Many readers sent me an article from Agora Financial entitled “The Chevron Witch Trial: The Changing Face of Resource Nationalism” about the Ecuador Amazon problem and the ensuing Chevron lawsuit.

See why these Ecuador export tour delegates are creating earning potential and doing some environmental good.

Many readers sent me notes similar to this: Gary, I wondered if you’d seen this and were familiar with the case, given your knowledge of and interest in Ecuador?  It sounds pretty scary and doesn’t reflect well on Ecuadorian justice and its authorities, if it’s true. You might want to comment in one of your messages as I assume other of your readers have also seen this matter reported. Regards

The recent article seemed to blame the Ecuadorian government for the problem and has some good points.

Here is a portion of that article:

As mentioned the article had some valid points.

However…

We are very familiar with this story which is very, very old news going back into the 1970s.

We have lived with the Amazonians and spent quite a lot of time with the shamans there. Here I am with a Sierra Sion healer.

In fact we built a camp to help a small community of Amazonians who wanted tourism rather than oil revenues to support them.  We lost the entire investment when the FARC invaded that area.   Learn more about our Amazon trips and the Amazon village.

So I see the plight of the Amazonians as well.

I drive a car fueled with gas. I heat my home with electricity and use electricity that may come from diesel fueled generators and buy products delivered from abroad brought to me on ships propelled by their fossil fueled oil bunkers.

So there are two sides to this story.   Quite correctly the emails I have received are, half from this type of article and half from the environmentalists and humanitarians who say Chevron has cheated the poor natives of the Amazon.

See information on the other side from Amnesty International entitled Chevron (CVX) in the Amazon  Oil Rights or Human Rights? Texaco’s legacy, Chevron’s responsibility

Newsweek wrote a good article about this Amazon lawsuit over a year ago that has a balanced view.

If you Google the phrase “amazon chevron lawsuit” you’ll see dozens of articles about this… looking at both sides of the picture.

Plus there are many who argue that this has nothing to do with Chevron or Ecuador but the US legal system that encourages attorneys to file lawsuits like this.

One article “The Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit: It’s all about the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin says:  Sure it is. The 48 so-called plaintiffs or the 30,000 indigenous people we hear so much about in the media aren’t the financial beneficiaries in the law suit. The money goes to the Amazon Defense Coalition (ADC) and the law firm of Kohn, Swift & Graft.

So who is the culprit… the oil companies?  The Ecuador government?  The lawyers or we the people who use fossil fuels?

Our hearts personally go out to the poor people of the Amazon who are slowly being destroyed by civilization.

Yet we see the business view and we do like a warm home and to travel by car.

Plus if it were not for resource exploration and extraction many, many more people would be poor.

Yes, business does exploit.

There is a similar tales of bad exploitation in the part of Ecuador where we live, not with Chevron but with Ascendant Copper Company.

And another with Mitsubishi Mining.

This is because we the consumer buy their product.

Now another dilemma has bubbled up… with pharmaceuticals.

An October 17 Associated press article “Ecuador’s Correa plans to bypass drug patents” says:  President Rafael Correa says he is preparing to override a host of drug patents to provide lower-priced generic medications in Ecuador.  Correa says Ecuador will seek “compulsory licenses” from companies to produce medications considered indispensable.  Under World Trade Organization rules, countries can issue “compulsory licenses” to disregard patent rights, but only after negotiating with the patent owners and paying adequate compensation. Governments can skip the negotiating by declaring a public health emergency.  Correa says access to medicine is a human right and his decision is motivated by “the philosophy of 21st century socialism.”

When I recently noticed this I was really pretty happy to see this.

Merri and  do not use pharmaceuticals ourselves but recognize the importance they play in many people’s lives.  I consider a lot pf pharmaceutical marketing one of the biggest con games in this generation… makes Madoff pale in comparison.

It is hard for me to have sympathy for this industry as I believe that many pharmaceuticals are bilking the US public.

Already many of our readers come to Ecuador to get their prescriptions at a quarter the US cost.  This hopefully will allow this to continue or do even more.

However…

Where does it end?  If patent law loses its validity what incentive will anyone have to risk investing in new inventions and ideas?

So what can we… the little guy do?

There is not much we can do…  but if we all take some small steps, these rivulets become streams that can turn into torrents that do create change.

In Merri’s and my case, we created a small foundation Land of the Sun (LOTS) to help the environment and the poor of Ecuador.   The foundation rejuvenated the hotel Meson de las Flores which now provides a nice number of jobs at above average wages.  Our 2009 project was helping the Village of Topo above Cotacachi with its infrastructure, school and water system.  Also, LOTS sends a dozen children to school and university in our area…including the first university student from Topo.  In the past, we brought water to indigenous villages and an 80,000 gallon reservoir, schools, reforested 250,000 trees and etc….all off the Avenue of the Volcanoes.

LOTS promotes Ecuador flowers… those grown in green plantations certified by Veriflora.

We promote the ideas of having an internet business that sells exports from Ecuador to help stimulate the Ecuador economy… and to help North Americans who find they need new avenues of income.

Here are delegates at our most recent Ecuador export tour…

learning…

how to conduct…

an Ecuador flower party.

In another way we were early advocates of green investing in the mid 2000s through our Spottingtrends.com site and mutilicurrencyinvesting.com where we launched our Green Portfolio Study in 2006.

This is one reason why we focus on green investing and business ideas.
See http://www.garyascott.com/2008/04/01/2064.html

Here perhaps is the most important message.  Self interest is nature’s way of making sure every sentient being remains alive.  Only we human’s  have an imagination to understand the risks of ungoverned expansion.   All other life forms, given the chance will grow themselves out of existence.

Due to the conflict of our vision and this natural self serving impulse, we know that consumers will tend buy what seems most comfortable to them in the short term.

We know that big business will often take advantage of this fact and exploit, without conscious, resources to serve this impulse.

This conflict creates huge problems.  Huge problems create great opportunity… so look for small ways you can serve yourself now and help the future.

Let the big guys fiddle around with their battles while we each do the best we can… trying to make positive environmental and humanitarian statements and changes through the way we live enjoying earning, investing and living in the sun each day.

Gary

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

December 6-8 Blaine Watson’s  Beyond Logic & Shamanic Tour

December 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

December 11-13 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Join us in 2010.   Attend more than one seminar and tour and save even more plus get the three emailed courses free.

Our multi seminar-tour discounts have grown!

See the 2010 winter schedule below.

2 seminar courses & tours

3 seminar courses & tours   $1199 $1,749

4 seminar courses & tours   $1,399 $2,149

5 seminar courses & tours  $1,599 $2,499

(Be sure to show in the comments section which courses and tours you are attending)

International Club attend up to 52 courses and tours in 2010 free.

Jan.   8-11     Ecuador Export Tour ($499) Couple $749
Jan. 13-14     Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Jan. 16-17     Coastal Real Estate Tour
Jan. 19-20    Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour
Jan. 22-23    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Feb. 11-14   Quantum Wealth Florida -International Investing & Internet Business, Mt. Dora, Florida ($749) Couple $999
Feb. 15-16   Travel to Quito and Andes
Feb  17-18   Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Feb. 20-21  Coastal Real Estate Tour
Feb. 23-24  Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour
Feb. 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Mar. 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Florida ($749) Couple $999
Mar. 15-16    Travel to Quito and Andes
Mar. 17-18     Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Mar. 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic Tour
Mar. 22-23    Coastal Real Estate Tour
Mar. 25-26    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

The greatest asset of all is the ability to labor at what you love wherever you live. This brings everlasting wealth.

This is why we are providing a special three for one offer with our  course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business

This course can help you create your own internet business.

Our emailed course “Tangled Webs We Weave – How to Have Your Own Web Based Business” is a continuing educational program.  You receive the first 28 lessons when you enroll and a new lesson every week or two.

This course teaches how to create a web based business and is developed from the ongoing experiences that we have from our successful and profitable internet business.

This course is well worth the enrollment fee of $299… but currently you also receive two additional courses FREE.

The other two courses are #1: International Business Made EZ, and #2: Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher.

These two courses have sold for $398 and thousands have paid this price. We add them to your course, at no added cost, as I believe they will help you develop a better business in these crucial times..

Even Better Get All three Courses Free

To make this offer even more compelling,  I am giving everyone who enrolls in all our seminars or tours for any one month, October, November or December, “Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course,”  “Self Fulfilled- How to be a Self Publisher” and “International Business Made EZ” free.

Here is another Ecuador export delegate at Hilana. Learn about and see more Hilana export products below.

There were some Ecuador demonstrations last week.

This and the AP photos below by Dolores Ochoa show Ecuador protesters blocking the Pan Am Highway. See excerpts of the related article below.

Merri and I are used to these Ecuador protests as they are part of life in Ecuador. Though we have not seen any Ecuador demonstrations for several years,  they represent a good part of the Ecuadorian way and I am proud of how the  people exercise their democratic rights…. peacefully… but effectively.

The French use demonstrations as well and remember France is where many of the current ideals of democracy as we know them and processes that helped the industrial revolution really begin.

Yet the French leave cars flipped and shops burned. Remember what they did to some of their royalty!  In Ecuador violence is rarely the case.

Part of Ecuador’s political problems are created because the majority of the population are very poor… and poorly educated… but they are gaining.  This is Maria…  excited to be headed on her first day to university to study tourism management through a scholarship provided by our foundation, Land of the Sun.

Merri and I have been in the midst of several Ecuador demonstrations.  Our first protest party took place many years ago in the 1990s.  We had to get a friend from Latacunga, (one of the most active places for demonstrations), to Quito airport.

There is a “moving through Ecuador road blocks art” that we learned.

Ecuadorians are by nature friendly and easy going. Violence is rare… in their protests, crime or politics. These girls attend the Topo Grande school that Land of the Sun foundation is assisting.

In that first protest adventure we were with a yatchak… in his car… a four wheel drive. This meant that  a lot of the demonstration avoidance tactics came in the form of driving down railway tracks, through football fields and for quite some distance on the grassy path that formerly was the Incan trail.

Eventually however one meets a roadblock.  On that trip the yatchak did most of the work. As gringos we stayed in the car and let the yatchak do the talking.  Most road blocks are more like street parties… the blockers only half serious. There are generally two types of demonstrators… those with a real gripe and the majority who see the demonstration as a sort of fun time.

If you meet up with the party types… usually a dollar or two is a sufficient consideration to be able to move on IF one approaches the road block correctly… never with pushiness or aggression.

If one meets up with those who have a true grievance… the process is more difficult but usually  an earnest listen to their complaint… a murmur of agreement, some sympathy and an explanation of why you need to pass through, with perhaps a dollar or two will open the block.

In that first trip, the taxi drivers had the complaint… so they were the hardest nuts to crack… but the yatchak never failed.  Gentle words… appreciation for their plight and explanation of our own problems always opened the gates.

That trip to the airport took much longer than normal… one does not rush through these events… but we were able to help our friend board his plane on time.

Our second Ecuador demonstration trip took place on the day before one of our seminars in Ecuador.  Talk about terrible timing!

We always met delegates when they arrive at the airport the day before the seminar so we needed to travel from Cotacachi to Quito.  Normally we would make the two hour trip via the Pan American highway.  But Otavalo is another major, strong point for demonstrations.

We have developed a network of friends across the country so we knew that the Pan American was tightly closed.

So we headed down the back roads with an intrepid taxi driver who knew the ropes.

At each road block I would lay down in the back seat, close my eyes and groan.  Owh owh owh.

Merri, looking as pathetic as possible, rambled on “Me esposa necesita un hospital”.

The taxi driver requested clearance to the “hospital” and offered a few dollar for the favor.

This worked half way to Quito.  However there are some road blocks that just cannot be passed.  We found such a place where one group had dug a large pit through the road.

Another AP photo shows how some road blocks cannot circumnavigated.

Here I experienced a major recovery from my illness, grabbed our suitcase and we walk through the burning tires… NOT LOOKING ANYONE IN THE EYE.

The only hangup came when our hound dog Ma became tangled in the wires from burned tires. On the other side of the road farmers awaited with their pickups.   For $20, they were willing to give us a lift into town. The normal two hour journey turned into six…. but we were there, smiling when our delegates arrived.

The demonstrations (as with those last week) lasted only a day and we accompanied our delegates on the bus back to Cotacachi next day on the Pan American highway.  No one really suffered.

In short Ecuador demonstrations can range from kinda fun to frustrating… but rarely dangerous… as long as one takes their time, remains passive and avoids getting involved.   These Ecuador demonstrations, are in my opinion, a good part of Ecuador’s democratic process.

I expected political tensions to tighten in January… but they seem to be winding up sooner.

Here is my thinking why there will be more political turmoil in the months ahead.

Part of Ecuador’s political problem began over 500 years ago when the Spanish began colonizing the area that is now Ecuador. The system favored a few at the expense of the majority and has remained that way.

Today the majority of the population is indigenous….but historically have had little political power and they have the smallest portion of wealth and income. Here is a resident of the village of Topo Grande.

Slowly they have become increasingly organized and must be considered as a political power that now determines elections.  Yet due to the fact that they still remain among the poorest sector of the population, they also understand the global economy the least.

Almost every Ecuador president, since Merri and I began living in Ecuador, has been elected in part by making promises to poor people, like this lady above, that could not be kept.

President Correa is included in this definition and had two added benefits… his ability to speak Quichua (the indigenous language) and high oil prices when he entered office.

Oil revenues provide the major part of the government’s income and the high prices allowed Correa to keep many of his promises in his first years in office.

Then oil prices dropped and the government began cutting back.

This put so much pressure on the government income that in July 2009 it sold a billion dollars of oil to the Chinese.

An excerpt from a Reuter’s article entitled “Oil-hungry China moves to strengthen Ecuador ties” explains as it says:  QUITO (Reuters) – Oil-hungry China is moving to strengthen ties with OPEC member Ecuador, part of a global trend in which the Asian giant is providing billions of dollars in financing to producer nations to guarantee energy supplies.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday the country will receive $1 billion as advance payment for future oil sales to China. Ecuador sends most of its oil to the United States, and is trying to diversify its market.

