At our Spanish school, we took a class to learn how to make Empanadas. This class was taught by one of the teachers at our Spanish school in Quito, Ecuador.

At the end, the empanadas were completely delicious (though I neglected to actually get a picture or video of anyone actually EATING one).

In the last post, I talked about how we freed up more than $750/month with the sale of our cars and lowering of our auto insurance.

I also talked about how we track everything we spend, and everything we earn.

This is something I HIGHLY recommend.

However, these posts aren’t really here to tell you what to do, but more so are just here to show you how we afford to travel, hopefully giving you ideas about how YOU can afford to travel (or do whatever you want with the time and money you have – and can create).

Today, we’re going to talk about phones and communication.

In Colorado, our “communication” bill was:

• $140/month shared cell phone plan (with taxes and fees)
• $30/month VOIP based house line (with taxes and fees)
• $5/month ($60/year) Unlimited Calling through a Skype-In/SkypeOut plan
• $15/month RingCentral/800# type service
• $55/month High-speed Internet

I’m going to set aside the high-speed Internet and include that in a future post about housing costs.

So our monthly “communication” costs for the first 9 months of 2009 averaged out to $190/month.

(Again, we know this because we tracked it every month, and continue to do so.)

When we left on our travel, we lowered our cell plan (and are talking about lowering it further) to a $70/month plan, which rounds out to $82/month (after taxes+fees).
Money freed up = $140 – $82 = $68

We moved our VOIP based house line over to Phone.com (which lets you forward the number to any number you want), for $5/month. 
Money freed up = $30 – $5 = $25

After taxes, fees, and other incidentals, in phone communication alone, we freed up over $90/month.

Adding cars and phones, this gives us a total of just under $850/month to use in a different way than we had been using it before.

I’ll be continuing this in another post, but hopefully these last two posts have given you some ideas of how you might be able to free up money on a monthly basis to be able to travel or accomplish whatever goals you want to accomplish.

For us, the process started with tracking what we were spending and earning, so that we could see where there might be areas to improve both what we were spending and earning.

Do you like these posts about how we afford to travel?

If you do, PLEASE comment below and let me know.

I can continue doing them… but if you don’t like them, let me know and I’ll get back to posting just pictures and videos!

And, in case you’re interested…

How our phones work now:

Old VOIP number is hosted with Phone.com for $5/month.

(Phone.com actually emails me voice mails that come in on that number as email attachments, which I like.)
The old VOIP number forwards to our SkypeIn number.

Both of our cell phone numbers also forward to our SkypeIn number.
When someone calls us, SkypeIn rings on the computer, whenever (and wherever) we’re signed in to Skype.  If we’re not signed in, SkypeIn also includes voice mail, so people leave a message which we pick up when we are signed in.

Through SkypeOut, we make all our outbound calls to the US and Canada (no matter where we are in the world) for $30/year UNLIMITED.  Calling other countries varies, but is super affordable.  (Interesting Statistic: In 2009, 12% of ALL WORLDWIDE international call minutes were completed through Skype.)

We really like Skype.

There are other similar services, but none that we’ve tried out have been as good, reliable, useful, or downright nifty, as Skype.

Jonathan and I were very excited at the idea of seeing how an Ecuadorian family lives. But, we got way more than we expected.

We didn’t expect to be welcomed as and treated as part of their family. It was fabulous! In the 5 months and 2 days we’ve been traveling, it was by far my favorite day.

Maribel’s husband, Paco, was kind enough to pick us up and drive us the 2 hours to the town. And, he even bought us some delicious avocado ice cream on the way down.

Yes, you read that right. AVOCADO ice cream.

He also gave us some fun history lessons and shared some legends with us and it made the ride very short and comfortable.

When we arrived, the family (16 people in total) was down picking corn (choclo) for dinner.

(It looks like Jonathan's flipping off the camera, but he's really just holding the leaves out of the way.)

