfy our own curiosity. After spending some time on the Atlantic coast, we moved on to the capital city, montevideo, and naturally, we cannot pass up a chance to cross the Rio de la Plata and spend a weekend in the Paris of South America. Buenos Aires, argentina. Saturday morning we were up early and ready to enjoy the Argentinian sunshine. We started the day with a short cab ride about $8, to the Casa Rosada to see the historic Evita balcony for ourselves. The traditional workplace and home of the president sits at the east end of the Plaza de Mayo, the city square that was the site where Argentina won its independence on May 25, 1810.

Jim Santos: 21:15

Our plan for the day was to follow our basic New City exploration routine by spending most of the morning walking from site to site, stopping to eat whenever we are hungry or if we saw something interesting. By starting at Casa Rosada, we could hit several places we wanted to see, while making a big circle back toward our hotel room, with plenty of time to clean up and get ready for a dinner tango show that evening. After a couple of hours, we decided to take a short break. No problem, because coffee is a very important part of the Buenos Aires social scene. Residents like to meet and relax over a good cup and a pastry, so there are plenty of coffee shops all around town. We enjoyed a delicious cup of fresh roasted coffee with a sweet roll at a corner cafe called London City. This charming Old World Cafe, with its mirror along the barista bar, comfortable wooden chairs and tables and black and white tiled floors, was like Europe in miniature. We heard patrons speaking Spanish, portuguese, english and German. It was a comfortable gathering place, with friends chatting, people using free wifi and folks just relaxing while they looked over their newspapers.

Jim Santos: 22:17

No one ever seemed to be in a hurry during our visit to Buenos Aires. Well refreshed, we pressed on for our next goal, the congressional buildings. However, we'd only gone about a block or two when we had an interesting little encounter. We were ducking under some scaffolding where work was being done at a facade when we both felt something lightly hit the back of our heads. Almost immediately, a woman appeared saying Senora, senora, offering to help us. She explained in Spanish and a little English that a bird had just pooped on us and she would help us clean it up. She just happened to have a bottle of water with her warning flag and wanted us to set down our things read as purse in my camera bag next to a dumpster on the sidewalk and turned around so she could clean us up. Right. I felt like asking if she was going to promise not to stick it in too far.

Jim Santos: 23:06

Two things foiled her plot. First of all, with about $900 of video and camera equipment in my bag, there was no way I was going to set it down on the ground and turn my back on it. Second, we had just come back from hiking the Inca Trail two weeks earlier. So Rita still had a container of handy wipes in her purse and we explained we could clean ourselves, and accomplice joined our helper shortly, still trying to get us to set everything down and turn around. But they eventually understood we were not falling for it and moved on as we reconstructed. Later, of course, we realized that there was no bird. One of the women had simply squirted us with something smelly. It was all down my pant, leg and back. It was a bird, he had some serious intestinal problems and they just meant to distract us, while her friend ran off with all of our stuff.

Jim Santos: 23:49

Now we don't hold it against or Argentina. I mean, that's the kind of scam that can happen wherever there are tourists. How to stay reasonably safe. We've met expats who have decided that there is safety in numbers. They stick with other expats and if they take a trip into the big city or up the coast they plan it as a group outing. They will hire a big van and a driver interpreter and off they go. One group of expats in Salinas took this to such an extreme, even having all of their meals together at the same safe restaurants every day that we started thinking of them as the gang of twelve.

Jim Santos: 24:24

There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but again, I believe it is not the best way to acclimate to life abroad. You are not becoming part of your new home. You are behaving like a career tourist, which actually is not a very good strategy for avoiding trouble. As demonstrated in our bird poop story, looking like a tourist is a good way to paint a bullseye on your back. Do I have examples?

Jim Santos: 24:46

Of course, we knew one gentleman who complained he had been jumped and beaten and had all his money taken from his wallet. One night we commiserated with him a bit and expressed our shock that it had happened to him in an area where we have walked many times. Then later on we got a little more detail from some folks who had been with him part of the evening. It seems he had been in a local bar talking loudly about this shit country and how hard it was to get things done. He was drinking a lot and waving around his wallet, which was obviously stuffed. He might have even made some rude suggestions to a waitress, a local who no doubt has some brothers and uncles. Around One time after 1am he staggered out the door on his own, obviously drunk, walking home alone. He was set upon by a few young men who did indeed mug him. I certainly don't condone the crime, but I can see the same end result happening just about anywhere there are drunks and rude tourists.

