Fun Times in Ecuador

[Gary Schiltz-4]

[A long post follows - I hope it is interesting to at least a few on
the list (I'm thinking especially of Ivan Ordoñez)]

Despite living here in EC for 7 years, I'm still trying to figure the
place out. There are so many things I could say about it, but most
would be just sort of gut feelings. My Spanish reading skills have
only recently reached the point where I can read newspapers with
little enough pain to make it worthwhile.

First, the good things. The country is extremely varied
geographically. It is about the size of NM, with a population of about
13 million. We have Amazonian jungle, mountains over 21,000 feet,
Pacific beaches, and then of course the Galapagos. I live at about
6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half
an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F,
another half an hour for another 10 degrees. Or, I can drive half hour
up our gravel road for a decrease of 10 degrees. So, up to a 30 degree
temperature range in an hour and a half of driving. It's very
beautiful where I live, but quite cloudy (that's why it's called cloud
forest :-)  People are generally very friendly here, but the idea of
"the truth" seems to be a little flexible. Non-prepared food is cheap,
especially fruits and vegetables. It is still legal for foreigners to
own land here, and land in rural areas can be bought for between the
low hundreds of dollars per acre, up to thousands. You can get
permanent residency by several means; Karen and I did so by investing
more than $25K by buying land (and then building two houses on it).

In my opinion, the bad things pretty much begin with the current
government. Rafael Correa swept into power in 2007 on a populist
platform modeled laregly after Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - many have
called him "Chavez Light". At first, he was pretty moderate, and spent
all of Ecuador's income from oil (I believe we are a member of OPEC),
which was high because of the price of crude, on infrastructure
projects. I wholeheartedly support investing in infrastructure. So
though I was initially a little skeptical, after 8 years of GW Bush, I
had convinced myself that leftist governments are a good thing.
However, within a couple of years, the entire national assembly was
from Correa's party, and the populist rhetoric, replete with
rich-vs-poor talk, steadily increased. Then he loaded the courts with
his supporters, so with all three branches of government, he has
pretty much gotten whatever he wants. He has a huge ego and hates to
be criticized. So, he started passing laws restricting legitimate
criticism, much like Chavez. After a couple of journalists were fined
millions of dollars for "libel" against Correa, criticism pretty much
died, and many people became genuinely fearful to say anything
negative about him in public.

When the price of crude dropped dramatically, there wasn't enough
money to feed his newly created huge bureaucracy. So, he turned to a
few countries, especially China, and got high-interest loans. At the
moment, I believe EC is in debt to the tune of $35 billion, and even
with crude prices going up somewhat, there still isn't enough cash
being collected to maintain the bureaucracy. At first, he merely added
"safeguards" (basically import quotas and higher import duties). After
all, this only affected "the rich". Even that wasn't enough. So, he
made a mistake that may (I hope) be his downfall. He proposed large
capital gains taxes on real estate (I'm not sure, but my impression is
that this may even apply when you don't sell).

But the extremely unpopular thing that he did was to propose
progressive high inheritance taxes. EC, like most latin countires, is
very family oriented. He made the mistake of criticizing the ability
to pass property down to heirs with little tax, and that struck a
nerve. One remark that he made went like this: if you have property or
a business worth, let's say $500K, and you have five children and ten
people working for you, you can leave each child $100K, which would
put them into the 72% tax bracket, which would mean they would each
have to raise $72K just to receive their share. But, why not divide
the estate into 15 parts, leaving $33K to each child, as well as to
each worker? That would put them all into a much lower bracket,
allowing them all to inherit their small amount tax free. That's
pretty much when the shit hit the fan. Even communist-leaning folks
tend to have a dim view of leaving the same thing to their workers as
they do to their kids, especially here in family-oriented Latin
America.

So Ecuadorians have recently found their voice, especially the middle
class. Emboldened by anger over his anti-family stance, people have
finally started vociferously criticizing Correa. Starting a couple of
weeks ago, people have been peacefully demonstrating in the streets by
the tens of thousands in Quito, and even more in Guayaquil. I believe
there were estimates of up to 300K people in Guayaquil alone
demonstrating against Correa on June 26. In Quito, a group numbering
in the tens of thousands marched to as close to the presidencial
residence as they could get, chanting "Fuera, Correa, Fuera!" ("Out,
Correa, Out!"). [#FueraCorreaFuera] They even broke through the police
lines, but Correa himself was off somewhere else giving a speech to
his mass of supporters, numbering in the low hundreds in that
particular location.

So, it isn't clear what's going to happen. Oh, the other thing that
Correa has been pushing for is a change to the Constitution to remove
term limits (he is two years away from the end of his second term,
which is all that is currently allowed). The assembly apparently could
amend the constitution by itself, but polls show over 70% in favor of
a national referendum, which almost certainly would go against
indefinite re-election, and thus, against Correa.

The next few months will be pretty interesting, to say the least.

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[Marcus G. Daniels]

"I live at about 6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F, another half an hour for another 10 degrees"

How about power and low-latency broadband availability?     I had satellite internet when I lived out in Arroyo Hondo, and I about lost it.
Looking for a mountain hideaway for a bitcoin mining empire --  something will have to pick up the slack when in the event of a Euro meltdown!

Marcus
 

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[Merle Lefkoff-2]

Hmm, seems to me Correa has been on the side of the poor folks all along.  Ability to enter the middle class in Ecuador has much to do with your color--how light or dark you are.  And rich folks like to pass on their entitlement to their kids to insure that dynasties--political and otherwise--hold through the generations.  You can call this "family-friendly."  I call it anti-democratic, because it depresses opportunity for those not born into that entitlement. 