Details remained unclear on Monday. But China, the world’s second biggest petroleum consumer after the United States, is striving to cement better ties with resource-rich Ecuador.
Chinese company Sinohydro is bidding for a contract with Ecuador to build a $2 billion hydroelectric plant in the country.

In addition, the leftist Ecuadorean government says it is in talks with Chinese companies interested in investing in the Manta air base, which the U.S. Army is due to leave in September. Ecuador wants to build a commercial airport in Manta.

According to the Chinese customs office, China imported 326,000 tonnes of crude oil from Ecuador in the first four months of 2009.

Ecuador is the fifth largest producer of crude oil in South America after Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. It produced 486,000 barrels of crude oil a day in May.

Impoverished Ecuador faces a liquidity crunch due to low oil prices. The government’s recent debt default has shut the country off from the international capital markets.

Here is how one sharp Ecuador businessman explained the problem to me.

The government took payment now on 30% of its future oil, beginning next January to balance the current budget. How will it balance its budget next year with only 70% of its oil?

This leaves the Ecuador government only two options… higher gas prices… a factor beyond its control… or a cut back which means breaking more election promises.

That’s why it made sense to me that demonstrations would start next year not now.

However I was wrong. On hearing of the demonstrations I wrote to a network of friends and contacts across the country to get people’s opinions. Here are some of the replies I received.

Business person from Manta:

Dear Gary, Today Sunday the indigenas stared to make groups in different places of Guayaquil  and especially Quito. It Iooks like they want to make strikes tomorrow and to close main roads especially in highlands areas.   Until this moment everybody is quiet and nobody worries over  that situation.  The people are asking for solutions to water problems and something more.,

I think we have to see what happens tomorrow and hope that there is nothing more than a one day demonstration.

The Real Estate Tour in Manta was very good yesterday.  The people were very nice and it looks like two couples and two men are planning to stay in Manta to see more properties.

Demonstrations have been brewing and are now taking place on two fronts.

One of them regards schoolteachers that are part of a much politicized association called UNE (Union Nacional de Educadores – or National Teachers Association) who opposes the widely celebrated regime effort to bring higher quality to public schooling via teacher examination and training.

UNE appears to be divided in this and the government is gaining ground in this legitimate endeavor.

The other front regards mostly the indigenous population (also somewhat divided), who opposes the draft for the new Water Law, claiming that it will “privatize” water, something that has no grounds.

They say that they have not been taken into account in drafting it and that it has elements for the privatization of water. Please note that the indigenous peoples of Ecuador are very dependent on natural water sources for their livelihood.

The indigenous population is adept at closing-off highways in very disruptive demonstrations.

So far it seems that the demonstrations have been mostly mild but it’s hard to tell if they will flare-up big time.

The indigenous people also oppose the new mining law on environmental grounds. The general public believes this new mining law is important as it provides environmental safeguards but also allows the exploitation of our mineral riches under a better framework. There are always tradeoffs of course.

President Correa’s Government keeps a very high level of support amongst the population and has been extremely able to defuse situations like this, even though it has had a confrontational stance.

Change brings discomfort and demonstrations are part of our culture. I hope and trust they fade away amidst inclusive dialogue.

It seems that by Tuesday the demonstrations were defused. The biggest supporters have lifted their demonstrations in order to start a dialogue process.

Some fringe groups still remain protesting but for the most the demonstrations should be over now.  Best regards,

Business Person from Puerto Viejo

Hi Gary, Sorry I could not get back to you before.

As you probably know already, demonstrations have been going on this week.  There  are several groups such as teachers (UNE), indigenous people (CONAIE), high school and university students and other small groups who have gotten together protesting against different things they consider that violate or diminish their rights:  all of them have in common their opposition to the government, although the majority of them were part of the government in the past .

Each of the group is protesting against a particular law that is about to pass in the congress:  CONAIE  are against Ley del Agua or a law which regulates water and that in their opinion privatizes the water.  UNE or the teachers are against a new law of secondary and elementary education and also against some regulations that will reduce their salaries.  Students are also against  the law of university education which will not allow to have private universities in the future.  Of course political parties are also involved in these demonstrations.

CONAIE is now splitt and having talks with the government so I do not expect their strike to be as strong as in the past.  UNE  or the teachers are the ones that seem to be stronger and they are right now in their third week of protest.

Please let me know if you need more information or comments on these issues.

Kind regards,

Vilcabamba Teacher:

How are you?  I just read a little about this problem in my Country.  You know I feel sad about it because the only people who suffer the consequences are the students, right now the public schools and some universities are closed, students are in their homes.

UNE (national union of teachers) is protesting for 3 reasons:

1) The Ministerio de Education did some kind of administrative process against the teachers who did not do a test (I do not what kind of test) before, this administrative process could cause a teacher to be fired, so, UNE do not accept this process.

2) Also UNE protests about the new reforms in the law that reduce 1.5% of their salary.

3) UNE protests because a new law says that school´s authorities should get a commission of service without a salary.  Regards

Quito Businessman

Hi Gary,  There are 2 ways to read into this:

1.  Correa is trying to clean up the mess that Ecuador’s education system has grown into over the years, with UNE, the main teachers’ association becoming a by-product of the left wing political party MPD.  He has run into opposition and this has lead to the UNE’s strike which started last week.

He is also trying to put some order into the way water rights are distributed and managed in the country, thus angering CONAIE (whom he no longer needs as a political support base because through the same CONAIE and Pachakutik he has gained direct access to the indigenous people by providing them housing, infrastructure, etc.).

Now it turns out that the UNE strike will tie into the CONAIE demonstrations, and things could turn nasty next week.

2.  Correa has become obsessed with his power, and as such is trying to get control of every aspect of Ecuadorians’ life, including education, the use of land and water, the economy in general and of the production and industrial sector (taxing importers out of business in order to support local industry).  In doing so, he has alienated many of his former allies and has made worst enemies of his former foes.  This is unsustainable in the long run and the first signs that his government is heading into severe difficulties are starting to appear.  As you are aware, Correa has a very aggressive political style, criticizing his opponents and trying to make anyone who does not support him look bad and ridicule.  This has its cost and now Correa may be starting to pay the price.

Frankly speaking, I do not know how serious that is.  The main support of Correa’s “Citizens Revolution” has been the poor people.  If they start to turn against him, I do not think he will fare very well.  On the other hand, these demonstrations may just be caused by a minority of UNE and CONAIE, in which case, they will pass and it will be business as usual in Ecuador.   It is hard to tell at this time, but one thing that is for sure is that people are starting to run out of patience with respect to Correa.  We will have a clearer picture by next Monday, because it will be possible to gauge how strong and successful CONAIE’s closing of roads turns out to be.  Best,

Loja Businessman:

University and high school teachers have been protesting the elimination of a 1.5% payment and a couple of other issues. These protests began last week.

This is normal in Ecuador particularly by the union involved. They like to do this in the beginning of the school year.

The police are involved which makes this more serious, but I don’t know how serious.

Guayaquil businessman:

Gary, I do not see it so bad.

Ambato Investor:

By the way, from reading the article, it is not so against the Correa-Government.  Nonetheless, there has been some small protests in Ambato as well.

Coastal Businessman

Gary, thanks..I am in San Clemente and no demonstrations here!

The students and the teachers have always spent most of the time demonstrating..but of course the government thought they would avoid demonstrations against them with the “peoples revolution” slogan..

The indigenous people seem to want to march again against the new mining law and the governments intent to start big scale mining operations to improve finances..

I do not think any of these demonstrations will be even close in size to what they used to be during previous governments..basically because all these movements supported the government and it’s policy and many still do..They also lack the charismatic leaders they once had.

Regards,

This last comment seems to be supported by excerpts of an Associated Press article entitled “Ecuador Indian group protests water, mining laws”: The Associated Press  QUITO, Ecuador — Hundreds of Indians blocked Ecuador’s Pan American highway in several provinces Monday with rocks, tree trunks and burning tires to protest new water, mining and oil laws.

Their leaders suspended the protest late Monday, saying the government had promised to talk about their objections.

The Indians contend the proposed the laws threaten their lands and will privatize water resources. Leftist President Rafael Correa disputes that view, and the ruling party-controlled legislature has been expected to approve the laws.

Monday’s protests on the main national highway paled in comparison to protests that ousted Ecuadorean presidents in 2000 and 2005.

Third AP photo from this article.

Things are improving. Ecuador’s indigenous are getting richer and better educated.

Enrique is one of the excellent Cotacachi indigenous builders who is developing homes in Cotacachi. He is among a growing sector of hard working, highly successful and dependable indigenous businesses that help form a strong, integrated  middle class in Ecuador.  Be sure see to see some of Enrique’s houses at this site next week.

Ecuador demonstrations are a part of Ecuador’s democratic process.  Since moving to Ecuador I have seen many presidents comes and many go… very few serving their full term… a process I like better than having a bad president last.    President Correa has enjoyed a time without Ecuador protests because of high oil prices and his willingness to default on Ecuador bonds.  That former decision is now biting him back… along with low oil prices… so more and more are saying… “throw the bum out”.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do this at home?

Gary

Combining good international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth.

This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.

A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.

This is why I am willing to pay you $300 to attend either our Ecuador Super Thinking plus Spanish seminar in September or our North Carolina International Business & Investing seminar in October.  Sign up for either seminar and I will email you our Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course (offered at $299) free plus I’ll knock an extra dollar off your seminar fee…. to round up the $300 savings.

See details of the two seminar below.

Delegates at our Ecuador seminars and tours enjoy Ecuador music.

Join Merri, Thomas Fischer of JGAM, our webmaster David Cross and me in North Carolina this October and enroll in our emailed course on how to have a web business free.  Save $300.

Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business and diversification in Ecuador at the seminar.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Here is an email for a recent seminar delegate: Hello Gary and Merri,  I have wanted to write to tell you how much we enjoyed your IBEZ seminar, and to thank you both for inviting us all into your lovely home for lunch last Sunday.  Merri, again, thank you for taking the time to prepare foods especially for me; they were delicious, and I appreciate your effort!  Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable, very well done, stimulating seminar.  I came away not only with all the notes provided, but also with many ideas which I plan to begin working on now that we are back home.  Wishing you all the best,

Or join us in Ecuador and learn more about living and retiring in Ecuador.

We take delegates on our Ecuador seminars to Otavalo markets.  Many buy enough goods to resell in North America to pay for their entire trip.  Ecuador textiles like these I photographed in Otavalo are popular.

Here are comments from one seminar delegate about the followup from our course:  Gary & Merri -
I know why I get a ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling when I see your two names in the ‘From’ column of my emails!  I sincerely hope that others are getting that same satisfaction.  Thank you both again for the help and assistance in getting to Ecuador.

October 16-18 Ecuador Southern coastal tour Sold Out

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

December 6-8 Beyond Logic Shamanic Tour

December 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

December 11-13 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador seminar or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

“Oil-hungry China moves to strengthen Ecuador tieswww.reuters.com/article/GCA-Oil/idUSTRE56C6FF20090713

www.thestate.com/world/story/962859.html?RSS=untracked
Ecuador Indian group protests water, mining laws

We sadly received the note below about last chance essential oils from our friends John and Candace Newman.

Candace spent many years traveling with us and the yatchaks in Ecuador.

Here is Candace with the Taita Yatchak, our daughter Francesca and friends on a journey through Ecuador and Peru studying mystical sites.

Here is Candace at our Andean hacienda Rosaspamba and its wonderful mystical views.

Candace with group at Lake Titicaca.

Candace checking out herbs at the market.

Candace on the trip to Machu Picchu.

Merri and I always use Candace’s oils because she gained so much wisdom on these trips and through her lifetime global studies.

So we were saddened to read this note: Gary & Merri, our oil sales will close October 15, 2009.

After 18 years, the decision to stop selling our Aromatherapy oil products has not been made lightly.  After much evaluation & contemplation, we believe it is the right thing to do. On October 15th, the retail and wholesale shopping carts will close. Our oils & formulas are 10% off from now until October 15th … or until the supply runs out.

We know many of you use our oils & formulas daily. This discount helps you stock up on the ones you love, and is our “early” Christmas and Holiday Sale we normally run in November.  With proper care our products last well over a year.

See August’s newsletter about proper care.

I’m continuing my free monthly Newsletter to keep you informed of classes, education and company changes; the subscription to my Aromatherapy Guides for those who want continuing education; Consultations and Treatments; and more Classes. My Classes on DVD’s and The Good Medicine Tin® will continue to be available to purchase by fax, email or phone.

John will continue to be our webmaster and will pursue some of his other special interests dear to his heart.

Aromatherapy and essential oils are one of the many soulful elements that truly make a difference in people’s lives and health around the world.  We appreciate you and are grateful for your continued support and loyalty over the past 20 years of my work with essential oils.

Our Best to You,
Candace and John Newman

I have personally loaded up with a year’s supply of  Rose Otto, Lavender, Geranium, Lemon, and Orange the oils that I use the most.

You can get more information on the oils they have left in inventory here.

Lavender 10 ml

Tea Tree 10 ml

Peppermint 10 ml

Eucalyptus 10 ml

Orange 10 ml

Frankincense 10 ml

Rose otto 4 ml

Geranium 10 ml

Lemon 10 ml

Sandalwood 10 ml

Candace also still has some essential oil mists that offer a gentle Aroma therapeutic wash that can have immediate and profound benefits, calming the mind, balancing the emotions, nurturing the skin, cleansing the body and surrounding environment.

Merri and I especially use essential oil mists when we travel or are in public places. On the plane they freshen and purify the stale airline environment. We also use them to relieve the heat of the summer.

Essential oil mists also make great stress-free gifts.  They are always in our Christmas and birthday mix.

Candace is offering a sample of four 1 oz essential oil mist blends each in amber plastic bottle with zipper carrying case with the discount.    An Essential Oil Mist Chart is included free.