Jim Santos: 25:39

Another of my favorite crimes not surprisingly again starts in a bar. This particular gentleman, a portly man in his early 70s, was delighted to find that a lovely senorita seemed attracted to him. He apparently failed to notice that her attraction began after he opened his wallet and started bragging about his new condo. The fact that the young lady spoke very little English did not set off any warning bells either. She was obviously so captivated by his bald head, liver spots and wrinkles that her love transcended the mere spoken word. She behaved so friendly towards him, with little squeezes and kisses in between drinks, that he decided to go for it, and through broken Spanish ingestors, he asked her to come back to his place and would you believe it? She accepted. How's that for a meet-cute? He never knew he was. Such a Casanova must be the fresh sea air. He took her back to his nicely appointed condo and showed off the view. She suggested one more drink and even got it for him. That was the last thing he remembered until he woke up around noon in his now not so nicely appointed condo. She has slipped something into his drink and then taken everything of value she could find on him and in the apartment Watch, rings, jewelry, wallet, ipad, laptop, cell phone etc. Cleaned him out. So obviously one of the best ways to stay safe is not look like a tourist or do really stupid stuff Blending in.

Jim Santos: 27:02

I used to provide tech support in the US Senate buildings in Washington DC. I'd sit in the bullpen with the other techs in the basement of the Russell building and wait for a call to rush off to one of the Senate offices and fix some problem. One day in the summer I had a ticket for an office on the second floor of the Dirksen building. I used the basement tunnel that connects the two buildings so I wouldn't have to go outside in the heat, cross the street and come back in through metal detectors. I got on an elevator in the basement of Dirksen and held the door for a young intern who had her hands full with a tray of coffee she was carrying back to her office. We nodded politely just two cogs in the machine and I pushed the fourth floor button for her.

Jim Santos: 27:39

At ground level the doors opened and in-step to family of four. They were the prototypical family on vacation. All wore shorts and the adults were in brightly colored aloha shirts, the kids in iHeartDC T-shirts. All were wearing match souvenir baseball caps and dad was sporting a large camera clutching a map and wearing fashionable navy blue support stockings with white tennis shoes. I noticed the intern was trying to suppress a smile so I couldn't help myself. In the most deadpan voice I could manage. I said so, are you guys tourists? The intern lost it completely, almost dropping the coffee as she was laughing so hard. The dad had been about to answer enthusiastically and was confused by her reaction. I timed it perfectly because the doors opened on the second floor and I made my escape while the intern tried to salvage the situation.

Jim Santos: 28:29

I remembered that family when we moved to Ecuador and always tried to be aware of the image Rita and I were projecting, especially if we were heading into a city or on a road trip. There is, of course, no disguising our gringoness, and even if there was any doubt, it would vanish as soon as we opened our mouths to speak. Still, it is a good practice to not go out of your way to draw attention to yourself as an outsider, and therefore an easy mark. The route Rita and I chose then involved using common sense, like not getting drunk in public and trying to stand out as little as two obvious gringos can. This does go contrary to the thinking of many expats, I will admit. Nothing highlights that as well

Jim Santos: 29:07

as a trip Rita and I once took to Guayaquil, we were constantly warned, by expats and some Ecuadorians alike, to be fair, that it is a very dangerous city with a whole list of never's Never take a cab, never walk more than a block or two, never take a local bus and, most importantly, never go alone. But I have to confess we really like going to Guayaquil. I don't want to pretend like it's a completely safe city or that you shouldn't take reasonable precautions. It is, after all, a city of about 3.5 million people, with almost 2.7 million in the metropolitan area. That puts it around the size of Chicago. It means it would be the third or fourth largest city in the US, much larger than, say, philadelphia, dc, detroit or Baltimore. Would you wander around any of those US cities without a care in the world? Of course not, and we don't go to Juequil and act naive either. But to stay away from Guayaquil out of fear is doing yourself and Ecuadorians a big disservice. Sure, there are some excruciatingly poor areas, and you would be foolish to venture into most of those, but there are many great things about the city as well. The Malacón has a river walk that is a wonderful place to visit, with restaurants, shops, parks and playgrounds. There's an Iguana Park Parque Seminario, technically a square in front of a large church and seminary where you can stroll around among 50 or so of the huge lizards and several modern malls. There are also many terrific medical facilities in and, of course, plenty of delicious dining options.

Jim Santos: 30:37

The trip in question was to shop for hiking boots and a few odds and ends and then to keep a medical appointment for Rita. We also arranged to meet some friends who live in Joaquil for lunch as long as we were in the area. We started out about 8.30am from our condo in Salinas, catching a local bus through the terminal Torreste and Ballenita. Total cost for two of 50 cents. Regional buses leave every 10 to 15 minutes, so it was no problem to buy our tickets $6.28 total for the two of us and get immediately on a very comfortable bus. Less than two hours later we were at the terminal Torreste in Guayaquil where we called a $3 taxi to the Mall del Sol.

Jim Santos: 31:15

So far we've broken several safety rules. First, we've been told by some that the regional buses are unsafe. You can be stopped and robbed or be in an accident. In fact, one expat in particular seems to take an unnatural glee in posting every article that he can find about bus accidents. It is true that crime can happen, and even Elvis Costello will admit that accidents will happen. But what are the odds? If you ever visited the terminal in Guayaquil, you would marvel at the number of buses coming in and out of the huge multi-level structure in a steady stream about 20 hours a day. Out of hundreds of buses and tens of thousands of riders.

