The Cotacachi Inn Land of the Sun (formerly Hotel Meson de las Flores)… is for sale.

Enquiries please contact Lin Neal: concierge@ateamecuador.com

Sunrise at Inn Land of the Sun.

Inn Land of the Sun (formerly Meson de las Flores) is the center of Cotacachi.

The hotel was donated to Land of the Sun Foundation to help promote the economy of Cotacachi and Ecuador.  The trustees of the foundation feel they have accomplished their purpose and now that Cotacachi has a far more thriving economy, a new owner with new ambitions can take this wonderful building to the next step.

All profits from the hotel have been used to expand the economy in Cotacachi or to provide scholarships to youth in Ecuador and the hotel is being offered for substantially less than the foundation has paid into this building.

Inn Land of the Sun courtyard.

The hotel has a great history and wonderful colonial architecture.

A restaurant has been operated in the hotel. Plus a warm, welcoming, caring staff who really do want to look after you.

Here is the Cotacachi Cathedral by night.

By day.

Inn Land of the Sun is Cotacachi’s oldest hotel located in a 180 year old colonial building with open air court yard just off Cotacachi’s main plaza and next to Cotacachi’s largest Church.

Here are some snapshots of the Inn Land of the Sun.

The entrance of the hotel in Cotacachi is 56 steps to a magnificent cathedral and park.

Here’s the park on a misty morn.

The village is quiet and peaceful and once inside Inn Land of the Sun you feel the flavor of its colonial past.

Here is a group enjoying the open air inner courtyard for meetings and dining “al fresco.”

The outer court leads to a dining and meeting room each for 50.  Inn Land of the Sun has a full professional kitchen.

Here is one of the renovated rooms.

Rooms run between $39.99 and $79 a night plus 22% service and tax. This price includes a full served breakfast.

Here is…

a view from Inn Land of the Sun’s…

large suite that features…

king size canopy bed, plus…

sitting room and…

bath and spa/shower, plus…

all hardwood closets and trim and…

balcony dining with a view.

There is room for…

entertainment in the dining room.

Many seminars…

and events, such as…

the Miss Ecuador pageant,

export bazaars and seminars have been held at the hotel.

The Inn land of the Sun is for sale for $299,000.

Enquiries please contact Lin Neal at concierge@ateamecuador.com

Gary

Meet our Self Publishing Secret Weapon

Our secret weapon for self publishing profit is search engine success.  The real secret to this success is our webmaster David Cross.

David Cross

David has been our webmaster since our website began in the 1990s.  He is Merri’s and my business partner. We could not run our business as we do without him.   One reason is that he is a search engine optimization expert.

You can learn the tactics we use in webinar that condenses 20 years of practical experience about search engine optimization, and writing for search engines.

For the last 27 years David has worked with companies large and small – IBM, Agora Publishing, AstraZeneca and many small business owners.  He has worked in 22 countries, and lived in six of them.

David’s clients span the globe and represent companies and charities both large and small. From corporate giants to small, one-woman businesses and everything from finance, healthcare, publishing, technology, real estate, veterinarians, alternative health centers and everything in between.

David is an essential part of our web based business and Myles Norin, CEO of Agora, Inc.  wrote:  “I have found David’s knowledge and experience unmatched in the industry. Without David’s expertise and guidance for the past 7 years, we would not be nearly as successful as we are.”

As Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Inc. in Baltimore, MD, he worked closely with Agora’s publishers and marketers and – over a 7-year period – helped to propel Agora’s online revenues from around $20 million to well over $300 million.

David’s webinar will help you gain the types of search engine benefits that large internet marketing companies use.    In this practical course you will learn valuable skills to help you:

• Attract search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to your website
• Write interesting, compelling articles for real people, while using the search engine’s rules and algorithms to your advantage
• Discover special tricks, tactics, and techniques you should use to attract search engines
• Understand the “search engine secrets” you should avoid, and how these can get your site blocked by search engines
• Learn about the role social media plays in search engine optimization, but why a social media presence is not your first step
• Capture your visitors’ interest once they’ve arrived at your website, turning interest into action

As a writer, self-publisher or business owner, optimize your writing, and select what you could write for top placement in search engines.  This is of increasing importance to your business.

Over the last 20 years David has worked with businesses, large and small. He has trained writers, publisher, editors and marketers on how to adapt their writing skills to attract search engines while retaining web pages, articles and stories that are still interesting for their customers and prospects.