It contains:

* Lavender Mist
* Lavender-Peppermint Mist
* Lavender-Rose Mist
* Rejuvenation Mist

The Lavender Mist contains aloe vera, pure water, vegetable glycerin and pure Lavender essential oil. This mist cleanses and hydrates the face, calms the mind and body tissue, balances the emotions.  It is excellent for sunburn, itching or rashes.

Lavender-Peppermint Mist contains aloe vera, pure water, vegetable glycerin, Lavender and Peppermint pure essential oils. This mist is uplifting and refreshing. It comforts and soothes the emotions and provides a feeling of  “menthol lift” lightness.  Keep one in refrigerator for a cool refreshing mist.  Use whenever feeling sluggish, anxious, or out of balance.

Lavender-Rose Mist contains Aloe vera, pure water, vegetable glycerin and Lavender and Rose Otto pure essential oils.

Rejuvenation Mist contains Aloe vera, pure water, vegetable glycerin, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Frankincense, Geranium and Rose Otto pure essential oils. This mist cleanses and hydrates the face.

Essential Oil Mist Sampler Details Here

We are thankful to Candace for her years of dedication and the wonderful oils she has provided over the years.

Gary

Combining good international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth.

This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.

A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.

This is why I am willing to pay you $300 to attend either our Ecuador Super Thinking plus Spanish seminar in September or our North Carolina International Business & Investing seminar in October.  Sign up for either seminar and I will email you our Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course (offered at $299) free plus I’ll knock an extra dollar off your seminar fee…. to round up the $300 savings.

See details of the two seminar below.

Delegates at our Ecuador seminars and tours enjoy Ecuador music.

Join Merri, Thomas Fischer of JGAM, our webmaster David Cross and me in North Carolina this October and enroll in our emailed course on how to have a web business free.  Save $300.

Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business and diversification in Ecuador at the seminar.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Here is an email for a recent seminar delegate: Hello Gary and Merri,  I have wanted to write to tell you how much we enjoyed your IBEZ seminar, and to thank you both for inviting us all into your lovely home for lunch last Sunday.  Merri, again, thank you for taking the time to prepare foods especially for me; they were delicious, and I appreciate your effort!  Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable, very well done, stimulating seminar.  I came away not only with all the notes provided, but also with many ideas which I plan to begin working on now that we are back home.  Wishing you all the best,

Or join us in Ecuador and learn more about living and retiring in Ecuador.

We take delegates on our Ecuador seminars to Otavalo markets.  Many buy enough goods to resell in North America to pay for their entire trip.  Ecuador textiles like these I photographed in Otavalo are popular.

Here are comments from one seminar delegate about the followup from our course:  Gary & Merri -
I know why I get a ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling when I see your two names in the ‘From’ column of my emails!  I sincerely hope that others are getting that same satisfaction.  Thank you both again for the help and assistance in getting to Ecuador.

October 16-18 Ecuador Southern coastal tour One Place Left

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador seminar or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

What is the difference between health and wealth? Not much, just WH.   They are very connected. Without good health, wealth may not last long…  nor is wealth very important when health fails, except to regain health.

We can apply an idea about having better health through purification, to enhance our wealth.  We can improve our wealth by removing toxic investments from our portfolio.

In a moment we’ll also look at investing in sustainable timber and see an Ecuador visa update.

Sustainable Timber.

First, let me begin with a purification health tip.

The tip is in the summer eat a watermelon.  Many ancient healing traditions (including Andean) view the body as having several elements including water, fire and air. Imbalances of these elements reduces energy, vitality, even leads to illness. The seasons too contain elements of fire, water and air. Water is predominant in spring, fire in summer and air in autumn-winter. Our bodies tend to accumulate these predominances during the season. In winter we have air imbalances (leading to dry throat called colds). In spring we pick up too much water (runny noses we identify as allergies, etc.). So at the beginning of each new season, it’s a great idea to clean the system out.

Watermelon is a cleanser of heat.  During the summer the body accumulates heat.  Eat a whole, big watermelon if you can. This works in the summer when the flushing action removes excessive fire, water and air. The melon must be fresh, cut and eaten within 20 minutes. Watermelon is a sponge that absorbs and flushes free radicals from the system. If you let the melon sit after cutting, it oxidizes and loses its cleansing capacity.

Sound crazy? I thought so but tried it after watching a Shaman prescribe it for a woman suffering a severe rash (a summer fire imbalance). I felt so good, I make this a regular habit each summer. About once a month I eat only watermelon… three in a day if I can.

So how do we purify our investment & business portfolios?

One really simple tip for detoxifying your investment portfolio is to sell your losers and keep your winners.

This sounds awfully simple but forty years of working with investors has shown that most investors do exactly the opposite… except the pros. They all know… sell the losers.  Next time you invest, set a limit you will allow the investment to drop before you sell.  Stick to it!

The second trick is review your portfolio now. Are there any investments you hold that you would not buy right now?  Consider selling them. Take the loss and look for something better.

Another way to purify business and investments is to simply take a holistic long term view with expanded horizons.

Since we were looking at watermelon purification, let’s take investments in nutrition as an example.

Here is an excerpt from an August 31 article in Time magazine entitled “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” by Bryan Walsh:

Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He’s fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he’ll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That’s the state of your bacon — circa 2009.

The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can’t even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. A series of recalls involving contaminated foods this year — including an outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanuts that killed at least eight people and sickened 600 — has consumers rightly worried about the safety of their meals. A food system — from seed to 7‑Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America’s obesity epidemic. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. “The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us,” says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House garden has so far yielded more than 225 lb. of organic produce — and tons of powerful symbolism. But hers is still a losing battle. Despite increasing public awareness, sustainable agriculture, while the fastest-growing sector of the food industry, remains a tiny enterprise: according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), less than 1% of American cropland is farmed organically. Sustainable food is also pricier than conventional food and harder to find. And while large companies like General Mills have opened organic divisions, purists worry that the very definition of sustainability will be co-opted as a result.

But we don’t have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.

Big problems create opportunity and investments in apparently obscure but sustainable food and energy ideas can help take toxicity out of your business as well as investment portfolio.

Sustainable may not seem profitable now… but neither did Microsoft when the idea of individual PCs began.

Sustainability is vital to our future. Sustainability is a huge problem and hence opportunity so though it will not arrive overnight…this is a sector we can invest in to detoxify our wealth.

Since we are connected to our investments… this process will also help us learn to eat and live better and help purify our health as well.

Sustainable Tables

Another way to purify your portfolio is to look for opportunities where you invest your own energy as well as your cash… like we are doing with our value added sustainable timber below.

Here is one little idea we are trying in our new little Blue Ridge Crafts business.

For years I have written that timber is a great investment.  Timber is the only commodity where the supply increases even when demand is down.  All you have to do during bad times… of low demand… like now is don’t sell.  Your timber continues to grow!

Now we are doing a business using dead timber and adding value!

We are turning dead wood, like this poplar log, into a business.

This poplar sitting right behind our house died a few years ago and dropped branches on the house all winter. This spring we trimmed off the branches and last week brought it down… cut it in three pieces and dragged them to one of our fields.

We set up a portable mill and…

cut over a thousand board feet of nice poplar planks.

We also…

cut one huge 13 foot long slab for a table top so if anyone is interested in a 12 foot poplar table… that you help design yourself… let us know.

This is a pretty small step towards sustainability but if we all think about ways to purify our investments, our business and body, our health and our wealth…at the big level and small will improve.

Ecuador Visa Update

A reader who travels frequently in business asked how to handle  the fact that Ecuador immigration policy does not allow a new resident to leave for more than 90 days a year for the first two years.

We checked with one of our Ecuador Living advisers, an attorney who specializes in immigration, who replied:

Please notice that in theory all resident visas come with the obligation not lo leave Ecuador for more than 90 days a year in the first two years.

Nevertheless, please be advised that authorities until now have not automatically removed a resident visa for this matter.

We have noticed that once the visa is stamped and if the passport is valid for more than two years, then you do not need to go to the Ecuadorian immigration authorities for anything else. This reduces the risk of the authorities reviewing how long you have you been outside of Ecuador during the first two years.

A good number of our clients have obtained the resident visa and have been outside of Ecuador far more than the 90 days with no complication whatsoever.

Anther option is to travel into Ecuador on a tourist visa which allows a stay in Ecuador for up to 90 days every year and this can be extended  for 90 days more.

Whether you want to live, do business or and invest in Ecuador, Smalltown USA or anywhere in the world… if you think sustainable, you are thinking… the future. This is a great place to be.

Gary

Combining sustainable international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth.

This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.

A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.

This is why I am willing to pay you $300 to attend either our Ecuador Super Thinking plus Spanish seminar in September or our North Carolina International Business & Investing seminar in October.  Sign up for either seminar and I will email you our Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course (offered at $299) free plus I’ll knock an extra dollar off your seminar fee…. to round up the $300 savings.

See details of the two seminars below.

Here are comments from one seminar teacher about the way we help: Merri,  I just wanted to let you know how beautifully the workshop went. Great attendees was a big part of it, but the performance of your staff, particularly Mauricio, kept everyone in a great mood. He was a fountain of local information, as well as dedicated to making sure that everyone’s needs were attended to.
The new apartment rivals La Mirage in comfort and beauty. My wife showed it off to about half the attendees. Particular praise came for the unique dining table on the top floor. Thanks again for helping to make everything a success. Regards to Gary and Ma.

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Super Thinking + Spanish Course

Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business and diversification in Ecuador at the seminar.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina with our webmaster  David Cross & Thomas Fischer of JGAM

October 16-18 Ecuador Southern coastal tour (early sign up before Sept. 1, $499 per person).

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador seminar or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799

Read the entire article “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” here.

Many recent messages have looked at living, business and investing in chaos during times of turmoil and change.

Ecuador at times may seem chaotic.

Chaos is caused by transition from one wave of productive technology to another.

Investors and businesses who understand this have an enormous advantage because they know to look for the next wave.

In a moment, we’ll look at the potential for chaos in Ecuador.

First, let’s look at some positive chaos that could ruin some basic utilities but also create millions (maybe billions) for some businesses and investors.

The industrial revolution has been a time of continual chaos.  There was a time of turmoil when mankind shifted from steam technology to the internal combustion engine. Investors who had been big in railroads (but were smart) shifted to investing in automobiles and trucking and bus lines.

Then chaos came again when the jet engine made the airplane a more effective form of transportation than long distance.  Bus travel and smart investors shifted from Greyhound into airline shares.

In the information era; the PC, Internet (and Microsoft) became the major carrier of mankind and investors who saw this potential once again jumped ahead of the pack.

Where do we go next?

One new wave of technology may come in a product we all take for granted…. creating what I would call the independence era. Let’s just look at the break through.

A forward looking reader sent me the Utah Daily Herald article “New battery could change world, one house at a time” by Randy Wright.

Here is an excerpt:  On a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.  — a new generation of deep-storage battery that’s small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.

It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America’s antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.

The battery breakthrough comes from a Salt Lake company called Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, a world leader in advanced materials and electrochemical devices.

The convergence of these two key technologies — solar power and deep-storage batteries — has profound implications for oil-strapped America.

With small-scale electrical generation taking place at millions of individual homes — as opposed to today’s large-scale power generation from a handful of giant power plants — there would be less worry about what’s called “point failure” on the grid. That’s when a single component gets knocked out and shuts off power to a whole region. California-style rolling blackouts would be history.

The threat of terrorism has heightened the worry. But wide distribution of batteries in homes would virtually eliminate it.

Inside Ceramatec’s wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions — electrically charged particles — back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

This may not startle you, but it should. It’s amazing. The most energy-dense batteries available today are huge bottles of super-hot molten sodium, swirling around at 600 degrees or so. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity but it’s both toxic and corrosive. You wouldn’t want your kids around one of these.

The essence of Ceramatec’s breakthrough is that high energy density (a lot of juice) can be achieved safely at normal temperatures and with solid components, not hot liquid.

Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery’s life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Re-read that last paragraph and let the information really sink in. Five kilowatts over four hours — how much is that? Imagine your trash compactor, food processor, vacuum cleaner, stereo, sewing machine, one surface unit of an electric range and thirty-three 60-watt light bulbs all running nonstop for four hours each day before the house battery runs out. That’s a pretty exciting place to live.

And then you recharge. With a projected 3,650 discharge/recharge cycles — one per day for a decade — you leave the next-best battery in the dust. Deep-cycling lead/acid batteries like the ones used in RVs are only good for a few hundred cycles, so they’re kaput in a year or so.

How do you recharge? By tapping your solar panels or windmills. It’s just like plugging in your cell phone or iPod, only you plug in your house.

A small three-bedroom home in Provo might average, say, 18 kWh of electric consumption per day in the summer — that’s 1,000 watts for 18 hours. A much larger home, say five bedrooms in the Grandview area, might average 80 kWh, according to Provo Power. Either way, a supplement of 20 to 40 kWh per day is substantial. If you could produce that much power in a day — for example through solar cells on the roof — your power bills would plummet.

“Batteries and PV are about to merge,” said MIT’s Nocera, using the shorthand for “photovoltaics” or solar power. “First Solar is now saying that it takes $1 a peak watt to manufacture, and another 80 cents for installation. So they’re saying that you can get PV for under $2 a watt. That’s a reduction of cost by a factor of four. Only a few years ago, it was $8. If CoorsTek and Ceramatec come up with a good battery, the market will develop quickly.”

The long-term impact of home electric generation for a power company’s business model could be huge. After all, you can’t stay in business if nobody’s paying for power. Exactly how that will play out remains to be seen.

This technology is new to me… but seems breathtaking and loaded with opportunity.  Please send any thoughts, ideas, information or opinions you have.

Before you invest though, remember the golden rules of investing.

1. Money isn’t everything
2. Work only with people you like
3. Buy businesses, not stocks
4. Invest only in what you understand
5. Don’t over diversify
6. Keep looking for new opportunities
7. Buy businesses you plan to keep for life
8. Look for businesses that are available at a good price
9. Do what you like

Potential Ecuador Chaos

The people of Ecuador are friendly and happy.

