Recent messages have looked at ideas on farming in Ecuador and Uruguay.  Smalltown USA and even big city USA should not be counted out… nor the rest of Latin America.  See why below.

This great photo is from livelocalsource.com (see below).

What values can we depend on as constant in an ever changing world?

Nature’s way of maintaining balance is a constant.  When things appear the worst this means they are about to head the other way.  The benefits that come from buying good value never change.  The need for essentials… shelter and food will always be with us.

A reader replied to our recent message about agriculture in Uruguay and Ecuador:

Give me a break!  What is that guy saying and you bolding it: “What do you do in New York if you don’t work? Hang out in cafes and galleries all day?”  Does he, or you, truly believe that’s all there is to do in NYC if one is not working?  Perhaps he could go to shop at greenmarkets springing up around the city, particularly in Manhattan and increasingly hip Brooklyn?  Perhaps he could go to poorer areas of NYC where supermarkets are not necessarily close by to help the community start and maintain organic gardens?  Perhaps he could go to visit the many, many injured and ill veterans of all wars, in our Veterans Administration hospitals?  Perhaps he could tutor kids and/or lecture on career paths available in this great city?

I’m also thinking since he obviously has lots of cash he could actually attend all of the operas, ballet performances, theatrical shows that most normal people can’t afford due to the high cost of tickets.

He could volunteer in soup kitchens. And perhaps since he probably has a lot of connections with affluent New Yorkers he might be able to raise funds to get the many wounded veterans living on the streets, or unemployed, off the streets and maybe even help them get jobs?

I hope you, Merri and your family are all well and happily enjoying spring wherever you are.

Warm regards,

I replied:   Personally having lived for years in London and Hong Kong, Merri and I could happily never visit another city but you thought are excellent thoughts and I am happy to share them with readers!  Regards, Gary

I Like Agriculture Wherever

Since this site began… and before… in our printed newsletter we have focused on the ideas of investing in Ecuador,  Smalltown USA, water and food.

Though one does not associate farming with cities there is farming potential for city lovers.

One of our messages looked at beehives originally created for London and urban hen houses.

The concepts of rooftop gardening, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) will grow and offer great potential in many ways.

This is proven by an article at livelocalsource.com entitled “A Rooftop Farm in the Heart of New York City” says: “This farm in the middle of urban Queens isn’t just about ecological idealism. Here, one city gardener is trying to do more. He’s trying to take his organic rooftop farm and merge environmental sustainability with fiscal sustainability. He’s trying to operate the first profitable rooftop farm in New York City. Meet the contemporary urban farmer, Ben Flanner.”

A photo from partlysunnyrisd.blogspot.com (see link below) says: Urban Agriculture, or growing food in cities, reconnects city residents with where their food is grown. It also shortens the distance food has to travel, reduces transportation costs and increases the amount of green space in urban areas.

Agriculture value is better in small towns

Back in 2005… well before the real estate crash, our site looked at seven factors that suggested good growth in Small Town USA.

This site then said:

Smalltown USA Value Factor #1: Some parts of America were growing increasingly overvalued. Our 2005 message warned about Naples, Florida (where homes were 84% overvalued).  We also warned about  Merced, Ca. 76.7%; Salinas, Ca. 74.8%; Port St. Lucie, Fl., 72.2%; and Stockton, Ca., 72.0%.  We reviewed how 41 of the 65 significantly overvalued markets were in California and Florida.
That message also looked at  how the most undervalued markets were in small towns in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Alabama.

Smalltown Value Factor #2: One of the largest demographic groups in history (Baby Boomers) about to retire.

Smalltown Value Factor #3: A majority of boomers plan to move when they retire and a majority of the movers plan to settle in small towns 25 or 30 miles from where they now live.

Smalltown Value Factor #4: Boomer surveys show that most Boomers plan to keep working part time when they retire.

Smalltown Value Factor #5: Technology now makes it easier than every before for these boomers to move to small towns and continue to work part time.

Smalltown Value Factor #6:  There is a large decline in the purchasing power of corporate pensions.

Smalltown Value Factor #7: The loss of the purchasing power of Social Security and the US dollar will force many  boomers to move to paces where the cost of living is less expansive.

In other words, Small Town USA offered good value and the chances that demand would grow for real estate outside American cities was strong.  These facts remains in place today.

These words are pretty well confirmed in a Forbes article “Small Cities Are Becoming New Engine Of Economic Growth”

Here is an excerpt: The conventional wisdom is that the world’s largest cities are going to be the primary drivers of economic growth and innovation. Even slums, according to a fawning article in National Geographic, represent “examples of urban vitality, not blight.” In America, it is commonly maintained by pundits that “megaregions” anchored by dense urban cores will dominate the future.

Such conceits are, not surprisingly, popular among big city developers and the media in places like New York, which command the national debate by blaring the biggest horn. However, a less fevered analysis of recent trends suggests a very different reality: When it comes to growth, economic and demographic, opportunity increasingly is to be found in smaller, and often remote, places.

This year’s edition of Forbes’ Best Cities For Jobs survey, compiled with Pepperdine University’s Michael Shires, found that small and midsized metropolitan areas, with populations of 1 million or less, accounted for 27 of the 30 urban regions in the country that are adding jobs at the fastest rate. The three largest metropolitan statistical areas that made the top 30 — Austin, Houston and Salt Lake City — are themselves highly dispersed with sprawling employment sheds.

Rather than the products of “smart growth” and intense densification, almost all of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas — including larger ones like Silicon Valley and Raleigh — tend to be dominated by suburban-style, single-family homes and utterly dependent on the greatest scourge of the urbanist creed: the private car.

But many of the smaller areas also punch above their weight in myriad ways, spanning a host of industries.

