Yea should be pretty easy to do. Sambo is legit and very nice. Has a Miami feel. Yes, most areas you will be shopping/dining/going out to/in will be away from the center and completely safe. You obv need to use common sense but GYE def has a bad rap but most of it is hype from idiot tourists who go downtown for an hour between flights from the Galapagos and the States. When were you thinking of coming down? Also keep in mind that they jack the prices for nicer places up if staying for less than a standard contract (usually 6 months to a year) but it still should be easy to find something nice in your price range.

I'm not going to be down for a while, unless I make a substantial score. I have another year left to finish my degree. I was planning on leaving after that. I'm doing all my research in the mean time.

Edit: I'm planning on staying for at least six months.

Do you have a prototype or something you can share of the rec letter to open a bank account? I'm in Gye now and want to get this done. I have a hand written lease agreement from my landlady, can deposit 300 dollars, have a US passport with tourist stamp, and I believe I can get a rec letter. You think that will suffice? Thanks

hey add me to skype lkpearson12 to talk about this,

Hey all,

Headed to Quito monday the 22nd to stay for an undetermined while. I visited my cousin there earlier this year and loved it. Really excited.

Does anyone know if there is a limit on the amount of electronics that you can bring with you? I wanted to bring two laptops and an additional monitor. Anyone know if that would be a problem?

Also, thanks kerwinty for making this thread. Been very helpful.

Great thread here Kerwinty! As an outsider, its appreciated the effort you've taken.

Going to be grinding full time for the winter. Thinking hard about Cambodia, but the more I read about Ecuador and area, the more I am pulled.

Is there any poker houses kicking around in Ecuador? Interest in getting one going for the winter?

I get laid off work for 4 months starting in dec till end of march. Going to use the time to test the waters with a full time grind to see how things go there. SNG/MTT low to mid stakes grind.

Just putting some feelers out there. Thanks!

cool

Still here in Guayaquil at new flat. Probably looking to move in January and prefer moving into a bigger place w roomate or roomates. Guayaquil is difficult in that regard but with a little effort you can find something decent. A buddy moved down in living in a brand new highrise on the high end of the price spectrum but its nice and in a great locations with great ammenities. Will probably add bunch more fotos since I got a iphone and have a camera again (came without) and lost the two iphones I had in the first few months. Anyway any questions let me know.

Starting one up shouldn't be difficult.

any updates on your current situation op? Where are you living now? How is poker? Are the girls still smoking hot?

Also interested in possibly starting a poker house on the cheap in GYE

Hey still here. Can't believe it honestly. Its been since oct 2011 and the country is still awesome etc, but not going out as much. Not living in the best apt but I should be moving into a nice 2 br with a guy from scotland in January. Has pool etc and should only be paying $300 a month or so. Two other grinders are here, one I helped bring down through poker refugees and is doing the MTT thing and getting really deep very often but getting beated alot in huge fields with like under 50 entrants left. The other is a mid stakes crusher who has commented on this thread and he has a pretty sick place in a good area and is doing the higher stakes zoom thing. I'm still cashing out monthly to pay for most things like a dope and just had the worst 27k hand stretch over 3 days since I've been here. Sometimes the grind gets old, other times it is still all I think about and care about and can't wait to wake up to play. Changed my style a bit after reading a pretty solid book (I have watched so many many many many leggo and DC vids and this book kind of just got me back to playing solid. Last 10k hand stretch has been my best to date in terms of bb per hundo and ev per hundo- 34/bb per at speed which is obv not even close to sustainalbe but feel good about game. Last week I was considering heading back to the states.

But since I'll have a better living situation- I hope my buddy and I get along as roomates, and have decided to take up an offer to teach 4 hours at night 4 days a week, I think I'll get out of the rut. Obviously anyone is welcome to come down and I can help sort out arrangements etc. Its a really cool place. I am also a rep for Toursbylocals.com and give city tours to gringos about once or twice a month which I LOVE. Showed a really interesting author/investigator/journalist around for the last two days, heard some amazing stories- he is going to help co-write or contribute to the major/impacting book coming out about the Aroad Scandal and Steroids in baseball with the guy who discovered/leaked the story in Miami. Those kind of things make the grind better. And yes, still talk to a bunch of girls, gye has hotties etc. Also become solid friends with a Ecuadorian/American who grew up in Chicago and LA summers and Ecuador in the winter. He has given me an insight into the late night party/hooker/drug scene and its pretty interesting though I'm not into that. Some fun times for sure and it makes living here cool especially since the 2 original gringos I was friends with are back in the states. Heading into beach season so should be taking trips to the beach soon. Gotta figure out NYE plans etc and also met up for Bolivar for a night that non of us really remember but it was fun and cool to meet the sicko in real life. He has another interesting story but I'll let him tell it if he chooses. Yea so still here, hoping the teaching thing will let me leave money in my roll to move up a bit and make more hourly. It should as I've made tons of big cashouts. If anyway is interested in anything else or whatever let me know. Sorry for the length of this!