There is some potential for change in Ecuador that could benefit those moving and investing there.

First, let’s look at the cause of the turmoil.  A recent message entitled Investing Internationally shared news about the Ecuadorian government’s plan to take back a number of radio and TV frequencies stations. We promised to stay tuned to what happens and share observations and opinions from trusted sources in Ecuador about this.

Since that time, the Western press has published even more bad sounding news.

A recent AP article entitled “Ecuador Wants Citizen Committees To Defend Gov’t” said:  QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador wants to create local citizen committees that would defend the government and its “revolution” — sparking criticism that the president aims to control opponents in a system reminiscent of Cuba or Venezuela.

Citizen Participation Minister Doris Soliz told Ecuador TV on Thursday that local citizen groups are needed to defend against coups like the one that recently deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, or against outside agitators, noting U.S. military plans to use Colombian bases.

Other articles covered lots of rhetoric from Venezuela’s President about winds of war in the area (Chavez’s commenting on the announcement that the US would place military in Colombia).

Since the daily press distort, dramatize and magnify the negative; here are more comments from Ecuadorian business people with this comments.

Dear Gary: Sorry for the delay in my reply.  Correa is an unpredictable president.  On one hand he tries to emulate everything Chavez has done in Venezuela.  It is clear that Chavez gave him millions to finance his political campaigns and now he is obligated to do whatever Chavez wants.

On the other hand, he knows how far he can push the people of Ecuador.  If he is not careful, he can end up like Zelaya in Honduras.  I see strong confrontations coming if he tries to close radio and TV stations like Chavez did.

As you say in your reports.  We all need to be diversified in order to avoid problems in one place and not have anywhere to go in thing go bad.  I do believe the Ecuadorians are not as passive as the Venezuelans, and if Correa pushes too far he will find out. Let’s wait and see.

I agree with this reader. Ecuadorians are an independent people, and I have watched them (peacefully) oust a number of Presidents who abused their power.

Here is another opinion from one of my many sources.

Gary,  My comments are just some personal opinions and for that reason I prefer that I not receive any credit.   There is some noise going around that Correa wants to have “block leaders” who will report back to the government of any dissent. You can imagine what this means. Stifling dissent. It is a time to be careful and hope the Ecuadorian military remains faithful to the people of Ecuador. While there are so many needs and opportunities in Ecuador to be attended to, one could ask why does the president feel it is necessary to be out speaking of “winds of war blowing” against Colombia?
Anyway, it all comes with the territory of being in the Latin governmental world I suspect.  If the leaders were just humble people looking to improve the lot of their people instead of being megalomaniacs hell bent on being Castro or Hitler, life would be easier for all.

Here are children in a parade in Cotacachi.

Readers should note that it was not Correa, Ecuador’s president who made the comment about Winds of War but Chavez of Venezuela. A lot of press makes it sound like Correa is much more closely aligned with Chavez than I believe he is.  Good or bad, I do believe that Correa is his own man and is pretty independent.

Here is another comment by an Ecuadorian with a great political and historical background.

Thanks for asking.  Correa. He is all right.  His big problem is being too young.  There is
a proverb in Spanish “mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo”.  (The devil knows more because he’s old than because he’s the devil). That is Correa’s problem.  He is not old enough.  Velasco Ibarra who was president five times, was very much like Correa, when he was young. When he grew older he became much more sedated.

Again I agree with this. Everything I have seen has led me to feel that Correa has many good intentions and is trying to correct many wrongs and has a big job.  In his youth he may be too ambitious and impatient.  Time, inertia and politics should correct a lot of that!

Here are more comments.

He usually talks too much.  He talks every Saturday for 3 or 4 hours continuously.  It is not highly recommendable to quote him or mention his speech. Sometimes he just changes his mind. Or does not follow what he mentioned in the previous weekend.

That could describe more than one politician!

I have met the President a couple of times. He actually stopped next to us on the street at 9pm at night and met our son and was very sincere and asked what we thought about how things were here in Ecuador.  He is very headstrong, but I think that he is a very intelligent guy and he knows how to negociate  and what it is going to take for Ecuador to become a stable economy and that is with foreign investment and tourism.

Again this is the way I see it as well.

This is from a Quito businessman:

Dear Gary:  Many thanks for sharing the concerns some of your readers have about President Correa. I get some emails on the subject too.  I should start by saying that I am no fan of President Correa,  far from it. I don’t particularly like his discourse as if from the union trenches of the 60s and 70s.

Some of his economic policies seem to go counter current and his relative closeness with Chavez is a blemish.

Nonetheless, there are merits too, amongst which is great effort in improving education and health care. Also, in attempting to fix some wrongs and distortions we’ve had on several fronts.

In spite of Correa’s antics, Ecuador continues to offer, and perhaps more so than ever, rather remarkable opportunities for real estate investors, visitors and expats.

Let me explain:

The new, fresh-out-of-the-oven, Ecuadorian Constitution states, following with the tradition of the previous one, that foreigners have exactly the same rights as Ecuadorians under the law.

Furthermore, private property is protected under the law as one of the main pillars of our economy. Confiscation is prohibited and eminent domain (expropriation) situations are extremely rare, much less so than what they would be in Miami, London or Toronto for that matter.

While some people may believe that Correa is not particularly pro foreign investment, the reality is that Ecuador, just as the next country, needs investment to prosper and, hence, the President is very welcoming of it, he just demands responsible practices.

While the pitfalls of politics-as-usual and nationalistic grandstanding in Ecuador, can and does preclude some major investments from coming in (picture hydroelectric, oil exploration, etc), for most of us, of your readers Gary, this should not be a problem.

Regarding the Government’s stance towards foreigners coming to Ecuador and investing here, something quite nice and reassuring happened to me recently, which is telling about how reality differs from perception.

Here’s the story:

While working in the concept for a coastal development with international capitals and geared mostly towards foreigners, we realized that better government planning and zoning was needed in the area if we were to spread our wings the fullest.

I decided to call the Production Ministry, which is a high level coordination entity on top of many other ministries in Ecuador to see if they could perhaps give us some light as to getting some better zoning for the area.

I was immediately transferred to the head authority in charge of foreign investments in Ecuador and in a few hours was meeting with him along with other officers from the ministry he had called in.
They were not only incredibly welcoming of our ideas and concepts but asked us to create with them a road map not only for planning and zoning, but for infrastructure, education of the local community, and much more.

They have let me know that they are ready to lend a hand as needed and that when the time comes, once we have things down on a plan we can meet with the secretary of the ministry and even President Correa for further vision.

What is the reason for this incredible support? Well, that they are really pro investments and that when you want to do the right thing, doors become open.

On the subject of visas, something that concerns many foreigners, I can say that the President has prompted a very open regime for foreigners to come to Ecuador. However, some changes in the procedures are driving some of us nuts. We just have to adapt.

In any case, you can expect to get a resident visa in Ecuador in 3 to 6 weeks in most cases. The new director of Migration is quite a gentleman and very open and understanding. It’s a pleasure to work with him.

With regards to some radios being closed, this is something the President declared as a possibility on grounds that some radio frequencies had been granted with irregularities according to an audit. While the audit may be correct, President Correa does have a bitter quarrel with the press and his fixation with it is over the top now.

Getting back to real estate; I’d like to add that foreigners have been investing and buying real estate in Ecuador for some time, and that this is a trend that is seemingly quite on the rise.

I am seeing the start of a major wave here.

Ecuador has excellent real estate opportunities and values and the current international crisis where former “safe havens” have been shattered is making this truth about Ecuadorian real estate all the more compelling.

Investors into Ecuadorian real estate ought to buy soundly into capital preservation and important appreciation potential.

As final thoughts, given the current financial problems the world is seeing, the violence in Mexico fending off tourists and investors… the bursting of the real estate bubbles throughout, the baby-boomers coming of age with individuals lusting for active living with quality of life to boot, Ecuador is starting to make some tremendous sense to many.

Our President may be a bit of a showman (to put it somehow), granted; and we as a nation have a ways to go into maturity; we are rough around the edges, but we may have among the warmest, most welcoming people on earth, and no development can buy that.

We have good infrastructure and low cost of living. Those who see beyond the perception should be able to get in early on the trend, ride this major wave and make the best out of it.

These are good points… especially this one… the government may be talking one way or the other… but look at how it is acting. In this case it appears that the government is pro tourism… pro investment and is welcoming residents from abroad.

Here is one final comment.

Gary, I don’t get involved in my host country’s internal politics.  I am however a strong believer in the Open Society and the value of ideas meeting arguments, so I guess I would prefer more media outlets to fewer.  By the by, Ecuadorians I know say this is the first time they feel they cannot express freely what they feel about their government, for fear of repression.

These are two key points also. I do not get involved in politics anywhere.  My feeling is that time is better spent adapting to whatever the politicians do rather than joining into the political fray. Reality is that if you do business fair and well, whatever the political system is you’ll be welcome.  The second point is about freedom of speech.

I recall feeling fear like this recently when talking to my son over the phone. I was about to make a joke about a certain president and decided not to thinking… I had better not joke about this.  The problem was I was in the US… not Ecuador.

The great technology that has created such great access to information has destroyed our privacy as well…everywhere.

My new real estate acquisitions are in Ecuador . Recent messages have looked at the importance of seeing reality. People write often asking if it‘s safe in Ecuador. I was thinking of the reality of this as Merri and I concluded a long Ecuador morning walk. The birds were singing, roosters crowing in the distance and we saw two very young children, a girl of maybe six or seven and her little brother maybe four or five walking alone through the village on their way to school. This is so typical in Ecuador.

I wondered how many children of that age in North America are allowed to walk alone through town as they are in Ecuador.

More Cotacachi children in a parade.

You see young girls like this (maybe eleven or twelve) walking around night and day. This is not because Ecuadorian parents are careless. It is because there is a great deal of safety in Ecuador .

Here are a few facts I know.

#1: The Ecuador constitution protects landownership of citizens regardless of citizenship. No local government can take land by eminent domain for economic development.

#2: No Ecuador children have been shot in school.

#3: Ecuador schools do not require metal detectors.

#4: No Ecuador police force has used a “no knock” search warrant to break down a door and then shoot an innocent 80+ year old resident 50 times.

#5: We do not worry in Ecuador about being sued if someone spills hot coffee on themselves at our hotel. By the way our coffee is hot here.

#6: Ecuadorian doctors do not have to shut down their practices because of malpractice insurance costs.

#7: Parents in Ecuador are not at risk of having their child diagnosed as having ADD and being forced to give them Ritalin. Read http://www.ritalindeath.com/ if you want to have your heart rendered over the weekend.

There is a deep culture in Ecuador.

Back in early 2007, a potential real estate buyer visited me about buying a $93,000 house in Otavalo. As we enjoyed a “cuppa tea” and visited I could see he loved the house but was really worried about loss of property due to Ecuador’s constitutional reform.

My view was that the reform was unlikely to reduce individual land rights. As we can see above, the opposite took place. the constitution strengthened property protection.  Ecuador’s base of wealth has always been individual land ownership.

Then I pointed out to this potential buyer that his  real bigger risk was buying a similar three bedroom house in England. A similar house would cost him between $400,000 and a million dollars. The risk of losing $93,000 in value when the overheated English real estate market dips seemed greater to me than the chances of losing $93,000 in Ecuador because a house would taken due to constitutional change.

Prices were way overblown in England.  This was exactly what happened.  Real estate crashed in England while real estate prices in Ecuador have remained strong.

Plus Ecuador offers the benefits of $1.40 a gallon gas, lovely weather, sweet people, no capital gains tax on real estate sales, very inexpensive but good medical and dental help, ridiculously low property tax, almost no tort liability, inexpensive cost of living, low crime and better food.

In the west, the cost of living is so high that many people can barely move!

So where is it safe to live? I think when Merri and I are really realistic, we feel that there are many aspects of safety in Ecuador.

Many of us feel many changes in our homelands that are not good. If you do, don’t despair, the sun always shines somewhere as it did here in Cotacachi, Ecuador. Here’s the sun coming up!

Merri and I always practice diversification…in asset class as well as geographically.  We are over weighted in Ecuador so we are voting with our money that the chaos here will create more opportunity than trouble.

See more about Ecuador diversification here.

Change and chaos are parts of the rhythm of life.  The never ending evolution created by time and space creates turmoil but also opportunity.

We hope the chaos in your life brings only good to you.

Gary

Combining good international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth in chaos.

This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.

A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.

This is why I am willing to pay you $300 to attend either our Ecuador Super Thinking plus Spanish seminar in September or our North Carolina International Business & Investing seminar in October.  Sign up for either seminar and I will email you our Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course (offered at $299) free plus I’ll knock an extra dollar off your seminar fee…. to round up the $300 savings.

See details of the two seminars below.

Join Merri, Thomas Fischer of JGAM, our webmaster David Cross and me in North Carolina this October and enroll in our emailed course on how to have a web business free.  Save $300.

Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business and diversification in Ecuador at the seminar.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Here is an email for a recent seminar delegate: Amazingly helpful, amazingly timely … thank you for this !

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Super Thinking + Spanish Course
Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar
Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador seminar or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

Read the entire article New battery could change world, one house at a time

A recent New York Times article gives us an international investing clues.

Here is an excerpt:

WASHINGTON — Reacting to the violent swings in oil prices in recent months, federal regulators announced on Tuesday that they were considering new restrictions on “speculative” traders in markets for oil, natural gas and other energy products.

The move is a big departure from the hands-off approach to market regulation of the last two decades. It also highlights a broader shift toward tougher government oversight under President Obama.

When a government becomes heavily involved in commerce we can expect a loss somewhere. In this case the loss will be in the value of the US dollar.

One way to beat a falling dollar is to but real estate.  Merri and I are always searching for more real estate to but in Ecuador… like this. We (and two of our daughters) have six of these units just 133 steps to the beach.

History has proven that governments do not run businesses well.

Take for example, the recent US government commercial decision to bailout numerous failed US businesses.

The bailout was the first error.