Getting rid of term limits, however, is a sign of stupid overreach--happens to the best of men when they get into power--but the rest sounds pretty good to me.

On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 8:31 PM, Gary Schiltz <[hidden email]> wrote:

[A long post follows - I hope it is interesting to at least a few on
the list (I'm thinking especially of Ivan Ordoñez)]

Despite living here in EC for 7 years, I'm still trying to figure the
place out. There are so many things I could say about it, but most
would be just sort of gut feelings. My Spanish reading skills have
only recently reached the point where I can read newspapers with
little enough pain to make it worthwhile.

First, the good things. The country is extremely varied
geographically. It is about the size of NM, with a population of about
13 million. We have Amazonian jungle, mountains over 21,000 feet,
Pacific beaches, and then of course the Galapagos. I live at about
6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half
an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F,
another half an hour for another 10 degrees. Or, I can drive half hour
up our gravel road for a decrease of 10 degrees. So, up to a 30 degree
temperature range in an hour and a half of driving. It's very
beautiful where I live, but quite cloudy (that's why it's called cloud
forest :-)  People are generally very friendly here, but the idea of
"the truth" seems to be a little flexible. Non-prepared food is cheap,
especially fruits and vegetables. It is still legal for foreigners to
own land here, and land in rural areas can be bought for between the
low hundreds of dollars per acre, up to thousands. You can get
permanent residency by several means; Karen and I did so by investing
more than $25K by buying land (and then building two houses on it).

In my opinion, the bad things pretty much begin with the current
government. Rafael Correa swept into power in 2007 on a populist
platform modeled laregly after Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - many have
called him "Chavez Light". At first, he was pretty moderate, and spent
all of Ecuador's income from oil (I believe we are a member of OPEC),
which was high because of the price of crude, on infrastructure
projects. I wholeheartedly support investing in infrastructure. So
though I was initially a little skeptical, after 8 years of GW Bush, I
had convinced myself that leftist governments are a good thing.
However, within a couple of years, the entire national assembly was
from Correa's party, and the populist rhetoric, replete with
rich-vs-poor talk, steadily increased. Then he loaded the courts with
his supporters, so with all three branches of government, he has
pretty much gotten whatever he wants. He has a huge ego and hates to
be criticized. So, he started passing laws restricting legitimate
criticism, much like Chavez. After a couple of journalists were fined
millions of dollars for "libel" against Correa, criticism pretty much
died, and many people became genuinely fearful to say anything
negative about him in public.

When the price of crude dropped dramatically, there wasn't enough
money to feed his newly created huge bureaucracy. So, he turned to a
few countries, especially China, and got high-interest loans. At the
moment, I believe EC is in debt to the tune of $35 billion, and even
with crude prices going up somewhat, there still isn't enough cash
being collected to maintain the bureaucracy. At first, he merely added
"safeguards" (basically import quotas and higher import duties). After
all, this only affected "the rich". Even that wasn't enough. So, he
made a mistake that may (I hope) be his downfall. He proposed large
capital gains taxes on real estate (I'm not sure, but my impression is
that this may even apply when you don't sell).

But the extremely unpopular thing that he did was to propose
progressive high inheritance taxes. EC, like most latin countires, is
very family oriented. He made the mistake of criticizing the ability
to pass property down to heirs with little tax, and that struck a
nerve. One remark that he made went like this: if you have property or
a business worth, let's say $500K, and you have five children and ten
people working for you, you can leave each child $100K, which would
put them into the 72% tax bracket, which would mean they would each
have to raise $72K just to receive their share. But, why not divide
the estate into 15 parts, leaving $33K to each child, as well as to
each worker? That would put them all into a much lower bracket,
allowing them all to inherit their small amount tax free. That's
pretty much when the shit hit the fan. Even communist-leaning folks
tend to have a dim view of leaving the same thing to their workers as
they do to their kids, especially here in family-oriented Latin
America.

So Ecuadorians have recently found their voice, especially the middle
class. Emboldened by anger over his anti-family stance, people have
finally started vociferously criticizing Correa. Starting a couple of
weeks ago, people have been peacefully demonstrating in the streets by
the tens of thousands in Quito, and even more in Guayaquil. I believe
there were estimates of up to 300K people in Guayaquil alone
demonstrating against Correa on June 26. In Quito, a group numbering
in the tens of thousands marched to as close to the presidencial
residence as they could get, chanting "Fuera, Correa, Fuera!" ("Out,
Correa, Out!"). [#FueraCorreaFuera] They even broke through the police
lines, but Correa himself was off somewhere else giving a speech to
his mass of supporters, numbering in the low hundreds in that
particular location.

So, it isn't clear what's going to happen. Oh, the other thing that
Correa has been pushing for is a change to the Constitution to remove
term limits (he is two years away from the end of his second term,
which is all that is currently allowed). The assembly apparently could
amend the constitution by itself, but polls show over 70% in favor of
a national referendum, which almost certainly would go against
indefinite re-election, and thus, against Correa.

The next few months will be pretty interesting, to say the least.

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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--

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[Gary Schiltz-4]

Grid power is fairly reliable here, and ubiquitous. Not enough sun for solar to be cost effective. Micro hydro can be decent. Diesel only $1 per gallon for reliable generator backup. 