Among the 398 MSAs we ranked for the list, energy towns dominate the top of the table:  Odessa, Texas (100,000), took first place; followed by Midland, Texas (population: 111,000), in second place; Lafayette, La. (fourth, 114,000); Corpus Christi, Texas (sixth, 287,000); San Angelo, Texas (seventh, 92,000); Casper, Wyo. (10th, 54,000); and Bismarck, N.D. (21st, 61,000). These cities’ economies have expanded steadily over the last few years, beneficiaries of a great boom in fossil fuels that, unless derailed by regulators, will continue for the foreseeable future.

But some of the other best cities for jobs make their livings in different ways, such as No. 12 Glens Falls, N.Y., riding growth in business services and tourism; and No. 15 Columbia, Mo., which is primarily a college and government town. Several smaller communities have bounced back strongly with the recovery of manufacturing, including No. 3 Columbus Ind., No. 11 Williamsport, Pa., and No. 19 Holland-Grand Haven, Mich.

This shift in opportunity also parallels some compelling demographic trends. In the 1990s, the rate of population growth of areas over 1 million and those below was essentially similar.  In contrast, in the subsequent decade, urban areas with fewer than a million people expanded by 15%, compared to barely 9% for larger urban areas, notes demographer Wendell Cox. In those 10 years, areas with fewer than a million people accounted for more than 60% of urban growth. Essentially more Americans are now moving to smaller regions than to larger ones.

Agriculture value is better in Latin America

Paraguay Stevia farm.

Stevia, a natural sweetener recently approved by the FDA originated in the Amambay Mountain region of Paraguay with the native people known as the Guarani.

After our recent message that outlined farm management services in Uruguay and Ecuador a reader sent me a note from a newsletter that is unabashedly bullish on agriculture.

This letter points out supply and demand fundamentals for food such as:

1) World population isn’t getting any smaller.

2) A growing global middle class means demand for more calories… ie more food.

3) Cultivated land is on the decline.

4) Topsoil erosion, anomalous weather, and lack of water availability are becoming especially problematic.

5) Rising input costs (especially oil) have pushed many farmers out of business.

These and other global economic mismanagement that leads to inflation suggest that food prices are bound to rise.

This newsletter suggests Paraguay is a good place to farm because Paraguay land prices are low.

It appears that like other South and Central America countries the low costs and reduced government intrusion mean that the barrier to entry is quite low due to low prices prices and easy foreign ownership rules.

We need more simplicity in this ever more complicated world.   Nature’s law… getting good value shelter and food are also strong simple ideas that work in cities, Smalltown USA and in lower cost countries.

Gary

Ecuador Agricultural Tour

Last modified on 2012-05-16 22:36:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Join an Ecuador agricultural real estate tour.

Sept 17-18-19, 2012.

This is for those of you who have asked to look at Ecuador property for its farming.

See Ecuador agricultural property by four wheel drive.

Merri’s and my first property purchase many years ago was agricultural land… over 900 acres… formerly in sugar cane, citrus, pineapples and avocados… the top soil deep and rich.

Here is a photo of Merri feeding one of our horses.  We still have that hacienda land, Rosaspamba, (the place of the roses).

Plus we have added more agricultural land… and are looking to add more.

An excerpt from a recent message entitled Beating & Benefiting From the Economic Crash explains why: In the seven years before its peak in July 2006, the US home-price index surged 155 percent. Since then, it’s fallen 33 percent.

This creates a huge opportunity. Economic history since before WWI suggests that we’ll see the final crunch of this 15 year bear in 2011 and perhaps 2012.  Then the light at the end of the tunnel will appear… slowly at first but picking up a head of steam aiming for the next bubble of something like 2030.

The way to beat this crunch is to set your affairs so you do not lose during the next crunch and have liquidity to take advantage of the low prices and high value the crunch could bring.

There are numbers of reasonably safe pockets of opportunity.  For example inflation during these difficult economic times has helped profits on agricultural property.

Excerpts from a May 31, 2011 article “Farm boom missing Main Street” by By John Gaps III, of The Des Moines Register show what I mean:  GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa – Fifteen miles northeast of here, a quarter of a square-mile of farmland sold for $1.3 million this spring.

Farmers can lock in about $6.73 a bushel on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for corn they will deliver to market in December, nearly twice the price a year ago.

The sustained surge in corn prices has driven the average value of an acre of Iowa farmland to $5,708, according to a March survey by the Realtors Land Institute. That’s up 19.7% from the previous six months and up from $1,865 in March 2001, according to the Institute’s Troy Louwagie. The land northeast of Guthrie Center— where fields are flat and the soil is black — sold for $8,600 per acre, according to the county assessor.

“The rural economy is very good right now despite signs of a peaking commodities market and concerns about drought creeping north from Texas, flooding along the Mississippi River, and rain-delayed corn planting in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. American farmers who grow everything from rice to sugar beets have enjoyed a year of historically high prices, said Don Roose, a trader at U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines.

It’s not just towns surrounded by crop farming that have declined amid high commodity prices.

In heavily forested west central Alabama, the town of York has suffered as the timber industry has consolidated, said Auburn sociology professor Conner Bailey, president-elect of the Rural Sociological Association.

That’s despite steadily climbing timber prices since the middle of 2009 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

This is why in the last several years I have been writing about and adding agricultural real estate to my portfolio.

There are few places with as much agricultural potential and diversity as Ecuador. It is not surprising that many readers ask us about Ecuador farmland or agricultural property there.

Our first reply to anyone asking is… agricultural land is hard to find and get it!   Finding our hacienda took us well over a year of dedicated search.  Searching for good farmland is not like viewing a batch of properties in a town or village.  First, it often takes hours just to get to the land.  Secondly, it almost always takes hours inspecting the land.  You do not do quick walk throughs on  100 or more hectares.  One is lucky to be able to see one property a day unless you can be really very organized.