The idea of profit, loss and accountability is to weed out businesses that are not productive, competitive or are no longer needed due to change.

When governments invest in infrastructure… this can be okay… even productive for a nation as a whole.

When governments interfere in commerce and spend billions on losers… expect little good.

As soon as those current bailouts began… the question of bonuses and high salaries of the bailed out executives arose.  Is it fair for executives of failed companies to get big bonuses?

Of course not.

This is why failed businesses normally go broke… so the executives do not get paid at all.

Since the government provided bailouts… the executives who led the business into disaster are still employed.  They have all this government money and since many of them are by definition, losers…  they’ll use the losing strategy of spending that money in unproductive ways…  like with big, personal bonuses.

That’s wrong… unless the government once again steps in.

But is further involvement right?

The current solution has been to create a pay czar.

The word Czar is derived from the name Caesar and originally an meant Emperor in European medieval times. The word has since been used to define rulers with a rank like a Roman emperor… a title with an imperial connotation like a King.

Most of modern North America and Europe are nations founded on revolutions that struck down people like that, who claimed to be czars and kings.

Why do we now let our government create new ones?

This cannot be good economic news.

The US has war czar Lute, energy czar Browner… and now pay czar Feinberg.

In fact a recent Fox news article entitled “Obama’s Czars Draw Criticism From Both Sides of the Political Aisle” says: By some accounts, Obama has nearly three dozen czars in his administration, managing everything from closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to ending the genocide in Darfur.

So many Czars… all spending US dollars.

Government spending is the least productive type of of expenditure… because Czars  spend taxpayer’s money… not their own.

Merri and I are look for more real estate in Florida as well. Values are getting better. One lake front property that was listed at $799,000 two months ago is now offered at $349.

Lots of unproductive spending by a government will cause its currency (in this case the US dollar) to fall.

This is my belief… in the continued long term fall of the US dollar.

If you also believe that the greenback will weaken from current levels, this could be a good time for you to borrow US dollars and invest the loan in other major currencies like the euro, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kroner, British pound and Canadian, Australian and new Zealand dollars.

You can do this at Jyske Bank or Jyske Global Asset Management.

When using leverage with an advisory account clients living in the US are limited to currencies and US registered securities.

Such investors can use ADRs and ETFs.   These US securities have a collateral value (equities have a 67% value i.e. 2x leverage).  When using US securities JGAM requires a W9.

ETF’s traded on the NYSE can be used as collateral if Jyske bank accepts the paper and allocates an collateral value (normally not a problem but this can depend on liquidity).

US citizens living outside of the US have no limitations whatsoever and can buy any security with leverage as long as the bank has a collataral value associated with the security.

Gary

Merri and I are also looking for more property in Ashe County North Carolina where there is plenty of fresh water.

There are several large tracts (40 to 100 acres) near our farm now for sale. A broker up here recently sent me this note.

“I am convinced that someone will make some money on this property. The Bank is eager to sell and will consider all offers.

Also, concerning other properties — right now there are entire subdivisions just sitting there unsold, with roads and underground power in place, that are being offered at steep discounts by developers who need to get out from under their mortgage commitments.

Some of these are river front properties that will be quite valuable in the future.

There are also some larger undeveloped tracts available for pretty good prices compared to two years ago.”

Our 2009 course and tour schedule.

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Spanish Course
Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador
Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.

Yesterday’s message looked at Ecuador coffee and opportunity in coffee shares.

One of the great joys in Ecuador at our hotel, Meson de las Flores, is the aroma of Ecuador coffee and the fragrance of flowers at breakfast.

Here is our balcony coffee table at our Meson suite. See how to stay here for a month.

A reader just sent this question asking about Ecuador rose fragrance.

Gary, I have a friend who would like to order Ecuador roses for her wedding.  I know the last time we ordered roses from Ecuador, they didn’t smell.  Is that happening to all the Ecuador rose farms or can she request Ecuador roses that smell?

The answer is that commercial Ecuador roses (probably all commercial roses) are hybrids that are focused on strength, color and durability at the expense of fragrance.  Most of the time Merri and I receive flowers that have aroma but not all the time.

The fragrance that roses have in natural condition that attracts bugs.

This is a reason why for commercial rose growing purposes that roses are cultivated so they do not have scent. Imagine over 100,000 roses at an Ecuador farm with fragrance, that attracts so many bugs that it would not be impossible to keep those bugs out of the fields.

Another reason is that fragrant roses tend to die sooner than roses that are not fragrant.

During shipping from Ecuador the roses expel gases.   Since the rose are shipped from Ecuador in a closed box the gases damage the flowers.

However there is a simple solution to have fragrant Ecuador roses that we use. We simply put a drop rose essential oil  in the water with our fresh Ecuador roses.  The fragrance is fantastic. If you want more, add a diffuser and the entire church will smell like a rose garden!

I sent this reader the solution and she replied:

Great idea on the oil.  I found out last night that that’s what my aunt did
on the wedding roses you sent for my reception too.  No wonder
they were so potent.  She says she does this all the time at home.

Having a bottle of Rose Otto essential oil around the house is a wonderful idea… to perk up the flowers in your home… to make rose water for drinking.  Merri and I put one drop on our pillow at night.  The fragrance is heavenly.

Rose is referred to as “The Queen of the Flowers”, and is the universal
symbol of all aspects of love.

Rose oil has been used for its medicinal properties and also has been the most prominent aroma for perfumes ever since human beings started using plants and essential oils for medicine and perfume.

There are many varieties of Rose essential oil, and the “Rosa damascena”
variety, a/k/a Rose otto (mostly from Bulgaria) is known as the very finest
of Rose oils. It is also one of the most expensive essential oils due to the
yield of oil per flower. It takes 300 lbs of rose petals to distill down to
1 oz of pure Rose essential oil.

The natural chemical make-up of rose is one of the most complex of all essential oils which is why it is so difficult to reproduce synthetically. This is good … Rose knows how to protect herself and deliver her true medicine and message from Mother Nature.

Rose is traditionally used to regulate the systems of the body, mind, and spirit. It
is the Oil of the Heart. It has been traditionally used for its antiseptic,
anti-inflammatory, and cooling properties.

Rose essential oil is one of the best essential oils for skin care … especially for sensitive and maturing skin. Put a drop on a cotton ball or handkerchief and keep this precious aroma carrying the true essence of the Rose flower around you.

Rose otto registers very high on the hertz frequency scale and delivers a
spiritual aroma. It can dramatically lift your spirits amongst the dross of
the world or the tasks of the day. It has always served human beings in the
most reverent way.

Our friend, the Oil Lady Candace Newman wrote:

Rose otto is the only one we carry … there are some other rose
oils.

Rose maroc is another well known one that is thicker and a deep red amber
color…it is a heavier rose and a little musky or earthy aroma as
compared to Rose otto.

Rose otto is the clearest and highest vibration and  aroma.

Putting a drop of rose oil on a 100% cotton, cotton ball …. or a
nice little handkerchief or piece of cloth, is a lovely way to enjoy the
aroma and have the properties of rose around you!

Candace also shared a tip for rose oil and weddings.

The purest and deepest rose aroma one can experience is pure Rose
essential oil. The most exquisite and well known as the finest of Rose oils
in the world is Rosa damascene … ie Rose otto, which  of course is also the dearest of them all.  There are 30 ml in an ounce which requires 300 pounds of rose petals.    Thus 4 mls of this oil is $196.95.

However, there are other varieties that are not as expensive.  There is Cabbage Rose (Rosa centifolia or Rose maroc) and another one is Tea
Rose ( Rosa indica).

To enhance the aroma of your flowers  add drops of rose oil to the flowers, or put a few drops in a bowl of warm water.  You can also put some in a room
diffuser…there are many on the market.

Tucking a cotton ball in close to your heart with 1-2 drops of Rose oil on it is absolutely lovely for yourself and everyone who comes anywhere near you. That would be lovely for the bride!  Cotton balls make perfect personal diffusers….as does a pretty lace handkerchief that she could carry or have in her bouquet.

Candace only offers rose otto essential oil which you can order here for $196.95.

Rose otto 4 ml

I also use Candace’s Rose Otto – Lavender – jojoba oil blend.  his has the wonderful rose otto fragrance at a far lower price.

This blend: Soothes & balances.
Nurtures the heart & sense of well-being.
Gentle & quiet.
Grieving & compassion.
Comforting to the heart.
Establishes feelings of love & peace.
Rejuvenates tissues.
Mother’s nurture.
Calming.

Heart Chakra and is far less expensive. One entire ounce (30 ml) is only $12.95. Order here. 1 ounce $12.95

Rose Otto – Lavender – jojoba oil blend

Until next message, we hope your day and life is coming up roses.

Gary

Join us July 24-26 in the cool Blue Ridge during the hot summer and save $175.

We hope you’ll share our beautiful lifestyle in the cool Blue Ridge with us this summer. July 24-26 IBEZ North Carolina

I have just sent our multi currency email course subscribers a report on coffee related shares that now have a strong upward trend.

Enroll in our July 24-26 seminar and I will enroll you in our multi currency course and send this coffee investing report free. You save $175.

Merri and I love our life in the Blue Ridge… the rushing streams and..

cool, green forest.

We invite delegates to the farm for lunch and we’ll take a walk through the woods with delegates who would like to…

enjoy nature and the views.

We’ll have a wine tasting of Blue Ridge organic wines. Here are delegates at the tasting last year.

I have just sent our multi currency email course subscribers a report on coffee related shares that now have a strong upward trend.

Enroll in our July 24-26 seminar and I will enroll you in our multi currency course and send this coffee investing report free. You save $175. July 24-26 IBEZ North Carolina

An Ecuador cooking school has opened in Cotacachi.

See three great Ecuador cooking recipes below.  First, learn how to  find even more Ecuador cooking recipes that blend pre-Incan nutrition notions with modern cooking techniques.

Actually more than a cooking school… “gastronomical education and delight” might be a better phrase because this Ecuador cooking school  is hosted at the luxurious La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa by La Mirage proprietors Jorge Espinosa and Michel Durer.

La Mirage’s restaurant was one of the first places where Merri and I ate on our first trip to Ecuador.   The wonderfully exquisite cooking there is one reason we fell in love with this country.

We lived one winter at La Mirage and though Merri and I are trustees of a charitable foundation that owns a hotel in Cotacachi, I have to say “La Mirage is the best… not only in the village but in all of Ecuador and rates tops in the world with us”.

There are fifteen luxury rooms at La Mirage and a world class spa with lush private gardens.

Whether you are dipping into a jacuzzi or enjoying a cozy eucalyptus fire in one of the many beautifully decorated rooms, you will find fresh roses everywhere. No detail is overlooked.   Guests range from Hollywood stars and US Senators to royalty.  The Queen of Spain chose La Mirage during her stay in Ecuador.

However,  this message looks at new culinary delights  in the La Mirage kitchen that you can now know and enjoy.

We take most course delegates to visit La Mirage spa at least once during a course and enjoy the great Ecuador cooking there.  The food is incredible.

The chefs are world class, and presentation is at the top of their list. Appetizers are served in individual wooden music boxes, soup is poured hot into your bowl when served and each plate is a work of art. Here I am with delegates at La Mirage.

Here is the risotto starter up close.

The homemade, organic rose ice-cream dessert is out of this world.  Each tiny ball of rose ice-cream hides in the center of a blossom of sugared rose petals.

Everything at La Mirage is exquisite so it was with keen interest and expectation that Merri and I ambled from our hotel to La Mirage to enjoy lunch with the proprietors and hear more about the cooking school.

La Mirage has installed a new teaching kitchen in the Garden Room, where…

we met with Jorge Espinosa and Michel Durer, the La Mirage proprietors with their…

executive chef and sous chef.

Relais & Chateaux simply means… the best.  This is what we saw… the best, an exquisite meal built in front of us… just as those who join these Cotacachi cooking classes will learn and enjoy.

The menu included these three courses (the recipes for this Ecuador cooking is below).

GAZPACHO WITH A SHERBET OF CORIANDER

TIMBAL OF QUINUA TOPPED WITH GINGER OR PARMESAN CHEESE

ASIAN STYLE FRICASSE OF DUCK

Here is the start of the Gazpacho.

Then the chef added…

sherbert and Jorge poured in the gazpacho.

The quinua began with

tomatoes drizzled with two sauces.

Preparation for the quinua.

The chef adds grated freshly grated ginger on top.

Wow!

Now we had to do our work…

the eating.

After the soup and the quinua started, our main course was this duck fricasse.

What can I say?  Delicious… words fail the event… a perfect meal.

You can learn more about the La Mirage cooking school here.

Here are these three Ecuador cooking recipes.  Better still learn much more and attend the La Mirage Cooking School.

These recipes are provided by Jorge Espinosa.

Jorge is a proprietor of the La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa. He was trained as a Chef at the famous Hotel Training School in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany. before honing his culinary skills cooking at several notable hotels before opening La Mirage in 1986.

At the La Mirage Cooking school Jorge teaches a unique cooking style that blends ancient pre Incan cuisine with his decades of  experience gained while working globally with some of the best chefs in the world.

GAZPACHO WITH A SHERBET OF CORIANDER

Step #1: Peel fresh tomatoes and place into a blender, adding tomato paste,
chicken consommé, garlic, pearl onions, basil, olive oil, Worchester sauce,
salt & pepper. Blend and strain into a bowl and place in the fridge.

Step #2: For the sherbet mix coriander, water, sugar in a blender. Place the
ingredients into a bowl and place in a freezer to harden.

Step #3: When ready to serve, cut a fresh tomato into small pieces, arrange them on a soup plate into a circle and place the sherbet in the center and pour the cold gazpacho around and garnish with basil.

TIMBAL OF QUINUA TOPPED WITH GINGER OR PARMESAN CHEESE

Step #1: The following ingredients should be sautéed: small cut pieces of chicken, red and green peppers, pearl onion, garlic, fresh dill, fine cut mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil, Worchester Sauce, salt and pepper.