And poor spelling! Never re-read or edit before I post for some reason.

If two or three people decided to come down in january or feb it be easy to get a place in salinas overlooking the beach. I'd be able to help etc. This is referring to Ihugedonk81's post.

Oh one other thing that's important to me during my time here- have been coaching for over a year and it's going really well and I love doing it. Don't charge much but most students that book prob avg booking 5 sessions or so. Have been working with 4 or 5 people that mostly play live in the US as well and they started making really good money at 1/2 and 2/5. The best thing about it is getting random skype from students I know well when they win or bink something. On sunday I had one of my students take down a $10 MTT on WPN and someone else get deep in a tourny in vegas. They went out of there way to keep me updated which is pretty cool. The guy Josh who won the MTT did a 4 hour session with me the Thursday before. Here is the skype- sorry def not a plug or anything but one of the important things for me going on down here while keeping with the grind in my own apt. First guy crushes second guy is kind of a novice but smart.

[11/24/2013 9:08:56 PM] josh risk- student Florida: do yuou have any of the inavacuum vids? i lost them all when i got my new comp
[11/24/2013 10:23:41 PM] josh- student Florida: super deep in a tourney right now, we're down to two tables from 400 ppl, i'm 6th for stack sizes
[11/24/2013 11:20:41 PM] josh- student Florida: final table, with 120 big blinds haha
[11/24/2013 11:21:18 PM] josh- student Florida: next biggest stack is 44 bb
[11/24/2013 11:21:42 PM] josh- student Florida: i'm at 150 bb actually
[11/25/2013 12:50:49 AM] josh- student Florida: took it down broooooooooo 850$ first place!!!!
[11/25/2013 2:34:14 PM] josh- student Florida: now i'm wondering if i should try and hit 25nl for a while, i mess around in it every now and then and it seems lighter or just as light as 10nl does. I am still working on my occasional ******ness but with 1k to play with i wouldn't mind seeing how 25nl goes. what are you thoughts on that?
[11/25/2013 4:02:34 PM] Me: if u have the roll than ya! **** dude congrats!
[11/25/2013 4:17:50 PM] josh- student Florida: thanks! yeah i think ii'll try it a bit

[11/30/2013 5:30:40 AM] Stephen- ca student: In Vegas
[11/30/2013 5:31:00 AM] Stephen- ca student: Cashed 4th in the aria nightly tournament
[11/30/2013 5:31:26 AM] Stephen- ca student: Chopped it
[11/30/2013 12:28:49 PM] Me: aesome dude. very cool to hear! did u feel good playing? how many entrants?
[11/30/2013 7:21:40 PM] Stephen- ca student: 80
[11/30/2013 7:21:45 PM] Stephen- ca student: Yes -
[11/30/2013 7:22:33 PM] Stephen- ca student: Playing in a new one - 150 players, I made a bad laydown
[11/30/2013 7:22:57 PM] Stephen- ca student: On the bb J-9 off suit check to JQJ
[11/30/2013 7:23:05 PM] Stephen- ca student: Two guys shove
[11/30/2013 7:23:30 PM] Stephen- ca student: One had aQ and other qt
[11/30/2013 7:23:36 PM] Me: it call therre
[11/30/2013 7:23:46 PM] Me: in a fast paced tourny
[11/30/2013 7:23:54 PM] Stephen- ca student: Damn
[11/30/2013 7:24:02 PM] Stephen- ca student: I put them on kj
[11/30/2013 7:24:08 PM] Stephen- ca student: Aj
[11/30/2013 7:24:16 PM] Stephen- ca student: I'd be out kicked
[11/30/2013 7:24:36 PM] Stephen- ca student: But 9 hit on river - gotta forget about this
[11/30/2013 7:33:32 PM] Me: 'yea cantl always say what if
[11/30/2013 7:34:54 PM] Stephen- ca student: Ok
[11/30/2013 7:41:06 PM] Stephen- ca student: I was reeling from a previous hand when I had aj and flopped jjrag
[11/30/2013 7:41:35 PM] Stephen- ca student: Went down to river and villain hits a king - wins with kj
[12/1/2013 11:43:57 PM] Stephen- ca student: Well I settled from my mistake - and came back and cashed 3rd place
[12/1/2013 11:55:05 PM] Me: wow awesome congrats 4th then a 3rd
[12/2/2013 1:20:50 AM] Stephen- ca student: But third wasn't as much
[12/2/2013 1:20:58 AM] Stephen- ca student: Less players
[12/3/2013 4:02:39 PM] Stephen- ca student: played in one more tourney last night and cashed 7th
[12/3/2013 4:02:42 PM] Stephen- ca student: out f 90
[12/3/2013 4:02:48 PM] Stephen- ca student: not bad i guess