Then once you find something that looks good… the hard part begins.  Of course there is always the price!

Then there is the research.  One seemingly great property we looked at “had great water rights”  we were told.  “Then why does it have cisterns all over the place?”  we asked ourselves.  A deep check of the deeds and talking with neighbors unveiled the fact that what’s on paper does not always match precedent and reality.  There were water rights on paper, yes, but they were disputed by numerous neighbors who had for years continually cut the water lines every time the current owner installed them.  It was just pure luck that we were suspicious and turned down this property, which still has not sold.

Buying agricultural property is not like buying urban property from a title point of view.  There are no rural land registers, so deeds have to be carefully researched by an attorney.

Finally if you buy it… what’s next?   Who do you hire. What do you grow… who buys the crops?

Yet because there has been such interest, I challenged Jean Marie Butterlin to create an Ecuador Agricultural tour.   He has been working hard at this for over 6 months, and I am proud to announce that he has set up an excellent program for those who are really interested in farming in Ecuador.

Here is what Jean Marie has explained about the first Ecuador real estate tour he will conduct this October 2011.

When I was 40 years old and told my friends that I would retire at 50, they were laughing.  They are not laughing anymore!

My name is Jean Marie Butterlin and I live on one of the nicest, most affordable coasts of all South America with my wife Pascale and although I consider myself retired, I still like to work… but only at what I really like.

How did I achieve that ?

I had a plan.

Part of that plan was to move to a nice area where it was less expensive to live and much less stressful than Europe.   I found that place after traveling and inspecting most South American countries.  We chose Ecuador and more specifically Bahia as our home.

We live now as well on $2,000 a month in Bahia than we did in Europe on $10,000 a month.

When you are planning to retire and live the good life, you should look at both parts of the equation, expenses and what you can earn.I have been able to lower my expenses considerably by living in Bahia.  We live in front of the Malecon enjoying the sun 320 days per year.

But the key to retirement is really in the INCOME part of the equation.   How can you generate income without working too hard?

The answer is to have an “outside the box”  plan.  If you do what everybody else does, chances are you’ll earn what everyone else does.

A lot of younger clients on our real estate tours ask  “How can  I generate a little income in Ecuador”?  They say they would move down immediately if they could. This started me thinking  about how to show a few select clients a chance to be part of that world of retirees in Ecuador who work only at what they like.

I have put together a special plan for those seeking to move and earn in Ecuador now!

Here is the plan and here are the facts:

* Every economist is currently saying that agriculture will be the next place to invest because :

• God is not making more arable land.
• The world is running out of food.  China has been buying and leasing arable land all over Africa and in South America for example.  A lot of the smart money is going into arable all over the continent.

* Ecuador has some of the cheapest yet best agricultural land in all of South America.  The climate is best for growing as well with 365 days a year of direct sunlight.  In many parts of Ecuador, farmers can get 3 and even 4 harvests per year, depending on the water available on the property.

* However, most Ecuadorian farmers have not yet learned how to produce and manage a farm. They are lacking higher education and management skills as well as equipment.  Some Ecuador farmers still plow with oxen.

*  Many Ecuadorian farmers do not know how to sell and do not treat the farm as a real business.

There is a great opportunity that lies in this combination of cheap, arable land, the geographical place of Ecuador on the equator and lack of good agronomical skills.

This is a tour for those who want to have an active agricultural business in Ecuador and have $100,000 minimum to invest.

This tour will be conducted over three long, jam packed days to provide you a low cost efficient way to inspect Ecuador agricultural property that is legitimately for sale at a reasonable price.

Day 1 - 9 am to 6 pm: Detailed presentations by agri engineers and specialists of several type of agri businesses. These presentations  include costs, types of soils for each type of crop, risk analysis, potential profits, timing, where to find the buyers of crops,  introduction to buyers  looking for specific crops.

On the tour we look “outside the box” at crops that can for example produce “biofuel”. We’ll look at land where one company in Manta will buy every available crop at market price.   We know the owners of that company and you will be introduced to them.

Day 2: Visits farms for sale.  Here is one farm we will inspect.  This agri property has 203 hectares (507 acres) divided into:

28 hectares (70 cares) of balsa trees.  In 5 years these will fetch $30,000 a hectare.

30 hectares (75 acres) of African palm trees in production (the nuts fetch $250 per ton).

- 140 hectares (350 acres) of pasture sufficient for 200 head of cattle or other crops that can produce an excellent return.

- 3 small

and one large river along the property with water availability.

- Close to the main road

- $6600/hectare ($2,640 an acre) asking including a small casita for caretakers.

Day 3: Q&A’s with the agri specialists…with round table discussions. We will break into small groups to discuss in more details each business its costs and potential profits.

We will have inspected and investigated all properties prior paying special attention to three special issues:

* water on site
* access roads
* good port close

We will only show land that has water in Manabi province near Manta the second largest port in Ecuador.

We will have investigated electricity, pricing and title plus will have speakers during breakfast and dinners who will discuss these  issues and the legal matters pertaining to agri businesses in Ecuador.

These experts will be available for consulting during the tour and later… covering technical matters on which crops are best suited for each soil and what times of the year are best for planting and harvest.  The tour pays special attention to reviewing the marketing aspect of each crop and where to find buyers.

We use our contacts with local people were born in the area… who know the land owners… who know what the “market” price should be and we do not show farmland where the seller is asking an unrealistic price or if there are any doubts about ownership or clear title.

We also provide administration, accounting and legal consultants who will answer questions about owning and running a company in Ecuador, a civil code country and very different from the US and Canada which run on common law.