Step #2: Mix the above with the pre-cooked quinua and fill, if possible, into
a mold set in the middle of a plate. Two kind of sauces (a rich thousand island
dressing and a Balsamic Vinegar) surround the mold which then is being
slowly removed in order not to spoil the decoration. Top it of with either
long slices of Parmesan cheese or optional with caramelized strips of
ginger.

ASIAN STYLE FRICASSE OF DUCK

Step#1: Cut a breast of Duck into small pieces, fry rapidly in oil, adding
salt and pepper, sweet soya sauce. Add a ginger – soy infusion with
stir-fried vegetables and place on top of sesame rice-noodles.

We hope you’ll join us to share the delights of investing, business and living in Ecuador and the world.

Here is what a delegate at our last tour shared.

Dear Merri,  Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me with all this information.  Your husband cranks out such prolific pieces every day, sometimes two a day!  The tone is always so positive, and the content so interesting and informative.  Best regards to you and Gary,

Visit Cotacachi, La Mirage and attend our  Ecuador Export Tour and our North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi Real Estate Tour

2 seminar courses & tours $998 Couple  $1,349.    Save $149 on couple

See more about La Mirage at Ecuador cooking and Cotacachi Spa Day

Gary

Join us at many seminars and tours in Ecuador, Florida or  North Carolina… in 2010.

See details about each of our seminar and tours below… then see our December special that allows you to attend them all FREE.

For International Investing and Business.

For Super Thinking + Spanish

For Ecuador Shamanic Tour

For Ecuador Export

For North Andes, Imbabura & Cotacachi

For Manta & Mid Coast

For Quito & Mindo

For Salinas & South Coast

For Cuenca

Join us all year long… seminars and tours in North Carolina Florida and Ecuador.   Gain discounts by attending multiple seminars tours.

We just added four South coast Ecuador tours that can help you gain extra savings with a multi tour pack.

These extra tours create a dilemma for me. See how below.

Here are our multi tour adventure discounts.

Two Pack… 2 seminar courses & tours $998 Couple  $1,349 Save $149 on couple

Three Pack… 3 seminar courses & tours   $1399 Couple  $1,899 Save $98 single or $348 on a couple or more

Four Pack… 4 seminar courses & tours   $1,699 Couple $2,299 Save $98 single or $697 on a couple or more

Five Pack… 5 seminar courses & tours  $1,999 Couple $2,699 Save $496 single or $1,046 on a couple or more

Six Pack… 6 seminars courses & tours  $2,199 Couple $3,099 Save $795 single or $1,395 on a couple or more

These four new south coast tours and our six pack tour price create a bit of a crisis here.

As you can see above a six pack costs $3,099.  This is already a really low price for a tour that last up to 21 days (under $150 a day).

But as you will see below, our International Club membership which allows you and a guest to attend up to 56 courses and tours in 2010  (fees would be $40,947 for all these courses individually) is only $2,999.

Which would you choose… 6 courses and tours for $3,099 or those same 6 courses and tours plus 50 more for $2,999?

“Duh,” I said when this was pointed out to me.

So our only solution is to raise the International Club membership to $3,500… still a terrific deal… but $501 more than before.

Save $37,457…plus $501.  I will not raise the International club fee until January 2010. Enroll in the International Club now at the original fee of $2,999.

International Club 2010

Attend our 56 investment, business, Spanish, real estate and export, courses and tours in 2010 with one small enrollment fee.

International Club 2010 Membership Enroll here

Here are the 56 courses and tours you can attend free. Plus there is even one more savings you will see below.

Jan.   8-11     Ecuador Export Tour
Jan. 13-14     Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Jan. 15-18     Coastal Real Estate Tour
Jan. 19-20    Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour
Jan. 21-23    Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Join us in February or March.

Feb. 11-14   Quantum Wealth Florida -International Investing & Internet Business, Mt. Dora, Fl.

Feb. 15-16   Travel to and visit Quito
Feb  17         Travel to Manta
Feb. 18-19   Coastal Real Estate Tour
Feb. 20        Travel to Cotacachi
Feb. 21-22   Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Feb. 23-24  Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour
Feb. 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Mar. 11-14     Super Thinking + Spanish Course, Mt. Dora, Fl.
Mar. 15-16    Travel to Quito and Andes
Mar. 17-18     Imbabura Real Estate Tour
Mar. 19-20    Cotacachi Shamanic tour
Mar. 22-23    Coastal Real Estate Tour
Mar. 25-26    Cuenca Real Estate Tour
Mar. 28-29   South Coast Real Estate Tour

Apr. 12-15   Ecuador Export Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 17-18   Imbabura Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 20-21  Coastal Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 23-24  Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Apr. 26-27  Cuenca Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)

May  13-14     Ecuador Shamanic Minga  ($499 or couple $749)
May  16-17    Imbabura Real Estate Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
May  19-20    Coastal Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
May  22-23    Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
May  25-26    Cuenca Real Estate Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
May  28-29    South Coast real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)

June 24         Quantum Wealth North Carolina
June 25-27    International Investing and Business North Carolina  ( $749 or couple $999)
June 28-29   Travel to Ecuador and Andes
June 30-Jy 1 Imbabura Real Estate Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
July 3-4          Coastal Real Estate Tour   ($499 or couple $749)
July 6-7          Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour    ($499 or couple $749)
July 9-10        Cuenca Real Estate Tour   ($499 or couple $749)

Sept.   3-6      Ecuador Export Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
Sept.   8-9      Imbabura Real Estate Tour  ($499 or couple $749)
Sept. 11-12     Coastal Real Estate Tour   ($499 or couple $749)
Sept. 14-15     Cuenca Real Estate Tour    ($499 or couple $749)
Sept. 17-18     Ecuador Shamanic Minga  ($499 or couple $749)
Sept 20-21      South Coast Real Estate tour ($499 or couple $749)

Oct.    7          Quantum Wealth North Carolina
Oct.   8-10     International Investing & Business North Carolina ($749 or couple $999)
Oct.   11-12    Travel to Quito and Andes
Oct.  13-14     Imbabura Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Oct.  16-17     Coastal Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Oct.  19-20    Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Oct. 22-23     Cuenca Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)

Nov.    4-7        Super Thinking + Spanish Course Florida ($749 or couple $999)
Nov.    8-9       Travel to Quito and Andes
Nov. 10-11       Imbabura Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Nov. 13-14      Coastal Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Nov. 16-17      Quito-Mindo Real Estate  ($499 or couple $749)
Nov. 19-20     Cuenca Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Nov  22-23      South Coast Real Estate Tour (($499 or couple $749)

Dec.   3-5       Ecuador Shamanic Mingo  ($499 or couple $749)
Dec.   7-8       Imbabura Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Dec.  10-11    Coastal Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Dec. 13-14     Quito-Mindo Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)
Dec. 16-17      Cuenca Real Estate Tour ($499 or couple $749)

If you join the International Club, the entrance fee for 2010 is $2,999 (until January 2010).  Your attendance fees at all courses will be waived. You and your guest can attend courses worth $40,947.

You can calculate the savings as our schedule of all 2010 courses is shown below.

Arrival dates are always one or two days earlier. Please double check with us before booking flights.

I invite you to be a member of the International Club which allows you and your guest of your choice to attend all of these courses which are valued at $40,947!

International Club 2010 Membership Enroll here

You may well wonder why I would make such an offer and ask why the cost is so low? Let me answer this question frankly and from the heart.

First, it helps us do a better job for you. We feel greatly enriched when we can really help our clients improve their lives. We have learned through years of experience the best way to do this is to meet with you regularly. We can best help you learn how to improve your health and wealth through continual expansion of knowledge.

Second, we gain enormous fulfillment from the many friendships we form through the years. Our friends have enriched our lives tremendously. Let me explain this in more detail.

As a member, you will be part of our international family that meets intensively over the next year to examine ways we can make our lives better. Our goal is beyond just having money. Our goal is to have quantum wealth… good health… wealth and fulfillment through service.

Though I give all course delegates my very best, I cannot help but to do a better job for those who come again and again. As we meet often; your particular wants, needs and desires become clear, and it is easier for me to point you in the right direction.

Another phenomenon is that repeat delegates help each other! They get to know one another, help each other learn, share their insights, make contacts and gain more wealth.

Out associates in Ecuador, are experienced business people who live or work and conduct our real estate and export courses.  They can also act as your local backup for the business.

Lifestyle for Two. There is more! I have learned at my courses that many repeat delegates were couples.

We want couples! As a member of the program, you are entitled to bring another person to every single course or tour. The cost for that extra person will be ZERO!  You can bring whomever you wish. Bring your spouse, a friend, son or daughter, partner, accountant, adviser. You can bring the same person each time or a different person, whomever you choose to accompany you. (Accommodations and air fares relating to the courses are not included for members, delegates or their guests.)

Won’t you join us in this exciting club and share Merri’s and my lifestyle for the next year? We look forward to seeing you at as many courses as possible and sharing this wonderful world of abundance and well being with you!

Gary

International Club 2010 Membership  Enroll here

See how my multi currency course subscribers have been able to gain up to 50% in Brazil during 2009.

Many readers at this site know me best as Mr. Ecuador.  However recently some of our subscribers have enjoyed the biggest profits as multi currency investors in Brazil.

Though Merri and I have been investing, living and working in Ecuador for over a dozen years now, our greatest expertise is as multi currency investors as we are in our 41st year.

See below how multi currency investing brought us to Ecuador and how your interest in Ecuador can now bring you a free subscription to our multi currency course as I present a survivors guide to currency and market turmoil.

Those interested in Ecuador do not have to change currencies when they travel here because Ecuador’s currency is the US dollar.

This means they need to learn how to make your money go up as the US dollar and stock markets go up and down…

The US dollar has fallen… badly against major currencies like the yen, euro and Swiss franc for 37 years.  You can see this long term, steady decline of the US dollar in this chart from Grandfather.com.

One reason for this fall is the growing debt in the USA.

Now this debt is even worse. Here is a picture from USA Today that shows how the US public debt  has just grown 12%.

Even minor currencies such as the Colombian peso, and Brazilian real have risen steadily versus the US dollar… 25%, 50% since the early 2000s and more.

Until.. in 2008, the greenback suddenly zoomed up… as stock markets collapsed around the world. Now the dollar is falling again.

Sideways motion like this destroys most investors.

Yet there is a way to earn even in these worst times…by learning how to spot value…that turns turmoil and currency shifts into profit.

This is not just a problem for Americans either. The dollar’s downfall affects currencies all over the world and creates global economic turmoil. For the modern economy to operate in its current fashion some reserve currency is required.

Yet what currency would you choose…the Chinese yuan…the euro…gold, oil? Would you trust your life savings to speculate on that?

Of three things we can be sure.

First, The US dollar will fall more…much more.

Second, there will be confusion. Many…in fact most uninformed investors will lose…a lot.

Third there will be inflation…worldwide due to the excessive spending in the current global financial bailout.

Smart investors who know how to spot value in multi currency portfolios at some of the world’s safest banks have already earned 57%…120% …263% so even with the doom and gloom, they are still ahead.

More important these same investors have learned how to survive through turmoil.

My name is Gary Scott. I have been writing and publishing information about the falling greenback and how to earn from it though international investing for over forty years (since May 1968 to be exact).

Fortunately I stumbled across multi currency investing at an early stage and wrote a book about this clear back in the 1970s when the US dollar was first beginning to erode.

Since that time my books and reports have helped hundreds of thousands of investors find hot areas of value in every decade.

In the 1970s we helped our readers  find investments in gold & silver as well as investments  in the currencies of Japan, Germany, Switzerland, England, Australia and Hong Kong.

In the 1980s, the Tigers, Taiwan, Singapore Malaysia and South Korea, & Turkey were the places where our readers gained value.

The 1990s saw South America (which led me to Ecuador) as the place to invest.

The early 2000s offered great value in China, India and Eastern Europe.

We have helped readers find good value real estate throughout this time, first in Hong Kong, then London, Switzerland,  Isle of Man, Dominican Republic and now Ecuador as well as in Small Town USA.

We have also helped readers bet against the US dollar throughout these decades which as the chart above shows has worked well.

Finally in the early 200os we began helping readers find good value green investments.

I would like to offer you a valuable real time emailed course that teaches how to invest in multi currency portfolios plus how to sometimes use leverage in these portfolios to create extra profits.

Sleepy Safe Portfolios Can Earn Over 100% Per Year

Multi currency investing does not require any fast trading techniques.  Multi currency portfolios are normally slow and sleepy investments…not currency contracts or futures speculations.  Most multi currency positions are aimed with a five year horizon…pretty sleepy compared to people who trade currencies (an entirely different and far riskier technique).  For most of us, slow and sleepy means SAFE!

Yet multi currency portfolios can be really profitable as well.

How sleepy and how safe?

Let’s look first at sleepy.

In 2006 we created an Asian multi currency portfolio consisting of just five award winning mutual funds.

We did not touch the entire portfolio for an entire year. Then after one year we made just five changes…dropping two mutual funds and adding three other mutual funds. Then we did not make another single change. That’s pretty sleepy, choosing a handful of mutual funds and making only five changes in two years.

How safe?

The portfolio was chosen with the help of one of the world’s safest banks and the mutual funds were held at that bank at all times.

Okay. Here is the big question. How profitable?

In the first year (2006) this portfolio rose 114.16%. Then we made the five changes mentioned (two funds dropped and three added). In 2007 this portfolio rose 122.62%. 2008 was a disaster year which we will look at in a moment.  But when your portfolio is over 200% in two years, it takes a lot of disaster to lose.

Suppose we get more specific.

That safe bank is a Danish bank. That’s good because in recent years Denmark has been rated by Standard & Poor’s as one of the safest country in the world in which to bank

The bank is Jyske Bank…well established with a history of over 100 years. Jyske is Denmark ’s second largest bank, with 450,000 clients in Denmark and over 30,000 abroad.

Jyske Bank has over 23 billion euros in assets and also happens to be one of the leading currency traders in the world. The Danes have always been big currency traders because as a small naval country surrounded by England, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Germany, Norway and other countries…they have always had to deal in many currencies.