Connections to reliable internet is expensive, about $100 per megabit per month. Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. Latency in country about 20 ms average, to Europe or NA over 100 ms.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

"I live at about 6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F, another half an hour for another 10 degrees"

How about power and low-latency broadband availability?     I had satellite internet when I lived out in Arroyo Hondo, and I about lost it.
Looking for a mountain hideaway for a bitcoin mining empire --  something will have to pick up the slack when in the event of a Euro meltdown!

Marcus

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[Marcus G. Daniels]

Gary writes:

 

Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. “

 

Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

 

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[Gary Schiltz-4]

The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some friend...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary writes:

 

Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. “

 

Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

 

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[Steve Smith]

and is your price for this is $100/Mbit/month?  

I'm on a similar "first mile" (23miles in my case) and they (cnsp) are about to offer 50Mb/s service off of SF Ski Hill... for not much more than my 1.5Mbit/s runs...  I assume the extra cost is a combination of shared total-bandwidth and maybe "scarcity"?

The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some friend...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary writes:

 

Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. “

 

Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

 

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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============================================================
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[Owen Densmore]

Fascinating! Stuart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog & SFI) would be interested, especially the wireless stunt. He studies creativity at the edge of poverty and large sprawling cities.

I've heard a lot more folks planning to retire to Mexico and other south american places. One went to Ecuador .. the optician to whom I gave your email a while back.

I saw several years ago a site/magazine specializing in "expatriates" .. finding a place, buying a house, identifying communities of interest, taxes, citizenship, the list goes on. I bet there are a lot of these now.

The economics sure makes sense, especially if you're retiring from an expensive area. Adjusting to leaving "home" and familiar surroundings is tough, I remember how well you prepared.

I looked into moving to Italy or possible Ireland. Amazing the small things that get in the way.  At this point I feel more comfortable in Italy than any other EU country. But it is a Big Deal, and Family intervened!

   -- Owen

On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 11:35 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

and is your price for this is $100/Mbit/month?  

I'm on a similar "first mile" (23miles in my case) and they (cnsp) are about to offer 50Mb/s service off of SF Ski Hill... for not much more than my 1.5Mbit/s runs...  I assume the extra cost is a combination of shared total-bandwidth and maybe "scarcity"?

The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some friend...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary writes:

 

Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. “

 

Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

 

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

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[Steve Smith]

Owen -

I studied various wireless technologies designed for third-world environments when I was about to lose my (decent) internet provided by my pueblo (San Ildefonso) two years ago...  I wanted to fill their void with an ISP/co-op but found a total lack of engagement from anyone in the mix.   Three of us were the only ones who were willing (able?) to stand anything up and keep it running.  Everyone else just wanted Comcast or QWest to "make it so" for them.  

The Canada de Los Alamos Co-Op was a cautionary tale for me as well... they were up and running and had decent numbers, but *still* suffered from spotty participation.    Even my area is nowhere near a third-world situation, but has some similarities.

The Village Telco (http://villagetelco.org/) project was perhaps the most interesting for Stewart's work but I am sure he is completely aware of it.  VOIP on top of mesh networks via their affordable solar-powered "mesh potato"!

My interest in the HIghlands of Panama may be a whim, or it may be a life-changer.   I still love my work, but damned if it isn't hard to get paid (well) for too much of it.   There is a siren's call of finding a "homesteading" life somewhere where my skills and knowledge and financial assets (small compared to most here, but sufficient in a 3rd world environment) is truly leveraged...  the charms of the central American highlands (such as Panama and Ecuador ala Gary) is the weather and the implications for subsistence agrarian lifestyles, boosted by a small amount of high-tech and good-funding (US $$).  

There is a huge movement around expatriating, but most of it just offends me... semi-wealthy Americans wanting to live a wealthy lifestyle by moving to another country, avoiding US Taxes (whilst keeping citizenship, bank security, etc)...  gated communities, resorts, golf courses, etc.   Not my cup of tea.  I think Gary's situation is a nice notch below all that.   I'm looking for a notch yet lower I think.

I have had good conversations with Carl about his own ideas for bringing the smallest blip in high-tech to his own favorite 3rdish world environment (Islands off of japan) and finding a life that fits with "the locals".  

I'm not likely to follow through on any of this, but I am interested.   The *one* luxury I don't know how to put down is internet access... not streaming movies or music, but enough to do the research/reading I am wont to do, not to mention write massive missives to dump on FriAM and WedTech!

I've been on the road for 6 weeks (8 by some measure) living mostly in the Safari-style tent on my truck, doing a 360 survey of National Parks/Lodges/etc.  for a project I'm pitching with Matt/Janire (joint venture is 4Pi Productions) with the NPS...  and spotty internet has been my biggest bane.  Cold rain, snow, 107 degree heat, high winds, slow tourists, impatient locals, a blowout, an infection from a hot spring, watercraft inspections at every border, etc.  were nothing compared to trying to get regular and consistent internet access!   It says more about my addiction than the actual availability.  

Tethering my GSM/ATT was the best, but I burned 10GB in less than a month that way and *still* had holes in my service... the beautiful places (rightly so?) have some of the weakest cell coverage!

I'm in Seattle (at a motel!) today, meeting an old friend/colleague who recently retired as VP for HPC at MS...   then on to Rainier, Hanford, Spokane and maybe Glacier.  

- Steve

Fascinating! Stuart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog & SFI) would be interested, especially the wireless stunt. He studies creativity at the edge of poverty and large sprawling cities.