The Agri Business Expedition fee is $1,990/single $2,990 couple.

For efficiency and logistics, this tour is strictly limited to 15 people… 4 persons per four wheel drive vehicle.

Ecuador has many Agricultural Advantages and we have been recommending the idea of investing in Ecuador agriculture for years.

Here is an excerpt from a message  at this site entitled “Ecuador Agriculture”: Ecuador agriculture can offer a better lifestyle and opportunity as good prices rise. Sometimes we forget the importance of life’s basics…such as food. Until those basics cost more.

Ecuador agriculture is important because Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal included an article that began: “Prices of farm goods are climbing – in part because of demand for crop-based fuels – pushing up food prices around the world and creating a new source of inflationary pressure. The rise in food prices is already causing distress among consumers in some parts of the world — especially relatively poor nations like India and China. If the trend gathers momentum, it could contribute to slower global growth by forcing consumers to spend less on other items or spurring central banks to fight inflation by raising interest rates.”

This is one of the wonderful benefits of Ecuador agriculture, the extreme supply of excellent but low cost food.

Ecuador is a Garden of Eden and here is a fact you probably did not know. The inhabitants of this region developed more than half the agricultural products that the world eats today. Among these are more than many varieties of corn and potato. These foods also include squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, popcorn, yucca and quinoa.

They even learned to use freezing night temperatures and warm days to freeze dry potatoes and create potato flour.

At the market, three blocks from our hotel where we shop.  Open air restaurants in the front of the market offer excellent meals, vegetarian, or chicken, steak, fish or pork for about $1.

There are numbers of  fresh picked vegetables offered by happy friendly people.

And every type of fruit you can imagine, from pineapple to coconut, papaya, mango, apples, pears, bananas, berries and numerous other tropical fruits all at bargains prices by Western standards and ripe all year round.

Many exotic spices at a 1/20th the cost in the US or Canada. This makes life especially wonderful and inexpensive.

This creates opportunity as well.

Ecuador’s geographical location gives it a distinct advantage in agricultural production. Its exports include asparagus, bananas, broccoli, cocoa, coffee, flowers, hearts of palm, lentils, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, plantain, mango, red beans, and tomatoes. Ecuador has mainly an agricultural economy, though oil is its largest source of revenue, and industry has expanded. Agriculture employs 32 percent of the workforce. 6.4 million acres is used in agriculture. Permanent pasture covers 17 percent of the total area and forests nearly 43 percent. In the highlands subsistence agriculture and the production of staples for the urban areas are predominant (corn, wheat, barley, potatoes, pulses, and various vegetables). In the coastal lowlands tropical crops are grown to export. Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world and among the largest exporters of shrimp and roses.

Merri and I have been recommending Ecuador for almost 15 years…we have been recommending investing in agricultural property for even longer. Agricultural property in Ecuador makes excellent sense for those who like both ideas.  We are very pleased that Jean Marie has created this excellent tour.  We are happy to share this opportunity with you.

Gary

Included in the price is the tour… the guides and are all local transportation.  Airfare to Ecuador… domestic airfare from Quito to Manta, lodging and meals are NOT included.

The Agri Business Expedition fee is $1,990/single $2,990 couple.

For efficiency and logistics this tour is strictly limited to 15 people… 4 persons per four wheel drive vehicle.

Who Will Benefit From This Tour

Attendees on this tour will range from those who want their own sustainable farm or a full agricultural business.

Income Supplement – Beautiful Way of Life

A good case study for those looking for a way of life and income supplement is this  six acre organic tomato farm that delegates on on a real estate tour visited.   This shows a perfect little Ecuador retirement operation, so where should we start?

I think it is with the guinea pigs…

The farm has many of them in these cages.

Clover on the farm feeds them.  Their manure helps organically fertilize the corn.

The corn husks are mixed with manure to be used as fertilizer and the corn feeds the…

pigeons…

chickens and…

pigs.

All of these animals create more organic fertilizer that this farmer uses to grow tomatoes.

Here is the Ecuador organic farmer with our driver Jorge, Alberto Verdezoto and Peggy Carper.

Tomatoes grow quickly here it seems.  These newly planted organic tomatoes will be ready in three weeks. I find this hard to believe but this is what the farmer said.  Though my Spanish has been known to miss on occasion.

These will look like…

this and…

provide

income that…

would provide a nice retirement income… $25,000 a year we are told.

Other benefits include farm fresh eggs.

Trout are in the ponds next to the pigeon coops.

A good case study for a specific and large Ecuador agri operation is the farming operation set up by Young Living Essential oils.

After creating a marketing system for the oils and farming in the USA, Gary and his wife…

moved to Ecuador… began a large farming operation as well as…

there own processing and a health spa.

Ecuador is a perfect place for many types of agriculture… large and small.  Find your farm in the safe and efficient way on an Ecuador Agricultural Tour.

The Agri Business Expedition fee is $1,990/single $2,990 couple.

For efficiency and logistics this tour is strictly limited to 15 people… 4 persons per four wheel drive vehicle. places available,

A Rooftop Farm in the Heart of New York City

partlysunnyrisd.blogspot.com on urban food

Read Forbes article “Small Cities Are Becoming New Engine Of Economic Growth”

A lot has changed in both areas since we began traveling  to Ecuador 17 years ago.

Now Ecuador real estate and the movement of Americans to Ecuador is about to get a boost from US real estate as it finally begins the upward journey again.

Those who have been reading our site for some time know that beginning in the late 1990s through mid 2000s we sold much of our Florida real estate and began buying Ecuador property. .. much more than we had in the US.

Then in 2009 we switched and started selling some of our Ecuador real estate and began buying back in Florida.  Over the last three years we have watched a firmness start to take hold with prices in Florida.