This historically gained expertise means that unlike most banks (that trade only eight hours a day) Jyske maintains a 24 hour global currency and commodity dealer service. Many other large banks use Jyske to handle their off hour currency positions. This means that Jyske is huge when it comes to multi currency activity. In fact their turnover reaches $50 billion dollars a day.

Let’s address this issue of safety in more detail. Normally this is a pretty moot point. Right now everyone is concerned. Is a bank safe or not? I like Jyske from a bank safety point of view because there are three bank safety points, from the top down.

Bank Safety Point #1: A recent Yahoo Canada article shows a survey by the World Economic Forum listed five safest countries in which to bank.

Canada
Sweden
Luxembourg
Australia
Denmark

So Denmark is a safe place to bank. Now let’s look at Jyske Bank’s safety rating.

Bank Safety Point #2: Jyske Bank is Denmark’s second largest bank.
On October 10 2008, Moody’s affirmed Jyske Bank’s long-term Aa2 rating stable rating. This decision came despite the deteriorated economic prospects in Denmark, particularly in respect of the property market.

Bank Safety Point #3: Also on Friday 10 October 2008, the Danish Parliament passed a bill that secured all deposits and unsecured claims against losses in Danish financial institutions. The rating of the Kingdom of Denmark is Aaa/AAA with Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s respectively.

That’s safe!

I happen to know Jyske Bank because I began using them (as my bank) over 20 years ago. They are one of the few banks that offers a special multi currency portfolio service for investors from almost anywhere in the world.

I was one of the first writers and publishers to begin writing about multi currency investing. Jyske bank was one of the first banks to offer a multi currency portfolio service…and they were my bank.

Not surprising we got together and have created a strategic alliance that can help you learn how to create multi currency portfolios that suit you.

My multi currency course helps readers learn how to find good value and develop multi currency portfolios that suit their specific circumstances.

Before I explain how you can use this course, let’s look at both the up and down side of these high performing portfolios?

The course provides two levels of education. Part one gives readers an extensive beginner’s guide to developing multi currency portfolios.

Part two is unusual and neat.  Part two educates in real time. We create multi currency portfolios and track them real time.  The education comes from dissecting and discussing the portfolio results.  This is a totally novel way to learn…real time from real portfolios created by some of the best investment managers in the world as these portfolios rise or fall in the market place…in the here and now.

Jyske Bank assists by providing all the portfolio details.   Our symbiotic relationship allows me to combine my experience with this bank’s incredible knowledge, real time capability and expertise so course subscribers can learn in a most practical way from some of the greatest multi currency experts in the world.

Here is our educational performance over the past few years.

We created five portfolios for educational purposes on November 1, 2005. One of the five multi currency portfolios was the Asian Emerging Multi Currency Portfolio. The portfolio started with a $100,000 investment and a $200,000 loan in Japanese yen (more on the loans in a moment).

This gave us $300,000 to invest in this portfolio.

Amount	Currency	Investment
75,000	Rupee	Jyske Invest Indian Equity Mutual Fund
75,000	Yuan	Jyske Invest Chinese Equity Mutual Fund
75,000	Yen	Jyske Invest Japanese Equity Mutual Fund
75,000	Multiple	Jyske Invest Emerging Market Bond Fund

Investments Total Value 300,000.00

Invested $100,000

Loan $200,000 100.00% JPY at 1.63%

Loan cost for one year $3,260.

This portfolio diversified into bonds and equities throughout Asia ..very multi currency.

Chinese yuan, Indian rupee, Japanese yen and more.

Twelve months later the portfolio was worth $417,420. Paying off the loan cost $203,260 leaving $214,160 or $114,160 (114.16% profit) on the $100,000 originally invested.

On November 1, 2006 we made the five changes mentioned above. We dropped the Japanese equities and emerging market bond mutual funds and added an Eastern European, Far Eastern and Turkey equity mutual funds. This is how the rearranged portfolio stood.

Amount	Currency	Investment
75,000	Rupee	Jyske Invest Indian Equity Mutual Fund
75,000	Yuan	Jyske Invest Chinese Equity Mutual Fund
75,000	EUR	Jyske Invest Eastern European Equities
50,000	Asian	Jyske Invest Far Eastern Equities
25,000	Lira	Jyske Invest Turkish Equities

Investments Total Value 300,000.00

Invested $100,000

Loan $200,000 100.00% Czech Koruna at 3.875%

Loan cost for one year $7,750.

As promised this portfolio only had five changes. We swapped the Japanese equity fund for a Eastern European equity fund and dropped the bond fund replacing it with a Far Eastern and Turkey equity fund.

May I, at this point, interject a note about Jyske Invest fund managers. They are a Danish firm and are the investment management affiliate of Jyske Bank. This rock solid organization uses a good value system have been rated #1 by Morningstar. They use this value system to select shares in their mutual funds and we place these funds in our multi currency portfolios because they are strictly regulated by the Danish government and have such an excellent record…because they focus on finding value, not market timing.

So how did this new updated portfolio do? From November 1, 2006 to October 31, 2007 the fund rose in value from $300,000 to $430,370. The loan payoff of $207,750 leaves a profit of $222,620 or a rise of 122.62%.

There you have it, a safe sleepy portfolio created at and held in one of the world’s safest banks. With only three trades in two years the performance has been up 114.16% in year one and up 122.62% in year two.

I am sure that when looking at performance like that you are thinking “how did the other portfolios do?” Good question and your suspicions are correct…some of the other portfolios did not rise this much.

Yet believe it or not some portfolios did even better.

For example the 2007 Green Portfolio consisted of six shares and rose 266.30%!

Here is the exact performance of all five portfolios for the last two years.

2006 Portfolio
US Dollar Long	9.04%
US Dollar Short	10.43%
US Dollar Hedge	11.46%
Emerging Market	42.93%
Asia Emerging Market	114.16%

2007 Portfolios
Dollar Neutral	38.67%
Dollar Short	48.19%
Swiss Samba	53.32%
Asia Emerging Market	122.62%
Green	266.30%

You can imagine with performance like this attracted quite a bit of attention…and it did.  However these high returns are not the important benefit you gain with our multi currency course.

Our course does not recommend nor manage portfolios.  We did not suggest that any single reader invest in any of these portfolios. The portfolios are educational and designed to help readers work with their own investment manager to create their own multi currency portfolio that suits their own special, individual needs.

Our multi currency investment course helps readers learn how to manage their manager… nothing more.

Yet this is incredibly valuable because Jyske Bank can provide a stable and safe institution for those who wish to employ a multi currency strategy.

The course helps guide readers so they can direct any investment adviser or investment manager who understands how to invest in more than one currency.

The course also helps you manage risk. The incredible portfolio performance above was achieved because the portfolios were leveraged using a tactic we call a multi currency sandwich. Investors borrow low and invest in yielding or growth portfolios. The portfolios used loans in Japanese yen and Swiss francs to magnify profits in good times.

The course teaches how these loans can magnify losses in bad times as well.

For example look at the performance of the leveraged portfolios we created to study from November 2007 through September 2008.

2008 Portfolios
Infrastructure Portfolio	-112%
Blue Chip Portfolio	-79%
Danish Health Portfolio	-92%
Asia Emerging Market	-73%
Green	-56%

Leverage in 2008 caused the portfolios to lose badly…in one instance the total portfolio was lost!

The multi currency course is useful because it helps investors not to expect rising markets all the time.

The power of studying markets real time, as they unfold, wards off false expectations.

The course helps subscribers learn how to look ahead and act rather that react (after the fact when it is too late).

The sad fact is…we all have to become multi currency investors.  Trusting your fate to any one currency now can destroy your purchasing power.    Every investor needs to know what to do!

The course helps spot when to leverage good times and when to retract for the bad.  he idea is to cash in when the going is good and then withdraw.

For example in early August 2007…well before the market crash….our study of the market began to show increased risk.  Our first warning lesson said:  “We have enjoyed two years of enormous growth.  Periods of high growth are normally followed by periods of low growth.”

August 17, 2007 a lesson said: “The numbers are close enough that we could be entering the fourth sub cycle down (similar to 1976 to 1978). If so expect a sustained drop in markets for two to three years.”

On September 21, 2007, a lesson said: “equity markets dropped again violently last month. Now these markets have recovered again. Yet this may be a last gasp party.”

An October 14, 2007 lesson stated:  “We never know for sure when an upwards cycle will stall. Fundamentals look good for a bright 2008 in emerging and equity markets, but this can change quickly so to give our readers a better perspective, this year we are reducing leverage and adding a sixth portfolio with no leverage to study”.

The October 15, 2007 lesson reviewed how leveraged investments rise and fell faster than investments without leverage.

The lesson on Oct 26, 2007  saved many investors as it was entitled Leveraged Investments Gone.  Just before markets started to head south this lesson warned: “I have had only about 10% of my portfolio leveraged. Compare this to 200% for the Green Portfolio (which is up 265% this year). Now I have none.

So a lot of my portfolio investments are basically in a multi currency portfolio of bonds…mostly in pounds, Swedish and Danish kroner. The equities I hold are mainly in Europe and I do not leverage equities…especially after markets have risen so much. Periods of high returns are normally followed by periods of low returns. These facts, plus my belief that numerous economic woes are rising and my recollection of Oct 1987 leave me wanting to reduce risk in my equity portfolio. So now I have eliminated all my leverage.”

The next lesson warned again: “Okay it’s time to turn the burner down.”

A November 8, 2007 Black Friday lesson reviewed  all the warnings above again and more.

The course also helps readers find ways to spot unusual distortions that profit even in bad times.

For example  lessons  on April 18 and April 27 2009 looked at the benefit of investing in Brazilian currency bonds.

This lesson led to a quick profit.

Here is an excerpt from our June 12, 2009 lesson:

Based on these ideas and those presented in the April 18 and April 27 lessons we looked at why Brazilian bonds made good sense in the LONG TERM.

Sometimes we get lucky though in the short term… as we have now.

Brazilian bonds have made a sudden jump up!   Those who have invested in them have made as much as 50% (in US dollar terms) this year.

Yet the distortion we’ll review below shows how there is even more dollar denominated profit potential ahead.

Last week the Brazilian central bank lowered key interest rates to 9.25%.  This will likely send the price of  Brazilian real denominated bonds up.

The central bank has stated that there could be more rate cuts, but they will be smaller.

This is positive news plus Brazilian inflation has declined to 5.2% from 5.53% in April 2009.

When you take into account the high interest of the real, the rise in value of bonds and the rise of the real you can see the potential.

Brazilian real bonds have risen nearly 30% since the beginning of the year…  in terms of Euro!

This is where there is another huge distortion.  The real has not risen anywhere near this much versus the dollar.

The charts from finance.yahoo.com below show the distortion.

In the last three months the US dollar has dropped from $1 = 2.30 BRL to $1 = $1.97 (- 14.3%) versus the Brazilian real as this chart shows.

In the last three months the euro has dropped from 1 euro = 3.05BRL to 1 euro = 2.60 BRL (-13.5%).   This correlation of the euro and dollar would seem normal except…

as the chart below shows, the euro has risen from $1 euro = $1.28 to 1 euro =$1.40 a 9.27% rise versus the US dollar.

In addition the Brazilian central bank has had to intervene several times in recent months to avoid the Brazilian real being too strong against the euro.

Traditionally the real has had a strong correlation with the dollar but the recent weakening of the buck versus the dollar has not spilled over into the Brazilian real.

In other words. The real is up against the euro almost 10% more than against the dollar.  This is called a cross rate distortion and means that one of two things is likely to happen.  The dollar will rise versus the euro or  the dollar will fall versus the Brazilian real.

Given the fundamental US fiscal weaknesses that could push the dollar down, I am bullish on the real rising more versus the dollar and this makes me bullish about Brazilian real denominated bonds.

Always remember the basic rule though is to never speculate more than you can afford to lose.   A US dollar – Brazilian real sandwich is worth discussing with your portfolio manager or adviser now but could creates losses as well as profits.

I have not leveraged my Brazilian bond investment. Based on this data I instructed JGAM to increase me Brazilian bond holdings.

If you are using Jyske Bank, and are a non US citizen or resident, or a US citizen living abroad, you can simply have the bank purchase Brazilian bonds and lend you the funds (within the bank’s loan to asset restrictions).   Non US citizens contact Rene Mathys for more details at mathys@jbpb.dk

US citizens should contact Thomas Fischer at fischer@jgam.com

If you are a US citizen resident in the US and have an advisory account with JGAM, they may not be able to buy Brazilian bonds for you.  They could  buy the US traded ETF “The WisdomTree Dreyfus Brazilian Real Fund.” (BZF)

These three lessons (April and June 2009) helped many readers cash in on an unusual value!

I would like to invite you to enroll in our multi currency investment course and to also receive a nine lesson report that covers basics and fundamentals of  multi currency investing.

This nine lesson report has been read by tens of thousands of investors over the years.   This report sells on its own as a survivor’s hand guide to currency turmoil for $79.  I’ll email it to you free when you enroll in our online course.

The course is emailed to you regularly and studies stock, bond and currency markets worldwide, real time, as they unfold.

I believe, from the response of tens of thousands of readers over the last 20 years, that you will gain enormously from the course.

Our course helps you learn  why and where to invest and learn why and how currencies and interest rates rise and or fall.

The initial nine lesson report I’ll email you free also shows how to calculate and manage leveraged risk and how to decide if and when to leverage or not.

Is this course for you?

Everyone needs to know how to have multi currency diversification. But in case this course does not help you, we provide a 30 day “completely satisfied or your money back” guarantee that we have offered our hundreds of thousands of readers for more than 20 years.

Our Multi Currency Educational Service is a mere $175 for a very long and educational year! Won’t you share this exciting world of wealth accumulation with us and our readers around the world? Multi Currency Educational Service

Gary Scott

Multi Currency Portfolios Course. Subscribe

Or enjoy this multi currency course for a year free!  Here is how you can save $175.