So, we went and grabbed a few ears of corn for ourselves.

Then we went to pick berries. There’s one very tall tree, and all berries at the bottom had already been picked, so it was up to the top of the tree.

Maribel’s 4 year old son, Paquito, was completely fearless. He climbed nearly to the top by himself. (It was so cute to watch him come down: He wrapped his arms and legs around the branch and slid down while yelling like Tarzan.)

Maribel’s father, Manuel, also climbed to the top of the tree.  He’s 83 years old.

Jonathan and I stayed on the ground. I would have climbed, but it was full of people (one tree already supporting 8 people).

Then we were off to cook lunch.

We had delicious Choclo that was picked minutes before, potatoes fresh from the garden, a cucumber salad, fresh cheese, and delicious aji.

Aji is a spicy sauce that is found on every table in Ecuador. It’s made of tomate de arbol (a fruit that is only grown in Ecuador), agua, aji (a spicy pepper), red onion (soaked in salt to remove the raw flavor), and cilantro.

The food was so good. I kept eating long past being full because it was so good. I was sitting next to Paquito. He kept adding more and more aji to his food.

I leaned over and asked if he liked aji. He got kind of embarrassed, and said that he did. I told him that I did too as I added more to my plate as well. He thought that was pretty funny.

Then, Maribel, Jonathan, and I played a new card game she taught us a few weeks ago. It’s called cabesa de la mierda… (poop head…well, “poop” is a more family-friendly word than what it actually is).

Next we went out and played soccer. The whole family played. And, it was the first soccer game I’ve ever played in my life! It was quite fun.

Unfortunately, I had to stop at half time because my contacts just couldn’t take the dust anymore. But, this meant that I got to spend the next 30 minutes holding the cutest baby (Pablo)!

As we’ve said before, our apartment doesn’t have an oven. This means that my Uncle Don’s “No Bake Cookies” have become quite a hit. I made them for Maribel in class one day, and she took them home to her family.

Everyone wanted to know how to make them, so I shared the recipe with everyone.

The hardest part was waiting for them to cool and dry!

Maribel’s father can play two flutes at one time! So, we begged him for a demonstration. I don’t think he wanted to at first, but I’m so glad that he did. It really was amazing.

(Video coming soon…)

Paquito also showed us him impressions of Michael Jackson. He can moonwalk quite well, and he can jump up to the tops of his toes.

But the grand finale is the best

I didn’t know that we were invited to spend the night as well. I thought we were just invited for the day. Had I known, I would have brought my contact solution so we could have stayed. (I have hard contacts and cannot sleep in them, and they require special solution as well.)

I am really disappointed that we couldn’t stay. Being there really felt like being at home for me.

Maribel’s sister, Yesenia, her husband, Juan, and their children, Angelo and Pablo (the baby), were kind enough to drive us all the way back to our apartment (which is 25 km out of the way).

(Angelo's on the front of the bike in this pic.)

We had a fun ride back. Little Angelo, however, was completely tired-out from the soccer game. He fell asleep against Jonathan’s shoulder before the car even pulled away from the curb.

(At one point, he reached over and took hold of Jonathan’s arm –while sleeping. It was so adorable!)

I am very grateful to Maribel and her family for the invitation!

View of Volcano Cotopaxi from the backyard

We had a wonderful day full of family, fun, food, passing around one glass of beer, and spending time as part of a big family again. Thank you, all of you (Manuel, Maribel, Paco, Honey, Mateo, Pacquito, Juan, Yesenia, Angelo, Pablo, Rosa, Patricio, Sara, and Valeria) for giving me my favorite day yet!

It’s only a short bus ride and a few blocks walk from our Spanish School, Simon Bolivar.

To go up to the top costs $2. And, one thing Jonathan and I have learned is that it is ALWAYS worth it (vale la pena) to go to the top of church towers (Milan, Granada, Munich, Berlin, etc.).