A USA Today article entitled “Average U.S. home prices — down by a third since 2006 and still falling — will rise almost 4% a year for the next five years, according to a new forecast” by Amy Sancetta.  This fortifies my feeling that US house prices are on the rise.

Here is an excerpt: Market watcher Fiserv sees prices stabilizing by summer’s end and then climbing, quickly in some places until gains taper off. The forecast is based on an analysis of leading home price indexes.

Investors will drive much of the momentum, as they are now in cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix.

First-time and trade-up buyers will eventually follow.

By the time home prices stop falling, they’ll be almost 35% below their 2006 peak, Fiserv says.

Separately, market researcher CoreLogic said Tuesday that U.S. home prices rose 0.6% in March from February, the first month-over-month increase since July.

Good affordability and declining inventories are key factors.

Conventional mortgage payments now account for just 12% of median family incomes vs. a historical norm of 20%, says Fiserv economist David Stiff.

The Fiserv forecast, done with Moody’s Analytics, assumes steady economic growth with no major shocks. Markets hardest hit by foreclosures will show the biggest five-year increases in home appreciation, it adds.

Six of the 10 markets where annualized prices are expected to rise most over the next five years had price drops of more than 50% from their peaks.

These markets expected to rise most of course include Florida.

Rising US real estate prices will increase the flow of Americans southwards into Latin America and Ecuador real estate will be one of the benefactors of this move.  Prices in Ecuador will rise along with US prices.

This increased pressure could also force tougher rules for visas and buying real estate in Ecuador and through most of Latin America changes will appear.  Most Latin governments I believe are surprised by the flow of gringos and are now grappling with how to deal with and profit from this wave.

We are helping readers stay in touch with this change and recently shared an updated report entitled BUYING REAL ESTATE IN ECUADOR LEGAL REPORT by Dr. Andres Cordova, a prominent Ecuadorian attorney, who has helped hundreds of our readers over many years.

Ecuadorian real estate prices are much higher than a decade ago but still offer tremendous value in these uncertain times. Whether you are looking for a property solely as an investment, or to develop, or as a place to spend part of the year or to use full time; Ecuador has many options for you.

The financial and confidence crisis in North America and Europe and the demise of many former safe havens and hot-spots for real estate investing are prompting many people to look towards Ecuador to find positive distortions.

You can buy in the highlands or on the coast, in the big modern cities or in small, quaint towns. Ecuador has a fantastic cultural and natural landscapes, with great weather and warm and welcoming people.

The Ecuadorian Constitution establishes that foreigners have exactly the same rights as Ecuadorians do. Private property is a pillar of our legal system and therefore protected in Ecuador.

This report establishes general tips and elements of the purchase and deeding procedure. (It is not meant to replace direct legal advice.)

Previously this report was available only to our Ecuador Living Club members but I can now share this with all is now because Andres just wrote:

Gary, let’s give all your readers the report and let’s give a discount of $150 on all legal services to all Ecuador Living Club members plus send them an extra report with enhanced information.

I am getting many inquiries for visas and have been diligently attending to all of them. Changes are taking place in the visa process and I am preparing a report on this for your readers as well.

Click here for the full Ecuador Real Estate Report

This is just one more benefit for Ecuador Living Club members.

If you are a free Ecuador Living or Gary A Scott subscriber, the Ecuador Ateam works hard to happily provide a free daily message with over 2,000 free pages of information in our archives.  You can  access these at  www.garyascott.com  and www.ecuadorliving.com.

You can use the search engine at each site to check phrases related to any questions you have.

Our Ecuador Living Club gives you password protected access to personal replies to your questions and to our contacts developed over 15 years… guides, attorneys, doctors, dentists, alternative and complimentary healers, real estate sellers and renters, guides, airlines, hotels and so much more.

Ateam Ecuador can put you in touch with the many contacts we have developed over the past 17 years.

You can become a member and obtain a password and make the $150 discount on legal fees available by clicking here.

We encourage you to become a Club member because we can help you gain safety, efficiency, comfort plus great savings in Ecuador.

For example we help club members gain hotel discounts in the most visited parts of Ecuador.

One club member wrote:

Hi, I am in Cuenca with my family, wife and 2 little ones. Was wondering if you could help me with a driver from Quito airport at 9:20 am, Friday August 12, to Hotel Land of The Sun for 1 nite. Want to go to the markets Saturday on the way back to Quito and the Radisson( thanks for the great rate!). Will need a driver for that also. I was suppose to do your shopping deal after the Ultimate Event in Feb but missed the Event at the last minute, death in the family. Anyway, any info will be appreciated. We stayed at Palmuzul 3 nites at 40% off and reduced rates at the Radisson in Quito and La Piedra in Bahia de Caraquez. Thanks for already saving us a fortune! Looking forward to seeing Cotacachi before we head back.Thanks again.

Helping members find real estate to buy and rent is one part of our premium services.  If you have an interest in traveling, investing, living, buying property or doing business in Ecuador, membership in the Ecuador Living Club brings many benefits.

One huge benefit in using our service versus relying on brokers or travel agents is that we are not trying to sell real estate. For our modest subscription you get our honest opinion based on 43 years of international business and 15 years in Ecuador.  You gain access to our extensive contacts plus you get to share the input from over 30,000 subscribers who continually let us know what they see hear and experience good and bad. We sponsor real estate tours to help our members learn Ecuador’s real estate market in the most efficient way.

We share the experiences we have gained living, traveling and working globally for 42 years and have been investing living and doing business in Ecuador for 17 years. We have an active Ecuador business and have personally purchased a 962 acre hacienda, condos in the mountains, a house, a hotel plus condos and apartments on the beach.  Our Ecuador Living service shares our continual research and experiences in global business, living and investing in Ecuador.

