Bahia de Caraquez has historically been an important city in Ecuador. In the days of the conquistadors it was one of the most important ports in South America. Later they found more important ports, but Bahia as the locals call it went on adapting to the opportunities that it was given. In the years from 1995 to 1997 the town suffered from an El Nino year and had unusual torrential rains and flooded the entrance to the town with mud up to 10 feet deep and cut the road off to Bahia for a few months.
The problem of no drainage has been taken care of by the federal government. Then the most important export of the area, the shrimp farm industry was devastated by the white spot disease which kills the shrimp. This industry has also come back and the farmers have learned how to keep it at bay. Then came the final blow to the local economy, an earthquake in 1997 that scared away the tourists for a few years. The tourists are now back in large numbers!
In the mid 1990’s Bahia became the 2nd home of the beloved President Sixto. He brought with him a boom of buying property and building midrise condominiums and homes for the well to do from around Ecuador. The price of land in the ciudela rose to well over $1000.00 per meter! This was before the three economic setbacks. All three of those setbacks have returned to normal, but the prices have only started inching up in the last couple of years back to a level of between $100 to $150 a square meter with the future looking bright.
The future of the north coast is looking even brighter. I have walked over 50 miles of beachfront in Ecuador searching for properties, and the north coast, in my opinion, is the best place in Ecuador to invest in the near future. We have realized returns of 100% to 600% in the last few years on our property purchases. Why do I think that this is the best area of Ecuador and maybe in the Americas to invest? The north coast is the last area of the coast of Ecuador to open coastal roads, and right now there are some new road projects that are widening the existing gravel/dirt roads and paving them. I have 3 large properties that when I purchased them, were on a dirt and gravel road. They are now being widened and paved and when finished will raise values exponentially. Another reason that Bahia and the north coast are of excellent value in the next couple of years is because the last link in the coastal road is under construction. A bridge linking Bahia and crossing 1 mile of the Chone River to San Vicente was started in January of this year and is scheduled for completion in a little over 2 years. This will blow wide open the north coast. Another highway from Quito to Pederalnales has received the ok and has been funded. This highway will make Pederanales the closest coastal city to Quito, and will knock 2.5 hours off of the 5 hour trip.
There is still lots of room for good returns on investment for the adventurer, and the bonus is that Ecuador is a great place to live on ¼ the cost of the USA.
Gary Swenson, Adventurer and seven year resident of Ecuador’s North coast.