David has condensed these tips into a training course on Writing Copy for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This is an engaging, practical, online/telephone training course on SEO techniques and best practices for writers, authors, publishers and copywriters that will last approximately 90 minutes.

We held this SEO webinar live recently and a recording of it is available for download.

Join David and learn:

• How to create engaging copy that ranks well in search engines
• How – and why – to use keywords within your copy
• How to link your articles together for better relevancy and SEO impact
• How to convert interest into action for visitors driven through SEO
• Working with and developing a Master Keyword List
• Why getting someone to your website via search engines is the easy part of the equation; learn about conversions and how to capture your visitor’s interest, moving them along the path to becoming your customer
• The value of social media in SEO

David provides slides, practical examples and an understanding of the SEO process that you can add and adapt to your own personal writing process.  You may review at your leisure the valuable information that David shares.

Copy (writing) is still king. Learn how to make your copy relevant to the changing landscape of search engines.

Enroll for the David Cross Search engine optimization webinar ($79) here.

Gary

Getting to Know People in Ecuador is important and the Cotacachi Ecuador Expat Weekend Get-Togethers

welcome those to Inn Land of the Sun.

Inn Land of the Sun entrance. This colonial inn dates back to the mid 1800s.

The hotel has started Friday and Saturday night pizza and spaghetti with beer and wine get-togethers in the fireplace room.

An Ecuador Living Club members just wrote:  Merri: We just returned this past Thursday evening from our eight day trip to Ecuador. It was our first, and we had a fabulous time. We would like to thank you and Gary for your help in organizing our trip and for all the wonderful contacts through the Ecuador Living Club. Our cost to join the club was rewarded back to us time and again during the trip as the hotel recommendations were excellent. At the Land of the Sun Inn we met many fellow American travelers and learned infinitely more about Ecuador through their experiences too.  Muchas Gracias for all your help. Charlie Peart, Summer Cipriano

An Englishman living in Cotacachi wrote:

Hi Merri & Gary,

We went Friday & Saturday for a meal at the Inn of the Sun and both nights were very well patronized , about 20/25 people at least on both nights, and the staff learned from any mistakes!). Edwardo made some delightful ice cream which was very well received by all.

I really believe that you are on to a good thing here as it is attracting new faces every weekend so I hope it continues- we will certainly support it when we can.

Kind regards,  Don Mc Grae

Don Mc Grae is developing an assisted living complex in Cotacachi, Ecuador.  See details below.

Lin Neal at the Cotacachi expat get together.

Super Thinking + Spanish teacher, Dr. Tom Pool.

Donda Pool and expats chatting.

The Inn’s staff hard at work.

If you are in or near Cotacachi come along and meet the community here.

Inn Land of the Sun courtyard.

There are many pleasures at Inn Land of the Sun in Cotacachi.  The colonial architecture charms and welcomes you.

Other Inn Land of the Sun amenities include:

• Free broadband internet.
• Free calls to the USA, Canada and Europe.
• Free served full breakfast.
• Inexpensive massages.

Plus a warm, welcoming, caring staff who really do want to look after you.

Room rates at Inn Land of the Sun in Cotacachi begin at only $59 a night plus 22% service and tax.

Enjoy the beauty of Cotacachi. Here is the Cotacachi Church next door to the hotel.

By day.

Inn Land of the Sun is Cotacachi’s oldest hotel located in a 180 year old colonial building with open air court yard just off Cotacachi’s main plaza and next to Cotacachi’s largest Church. Here is the hotel.

Gary

See dates for nine Super Thinking + Spanish courses to be conducted this winter at Inn Land of the Sun.

Here is an Ecuador investing and  business ideas for Ecuador or anywhere you live.

In a moment, I am going to show you how to own this 16 room hotel in Otavalo for almost nothing… maybe even free.

First let’s look at a business idea for this hotel… rootlessness… a growing global problem.

Problems create opportunity so there is business opportunity in rootlessness.

Technology has given mankind the ability to work, live and invest globally… a wonderful benefit.   Yet this mobility has created a problem as well.

One of my messages many years ago (2002) outlined that there would be a growing market for friendship in this modern era.