For the modest membership fee, you immediately gain numerous benefits.

First, part of your subscription includes a copy of the $49 page report “Ecuador  Land of the Sun.” We email it to you at no added cost.

Second, you are provided a personal password to receive exclusive updates about what is going on in Ecuador… plus gain contacts and personal access to the Ateam Ecuador.

Third, you are entitled to a free nights stay (worth $72) at Inn Land of the Sun (Formerly Meson de las Flores) in Cotacachi. (The fourth night is free when three nights are booked).

You are also entitled to free use of wireless internet at the Inn and the VOIP phone system at the inn (free calls to Europe, Canada and the US) even if you do not stay at the hotel.

See more on Inn Land of the Sun here.

The Relais & Cheateux La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa in Cotacachi also offers upgrades on a space available and other benefits.  See La Mirage here.

We provide discounts at Quito hotels.

Most people who visit in Quito stay at least two nights (arriving and leaving) so the hotel savings alone can exceed the cost of subscription.

One of the hotels is Quito Stubel Suites & Café.

See more on the Stubel and its incredible views here.

In Cuenca two hotels offer discounts to our readers. One is the Villa Nova Inn.

Here is the Villa Nova Inn

In Bahia you save at the Hotel La Piedra

Plus club members can save hundreds… even thousands on Galapagos cruises… again because due to our large readership we can pass on travel agent fees to members in the form of savings.

See how to save up to $1,500  on a Galapagos tour on the Ocean Spray the newest. most luxurious Galapagos yacht

See more about Ecuador Living Club membership here.

The global economy is in a time of incredible opportunity when numerous basic investments such as agricultural and residential real estate are available at values far below replacement costs.  During such times it is difficult not be be caught in the doom and gloom. but this is the fourth global economic downturn I have lived through (1970s, 1980s, 1990s) and each has created phenomonal riches for those who got in the flow of the economic evolution.

Our mission is to help readers in this quest.

Gary

We also offer courses to help readers learn Spanish in just three days and more.

Our online course on how to create a global micro business help readers learn how to retire early and earn as they travel.

Read USA Today article Average U.S. home prices — down by a third since 2006 and still falling — will rise almost 4% a year for the next five years, according to a new forecast.

Because lifestyle change led Merri and me to Ecuador and has also been keeping us away it seems appropriate to comment on the importance of adaptation.

My mother and our grandchildren have caused our lifestyles to adapt once again keeping us away from Ecuador and I have noticed an increasing number of readers who came to Ecuador with us years ago returning to the US because of parents… children or grandchildren.

When you lay your plans for Ecuador take this into account… if you have links, you may want to return at some stage… full or part time.  See some tips on that below.

My global investing and business began 44 years and 13 days ago ago May 2, 1968 in Asia and eventually led me to Europe, Florida, the Blue Ridge and Ecuador.

My role as son of a zoo keeper did not give me any background for this.

Here is a newspaper clipping of my sister, Sandra, and me feeding a baby lion we kept at home… one of many lions and tigers we raised.

The goals of our websites are to help you prosper from the world’s increased pace of change.  I am honored to share over 44 years of ideas that can help you have the lifestyle you desire by looking at important facts that Merri and I have learned about earning all these years via a micro internet business.

I arrived in Hong Kong in the night, the tropical air so soft it was a velvet mist.   Thick evening scents in the fragrant harbor and mellow insects purring in rhythm with the cacophony of the great city!  What an exotic adventure.

Kai Tak was Hong Kong’s airport then and being American born and bred in the 1940s, I knew nothing about investing aboard.

That was my first airplane trip, first time out of Oregon. It was Portland to Vancouver, Tokyo to Hong Kong.  I melted in my heavy woolen blazer, was weary and afraid but excited too. An incredible global investing journey had begun… and continues to this day.

Here I was, 21 years old.

Here is the first stamp in that first passport. That stamp you might say was my first international investment.

By the way, that first stamp makes a point about how to enter and initially work or invest in a country.  That first stamp was issued May 2, 1968 and allowed me to stay in Hong Kong until June 2, 1968.

I worked in Hong Kong for quite some time on tourist stamps… coming in for a month at a time.   I was developing sales teams in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines at the same time so a month was plenty of time before I exited.

Here is one of my first sales teams… this one in Hong Kong led by John So Kwok Kee (far left – you can guess which one I am).

I built teams from the north in Japan down through Thailand.

Starting a business, investigation or residence with a tourist visa is a pretty good idea. This is usually the easiest, most efficient, practical way to begin so you can be sure what you are doing and how you’ll develop a more permanent stay if you want one.   In many cases… such as mine… a permanent tourist system is simply the easiest and best.

Having a micro internet business is even easier since you can start small, live almost anywhere and still run your own business.

I began my business in Hong Kong this way (small) and for years I also lived and worked in England on tourist visas before obtaining my permanent residence there.

A reader recently sent me this note about Ecuador tourist visas.

“Gary, When I was staying at the Hotel, someone mentioned that you do not have a residential visa for Ecuador.  Is this correct?  How do you
spend as much time in the country as you do?”

Here is my rely:

“We have always spent less than six months a year in Ecuador as we do not want to become resident in most of the places we live.  We believe in having a six point command posture.

Since the 1970s our business has focused on how to earn globally and be a multi national investor. Our Mantra has been to have a Six Point Command Posture.

Live in One Country
Bank in a Second Country
Hold Assets in a Third Country
Use an Office in a Fourth Country
With a Company in a Fifth Country
Earn in a Sixth Country

We have helped tens of thousands of our readers gain freedom and to escape the tyranny of the establishment through international investing and business and invite you to learn more about how we can help you gain such freedom in the process of doing what you love as well.

The idea is to separate  your residence from where you earn and where you invest.