I've heard a lot more folks planning to retire to Mexico and other south american places. One went to Ecuador .. the optician to whom I gave your email a while back.

I saw several years ago a site/magazine specializing in "expatriates" .. finding a place, buying a house, identifying communities of interest, taxes, citizenship, the list goes on. I bet there are a lot of these now.

The economics sure makes sense, especially if you're retiring from an expensive area. Adjusting to leaving "home" and familiar surroundings is tough, I remember how well you prepared.

I looked into moving to Italy or possible Ireland. Amazing the small things that get in the way.  At this point I feel more comfortable in Italy than any other EU country. But it is a Big Deal, and Family intervened!

   -- Owen

On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 11:35 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

and is your price for this is $100/Mbit/month?  

I'm on a similar "first mile" (23miles in my case) and they (cnsp) are about to offer 50Mb/s service off of SF Ski Hill... for not much more than my 1.5Mbit/s runs...  I assume the extra cost is a combination of shared total-bandwidth and maybe "scarcity"?

The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some friend...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary writes:

 

Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to my ISP. “

 

Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

 

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

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[Gary Schiltz-4]

I seem to have always been just on the periphery of good internet
service since the 1980s, due to my choice of living in rural areas. It
has always been dialup until a very brief time with a 128K wireless
connection in Pecos, starting in 2007 until I left the USA in 2008. Of
course, most places I’ve worked have had at least T1 and some with T3
(are those technologies even used anymore?). Multi-megabit speed has
been mostly in large cities here in Ecuador until the last year or so.
I just tested my speed and got nearly eight megabits - my ISP must be
generous, or the Inca gods are smiling on my little connection.

The prices of wireless equipment has come down a lot in the last five
years or so. I really like Ubiquiti (www.ubnt.com), and it is the main
brand that the wireless ISPs use here.

On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 4:41 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Owen -
>
> I studied various wireless technologies designed for third-world
> environments when I was about to lose my (decent) internet provided by my
> pueblo (San Ildefonso) two years ago...  I wanted to fill their void with an
> ISP/co-op but found a total lack of engagement from anyone in the mix.
> Three of us were the only ones who were willing (able?) to stand anything up
> and keep it running.  Everyone else just wanted Comcast or QWest to "make it
> so" for them.
>
> The Canada de Los Alamos Co-Op was a cautionary tale for me as well... they
> were up and running and had decent numbers, but *still* suffered from spotty
> participation.    Even my area is nowhere near a third-world situation, but
> has some similarities.
>
> The Village Telco (http://villagetelco.org/) project was perhaps the most
> interesting for Stewart's work but I am sure he is completely aware of it.
> VOIP on top of mesh networks via their affordable solar-powered "mesh
> potato"!
>
> My interest in the HIghlands of Panama may be a whim, or it may be a
> life-changer.   I still love my work, but damned if it isn't hard to get
> paid (well) for too much of it.   There is a siren's call of finding a
> "homesteading" life somewhere where my skills and knowledge and financial
> assets (small compared to most here, but sufficient in a 3rd world
> environment) is truly leveraged...  the charms of the central American
> highlands (such as Panama and Ecuador ala Gary) is the weather and the
> implications for subsistence agrarian lifestyles, boosted by a small amount
> of high-tech and good-funding (US $$).
>
> There is a huge movement around expatriating, but most of it just offends
> me... semi-wealthy Americans wanting to live a wealthy lifestyle by moving
> to another country, avoiding US Taxes (whilst keeping citizenship, bank
> security, etc)...  gated communities, resorts, golf courses, etc.   Not my
> cup of tea.  I think Gary's situation is a nice notch below all that.   I'm
> looking for a notch yet lower I think.
>
> I have had good conversations with Carl about his own ideas for bringing the
> smallest blip in high-tech to his own favorite 3rdish world environment
> (Islands off of japan) and finding a life that fits with "the locals".
>
> I'm not likely to follow through on any of this, but I am interested.   The
> *one* luxury I don't know how to put down is internet access... not
> streaming movies or music, but enough to do the research/reading I am wont
> to do, not to mention write massive missives to dump on FriAM and WedTech!
>
> I've been on the road for 6 weeks (8 by some measure) living mostly in the
> Safari-style tent on my truck, doing a 360 survey of National
> Parks/Lodges/etc.  for a project I'm pitching with Matt/Janire (joint
> venture is 4Pi Productions) with the NPS...  and spotty internet has been my
> biggest bane.  Cold rain, snow, 107 degree heat, high winds, slow tourists,
> impatient locals, a blowout, an infection from a hot spring, watercraft
> inspections at every border, etc.  were nothing compared to trying to get
> regular and consistent internet access!   It says more about my addiction
> than the actual availability.
>
> Tethering my GSM/ATT was the best, but I burned 10GB in less than a month
> that way and *still* had holes in my service... the beautiful places
> (rightly so?) have some of the weakest cell coverage!
>
> I'm in Seattle (at a motel!) today, meeting an old friend/colleague who
> recently retired as VP for HPC at MS...   then on to Rainier, Hanford,
> Spokane and maybe Glacier.
>
> - Steve
>
> Fascinating! Stuart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog & SFI) would be interested,
> especially the wireless stunt. He studies creativity at the edge of poverty
> and large sprawling cities.
>
> I've heard a lot more folks planning to retire to Mexico and other south
> american places. One went to Ecuador .. the optician to whom I gave your
> email a while back.
>
> I saw several years ago a site/magazine specializing in "expatriates" ..
> finding a place, buying a house, identifying communities of interest, taxes,
> citizenship, the list goes on. I bet there are a lot of these now.
>
> The economics sure makes sense, especially if you're retiring from an
> expensive area. Adjusting to leaving "home" and familiar surroundings is
> tough, I remember how well you prepared.
>
> I looked into moving to Italy or possible Ireland. Amazing the small things
> that get in the way.  At this point I feel more comfortable in Italy than
> any other EU country. But it is a Big Deal, and Family intervened!
>
>    -- Owen
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 11:35 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> and is your price for this is $100/Mbit/month?
>>
>> I'm on a similar "first mile" (23miles in my case) and they (cnsp) are
>> about to offer 50Mb/s service off of SF Ski Hill... for not much more than
>> my 1.5Mbit/s runs...  I assume the extra cost is a combination of shared
>> total-bandwidth and maybe "scarcity"?
>>
>>
>> The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is
>> quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some
>> friend...
>>
>> On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gary writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a
>>> town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to
>>> my ISP. “
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?
>>>
>>> Marcus
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
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> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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>
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[Steve Smith]