We enhance our emailed courses with regular international investing and business seminars that I conduct in coordination with Jyske Bank and Jyske Global Asset Management.

Here I am at our last seminar in Naples Florida (may 2009).

The speakers at the Naples seminar discussed prospects for the economic future.  Left to right: Samuel Rachlin,  Rich Checkan, Steve Blumenthal, Joe Cox, John Mauldin, Gary Scott, Lars Stouge. Thomas Fischer Moderating.

The 115 delegates reported that they really gained from listening to what we had to say and…

talking among themselves during the coffee brakes and at meals.

One benefit of these seminars is talking to an overseas banker.  Here I am at the Naples  seminar  with my Jyske account executive Anders Nielsen.

Thomas Fischer of Jyske Global Asset Management will join us for the July North Carolina seminar.

I invite you to attend this July course. If you enroll between now and July 1st, I’ll also enroll you in  our emailed multi currency course free. You save $175.

Enroll in our July 24-26 International Investing and Business Made EZ course here

Here is Thomas speaking to our delegates at a previous course.

Enroll in our emailed Multi Currency Portfolios Course for $175  here.  Subscribe

Save $175!  Receive the emailed course free when you Enroll in our July 24-26 International Investing and Business Made EZ course here

Here is what a few others from around the world have said about our services and reports on international investing.

“ Gary , I am a long time subscriber in various media, and while cleaning out my files today I found some old ‘Gary A. Scotts World Reports’. In particular, the April 1988 issue provided the info that made me over a million dollars. Just wanted to say a belated ‘thank you’ and please continue the excellent work. Warm regards,”

From an Unknown Reader

“Dear Gary, I would like to give thanks to you for introducing me to Jyske Bank two years ago.

“I have been a long-time client of Merrill Lynch, but am in the process of re-evaluating my relationship with the largest brokerage company in the world. My problem is that when I compare Merrill to Jyske, Jyske outshines Merrill (or other major U.S. brokerage firms) in most categories as follows:

“1) Even though Jyske is much smaller, it has a much more global perspective which is critical in an evermore global investment environment.

“2) In order to maximize their own individual revenue, the brokers at Merrill prefer to outsource the day-to-day management of their accounts to various fund managers and hence, ‘manage the managers’. In contrast, I can call my Account Manager at Jyske and he can discuss every aspect of my account in detail with me.

“3) I attribute this difference in #2 to the fact that Jyske’s employees are not compensation driven, but instead are focused on satisfying their customers. That is why Jyske’s clients stay with the Bank on average for 12 years, which is phenomenal by Wall Street standards.

“4) Jyske’s security is far more stringent than that of Merrill’s. In addition to the standard account code and password, to pass through Jyske’s security one has to enter a Key Card number and also a randomly-generated 4-digit number from said Key Card.

“5) Having an account offshore allows me to sleep better given the anxious times we live in. Since I report the existence of the account and pay all taxes due, I am fully compliant with the law. However, such an account gives me and my family a ‘financial life boat’ should events in our own country ever get out of hand.

“As Dorothy Parker once said, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them THINK’. Jyske is a thinking person’s bank. My only complaint is the time zone difference since I live in California . However, since I am an early riser and my Account Manager is very responsive to my emails, this problem is very small relative to the HUGE benefits.

“Again, many thanks for introducing me to Jyske Bank. Given the ‘dumbing down’ that occurs in the popular media today, your ezine and its recommendations are ever more important. Please continue your good work to enlighten your readership.

“Warm regards,”

C.M. CALIFORNIA Businessman

“I was so overwhelmed with information I received I had to spend several days reading, sorting and filing it! I have decided to move my modest investment capital overseas.”

B.W. MONTREAL CANADA Professor

“Send me your report on safe banks lending at 7% for redeposit at 13% or more.” B.V. ADDIS ABADA ETHIOPIA Economic Commission United Nations

“A number of new and significant contacts were made. It would be extremely helpful if you could supply us with WORLD REPORTS.” I.M. TORONTO , CANADA Banker

“You are as good as your word which is rare these days. I look forward to attending one of your seminars.” C.K. GENEVA , SWITZERLAND Banker

“In spite of my marketing experience, your information really got me going!” M. C. LONDON, ENGLAND Marketing Consultant

“Thanks for the three reports. They are very interesting and should find many readers here in Japan .” M.A. Tokyo , JAPAN Computer Programmer

“I would like to say how much I enjoyed the information I received.” A.B. Providenciales TURKS & CAICOS Accountant

“First let me say how much we enjoyed the investment seminar.” W.J. SAUDI ARABIA Oil Engineer

“Once again thanks for all the great information.” G.K. PERTH , AUSTRALIA Insurance Executive

“Your letter of November 8th warned me to beware of the market just a week before the 120 point crash on November 15th!” T.G. N. CAROLINA Pilot”

Won’t you join us as we learn from our Multi Currency Educational Service? Just a mere $175 for a full 12 months of valuable, wealth building education.

Enroll in our emailed Multi Currency Portfolios Course for $175  here.  Subscribe

Save $175!  Receive the emailed course free when you Enroll in our July 24-26 International Investing and Business Made EZ course here

Ecuador Travel Tip

This time of year is glorious in the Blue Ridge. Here is a shot of our front yard.  Yet soon we head south traveling again to Ecuador.

There is plenty of beauty in Ecuador too.

I took this shot from near our hotel Meson de las Flores. The difference is this green was in the middle of winter. Cotacachi’s weather is eternal spring!

Ecuador travel is easy from the USA… less then four hours from Miami to Ecuador about five from Atlanta to Ecuador.

However travel is travel and security procedures combined with airline cutbacks have added stress on travel to Ecuador or anywhere.

So I thought the note below about Ecuador travel was worth sharing with all.

Gary,  I know you and Merri must be very healthy to do as much time on airlines as you both do, and many other attendant exposures!  In all the years I have enjoyed your news letters, I have never heard of either of you being “down with the flu or cold”!   Do you eat airlines food?  or do you have any other tips for healthy eating on airlines?  Any other health tips for airlines will be appreciated and put to good use!

The reader is correct… Neither Merri or I are hardly ever ill.  Neither of us has been to an MD (for sickness) in over 20 years. I cannot recall missing a day of work because we were ill.

There are many things we do to maintain our energy and health.  We try to spend  our time and money on health preservation instead of medical insurance.  There are links to numerous health tips below.

Here let’s just look at some tips for health on planes.

In May 1968,  I boarded my first commercial flight Portland, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong on Canadian Pacific Airlines.

Merri (I did not know her then) at about the same time was headed Atlanta – New York – Frankfurt on Lufthansa.

Over the next 41 years, we’ve traveled to more than 70 countries researching business opportunities, exploring and enjoying new destinations.

We have lived and worked on every continent.

Many of you like ourselves are on the run, traveling thousands of miles and crossing dozens of time zones the year through. We have to perform well on these trips even as we put enormous stress on our bodies.

Here are a few tricks we have learned over the millions of miles we have flown. I hope they help you in your travel to Ecuador… or wherever.

First, avoid peanuts and other hard to digest foods on airplanes. In fact it’s better to avoid salted peanuts completely. Our friend, the Taita Yatchak, who lived with us at our hacienda in Ecuador  was amazed to see us eat roasted peanuts. “High in Uric Acid”, he said.

Our Indian (from India) friends who are experts in Ayurveda (the 5000 year old Science of Life) have also warned us away from peanuts as being very hard to digest. They are known as tomasic (meaning those things that destroy rather than build).

Then imagine getting on a plane and crossing the ocean and a half dozen time zones which will throw off our digestion in itself.

This is a dry dehydrating environment hard on the kidneys. These factors alone are hard enough. To throw in a hard to digest food high in uric acid is like the kiss of death.

Second, avoid alcohol on airplanes. Dehydrating as well, hard on kidneys,and liver. Mixed with roasted peanuts! Ahhhhhh!

Third, sleep when traveling towards the sun. Travel through time zones throw off our Circadian rhythm.

We find that it helps to stay awake when traveling away from the sun. We fly to Europe or South America numerous times every year when I speak at seminars there and to visit our children.

Often I have to get up the day after I arrive and conduct seminars… sometimes for  eight hours. This requires a clear mind and energetic body.  So we need to be sure that the flight has not drained us.

We have flown across the Atlantic with clients and observed as they tucked into cocktails (peanuts!) heavy dinner, desserts and after dinner liquors while we are settling down to sleep through the flight.

We awaken, have only a little breakfast on the plane, and meet the European morning refreshed and ready to have a full day (but we go to bed early the first night).   Those clients are dragging and beat.  “Where on earth do you get your energy?” they ask.

Can’t sleep on planes?

Buy some Valerian tea at the health food store, ask for hot water and make your own tea. It tastes like what I imagine dirty gym socks would taste, but is a natural way to get to sleep.

We also use melatonin to restore the natural melatonin that is lost on endless time zones. Just buy a bottle of liquid from the health food store and take 20 minutes before sleep.

I also bring along my Bose noise suppressing headphones and some baroque music.

Before I leave on a journey, I massage my feet with an essential oil blend.

When essential oils are applied to our feet, they stimulate zones on our feet that “mirror” the entire body. Stimulating these reflexes sends messages to the associated body parts that help reduce tension, improve circulation and help the body deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells… important benefits on a flight.

I use my Essential Oil Blend Chart, created by Candace Newman and massage the oil blend in my hair, put it in my ears up my nose, on my face and on my collar and shirt cuffs.

The oil fights virus and bacteria plus helps balance the flighty feeling on a flight.

Here is Candace’s Essential Oil Blend Chart.

We also avoid airplane water (except bottled).   We add a drop of Rose Otto essential oil.  This makes a tasty rose water that aids digestion and the time transition.

We make sure the oil we use is Rose Otto which is the steam distilled essential oil of rose petals. Otto is the term used to differentiate the steam distilled variety from the ‘Rose Absolute’ and “Rose Concrete”.  The extraction process for both Absolute and Concrete use solvents so Rose Otto from the Bulgarian ‘damask’ Rose, cultivated since the 16th century, is considered to produce the finest quality essence

Rose Otto is bright, alive, richly floral and complex and is more potent than the Absolute and Concrete so smaller amounts of Rose Otto are required.

You can order Rose Otto 4 ml here

We also spray ourselves (head and face and air above us) with lavender essential oil lavender misted with distilled water to combat dehydration and to refresh, cleanse and purify.

In Aromatherapy, mists and hydrosols are generally used to calm our emotions, lift our spirit, cleanse the air, and soothe the skin.

You can make your own mist with Lavender oil.

You can order Lavender  essential oil here 10 ml

Candace Newman has a four mist sampler pack that contains all four of mists.

Candace offers a sample of four 1 oz essential oil mist blends each in amber plastic bottle with zipper carrying case and includes an Essential Oil Mist Chart is included free.

1 ounce Lavender Mist
1 ounce Lavender-Peppermint Mist
1 ounce Lavender-Rose Mist
1 ounce Rejuvenation Mist

Learn more or order here.

Next we travel first or business class using our frequent flyer miles to upgrade ourselves. There is more privacy and room in this class and because we book as early as possible, we almost always are upgraded.

We do yoga (or stretching) before we get on and off… plus stretch during the flight. This helps keep spinal fluids moving. The spine is often perceived as just a stack of bones in reality it is our gateway of energy and it shifts with every thought we have about life. It is a precise mirror of who we are. With every stress we have, the interrelationships of bones, muscles, ligaments, and nerves are altered in and through the spine. These deviations are minute, often imperceptible, but no matter how small, the changes in the spine have gigantic effects on the body.

I then use a spinal tuner before and after each flight.  You can learn about Joe Culbertson’s spinal tuner at www.spine-tuner.com

On long flights we also  wear an ionizer around our necks. This purifies the air and  creates negative ions that makes us feel fresher and cleaner.

This is a shot of my well used travel ionizer.

Mine is old and about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  New ones are in the market for $119. They offer a Corona Discharge Air Purification technology to create fresh air while purifying the air with a stream of charged electrons (Ions) .  This Ionizer is worn around the neck so a continuous stream of ions flows toward the face.  A round magnet rests on the back of the neck to reinforce your body’s magnetic field (which is off balance in high altitudes).  Google the word Chionizer and you’ll see a number of sites offering this product.

We also try to arrive and leave via a small airport. When we are in North Carolina we fly Delta’s commuter partner in Tri-Cities Tennessee to Atlanta or Cincinnati.  Big airports like Miami or Atlanta create a lot of stress… crowds, noise, rudeness and pollution.  This is not a good way to start or end a flight.  By starting at a small airport, there’s not much stress, people remember us and it goes smooth and easy.

Finally we meditate when we get on the plane, often during the flight and before we disembark.

We do our best to eat little or nothing and avoid hard to digest foods on these long hauls…just some pure water, fresh fruit…. sometimes a boiled egg… a few seeds and nuts are very satisfying.  Rest and avoid stress as much as you can on the journey.

Every generation has had its health cross to bear. Neanderthal Man faced the Saber Tooth Tiger.  Medieval  Europe had plagues.  Today we face fast food, stress and long flights!

It is a miracle, privilege and responsibility that we have the freedom to travel almost anywhere on this good earth we choose. This gives us the ability to broaden our horizons and contribute more to the world. These few simple tips  can reduce the negative elements of the great joy of air travel.

Gary

Join us at an upcoming Ecuador or North Carolina conference or tour.

On our upcoming Imbabura real estate tours we’ll look at real estate on all three of the big lakes near Cotacachi. Here is a map of the area.

June 12-14 Shamanic Mingo Tour

June 16-17 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

June 18-21 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

We’ll  visit the sacred Quicocha lake for a shamanic study and perhaps a ceremony.

July 4-8  Ecuador Export Tour

July 8-9 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

July 10-13 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

July 24-26 IBEZ North Carolina

View from San Pablo Lake property for sale.

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Spanish Course

Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Lake Yahuarcocha

The lake is a historical site also known as Blood Lake because of a 13 year battle between the locals and Incas.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Expedition

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

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Ecuador Shamans & Purification