I have always maintained my US tax base because the USA is one of the lowest taxation countries in the world… especially if you have a micro business and even more so if you live abroad and run a micro business.

Back to Hong Kong.  I began there selling US mutual funds.

When arriving there 44 years ago there is no way I could have known how exciting the next decades would be, how much information, facts, figures, ideas and insights on how to invest globally would be gained. Had I known the mistakes to be made I would probably have run in the opposite direction!

Then I moved east again to England and Europe… trying many things.

Thankfully all the trials, tortures and errors were mitigated by much fun and an earnest endeavor to learn.

Here is a newspaper clipping of me  with a business partner in my London office on Artillery Row selling square inches of Graceland. This was before the Elvis estate really became big. This was not really a very good idea I might add!

Later I imported used Rolls Royces and Bentleys from England to the US… a better idea…  but

in retrospect this is not a business I would do again.  We live and learn and this helps our businesses grow.  I might import the deux chevaux instead.

This was described by CAR magazine journalist and author LJK Setright as “the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car”. Imagine how much good we could do in the world if everyone drove a two cylinder 61 miles per gallon car!  (By the way, Merri fell in love with these in the 70s in France and still thinks they are the ultimate!)

One goal at this site is to share basics of global investing.. micro internet business and living an international life learned over our more than 44 years of experience. Global investing and business have changed so much during this time and is changing even faster now.  I am continually forced to rearrange my thinking strategy and tactics at a faster pace.

For example in the 1980s few of us gave much thought to the gas consumption of a Rolls Royce.   Today the Deux Chevaux would sell better.

This shift is one reason we began offering health courses at our North Carolina farm.  Here I am with our son, Jake, with one tactic we taught… a morning dip in a cold creek after exercise… yes, that is snow on the banks and no… this idea, not surprisingly, did not sell very well either.  However our natural health focus has grown a lot.

For over 15 years we conducted courses in Ecuador.

Here I am in the meeting room at the Cotacachi museum next to Meson de las Flores on an Ecuador export tour.

This continual evolution has helped Merri and me, our readers and our income continually grow… through good times and bad.

The reason we have survived and progressed amidst never ending updates is because we recognize that the stuff that shifts and evolves is important, but the fundamentals remain immutable.

Plus ce change plus ce la meme chose… the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Though our business is totally online now… the basics and our mission statement are still the same… “provide interesting, useful information and contacts that help make people’s lives better as they prosper from change”.

I can sum up our business evolution and the advice I have shared in my newsletters and later my ezine in seven sentences.

#1: 1970s. Help readers invest in real estate, gold, silver Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

#2: 1980s. Help readers invest in real estate, the Tigers, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea as well.

#3: 1990s. Help readers invest in real estate in Ecuador.

#4: 2000s. Help readers invest in real estate plus China, India and emerging markets including Ecuador real estate.

#5: 2010. Help readers invest in their own micro business and in good value US real estate.

#6: 2011. Help readers invest in farming land and agricultural opportunity.

#7: 2011. Help readers learn how to earn globally.

Global investments and businesses are not a panacea, but expanded horizons are.  They help us see further into the future.  This is why we have shifted our Super Thinking focus into high gear.

Super Thinking tactics integrate the four brain waves and help enhance your innate intelligence.   This makes you more adaptable.

An April 12 Time article “Shhh! Genius at Work” by by Jeffrey Kluger tells how the brain does its most creative work while we are asleep.   Super Thinking techniques put us into a state of relaxed concentration which is similar to REM sleep where the left and right brain hemisphers and four types of brain waves work together and are released from the control of the Beta wave prefrontal cortex.

Here is an excerpt from the article: There’s no such thing as downtime for your brain. You think you’re able to shut off your thoughts sometimes — when you’re lost in a movie, meditating, practicing yoga. And you certainly think that the brain gets at least a little break when you’re sleeping. That, however, turns out to be when your brain does some of its best work — and we should all be grateful.

We’re all familiar with the idea of sleeping on a problem and having it sort itself out, or of going to bed after an evening of cramming for finals and waking up to find that, far from having forgotten what we learned, we actually seem to understand it better. Paul McCartney has said that the melody for “Yesterday” came to him in a dream. Billy Joel says the same is true for every song he’s ever written. Stephen King has literally dreamed up some of the most surreal scenes in his books and Mary Shelley came up with the idea of Frankenstein the same way. And if you’ve ever used a sewing machine, you can thank a dream inventor Elias Howe had in which he saw himself being attacked by people bearing spears with holes in the pointed end. That was the inspiration for  the design of the needle.

The article tells of advance studies by scientists on how the left and right hemispheres communicate with each other in ways they don’t during the day and outlines the added intelligence of explains REM sleep.

It says: It’s in the REM phase that you get all these crazy binding errors–you dream that you’re walking in New York and suddenly wind up in Paris.”

Binding errors is one of those lovely scientific terms that means pretty much what it sounds like. Your waking brain is orderly, your sleeping brain is fragmented, and as with all broken things, the bits can get reassembled the wrong way. But “the wrong way” suggests that there’s just one way, and the genius of sleep is that it allows you to explore other, untried avenues.

Super Thinking encourages binding errors… but more importantly provides ways to gain useful information from them!

The article also explains that the brain runs multiple programs all the time so we are solving problems at a sub conscious level even though our conscious attention is elsewhere. This is why we have “aha moments”.

The article says:  “Conscious awareness is able to focus on only one thing at a time,” says Barrett, “but problems go on getting processed under the radar.”

Sleeping doubles down on this phenomenon. The traffic-cop role the prefrontal cortex performs when we’re awake does more than just keep the brain focused on a particular conscious task. It also screens out thoughts that it decides you oughtn’t think at all. The forbidden concepts aren’t just things that are socially inappropriate–though those are on the list–but also those deemed rationally inappropriate.

