Maps!

I realized that I've been posting news about different places that Emily and I have been going, but I hadn't been providing any context about where things are.  All of that will change today!

Before I get to some Ecuador maps, I want to post the route of leaving our old house in San Mateo and arriving at the airport in Miami.  I've mentioned previously the different events along the way; this map should provide a better overview of how fun and arduous the trip was.

(All maps courtesy of Google Maps, just in case there is any kind of copyright disclosure required.)

This is what 7000 miles and two months provides:

• (A) San Mateo.  April 13th, 2013.  Goodbye, old friend!
• (B) Wendover, NV.  Waiting for winter storm Xerxes to clear; got tired of waiting and went south around it.
• (E) Minneapolis, MN.  A month at Mom's house, getting our documents from the states of MN and WI.
• (D) Madison, SD.  Our new "home"!  The location of our official US residence and mail forwarding address.
• (F) Toronto, ONT.  Needed to get to DC, so why not visit our friends to the nort, eh?
• (G) Cooperstown, NY.  Baseball Hall of Fame.  It was on the way and we've both always wanted to see it.
• (H) Washington, DC.  Thought we'd have our FBI background checks by now and could visit the SoS; fail.  Had fun touring the Mall and seeing the sights.
• (I) Estero, FL.  Spent almost a month here with Tasha, Dane and the two grandkids waiting for the FBI docs to arrive.
• (J) Miami, FL.  June 19th, 2013.  Goodbye, US (for now); hello, Ecuador!

I'm sure that anyone reading this blog knows where Ecuador is, but here it is in relation to the United States:

Even though this projection isn't entirely accurate (Ecuador is east of New York), it gives a pretty good idea where it is.  There are currently four cities in the US from which you can fly non-stop to Ecuador (that I'm aware of): Houston, Atlanta, Miami and New York City.  That was one reason why we made Miami our final destination (Natasha and family being the other, of course!).

These are the major cities in Ecuador:

We want to live on the western coast, but we are currently living in Guayaquil where the government offices are located.  Many ex-pats prefer Quito or Cuenca where the weather is more moderate; we want the beach!

This map doesn't quite show it, but the Andes mountains run through the center of Ecuador; Quito and Cuenca are at an elevation of about 8000 feet.  East of the Andes is the "Oriente" or the originating basin for the Amazon River and Amazon rain forest.

This is Guayaquil.  The map that follows is roughly the area surrounded by the red box:

and "downtown":

To give some perspective, it's about a mile from the consulate to our original hotel (Hostel Manso) and about two miles from the Hostel to center of our neighborhood.

Finally, here's the neighborhood around our apartment:

(For security purposes, I'm not putting the location of our apartment.)

Did I mention that we're near the airport?

Next up: more shopping - man style!