That message said: The market for friendship has to grow because technology has made society so  mobile. I for example have lost nearly every single really good friend from school.  I haven’t seen most of the friends I grew up with for forty five years. I imagine they still live in Portland, Oregon, but maybe not. They might all have become travelers like myself. Out of a six pack of school buddies, Steve is the only one with whom I keep in touch.

When I moved to North Carolina, I visited the local car mechanic named Jay Dee to have some work done on my 1986 Suzuki Samari Jeep. This is the perfect farm car but often needs work.  Jay Dee’s garage is a barn by his house and local people sort of collect around that barn to shoot the breeze, spit a little tobacco and talk over old times. “Remember old Johnny Blevins and that time he threw you in the creek,” one of them might say. “Well darn that must a been fifty years ago.”

My Samari… 23 years old and only 62,000 original miles.

I love being with these wonderful mountain people and their easy going, friendly ways. They have such deep roots and ties and are comfortable and at ease with their friends. They know who they are, where they are and who their friends are because they have been with them their entire lives. These people aren’t hanging around Jay Dee just to get their cars fixed. They are enjoying a ritual of friendship that has united them since they were kids.

I love this! My friendships are scattered and far flung all over the world. I sometimes don’t get to see my friends for years!

A huge segment (much of the wealthiest) of the population no longer lives where they were brought up. They have lost touch with their roots.  The more technology removes us from our origins, the more the market for togetherness and friendship grows.

Friendship is an extension of togetherness and can develop around many themes. For the mountain folk of North Carolina or anyone who remains rooted in their birthplace the theme is mostly “down home”.

These friendships are tight and if you have ever heard the phrase “You ain’t from around here are ya, boy,” you have experienced the reverse side of this type of friendship. The implication is that with these long term, locally based friendships, the only way to be a friend is to have been there for years.

Some of the years I lived in Gloucestershire, England were spent in a tiny village named Chalford. I lived over  a local pub there, “The Mechanics Arms.” Though I was a newcomer to the area I was accepted as an old timer because of family ties. One man in his sixties, who visited the pub every night however wasn’t quite part of the crowd.

Many of the locals talked about him as the new man in town. I was surprised later to learn he had lived in Chalford for nearly thirty years!  The locals would always view him as less trustworthy because he had not been born and raised there. Childhood experiences were the basis of their deepest friendships.

Many of us will never have this type of long term familiarity friendship.We have moved around too much. This creates markets for many types of new friendships.

Networking is a form of business friendship. The theme of the friendship is scratch my back and perhaps I can scratch yours or we will both be better off scratching each others’ backs. Such friendships can be local, state or country wide or as mine span the globe. They can be very informal or very formal.

The market for formal friendships has already exploded.  Incredible growth of support groups such as AA are a sign of the momentum in the friendship market. Such groups offer a format for formal friendships and range from disease support groups to abused support groups. Each offers an organized way to have friends. The growth of these groups is not because there are more problems than thirty years ago. The growth is because of the increasing market for friendships.

We can see this trend spreading everywhere. For example one telephone company has recognized this growing trend and has successfully built its business around the idea of calling “family and friends.

This thought (that a market for friendships would grow) was correct.  We see this on the internet with one of the biggest trends being social networking sites.

A recent New York Times article, “Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With ‘Nobody to Talk To” by Patricia Leigh Brown reveals a sliver of this problem.

Here is an excerpt from this article:   They gather five days a week at a mall called the Hub, sitting on concrete planters and sipping thermoses of chai. These elderly immigrants from India are members of an all-male group called The 100 Years Living Club. They talk about crime in nearby Oakland, the cheapest flights to Delhi and how to deal with recalcitrant daughters-in-law.

Together, they fend off the well of loneliness and isolation that so often accompany the move to this country late in life from distant places, some culturally light years away.

“If I don’t come here, I have sealed lips, nobody to talk to,” said Devendra Singh, a 79-year-old widower. Meeting beside the parking lot, the men were oblivious to their fellow mall rats, backpack-carrying teenagers swigging energy drinks.

In this country of twittering youth, Mr. Singh and his friends form a gathering force: the elderly, who now make up America’s fastest-growing immigrant group. Since 1990, the number of foreign-born people over 65 has grown from 2.7 million to 4.3 million — or about 11 percent of the country’s recently arrived immigrants. Their ranks are expected to swell to 16 million by 2050. In California, one in nearly three seniors is now foreign born, according to a 2007 census survey.

