Living in Ecuador

Visited: 2000-2004

Duration of travelling: 38 days

Duration of living: 1,195 days

Capital city: Quito

Population: 17.40 million (2019)

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

• My second / third home – I visited Ecuador on many occasions, worked and finally lived in Quito for 4 years.
• Incredible dedicated and humble people that formed the best team in my professional career.
• Quito – from the Inca capital, to UNESCO’s 1^st World Cultural Heritage City and my home.
• Visiting the Galapagos Island on a military cargo plane and meeting endemic animals at close range.

Ecuador has a unique position in my life. I got in touch with Ecuador for the first time in 1997 as a part of my American Big Tour in 1996-97, which started in New York and ended in Buenos Aires 15 months later.

Only 3 years later I received a job offer to run a company in the capital Quito. Over the period of the next three and a half years I visited every corner of the country; for business and pleasure.

In 2019, I visited Ecuador with my Panamanian partner, 2 kids and my mum.

In this article I describe my living and working experience in Ecuador between 2000 and 2004: hard work, extending business to other Latin countries, working with Ecuadorian army, visiting Galapagos Islands.

More articles about my Ecuador adventures are available here:

During the interview at a Slovenian power tools company in the autumn of 2000, I noticed that the head of HR, while reviewing my CV, came across a section that was highlighted: Level of knowledge of Spanish language – perfect. After a few minutes he asked me the decisive question:

“So, you can speak Spanish and you are familiar with Ecuador?”

I firmly confirmed that in addition to fluent communication in the Spanish language, I am familiar with the local culture, customs and way of thinking, as I have been traveling throughout Latin America for a year.

“Are you interested in moving to Quito for the next four years and run our subsidiary that needs a complete transformation to become a profitable business unit?”

Without hesitation I confirmed my interest and disposal to return to one of my favorite countries on the continent, where I could also start my real professional career, since my only working experience until that time was a year of apprentice after the university graduation.

I started my Ecuador business adventure in the era, when the country was a complete disaster: hyperinflation, political instability, indigenous protest and unsupportive international environment, lack of foreign currency, bankruptcy of financial system and high unemployment rate.

Still, Quito was one of the safest places to live in Latin America and from my travelling experience I knew that kindness and humble people in the Andes can be converted to cooperative coexistence that would help me to transform the subsidiary on the verge of bankruptcy to a successful unit in the Hidria Corporation, which was my employer.

Approximately a hundred workers received me with distrust, as I was only 28 years old and considerably less experienced than my highly regarded predecessor.

Nevertheless, they soon realized that I could make up for my lack of experience by using common sense, meticulousness, hard work and respect.

When the business was handed over by my predecessors, I quickly found out that he had spent the last few years in Quito vacationing and devoting most of his time to learning the Spanish language rather than seriously engaging for the success of the company.

The best evidence was the IT manager’s explanation that, due to non-usage, the desktop computer had been removed from under predecessor’s desk leaving him only with a monitor. He didn’t notice that he was without the computer, since he was not using it at all!

Local currency sucre was replaced by US dollar as an official currency, the inflation stabilized, banks started operating normally, the economy got a big push, construction projects were reactivated and the confidence of foreign investors was restored.

I visited the biggest hardware shops in all mayor Ecuadorian cities: Guayaquil, Cuenca, Riobamba, Loja, Ambato and Santo Domingo.

Flying and driving I got the opportunity to observe the country from different perspectives, allowing me to appreciate contrasts between poverty and wealth, lowlands and highlands.

Local hardware stores, where humble owners offered me a wooden box to sit and highly appreciate my visit versus powerful trade chains, where overbearing purchase managers kept me waited before pushing for more discounts or better payment conditions.

I flew to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico to reestablish the presence for our Swiss branded power tools on international markets. Weekend trips to save time, full dedication, long hours working time, open talks with employees and better support from mother company brought me respect by my coworkers and other employees.

On the international level I closed down Mexican branch soon, even though working with Mexico would be a huge privilege as my favorite country in Latin America, that offers countless opportunity.

In only two years we turned around the profitability of the company, opened a subsidiary in Colombia and positioned the brand as number 1 in Ecuador. I started to travel to Cali in Colombia on a monthly bases, worked there for a week and also paid a visit to other areas of Colombia.

The speaking skills of Colombians, their compelling communication and the gift of efficiently persuading customers is at a significantly higher level than in Ecuador.