With La Basilica de Quito, however, there’s an elevator to take you up one side.  It won’t take you all the way to the top, but it will take you to the balcony to overlook the interior of the church, and it will take you up to an outdoor balcony with a great view.

Make sure that you go up all the towers of La Basilica de Quito (there are 3).  There’s the clock tower with a great view of Colonial Quito (to the south).  Inside the clock tower, there are also bells.

The bells are wishing bells.  You make a wish, and then ring the bell.

Jonathan got a little aggressive with his bell-ringing (he REALLY wanted his wish to come true – he says he did it because Maribel (our teacher) told him to ring the bell “mas fuerte”).

He rang the bell so loudly that it set of a car alarm!

Watch the video to see:

I also discovered one of Maribel’s secrets at the top of this tower.  She’d written her name on the wall.  (OK, it really wasn’t her, but it was fun to be able to tease her about it in Spanish.)

When crossing from one tower to the other, you walk across a small wooden bridge over the top of the ceiling of the church.

It was pretty amazing.  I’ve never done that before.

From there we climbed a few steep ladders to get to the top of the other tower.

This tower looks over the north side (more modern) of Quito.  It wasn’t possible for us to see our apartment from here, but I did know my directions well enough to point out approximately where the school would be.

Maribel also told us that it was funny to watch Americans and Europeans come up here, because they are always scared.  She told us that Ecuadorians are fearless and will climb the ladders like nothing.

She even told us that she came up when she was 8 months pregnant.  She wanted to give her baby a rush of adrenaline before it was even born so that it too would be fearless.  (My guess, is that this baby is now known as Pacito.)

What a really great activity for the day.  We are learning Spanish better and better every minute, and it was fun to be able to talk and joke with Maribel as we visited the tallest church tower in South America, La Basilica de Quito.

I think I’m going to rename it La Basilica del Sol, because it’s probably the church closest to the sun as well.

You know I’ve been thinking a lot.

In our recession, how is it that you and Carrie can travel all over the world?

This post will hopefully start a series of posts about how we afford to travel and how we’re doing what we’re doing.

Most importantly, we’re going to attempt to provide some tips or ideas for you if you’re wanting to set up your life so that you can “afford” to travel for extended periods of time.

What’s important here is not how we can afford to travel.

What’s important is (if you want to travel) how YOU can afford to travel.

What I responded back to my friend is:

I heard about that recession thing… I just decided not to participate.

This is a quote I got from listening to a CD by Jim Rohn over, and over, and over, from 2002-2009.

The short answer is that since our income isn’t location specific, we work from wherever we get an Internet connection, so we earn (and work) whether or not we’re traveling.  As far as costs, we spend about the same amount when traveling as we do when living in the states.

The email to my friend said more as well, but that’s the gist.

Here’s one way we have more money to travel:
Selling our cars and lowering our auto insurance to the lowest possible amount saves us over $750/month alone.

That may seem like an incredibly large number, but we know it for a fact.

How?

We track everything we spend, and everything we earn.

I have done this since 2001.  Carrie has done this since 2004.

We track everything:

• A bottle of water picked up at a little store…
• A small tourist trinket in a local market…
• Going to the movies (and the drinks/popcorn – if we actually bought those at the movies, which we don’t)…
• All our groceries…

Everything.

You don’t have to track everything you spend and everything you earn, but I highly recommend trying it for at least 30 days.

It’s AMAZING how much you can learn from this simple activity.

It’s hard to know how to get where you want to be if you don’t know where you are starting from.

Part of where you are starting from is with your habits and rituals.

If you don’t want to track everything you spend and earn, then start just with your vehicle (if you have one).

I dare you, for 30 days, to track every expense (and income) associated with your vehicle.

This includes:

• Gas
• Insurance
• Repairs
• Washing
• Car Payment (if applicable)

Do not make a quality judgment about it during the 30 days (i.e. “I should drive less” or “I should sell this car and buy a less expensive one”).

