12 countries in 12 years

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Panama Beaches, Weather, Insects, Prices & Would We Recommend to Travelers Moving Abroad?

This commentary details a little bit more about traveling abroad to the Panama beaches, namely Coronado/Gorgona area where visitors and retirees from North America and Canada are checking out for retirement and vacationing.

                  


We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Cuenca Ecuador is for the Birds…and They Are Singing!

Oddly, when we first moved to Cuenca back in 2011 we did not hear any birds chirping and singing at day break, not one. We enjoy the sound of birds talking to one another in the mornings; it reminds us of the lovely nature that surrounds us, and the birds wake us up, letting us know, “Hey it’s another beautiful day”.  We thought that perhaps because we live in the city there probably are not very many birds hanging out. 




Pumapungo bird sanctuary in Cuenca Ecuador



It is a lot different in the southern U.S where it’s warm and sunny and every morning in the spring and summer the birds are going wild trying to talk over one another. The birds would literally be our wakeup call; no need for a rackety radio station to jolt us out of bed. Waking up to the sounds of chirping birds sure beats a clanging alarm any day.
 


Fast forward about 2-years (2013) in Cuenca Ecuador; one morning we wake up to the sound of chirping; there were a couple of chirps there, a couple of tweets here. I looked at Frank and said, “I hear birds singing!”  It was a pleasant surprise to hear the singing of birds once again. Where had they been for the past 2 years? That remains a mystery to us. 




Pumapungo llama in Cuenca Ecuador

After that, more birds began coming onto our roof and into the two avocado trees growing in our back yard and we were surrounded by these lovely birds of Ecuador.  Now, 2015 every morning around 5:30am we can hear the birds talking and singing with each other, waking us up and letting us know, “It’s time to get up guys”.  So, Cuenca is for the birds…as they say and we’re thrilled that the birds are enjoying their time around our house. 




Bird sanctuary Pumapungo in Cuenca

In Cuenca Ecuador we wake up to birds chirping, roosters crowing, cows mooing, dogs barking, and sometimes even hear sheep baaing, and we do live in the city. Many of these animals you will not hear in the city in the United States, unless you live further out of town in the country.  



So since moving to Cuenca we have become rich in animals waking us up in the early mornings. Most of the animal sounds are perfectly fine to listen to in the mornings, and we don’t mind, except for maybe the dogs barking and barking and barking…welcome to Cuenca!
 


FYI:  According to Wikipedia there are 1663 species of birds in Ecuador.  Source:  Birds of Ecuador - Wikipedia 



Until we write again…
 


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We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!