Apartment Hunting in Quito

What a process this has been. My roommate Laura and I decided to find our new apartment independently, without the help of our school, and it has not been easy! We finally found a place we LOVE and we will be moving in slowly over the course of the next week.

Pretty views of Quito as we were apartment hunting

One of the streets where we toured houses in La Floresta

We used the local Sunday paper, El Comercio, to find phone numbers of landlords and real estate agents. We called and emailed over 20 different people. A few responded, a couple people let us stop by and tour their places, and one real estate agent took us under her wing and found about 5 places for us to tour. Laura and I used this time to explore various neighborhoods and try lots of new restaurants.

Seco de Pollo- Chicken stew from a street vendor

Korean lunch in Quito, in Gonzalez Suarez

Grabbing some empanadas with our friend Pablo

In the end, we decided on a 3 bedroom house in a gated community at the top of Guapulo. We have a yard and a pool, and it is super visitor friendly (which also means couch surfer friendly!) The house has a killer view, tons of space and light, and two different garden patios covered in vines. Somehow, it is within the housing stipend that our school provides for us.

Cute stairs into our neighborhood from the main road

Laura's future bedroom

My future bedroom

Barren living room area

Dining room with a view of the valley

Our guest bedroom (welcome couchsurfers!!!)

It came semi-furnished, which means we are short a couple couches, two beds, and two desks. However, we randomly met a man this week in our many apartment tours who offered to rent us all the furniture we need for one year for $200. Yay!

One of our garden patios

Our other garden patio-yes, there are two!!

Obstacles to moving in: 

• Right now, the apartment is still really dirty so we need to find a maid to do a deep scrubbing before we will feel comfortable there. That should cost between $25-50, depending on how long it takes.
• We have to get the furniture from the storage unit to the apartment somehow, and the man renting us the furniture has offered to find a truck to move it all.
• Laura and I have to move our personal stuff (clothes, bedding, kitchen whatnot). My friend has volunteered to help us out moving it all in his car, but it might take a few trips. We could probably do it in 4 taxi trips for about $3 each time.
• I would like to bring in a locksmith in the next week or two to change the locks so the previous tenants don't have access. Other friends of mine have had trouble with this.
• We have to get internet up and running! Booo no internet for a week.

I cannot wait to be settled in this beautiful house in such a beautiful community. I can't believe our luck because this house is exactly what we wanted in every way. ¡Que suerte!

View from our place

All of my stuff is packed and ready to be moved into my new house!