They needed an escape plan After losing their business, facing bankruptcy and foreclosure, then being frightened by a vision of their future, in a ratty trailer park watching Little House On The Prairie reruns, Lollie Hoxie hatches an idea--but she doesn't share it with her husband right away.In this, her first memoir, Hoxie explains with honest humor what happens next when they take an exploratory vacation to Ecuador, return home to sell everything they own, rent their house, and go back to permanently relocate in the little city of Gualaceo. Her resulting adventure involves the trials and tribulations of living with people who speak no English, negotiating precarious bus rides in the country, and traveling through a strange little town with dirt roads and a drunken immigration official, to name a few. There are side trips to Peru lasting longer than planned with terrific consequences and delicious calamities along the way.Finding Joy in Ecuador is filled with Hoxie's sarcastic humor, contrasted with moments of self-reflection that, at times, take her confidence to the woodshed and threaten to end her marriage.Finding Joy in Ecuador lovingly describes an adventure that taught this couple about themselves and their love for each other. It also revealed to them an aspect of their American culture: the game of accumulating stuff. And, then, how remarkably fun it was for them to live without it This memoir is a rollercoaster ride into retirement overseas; a fun and exhilarating, sometimes scary adventure of the way it really is. For people who want to get a true glimpse of daily life in this foreign country, it's a rare find