Now let’s look at this 16 room hotel in Otavalo that you can have for almost nothing… maybe even free and how it could offer a business that solves this problem.

First, let me detail the hotel and why a fabulous bargain has come up… and how this hotel can fit into the friendship market.

This  is an really good Ecuador income opportunity, a…

hotel for sale in Otavalo.

The owners have had this on the market for a number of years at one million dollars. We thought this price was too high and never wrote about it.

Earlier this year they dropped the price to $750,000 and offered us $150,000 commission if we sold it. I wrote then:  The owners offered us a $150,000 commission to sell the hotel. We are not brokers and do not take commission so our reply was “cut the price for our readers”!  This would place the price at $600,000… an interesting value.

$600,000 may have been interesting but the owner now just emailed us and dropped the price to $495,000.  This places the price beyond  an interesting value into the bargain range.

Plus the owners again offered us a commission.  We do not take commissions so whatever (how much commission was not clear) amount they would pay could be deducted from this price.

This makes the hotel a real bargain.

At $750,000 the commission of $150,000 was 20%.  We don’t know of course about the commission, and I didn’t want to wait to verify this because this hotel is valuable, beautiful and it could  work out at about $35 a foot on the building and leaves you the land (which right next to Otavalo market is worth a lot).

Yet there is more. I believe you can get the land and the 16 room hotel for almost nothing.

I’ll explain how below.

First: the hotel details. The hotel is right next to Otavalo Market, one of the largest tourist attractions in Ecuador.

The property has these characteristics:  Appx. 30,000 sq. feet of  land and 12,000 sq.  feet of  building in 3 apartments and 16 hotel rooms.

Property Details:  The property consists of approximately 30,000 square feet of land, with trees, gardens and many types of exotic birds.  The gardens…

are large… well groomed and…

have a wonderful patio.

Ma too likes it there.

There is approximately 12,000 square feet of solid brick and cement construction.

On the property, there is plenty of room for expansion and development, especially in a town where there is absolutely no land left to develop.  The building is built in the old colonial style with finely crafted hardwood arched windows and doors, rustic floor tile and traditional clay-tiled roof.  The building is constructed according to U.S. anti-seismic standards.

The owner claims this is one of the best built constructions in Otavalo—and one of the prettiest in the city!

The building boasts excellent water pressure on all four floors. (Please don’t pooh pooh this quality!) The building has a powerful, propane gas-fueled boiler system capable of producing up to 700 gallons of hot water a day.  With access to the land/building from two streets, the property has frontage on 3 streets, which have been newly paved by the City of Otavalo.

Characteristics:  16 rooms, large social area (restaurant), large working kitchen, two medium-sized apartments, one large penthouse apartment, small building in back (approximately 250 square meters) that serves as a laundry room and storage facility, which also has a full bathroom and a working fireplace.  This could easily be converted into a small rental property.  Adjacent, yet private, to the main property, and which consists of 350 square meters of our total property, is a working area and parking garage (which can accommodate approximately 6 cars), with clothes lines, and general storage area.

First floor: Consists of large working kitchen, with back door exit to outdoor enclosed pantry/food storage room, laundry area and herb garden.  There is a large dining room (approximately 2,500 square feet) with excellent working fireplace, and space to comfortably entertain 60 or so people.

Reception.

Restaurant is beautiful also.

The dining room leads outside onto the tiled patio and garden where there are tables and chairs for serving and relaxing, and this area may be used to accommodate another 30 or so people.  Also on the first floor there are 8 rooms which have served as hotel rooms, each 55 X 45 feet  in size with large bathrooms.

All rooms face out into the garden and the property is in front of Mount  Imbabura.   Hundreds of hummingbirds and exotic birds roam the grounds.

Patio seen from one of the three apartments.

Hotel room…

shots.

Second floor: There are two spacious apartments, each about 1,100 square feet in size, with glass windows looking down onto the garden.

Apartment #1 view…

Apartment#1 bedroom.

Apartment #1 Living room

and kitchen.

Each apartment has a large bathroom and a kitchenette with small balconies in the back.  Also on the second floor there are 8 more rooms, equal to the rooms on the first floor, that open onto a balcony over-looking the garden.

Apartment #2 living room

Bedroom.

bathroom.

Third floor:  There is a very large “penthouse” apartment, approximately 2,250 square feet with large glass windows and a large balcony overlooking the garden.  This apartment has one bathroom with a small adjacent room that may be converted into a sauna, large spacious kitchen and living room, two large bedrooms, and a large working fireplace.