Just track how much you spend on your car (and how much you earn from your car – if that’s $0.00, make sure to write down $0.00) for 30 days.

When Carrie and I average what we spent on our cars, per month, in the first 9 months of 2009, it averages out to over $750/month.

We don’t have those cars anymore.

As a result, we have freed up $750/month for our travel expenses.

My suggestion would be to track everything you spend, and everything you earn.

You might find some surprising places in your life that can help YOU afford to travel.

Eco (Economical/Ecologically friendly) Via (way)

This map is oriented so that West is UP, and NORTH is to the right.

We live to the west of the bus route just off the Carolina Park, in-between the stops of Benalcazar and Naciones Unidas.

Simon Bolivar Spanish School, where we go every morning for class, is to the South from us.

It’s just off of the bus route on the East (that’s down on this map) of the stop Manuela Canizares.

So we take the Ecovia every day to school, and every day back to the apartment from school.

We’ve also taken the Ecovia to meet up with people in the Mariscal district, an area of Quito with lots of good restaurants and bars (which is also close to the school).

Quito has about 3 million people crowded into a very small space.

These people all need a good way to get from North to South.

The Ecovia really is a good system for a mountainous city (difficult terrain), where earthquakes can happen (difficult to invest in elevated roads or trains), and which has lots of underground reservoirs (expensive subways).

Along the 6th of December, the Ecovia has it’s own lanes. No one else (except emergency vehicles) are allowed in these lanes).

This means that if traffic backs up in the regular lanes, the Ecovia buses can go right through.

However, because the Ecovia is so cheap and effective (25 cents takes you from the North to the South of the city (or just one stop if you get off earlier)), lots of people use Ecovia.

As a result, it really gets SUPER crowded at times, especially during rush hour.

It’s at these times when, like in any big city with crowded spaces,  it’s a good idea to keep your wallet in a zipper pocket you can hold on to, and keep any purses/bags held close.

It’s not always crowded, but when it is, people really do pack in VERY tightly to make sure they catch the bus.

Here’s Carrie during rush hour in the afternoon yesterday.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, but people really are packed in like sardines in a can.

There ARE also seats on this bus… somewhere.

Carrie &Jonathon,

I’m confused looking at your site… you guys have traveld a lot looks like… where all have u been?

james

Hey James!

Well, we have done a lot of travel in the past, but since October, we’ve been permanently on the road, living wherever we are…

Here are a couple of maps to show where we were in October-December.

After that we were in Colorado briefly.

In January, we flew back to Costa Rica and took the bus to David, Panama.

What we have been up to since January is on the map below.

Now we’re in Quito, Ecuador, taking Spanish classes.

Thanks for asking and for visiting our website!

I haven’t eaten much in the past 8 days because everything I have been eating seems to be running right through me.

I first had symptoms last Monday mid-day (Montezuma’s Revenge – if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask someone).

By Friday I was feeling better.

So I went out for Alex’s Birthday.

I ate fried food and had a couple of drinks.

Saturday morning, we were supposed to go to Otavalo Market.

Instead, I spent half the day asleep, and the other half of the day in the bathroom.

I was feeling better today, but just to be sure, we went to the doctor.

Visiting the doctor in Ecuador was pretty much like visiting the doctor in the US, except it was a more personable experience.

We waited in the waiting room for 10 minutes, and then the doctor called us in.

We met in his very comfortable office for 10 minutes discussing things.  This alleviated the intimidating feeling of experiencing the “exam-room” first thing.  The doctor took some time to hear what was going on.

Then we walked down the hall into the very modern exam room, where the doctor used a stethoscope, blood pressure arm cuff, and took my temperature with the electronic ear reader thing.

He had me lay back, tapped my stomach a bit, and had me sit back up.

He asked a few more questions, and let me know I probably have some kind of parasites (which I already knew, because I’ve been able to see them (and I’ve been helping my body fight them) when I close my eyes.  That’s a whole other topic for a different post).