REC -

[...] an infection from a hot spring [...]

oh, dear, don't like the sound of that,

Miracles of modern antibiotics...   If I go to Panama (or Ecuador) , I'm stocking the Veterinary grade equivalent (FishMox and FishFlex, who knew?) for such (hopefully rare) occasions.  Though I think human grade versions are just a Farmacia away there?   This course required careening through our dysfunctional medical system...  although it sure beat the bottle of bourbon, a leather belt, a bullet (to bite on) and a saw ...    Just checking to see who was reading, and how deep!

Didn't help that I was camping at a different hot spring nearly daily for two weeks... could have just been something else...

Drinking beer at the third "yacht club" I tried in Seattle... who knew many "yacht clubs" actually are there to share information and teach yachting to members?

- WRAK

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[Steve Smith]

Gary -

The prices of wireless equipment has come down a lot in the last five
years or so. I really like Ubiquiti (www.ubnt.com), and it is the main
brand that the wireless ISPs use here.

Motorola "Canopy" seemed to be the early power player in the domain but Ubiquiti sure took over in a hurry a while back...  I'm getting my 5/1.5 through a .5M dish pointed at the ski hill right now... all failures can be attributed to high winds on the mountain re-aiming (or vibrating?) the antennae up there... it even punches through the heaviest snowstorm as best I can tell.   I don't know what the 50Mbps service will be using, maybe the same class of gear?   Data speeds (memory, busses, networks, through the air ... ) are just so amazing to me today...  growing up on tin-cans and string (or twisted pair copper)...

Satellite is still lame/astronomical but amazing when you consider what is happening... my wife and i used to occasionally send an e-mail across the table whilst on satellite... the implications of that were ridonkulous...

I'm more interested in local mesh/last mile stuff for perhaps the same reasons that Stewart Brand is... that interface between urban and rural and the chaos (both good and bad) that happens at that interface.

-

On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 4:41 PM, Steve Smith [hidden email] wrote:

Owen -

I studied various wireless technologies designed for third-world
environments when I was about to lose my (decent) internet provided by my
pueblo (San Ildefonso) two years ago...  I wanted to fill their void with an
ISP/co-op but found a total lack of engagement from anyone in the mix.
Three of us were the only ones who were willing (able?) to stand anything up
and keep it running.  Everyone else just wanted Comcast or QWest to "make it
so" for them.

The Canada de Los Alamos Co-Op was a cautionary tale for me as well... they
were up and running and had decent numbers, but *still* suffered from spotty
participation.    Even my area is nowhere near a third-world situation, but
has some similarities.

The Village Telco (http://villagetelco.org/) project was perhaps the most
interesting for Stewart's work but I am sure he is completely aware of it.
VOIP on top of mesh networks via their affordable solar-powered "mesh
potato"!

My interest in the HIghlands of Panama may be a whim, or it may be a
life-changer.   I still love my work, but damned if it isn't hard to get
paid (well) for too much of it.   There is a siren's call of finding a
"homesteading" life somewhere where my skills and knowledge and financial
assets (small compared to most here, but sufficient in a 3rd world
environment) is truly leveraged...  the charms of the central American
highlands (such as Panama and Ecuador ala Gary) is the weather and the
implications for subsistence agrarian lifestyles, boosted by a small amount
of high-tech and good-funding (US $$).

There is a huge movement around expatriating, but most of it just offends
me... semi-wealthy Americans wanting to live a wealthy lifestyle by moving
to another country, avoiding US Taxes (whilst keeping citizenship, bank
security, etc)...  gated communities, resorts, golf courses, etc.   Not my
cup of tea.  I think Gary's situation is a nice notch below all that.   I'm
looking for a notch yet lower I think.

I have had good conversations with Carl about his own ideas for bringing the
smallest blip in high-tech to his own favorite 3rdish world environment
(Islands off of japan) and finding a life that fits with "the locals".

I'm not likely to follow through on any of this, but I am interested.   The
*one* luxury I don't know how to put down is internet access... not
streaming movies or music, but enough to do the research/reading I am wont
to do, not to mention write massive missives to dump on FriAM and WedTech!