Penthouse…

views.

Penthouse.

Penthouse fireplace.

Kitchen.

Penthouse bedroom.

Extra room.

Penthouse bedroom #2.

The Roof: The penthouse apartment has stairs that lead to the roof, where there are two 5,000 gallon reserve tanks for storing water (if needed), as well as more storage space.  As stated before, there is excellent water pressure on all 4 floors.  Also includes a solar hot water system which connects into the boiler system.

Two 5,000 gallon water storage tanks…

plus solar water heater.

This is an excellent facility with wonderful grounds in a high priced area..

Let’s look at the owner’s explanation of why they have lowered the price… then we’ll see how to get this hotel for almost nothing.

Hello Merri and Gary,  This is Margaret from Ali Shungu in Otavalo. I have been living up here on the mountain for about 6 months full time, going back and forth to the Hotel.  I feel better up here in my little house with my projects.   I have been recovering from an illness and have been in the hospital in Quito. They said that if this diverticulitis does not clear up, and it has been bad for about 6 months with 3 months of vomiting, fever, etc.,–that I will need an operation to remove it.  I’m drinking all kinds of herbs and aloe vera cactus and only boiled simple foods, and hoping to heal without an operation.  Did 2 rounds of antibiotics, might have to do more…….I will say though, that the hospital bill was not that bad in Voz Andes for all the tests that I had and treatments, etc.   I will now take care of myself more, and do more praying!  I might need intravenous antibiotics but I do not want to go back to the hospital in Quito.

There you have it… a owner whose health no longer allows them to run the hotel nor wait out a high priced buyer.

Here is how to get this 16 room hotel for almost nothing. I believe that the three apartments, if separated from the hotel and sold on their own, are worth near the price of the hotel.   I do not know the Otavalo real estate market so well…but I have seen the apartments and penthouse and they are exquisite.

If they are and if you can buy this for hotel in the $400,000 range… this means the 16 room hotel, the grounds and the restaurant are almost free.

This will require some negotiating, some work and legal work  (Ecuador lawyers are not very expensive)… but could provide one heck of a deal.

We have put our Ecuador Living subscribers in touch with the sellers.  To gain this contact information you can subscribe to Ecuador Living here.

If the hotel is not under offer, we’ll show it on our upcoming October Andean Real Estate tour.    See tour details here.

Merri and I are not involved financially in any way with this offer.  We have not looked at the hotel’s financial accounts, legal situation, titles, nor had an engineering inspection, so be sure to take all normal precautions if you are interested.  Especially look at the labor obligations you’ll absorb.

Our recommendation for those who are interested in Ecuador is to come visit first… look around… rent and stay awhile… before you buy.  One reason for this recommendation is that when you are here awhile you’ll see bargains… like this and I believe for the reasons stated that Hotel Ali Shungu is now a bargain.

Now let’s see how this creates opportunity from the problem of rootlessness.

Americans and Canadians are flocking to Ecuador.  I know.  Our Ecuador Living business is going wild.  The subscription pace has almost doubled recently and the request for rentals in this area has skyrocketed past our ability to keep up!

The demand is especially strong at the lower income level… those who are retiring and can no longer have a decent life in Canada or the US… especially in places where there is winter sun.

There people are isolated… often not speaking Spanish and with little to do.   So Turn this hotel into a residence for gringos. Provide free internet… US papers…. weekly Spanish lessons… a support program… group tours, travel assistance etc.

There is one more value.  Yesterday’s message How to Make Money in this Multi Currency Era explained how, due to the falling US dollar, Ecuador real estate has become a 10% better value since this last February.

Gary

The greatest asset of all is the ability to earn globally in many currencies.

This is why we are providing a special three for one offer with our  course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business that 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 our North Carolina or Ecuador International Business & Investing seminar in October or November all three courses, “Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course,”  “Self Fulfilled- How to be a Self Publisher” and “International Business Made EZ” free.

Join us with Jyske Bank and my webmaster David Cross in West Jefferson North Carolina. Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business at the seminar.

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

Or head south to Ecuador!

October 16-18 Ecuador Southern coastal tour

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Join us with Peter Laub of Jyske Global Asset Management in Ecuador. Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business at the seminar.

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

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

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 Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With ‘Nobody to Talk To here.