The Property
The purpose of this blog entry is to describe the property that we bought. If you read the previous blog entry, it's Property Three. It's a pair of adjacent lots in a small fishing village called Machalilla, about ten minutes north of Puerto Lopez, located here: https://maps.google.com/?q=-1.470212,-80.764795
If the link doesn't work for you, here's the satellite view from Google Maps:
The two lots, enclosed inside a brick wall, are 20m x 20m each (about 66 feet), with 40m (131 feet) of beach front at an elevation about 20 feet above the high tide mark.
The Boundaries
West: - The beach: It is currently covered in shrubs and debris with a sprinkling of chickens and pigs. It has been neglected for a very pragmatic reason: Machalilla is a functioning fishing village, and the locals lean toward getting work done as opposed to encouraging tourism or foreign visitors.
There is an access road in front of our property for our three neighbors to the north. It was recently fortified with 2" rock gravel and graded to create a solid road surface with anticipation of the upcoming El Nino.
The area between the access road and the beach is approximately 50m deep. In the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution, President Correa decreed that all undeveloped beach front land within 50m of high tide is public land. In front of our property, there are no structures; only brush. All beaches in Ecuador are public, so we cannot restrict access to it (nor would we want to), but nothing permanent can be developed there either.
To the south and west of our lot is a covering (four posts and a roof, the square grey roof next to the road) where a fisherman's assistant spends his days. He helps the local fisherman by repairing nets, selling bait, etc. The person that tried to build a structure there was told by the comuna that his structure was not allowed, and further development was abandoned. The "helper" decided to set up shop there, and he's an institution now. (He's also the one that helped us find the owner of the property that we bought.)
North - the farm: Our neighbor to the north raises free-range chickens and pigs (driving is a cautious process to avoid the little chicks running around and the hens chasing them). From what I can tell from my conversations with them (remember, my Coastal Spanish still needs a lot of work!), they own their house and the beach property in front of them. On appearances, they seem to be friendly people, and I look forward to getting to knowing them.
East - the cemetery: The right-side border to our property is a very large cemetery; it runs from the edge of our property for about 150 meters. I know that this might be disconcerting to some people (meaning US and European citizens), but it's actually a very good thing to have here in Ecuador. Cemeteries are very hallowed ground here, and no one (regardless of age or intent) would think of crossing a cemetery to commit a crime. For us, it's like having a built-in guard along our entire eastern border.
South - neighbors and hostel: I don't know anything about our immediate neighbors to the south. I'm sure that they are just local citizens; I just haven't met them yet. The property beyond them is a hostel that, to say it kindly, could use some repairs. They are interested in selling the place and are holding out for a price of $500,000! It might be worth a tenth of that; I think they'll be waiting for quite a while.
Property Usage
The ground itself is completely undeveloped and currently covered with grass and brush. Machalilla has city water, so we will be able to bring utilities from town to the property.
As I mentioned above, these are two adjacent lots of equal size. We had thought about developing them as a single property but instead have arrived at a different conclusion.
Machalilla is a beautiful town, but it isn't the final destination for us. (More on that in a later post.) This is the approach we are going to take with this property:
- Keep the lots separate. They each have a separate escritura (title), and there is no reason to get the property redeeded (is that a word?) into a single lot.
- Find a rental property that is closer to the lots we own. Our current rental is a fantastic place in San Jose and our hosts have been wonderful, but we're currently a hour away from Machalilla.
- Survey the lot. We need to know the exact back boundary to build a retaining wall against the cemetery.
- Bring utilities to the property. Each lot will need it's own electric pole, transformer and meter as well as separate water lines and meters. They will also have separate septic systems; sewer systems in Ecuador are only common in very large cities (e.g. Manta, Guayaquil).
- Since we're going to develop the lots as separate properties, we're going to first develop one for ourselves. Once it's complete (and this should take 4-6 months), we'll move into it while the other lot is developed.
- Develop the second lot as either a rental property or for sale.
- We are currently in negotiations for our "final destination" property. If we successfully close on it, we'll start developing it once we have completed the Machalilla development.
Pictures
For anyone who has made it to the end of this post, I've added some pictures of the lot and surrounding area. Up to our final close, we have avoided being conspicuous and have limited our visits. There will certainly be more pictures to come!
View of the beach looking south toward Machalilla:
View from our lots towards the beach (we're going to host a brush cutting party someday - I'll bring the beer and machetes!):
Looking at the lot through the fence (with the cemetery in the background):
The seller lives in Guayaquil, but his father lives in Machalilla. We need to visit him to get the key to the gate lock. Yes, I could use a bolt cutter to open the gate, but I'd rather return his property to him in functioning condition.
To avoid overreaching in this blog post, I'm going to detail the purchase process in my next blog post later this week (unless something more dramatic happens first!).
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