I've been on the road for 6 weeks (8 by some measure) living mostly in the
Safari-style tent on my truck, doing a 360 survey of National
Parks/Lodges/etc.  for a project I'm pitching with Matt/Janire (joint
venture is 4Pi Productions) with the NPS...  and spotty internet has been my
biggest bane.  Cold rain, snow, 107 degree heat, high winds, slow tourists,
impatient locals, a blowout, an infection from a hot spring, watercraft
inspections at every border, etc.  were nothing compared to trying to get
regular and consistent internet access!   It says more about my addiction
than the actual availability.

Tethering my GSM/ATT was the best, but I burned 10GB in less than a month
that way and *still* had holes in my service... the beautiful places
(rightly so?) have some of the weakest cell coverage!

I'm in Seattle (at a motel!) today, meeting an old friend/colleague who
recently retired as VP for HPC at MS...   then on to Rainier, Hanford,
Spokane and maybe Glacier.

- Steve

Fascinating! Stuart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog & SFI) would be interested,
especially the wireless stunt. He studies creativity at the edge of poverty
and large sprawling cities.

I've heard a lot more folks planning to retire to Mexico and other south
american places. One went to Ecuador .. the optician to whom I gave your
email a while back.

I saw several years ago a site/magazine specializing in "expatriates" ..
finding a place, buying a house, identifying communities of interest, taxes,
citizenship, the list goes on. I bet there are a lot of these now.

The economics sure makes sense, especially if you're retiring from an
expensive area. Adjusting to leaving "home" and familiar surroundings is
tough, I remember how well you prepared.

I looked into moving to Italy or possible Ireland. Amazing the small things
that get in the way.  At this point I feel more comfortable in Italy than
any other EU country. But it is a Big Deal, and Family intervened!

   -- Owen

On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 11:35 PM, Steve Smith [hidden email] wrote:

and is your price for this is $100/Mbit/month?

I'm on a similar "first mile" (23miles in my case) and they (cnsp) are
about to offer 50Mb/s service off of SF Ski Hill... for not much more than
my 1.5Mbit/s runs...  I assume the extra cost is a combination of shared
total-bandwidth and maybe "scarcity"?


The owner is a friend, so he let me out an antenna on his tower. It is
quite common here, except that the ISP usually provides the equipment. Some
friend...

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Marcus Daniels [hidden email] wrote:

Gary writes:



Fiber in most cities now, nothing in rural areas. I have a good view of a
town 20 km away that has fiber, so have wireless connection from my tower to
my ISP. “



Is that common, or something you negotiated with the ISP?

Marcus

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[Arlo Barnes]

On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 6:55 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

a bullet (to bite on)

I have heard this expression, but I have always thought that there are much better choices of things to bite: a second belt, a folded saddlebag strap, and so on. This website makes some ventures as to the etymology of the phrase, but comes to no satisfactory conclusion: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bite-the-bullet.html

-Arlo James Barnes

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[Alfredo Covaleda Vélez]

Hola

La tensión política que se presenta en Ecuador también se presenta en la gran mayoría de los países de América del sur. En esta región algunos países están bajo el control de la derecha, otros lo están de la izquierda pero en todos los casos existen debates intensos con altos niveles de exaltación y con cierta tendencia a la intolerancia.  Lo que queda claro es que en estos países no hemos sido capaces de resolver algunos problemas que teóricamente en otros países del mundo se resolvieron hace decenios, siglos quizás. Sin embargo, situaciones como, por ejemplo, la tensión racial y el abuso policial en los Estados Unidos, las tensiones sociales que emergen en épocas de crisis en países del “mundo desarrollado”,  las tensiones con facciones radicales del Islam y de otras religiones, muestran que en ningún lugar del mundo nuestra especie humana ha logrado verdaderos estados de convivencia o de respeto por el otro o por la diferencia. Cada uno de nosotros concibe, interpreta y desea al mundo desde su visión particular o desde el rasgo que más lo define como individuo dentro de la sociedad a la que pertenece. Aunque la objetividad no existe y debido a que la verdad es relativa, creo que es mejor ser un testigo de los hechos que vivir con el apasionamiento de ser parte. Por eso la ciencia es a veces un privilegio conveniente. Para mala fortuna es muy difícil no apasionarse ni hacerse parte. 

Regards

2015-06-30 22:31 GMT-05:00 Gary Schiltz <[hidden email]>:

[A long post follows - I hope it is interesting to at least a few on
the list (I'm thinking especially of Ivan Ordoñez)]

Despite living here in EC for 7 years, I'm still trying to figure the
place out. There are so many things I could say about it, but most
would be just sort of gut feelings. My Spanish reading skills have
only recently reached the point where I can read newspapers with
little enough pain to make it worthwhile.

First, the good things. The country is extremely varied
geographically. It is about the size of NM, with a population of about
13 million. We have Amazonian jungle, mountains over 21,000 feet,
Pacific beaches, and then of course the Galapagos. I live at about
6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half
an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F,
another half an hour for another 10 degrees. Or, I can drive half hour
up our gravel road for a decrease of 10 degrees. So, up to a 30 degree
temperature range in an hour and a half of driving. It's very
beautiful where I live, but quite cloudy (that's why it's called cloud
forest :-)  People are generally very friendly here, but the idea of
"the truth" seems to be a little flexible. Non-prepared food is cheap,
especially fruits and vegetables. It is still legal for foreigners to
own land here, and land in rural areas can be bought for between the
low hundreds of dollars per acre, up to thousands. You can get
permanent residency by several means; Karen and I did so by investing
more than $25K by buying land (and then building two houses on it).

