After nearly four weeks on the Ecuadorian coast, our interactions have been much more frequent and substantial with gringos than with local Ecuadorians. Our hosts here, Marsha and Shell, hail from Arkansas but moved here 4 years ago to retire. As they built their beach house with extra guest rooms for their visiting family and friends, they realized they could add another floor and use the house to host paying guests. And so this bed and breakfast was born.
Shell is a former bank president who likes to keep busy with projects. In addition to overseeing the building of this beach house he has bought, remodeled, and sold other property along the coast. He's a story-teller and willing guide for his guests.
Marsha holds the stronger command of Spanish and helps direct the day to day operations of the house, which includes managing a staff of two housekeepers and two groundskeepers. Her background as CPA helps her keep the finances of running this business and of the other real estate ventures in the black.
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| Our three hosts: Shell, Marsha, and Choco. |
Above all, Marsha and Shell are consummate hosts. They anticipate needs, continuously improve the experience, and go well beyond what's expected. We've been impressed by their subtle generosity. It manifests in many ways such as when Shell dropped by our room to ask the boys if they had left two LED light sticks in the yard. The boys said no, but Shell said they could have them anyway. It was clear to Shelly and me that Shell had gotten the light sticks for the boys but just didn't want to make us feel indebted. Classy.
Because of these great American hosts, many of the other people we've met here have been Americans as well. We've met many expatriates living nearby as Shell and Marsha seem to be a central part of that community. Most of these expats have chosen to retire on the coast in Ecuador though some still live in the U.S. or Canada six months of the year for professional reasons.
We've met entrepreneurs from the States who have started businesses in Ecuador. Most of the younger entrepreneurs live in Ecuadorian cities like Guayaquil and Cuenca where there's a bigger population base and access to resources like quality education. Coastal visits are vacations for these people.
Another batch of people we've met are paid by you--American taxpayers. DEA agents, consular staff, and security officers enjoy hitting the coast and the familiar warmth of the hosts at our B&B. With fascination we've listened to their world-travel stories, their perspective of Ecuador, and details of their careers we'd guess most Americans have no idea about.
Also funded by you, even if at much less expense, are the peace corps workers we've met--fourteen in all so far. Only one volunteer, Pam, is assigned to this village but she has twice hosted other volunteers from around the country for workshops. Pam's assignment is to educate and empower women in La Entrada to build viable businesses of their own. Her first venture is a collective in which she taught the local women how to make and market recycled paper goods.
What we've discerned through these interactions is a kind of "third culture" that's neither Ecuadorian nor American. It has elements of both brought in and at the same time seems to create a fantastical culture that doesn't really exist--a culture where people take what they like from two different cultures and try to have the best of both worlds. This third culture is quite alluring, but we suspect it's elusive to many.
Interspersed among all of these foreigners, we have met and engaged many Ecuadorians too--the staff here, Ecuadorian guests, our surf instructor, shopkeepers, and villagers. We've used those opportunities to practice our Spanish. Hopping on local buses, hiring guides, and navigating menus has been much easier thanks to our intensive time in Guatemala.
But in all candor, this stretch of weeks is less about cultural immersion and more about taking in what this locale has to offer. And it's a cornucopia!
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