The Doctor prescribed me 6 pills for Colufase which I’m to take every 12 hours.

In 3 days, he assures me, I will be parasite free… because the medication is pretty darn effective (apparently).

$40 for the doctor visit (which I’m sure is the price for gringos, but no big deal) and $8 for the 6 pills.

Overall, a good experience visiting the doctor in Quito, Ecuador.

(I just realized, that’s the first time I’ve even been to a doctor outside of the US. I’m glad it was a good experience.)

The market is in a few different areas of the city, and starts early in the morning when mostly indigenous people from surrounding villages offer animals, clothes and food.

Every local and indigenous market has it’s local flare.

I think the market at Saquisili, Ecuador is best marked by the separated nature of the four major markets there.

• Large Animals (pigs, cows, llamas)
• Small Animals (chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits)
• Produce  (including fruits, vegetables, and raw sugar which comes direct from molds which women spend hours making, is better than the purest brown sugar in the US, and is UNBELIEVEABLY cheap)
• Flea Market (A.K.A. where you might find someone’s stolen stuff being re-sold)

There are also stands with art, clothing, blankets, and other textiles.

It’s a smaller (relatively speaking) market than others we’ve been in, and we’ve heard it’s smaller than Otavalo, which we have yet to visit (but will soon, now that I’m eating and back to normal again).

The trip to Saquisilí was organized by our Spanish School, Simon Bolivar.

My favorite experience of the day?  Being whacked with a metal tool that is used to carve meat.

Back story:

These women sit for 5-8 hours, sawing teeth into these rounded blades with hacksaws.

The blades are then sold to butchers and ranchers.

They sell the blades for JUST $1, after spending at least 30 minutes sawing the teeth into the blade by hand.

I found it fascinating and amazing that these women work so hard and earn so little.

I also was astounded that each of the little teeth in the blades were sawed into the blade, by hand, with a hack-saw!

So I was taking a video of the process, as well as some pictures.

As I got closer, the woman said something.

“Repita, por favor?” (please repeat?)

“Dar me un dolar.” (Give me a dollar.)

“Porque?” I asked.  (Why?)

She didn’t respond.

But as I walked past, she WHACKED the back of my leg with the flat of the blade.

And I mean really hard.

(I’m glad she used the flat of the blade.)

I later learned that she wanted a dollar because I had taken a photo of her.

Giving a dollar, or asking if I could take the photo before taking it, would have been the polite thing for me to do.

I (could be mistaken but I) think there’s a bit of an expectation in the Quechua culture that I would have at least paid something.

Even just as a tourist taking a picture, I should always ask.

Had I known or understood really what was going on in the moment, I probably would have gone back and bought one of her blades for $2.00.

But she wasn’t there when we walked back by, so I didn’t get the chance.

In any case, it was a good reminder of something I already know:
Especially with local cultures, or in places where cameras and pictures are a bit of a novelty, ask before taking a picture.

Here are some photos and a simple video (selections from videos and pictures I took) at Saquisilí which I hope you’ll find interesting.

There were some serious squeals coming from these pigs as they were dragged off to trucks.

Want an alpaca?  If you negotiate, you can get one for about $150.

A sheep costs a bit more than an alpaca.  Maybe $200.

Chickens destined for…

One tourist to another tourist: “Hey, I think I found your camera!”

Need a copy of your keys?  Only $0.50/key.

Animal feed bowls made out of recycled rubber tires

Life is not necessarily easy here, but the people working in the market generally seemed happy.

This should definitely go towards an advertising campaign for “more bars” (as in, cell phone service).  On the right is our teacher Maribel (and Carrie).  Maribel’s arm is around an indigenous woman who was begging for money.  Maribel gave her some money and asked if we could take a picture with her.

Ecuador has some AMAZING fruit.

I’m sorry to inform you that this guinea pig does not have a future as a pet.