I soon realized that collective dishonesty in business causes more harm than good, so we valued paying more attention to the honesty of the employees than to their sales skills.

It is sad, but true.

Seven months before the end of my mandate I established a branch office in the capital of Peru, as we managed to list our power tools in the largest retail chains in the country. The business operation has become so successful that finally owners from Slovenia decided to pay a visit to Ecuador. Unfortunately, I was gone by then, since I voluntarily interrupted my four years mandate six month before it was officially ending in 2004 due to constant headaches at high altitude in Quito.

The resignation offered me an escape for the next long trip – African Big Tour, since my bank account was loaded with savings as never before and priorities were still to explore the world, rather than create wealth for already reach bosses and owners of the company.

One of the most peculiar parts of my working experience in Quito was a cooperation with the Ecuadorian Army. Their business division was responsible to invest money in prospects, where they could receive above average returns, strategically important businesses or arms related companies.

They were a minor shareholder in our company since the foundation in the 1970s, but had never received dividends. They were desperate to sell out their share. Their presence on yearly board of directors meeting was legendary. Usually two to three high ranking active officers were accompanying the highest authority, who was a retired general. When arriving they were always saluting to each other, some of them dressed in uniforms: “Salud, mi general! Salud mi general!”

My personal assistant arranged bowls filled with chocolate candies, confections, and assorted small snacks, which were promptly emptied during the sessions.

Their lack of economic knowledge was replaced by determination and arrogance, that they as retired soldiers are capable of doing anything.

Especially interesting was negotiation for buyout of their stocks to the majority shareholder from Slovenia. Since the company evaluation was much lower than their expectations, they were not willing to drop the price to expectations that the other shareholder had. Their pride, logics and position were only changed during unformal negotiations with their financial advisor, who was a civilian.

Finally, they suggested to move to more informal environment into one of the luxury hotels, where they relaxed without bodyguards and lower ranking officials next to them. Both sides soon found the compromise that was cheered with large amounts of exclusive wine.

The only privilege I got from being closely connected with the top generals in Ecuador army was an inexpensive ticket on a cargo plane from Quito to the Galapagos Islands. The cargo flight was reserved for transport of goods to a military base on the island, not fitted for transferring passengers. We sat on the side benches, holding for the hooks of the plastic net, while the unbearable noise filled our ears during takeoff and landing.

A memorable experience to reach the unique tourist attraction.

Since the flight was scheduled only every two weeks, I stayed on the Galapagos Island for much more time than common visitors, exploring the mainland for a week and cruising around on the sea for a week.

This archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around 1,500 kilometers west of the Ecuadorian mainland is famous for large number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin in the 1830s and inspired his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

There are basically four groups of activities in the Galapagos Islands:

Exploring and climbing contemporaneous volcanoes, volcanic structures and even eruptions: Sierra Negra, Wolf, Fernandina, Cerro Azul, La Cumbre, … Walking on volcanic rocks, observing craters and exploring colorful structures connected me to this kind of landscape for the first time in my life and completely fascinated me.

Observing underwater world of fish, corals and other creatures, accessible through diving or snorkeling. The water was a little bit too cold for comfortable swimming, but snorkeling was superb. I spotted sharks, colorful corals, turtles and various species of fish. Sea lions were constantly approaching and playing around me.

Observation of animals that move around the island as if there were no people around. This is probably the most unique feature for me in Galapagos. I saw many animals in variety of environments around the world, but only on the Galapagos Islands I was obliged to walk around a lazy sea lion in order to avoid stepping on it. Lizards seem to not be afraid at all, while I have never approached birds so closely, before they would fly away or actually just move a few steps to let me know that I should keep the distance.

I actually got an impression that animals on the Galapagos Islands are unaware of the extent of human cruelty.

Meeting Galapagos giant tortoise – the largest living species of tortoise, weighing over 400 kilograms with lifespans in the wild of over 150 years. Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16^th century to a low of around 15,000 in the 1970s, growing again to an estimated 19,000 at the beginning of the 21^st century.

There are 13 living species of Galapagos tortoises that migrated from South America to the archipelago some two to three million years ago. Standing next to these old giants, listening to their breaths or perceiving chewing process, inspired me with tranquility and serenity.

PS: Unfortunately, out of all places, my camera broke down during the trip around the Galapagos Islands, therefore I have no photos from that trip.