How easy would it be to head down for a month or two and get set up to grind?

Potentially have job interviews sometime in feb/march. No exact date and really thinking of quitting my current gig and grinding/vacation until I get exact interview date and then hop a flight back to the states. It's really short notice and I don't want to dump too much cash as I'm not grinding that high stakes.

Definetly doing a bit of dreaming as it would be tough given the uncertTainty and th estimated costs.

depends on your banking situation and where you are coming from. If you had to open an account it would be tricky for such a small amount of time. If you didn't there would be no problem and you could just stay at one of the better hostels in gye, salinas or montanita.

Ah I see you are from the states, so you would need to get money onto stars I would guess most likely from a transfer( possible the grinder here would trade you his stars for your cash as he likes to do that with the other american here to pay his high rent. And then when you leave, do a transfer hence avoiding the bank all together. You would have to prove to stars you were here, or open a account if you don't have one. Hostels are generally cheap in all three places and most have very reliable internet so costs won't be too high for sure.

beach season is almost here.

where at? Was just researching gye but the weather sounds super bad January to may.

Been here in Quito for ~7 months now.

Place is really cool in my opinion. I'm actually a fan of the weather. Always about 70 degrees more or less. Girls here are rather good looking on average compared to American women. Way more fun to go out with, way easier to talk to. I mean jesus I just don't miss American chicks. Food is cheapppp. I eat like 10x healthier than I did at home. Really just enjoying my life here. Headed home in March to visit and renew my Visa.

If anyone has any questions I'd be glad to help.

I went to Montanita in late December and the weather was beautiful. Might be headed to the beach in a week or two. I'll update with the weather if I do.

Been reading about Montanita and it seems like a really chill spot. Anyone ever try to grind there for awhile? Wondering about short term apartments with decent security, and internet reliability.

I lived a bit south of there, in playas, ecuador. this was for 6 weeks and during SCOOP last year. I believe playas is a bit more built up than montanita WRT infrastructure such as internet, but I personally had an assload of problems on more than a weekly basis. There were 2 companies there offering internet though and I only had 1 of them. Also had a claro backup internet stick that was bit more reliable, but only came in 500mb reloads instead of the 3gb you see in the rest of latin america. So personally, I wouldn't go back to playas or anywhere similar and small for the purpose of playing poker. Keith knows about Salinas as well though, which is another bigger nearby beach town that could have better internet.

fwiw grinding in guayaquil I had basically no issues

also internet tech kid was telling me that in a few years they were going to put fiberoptic cable internet or something of the sort - in the ocean? So then the city would have access to awesome internet - is the gist I got from him

It wasn't worth it to me at the time with 3 weeks left on my lease - but my internet company also told me I could upgrade to 'corporate package' internet which is the same speed but better (more reliable??) somehow.

GL!

More info about Salinas would be cool... seems like a decent place to make a base and check out some of the other beach towns around.

Peru is cool and all but I'm kind of over living in a desert if that makes sense

Going to montanita and salinas for the long weekend tomorrow. Heard about a couple foreign players from germany or something that were grinding in montanita but I wouldn't be able to take it. Great for partying and all but to live is another story. I think salinas is by far the best of the beach towns and the only one that is prob reliable for grinding and internet. It has its upperclass vibe but also other cool chill places, and is a stepping stone to the rest of the beaches up the coast. For sure the only beach town to base yourself in. In middle of busy season now and its sunny, nice, crowded, bars are open etc, come, june rents go down, less crowded a little bit colder etc but still probably a cool spot. Right now for instance everyone from gye will be in salinas, montanita, olon etc for carnaval and will be a fun time. Montanita usually is filled with ecuadorians from around the country this time a year whereas almost every other week of the year its mostly chileans, argentinias etc. If you want more info on salinas sterling let me know lkpearson12 on skype. Hope your having fun wherever u at bryan!