In my opinion, the bad things pretty much begin with the current
government. Rafael Correa swept into power in 2007 on a populist
platform modeled laregly after Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - many have
called him "Chavez Light". At first, he was pretty moderate, and spent
all of Ecuador's income from oil (I believe we are a member of OPEC),
which was high because of the price of crude, on infrastructure
projects. I wholeheartedly support investing in infrastructure. So
though I was initially a little skeptical, after 8 years of GW Bush, I
had convinced myself that leftist governments are a good thing.
However, within a couple of years, the entire national assembly was
from Correa's party, and the populist rhetoric, replete with
rich-vs-poor talk, steadily increased. Then he loaded the courts with
his supporters, so with all three branches of government, he has
pretty much gotten whatever he wants. He has a huge ego and hates to
be criticized. So, he started passing laws restricting legitimate
criticism, much like Chavez. After a couple of journalists were fined
millions of dollars for "libel" against Correa, criticism pretty much
died, and many people became genuinely fearful to say anything
negative about him in public.

When the price of crude dropped dramatically, there wasn't enough
money to feed his newly created huge bureaucracy. So, he turned to a
few countries, especially China, and got high-interest loans. At the
moment, I believe EC is in debt to the tune of $35 billion, and even
with crude prices going up somewhat, there still isn't enough cash
being collected to maintain the bureaucracy. At first, he merely added
"safeguards" (basically import quotas and higher import duties). After
all, this only affected "the rich". Even that wasn't enough. So, he
made a mistake that may (I hope) be his downfall. He proposed large
capital gains taxes on real estate (I'm not sure, but my impression is
that this may even apply when you don't sell).

But the extremely unpopular thing that he did was to propose
progressive high inheritance taxes. EC, like most latin countires, is
very family oriented. He made the mistake of criticizing the ability
to pass property down to heirs with little tax, and that struck a
nerve. One remark that he made went like this: if you have property or
a business worth, let's say $500K, and you have five children and ten
people working for you, you can leave each child $100K, which would
put them into the 72% tax bracket, which would mean they would each
have to raise $72K just to receive their share. But, why not divide
the estate into 15 parts, leaving $33K to each child, as well as to
each worker? That would put them all into a much lower bracket,
allowing them all to inherit their small amount tax free. That's
pretty much when the shit hit the fan. Even communist-leaning folks
tend to have a dim view of leaving the same thing to their workers as
they do to their kids, especially here in family-oriented Latin
America.

So Ecuadorians have recently found their voice, especially the middle
class. Emboldened by anger over his anti-family stance, people have
finally started vociferously criticizing Correa. Starting a couple of
weeks ago, people have been peacefully demonstrating in the streets by
the tens of thousands in Quito, and even more in Guayaquil. I believe
there were estimates of up to 300K people in Guayaquil alone
demonstrating against Correa on June 26. In Quito, a group numbering
in the tens of thousands marched to as close to the presidencial
residence as they could get, chanting "Fuera, Correa, Fuera!" ("Out,
Correa, Out!"). [#FueraCorreaFuera] They even broke through the police
lines, but Correa himself was off somewhere else giving a speech to
his mass of supporters, numbering in the low hundreds in that
particular location.

So, it isn't clear what's going to happen. Oh, the other thing that
Correa has been pushing for is a change to the Constitution to remove
term limits (he is two years away from the end of his second term,
which is all that is currently allowed). The assembly apparently could
amend the constitution by itself, but polls show over 70% in favor of
a national referendum, which almost certainly would go against
indefinite re-election, and thus, against Correa.

The next few months will be pretty interesting, to say the least.

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[Steve Smith]

Hola Alfredo!

It was satisfying that I could actually puzzle out your response in Spanish... much easier in writing than spoken, of course, but validating that my basic language skills are not lost.   I did have to touch Google Translate a couple of times to make sure I wasn't mis-translating, but of course a simple dictionary-translation can be as risky!

I agree with what you are saying (as I understand it) that it is an important part of the human condition to be passionate about important things and the crises that go with various forms of unrest and change only aggravate that.    Even we (the US) have our passions (evidenced by the police/racial/class issues being revisited as if a time machine to the 60's)!

I remember as a child, seeing the very hopeful progress in most of Latin America that had a back-slide starting in the 70's if not the 60's (from my perspective)...   I have a lot of respect for the intellectual and social culture of Latin America which has managed to keep more of the "passion" in it than much of Anglified (US/Canada) America...   

Some re-aired interviewed with Gabriel Garcia Marquez after his death, really underscored that for me... juxtaposed with the changes/history in Cuba, etc.

Sinceramente!
 - Steve

Hola

La tensión política que se presenta en Ecuador también se presenta en la gran mayoría de los países de América del sur. En esta región algunos países están bajo el control de la derecha, otros lo están de la izquierda pero en todos los casos existen debates intensos con altos niveles de exaltación y con cierta tendencia a la intolerancia.  Lo que queda claro es que en estos países no hemos sido capaces de resolver algunos problemas que teóricamente en otros países del mundo se resolvieron hace decenios, siglos quizás. Sin embargo, situaciones como, por ejemplo, la tensión racial y el abuso policial en los Estados Unidos, las tensiones sociales que emergen en épocas de crisis en países del “mundo desarrollado”,  las tensiones con facciones radicales del Islam y de otras religiones, muestran que en ningún lugar del mundo nuestra especie humana ha logrado verdaderos estados de convivencia o de respeto por el otro o por la diferencia. Cada uno de nosotros concibe, interpreta y desea al mundo desde su visión particular o desde el rasgo que más lo define como individuo dentro de la sociedad a la que pertenece. Aunque la objetividad no existe y debido a que la verdad es relativa, creo que es mejor ser un testigo de los hechos que vivir con el apasionamiento de ser parte. Por eso la ciencia es a veces un privilegio conveniente. Para mala fortuna es muy difícil no apasionarse ni hacerse parte. 