Jim Santos: 31:51

I liked our chances. Don't you take a risk just leaving your home every day or crossing the street. The next thing we did wrong was to take a taxi. It is a well-known fact that they will take you somewhere and rob you Again. Maybe we are just lucky, but we have never had a problem. It especially seems low risk taking a taxi from the terminal. The taxis there are members of the only co-op rotiva allowed and I can see them wanting to risk getting booted from a lucrative location. They also have radios and call in their destination at the start of each trip.

Jim Santos: 32:24

Back at the Mall de Sol, wonder of wonders we were able to find hiking boots in our sizes and at reasonable prices. Flush with success, we grabbed a $3 cab again at the official cab pickup spot for the mall. Out to the San Marino Mall to meet our friends at an excellent Peruvian restaurant, Segundo Muelle. After a wonderful meal and great company. We performed our next death-defying feat. We walked a few blocks to a pet store to buy flea and tick treatment for Rita's corgi.

Jim Santos: 32:53

Once more, let me point out we are not idiots. We do not walk around the city wearing a lot of jewelry or watches. We do not have our iPhones out in our hands. We're not wearing checkered shorts and loud Hawaiian shirts. As best we can, as obvious screen goes, we address much like everyone around us Comfortable, simple clothing and a small backpack slung over one shoulder. Nothing about a screams wealth or a target. I generally have a little cash in my pocket and a little in my wallet, and if we need to carry a lot of cash, like to pay for a medical procedure, I use a money belt. Also, the places where we walk around are really not very dangerous neighborhoods. The area we are talking about now has two upscale malls across the street from each other San Marino and Poli Centro. We had time to check out a few stores in Poli Centro before heading across just one more street to the Kennedy Clinica Hospital for Rita's consultation appointment.

Jim Santos: 33:45

The doctor appointments in Ecuador are a little different from in the US. This was technically a one-year follow-up visit. First there are handshakes and hugs for me, kisses and hugs for Rita. Then we sit and talk for a while. We talked about everything except, of course, the reason for the visit. We covered how our kids and grandkids were doing. The doctor told us about his recent award and his farm outside of Waikiu, and we talked about our plans to hike the Inca Trail the next year. That, of course, led to places he had visited in South America and finally, after about 45 minutes, he asked Rita how she was feeling. There was perhaps a 5-minute exam, and then he told her that she was fine and to check back in another 6 months. And we talked for about another 45 minutes.

Jim Santos: 34:27

The upshot of this lengthy visit is that by the time we left, it was after 7pm and completely dark out here. We had transgressed once more, this time by not getting out of town before it gets dark. Instead, we decided to walk back over to the San Marino Mall in the dark and have dinner in the food court, first Laughing or, I guess, chewing in the face of death. We enjoyed a quick meal at Chop Chop's and then went out to another official cab stand for one more trip, this time spending $4 for the ride back to the terminal Treste, another $6.28, and a couple of uneventful hours later we were back in Ballenita for the last leg, this time taking a $5 cab home, since local buses leaving the terminal changed their schedule after 8pm and it takes forever to get back to Salinas on the number 11 late at night. Home again, home again 13 hours after we left, and none the worse for the trip. We had two great meals, found everything we were shopping for and had a terrific time.

Jim Santos: 35:24

Our total transportation costs for two came to $28.06. Now consider the popular, safe alternative Hire a driver to take you everywhere, waiting for you at each stop, and bring you back. Most local drivers would charge about $10 per hour and would expect to have their meals paid for as well, which is only fair. That would have cost us about $150 total. Even if we had used a cheaper driver, who may be charged a flat rate, it would have been hard to do it for less than $100, unless, of course, we had directly gone to for the doctor's appointment and come right back home. Then we probably could have done it for under $80.

Jim Santos: 36:02

But where's the fun in that? To each his own. Certainly, everyone has to find their own comfort level with living in a foreign country, and I don't mean to disparage anyone, and you never know. Our next trip could be the one where fate bitch slaps us and puts us in our places, but I don't want to live in fear of something that could happen. I feel like we have a wonderful opportunity living in Ecuador. There are so many things to see and do, so many new experiences, and even if we felt like we have seen everything the country has to offer, we're in South America and that much closer to even more fun stuff Besides. I really do like Guayaquil. How many experiences might we miss out on by trying to live in a bubble? Yes, there is crime just about anywhere you go in the world and no, I cannot promise you that you will be safe if you choose the life of an expat. How you choose to go through life is, of course, your own concern, but from our experience, with a proper attitude and precautions, the rewards of travel far outweigh the perceived dangers.

Jim Santos: 37:24

I'm going to be gone by going to my author page at www. jimsantos. net. That's J-I-M-S-A-N-T-O-S dot net. Be sure to like and follow and if you have any questions or a story about slow travel you'd like to tell. Email me at jim@ jimsantosbooks. com. Until next week. This is Jim Santos, for Travels with Jim and Rita. Reminding you, we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.