Regards

2015-06-30 22:31 GMT-05:00 Gary Schiltz <[hidden email]>:

[A long post follows - I hope it is interesting to at least a few on
the list (I'm thinking especially of Ivan Ordoñez)]

Despite living here in EC for 7 years, I'm still trying to figure the
place out. There are so many things I could say about it, but most
would be just sort of gut feelings. My Spanish reading skills have
only recently reached the point where I can read newspapers with
little enough pain to make it worthwhile.

First, the good things. The country is extremely varied
geographically. It is about the size of NM, with a population of about
13 million. We have Amazonian jungle, mountains over 21,000 feet,
Pacific beaches, and then of course the Galapagos. I live at about
6500 feet elevation, so I don't need much heat, and never any cooling.
It's amazing living on the west slope of the Andes. I can drive half
an hour and get an increase in temperature of about 10 degrees F,
another half an hour for another 10 degrees. Or, I can drive half hour
up our gravel road for a decrease of 10 degrees. So, up to a 30 degree
temperature range in an hour and a half of driving. It's very
beautiful where I live, but quite cloudy (that's why it's called cloud
forest :-)  People are generally very friendly here, but the idea of
"the truth" seems to be a little flexible. Non-prepared food is cheap,
especially fruits and vegetables. It is still legal for foreigners to
own land here, and land in rural areas can be bought for between the
low hundreds of dollars per acre, up to thousands. You can get
permanent residency by several means; Karen and I did so by investing
more than $25K by buying land (and then building two houses on it).

In my opinion, the bad things pretty much begin with the current
government. Rafael Correa swept into power in 2007 on a populist
platform modeled laregly after Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - many have
called him "Chavez Light". At first, he was pretty moderate, and spent
all of Ecuador's income from oil (I believe we are a member of OPEC),
which was high because of the price of crude, on infrastructure
projects. I wholeheartedly support investing in infrastructure. So
though I was initially a little skeptical, after 8 years of GW Bush, I
had convinced myself that leftist governments are a good thing.
However, within a couple of years, the entire national assembly was
from Correa's party, and the populist rhetoric, replete with
rich-vs-poor talk, steadily increased. Then he loaded the courts with
his supporters, so with all three branches of government, he has
pretty much gotten whatever he wants. He has a huge ego and hates to
be criticized. So, he started passing laws restricting legitimate
criticism, much like Chavez. After a couple of journalists were fined
millions of dollars for "libel" against Correa, criticism pretty much
died, and many people became genuinely fearful to say anything
negative about him in public.

When the price of crude dropped dramatically, there wasn't enough
money to feed his newly created huge bureaucracy. So, he turned to a
few countries, especially China, and got high-interest loans. At the
moment, I believe EC is in debt to the tune of $35 billion, and even
with crude prices going up somewhat, there still isn't enough cash
being collected to maintain the bureaucracy. At first, he merely added
"safeguards" (basically import quotas and higher import duties). After
all, this only affected "the rich". Even that wasn't enough. So, he
made a mistake that may (I hope) be his downfall. He proposed large
capital gains taxes on real estate (I'm not sure, but my impression is
that this may even apply when you don't sell).

But the extremely unpopular thing that he did was to propose
progressive high inheritance taxes. EC, like most latin countires, is
very family oriented. He made the mistake of criticizing the ability
to pass property down to heirs with little tax, and that struck a
nerve. One remark that he made went like this: if you have property or
a business worth, let's say $500K, and you have five children and ten
people working for you, you can leave each child $100K, which would
put them into the 72% tax bracket, which would mean they would each
have to raise $72K just to receive their share. But, why not divide
the estate into 15 parts, leaving $33K to each child, as well as to
each worker? That would put them all into a much lower bracket,
allowing them all to inherit their small amount tax free. That's
pretty much when the shit hit the fan. Even communist-leaning folks
tend to have a dim view of leaving the same thing to their workers as
they do to their kids, especially here in family-oriented Latin
America.

So Ecuadorians have recently found their voice, especially the middle
class. Emboldened by anger over his anti-family stance, people have
finally started vociferously criticizing Correa. Starting a couple of
weeks ago, people have been peacefully demonstrating in the streets by
the tens of thousands in Quito, and even more in Guayaquil. I believe
there were estimates of up to 300K people in Guayaquil alone
demonstrating against Correa on June 26. In Quito, a group numbering
in the tens of thousands marched to as close to the presidencial
residence as they could get, chanting "Fuera, Correa, Fuera!" ("Out,
Correa, Out!"). [#FueraCorreaFuera] They even broke through the police
lines, but Correa himself was off somewhere else giving a speech to
his mass of supporters, numbering in the low hundreds in that
particular location.

So, it isn't clear what's going to happen. Oh, the other thing that
Correa has been pushing for is a change to the Constitution to remove
term limits (he is two years away from the end of his second term,
which is all that is currently allowed). The assembly apparently could
amend the constitution by itself, but polls show over 70% in favor of
a national referendum, which almost certainly would go against
indefinite re-election, and thus, against Correa.

The next few months will be pretty interesting, to say the least.

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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