Super Thinking encourages this “out of the box” thinking that helps one adapt to change.

The article also shows the importance of the how the brain communicates between the left and right hemispheres explaining that normally the left brain controls the right brain but not during sleep.

Here is another excerpt: A 2008 study by the University of Rome found that something similar goes on during sleep. With the help of EEGs, the investigators tracked communication between hemispheres when subjects were awake, in NREM sleep and in REM. In the waking and NREM states, information traveled mainly from left to right, consistent with the idea that the left brain controls and constrains the right. During REM sleep, however, there is no preferred direction. The creative right can thus come out of the shadow of the literal left.

Brain synapses play a role as well.   The more links each brain cell has the better… just like the internet or telephones or Facebook as long as the system maintains order and everyone does not call at the same time.  Too many connections lead to chaotic free association rather than useful organized thought.   The hormone cortisol, which rises during REM, helps defrag jumbled connections and leads to new and imaginative ideas from the data that survives the defrag.

The article says: Cortisol is commonly described as a stress hormone and tends to fracture memory. It has the same effect when we’re asleep, and Payne believes this encourages the unbinding and rebinding of images that can define dreams. “The brain dislikes fragmentation, so it weaves narratives,” she says. “And that, in turn, gives rise to novel thinking.”

Dopamine is another ingredient in the brain’s secret creative sauce. Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson points out that dopamine levels rise in pleasure centers of the brain both when we’re dreaming and when we’re being creative. This serves as a reward and reinforcement that keeps the dreams–and ideas–flowing.

When we are super thinking we are awake but thinking somewhat like we are in a deep sleep. This is more effective than dreaming as dreams are often hard to interpret or to make sense.

Life is a trip and we have an entire globe to enjoy the ride.  Expanding our horizons beyond our local borders can help our visions penetrate the mists of tomorrow so we can adjust to gain opportunity and avoid dangers ahead.

The increased pace of change leaves all of us with a lot to do.

We feel healthier and more energetic then 44 years ago.   Maybe I am not wiser… but I am more experienced and seem in a better position than when I took that first trip to Hong Kong so Merri and I look forward to the next 44 years… and we look forward to sharing them with you!

Gary

Balance health with Super Thinking as you learn Spanish in three days!

Que?

See why our granddaughter Tilly is not ready for Spanish yet… but why your children and grandchildren of high school age can attend the St Louis Super Spanish course free.

Learn how to earn from Frequency Modulation by teaching Super Thinking + Spanish.

Learn Spanish in Three Days

Last modified on 2012-05-17 15:11:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Learn how to speak Spanish in just three days using Frequency Modulation.

Today the key to success is the ability to keep up with change.

This is why we are increasing our focus on super thinking through frequency modulation.  We need to be smarter to adapt to faster change and frequency modulation can help us absorb… retain and recall information better and faster.  We prove this in our Super Thinking + Spanish course which teaches delegates to communicate on Spanish in just three days.

Delegates at a 2012 Mt. Dora Super Thinking + Spanish course… a Doctor attendee wrote:  Merri,

We want to thank you and Gary plus all the others for making the class such a fun and rewarding experience.   I took Spanish as an undergraduate and lasted two days before dropping the class due to my own anxieties.  Over the years I have tried to learn French, Italian, and Spanish yet again using a variety of methods such as Rosetta Stone, Berlitz etc. and was never successful.  I finally feel like I can be successful at learning to converse at Spanish–in fact already feel successful!  Thanks so much for teaching an old dog some new tricks.  We’re both looking forward to continuing the learning process, having fun doing so, and taking more classes.

We just competed our Mt. Dora super Thinking + Spanish course and qualified five new teachers.  Here are our Super Thinking teachers ready to serve you.

Enroll here.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21 Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27 Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8  Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott)  Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott)  Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

Our Super Thinking + Spanish courses are Spanish course that goes way beyond just learning to speak Spanish.

See how after just one weekend a delegate became an accidental Spanish translator.

There is a way to learn Spanish that enhances health and wealth. I call it Super thinking + Spanish and it was created by Merri using three secrets gained from years in language schools followed by 43 years of  living around the world.

Creativity, humanitarianism and prosperity come in many forms, but all of them require three things, understanding, communications and inspiration.

Here are shots of delegates at a Super Thinking Plus Spanish course in Mt. Dora, Florida.

Spanish is the second largest language in the world. Chances are a huge Spanish speaking population lives near you. Yet our language system did not teach us how to communicate with or understand this culture.

Learning Spanish is valuable and important.  Now there is way, to enjoy a long weekend as you learn Spanish at a very affordable price.

Here are the 40 delegates at this course enjoying a coffee break.  Delegates help each other learn.  They came from all over the world…  The USA, Canada, Europe…even South Africa. Sri Lanka & China.

To learn from Super Thinking is fun!  In three days you solve one of the biggest communications problems that faces a great deal of the English speaking civilization.

The course has two or three instructors.  Each Super Thinking Plus Spanish course has at least two teachers… one teaching the Super Thinking science and one native Spanish speaker… sometimes two teach the Spanish.   Don Childs was our Spanish teacher at this course.

Don & Merri. A delegate just created a great Spanish sentence on the second day. Congratulations!

Merri and I taught the Mt. Dora course along with our native Spanish speaker.

Unlock the power of your untapped knowledge.

There are numerous little known, but scientifically proven ways to enhance the speed, accuracy and efficiency of your decision making process for greater wealth, health and happiness. In just three days you can gain almost amazing learning skills.  Plus you become skilled in Spanish as a bonus.

In just three days?

Sound too good to be true?

Here is the photo of Spanish teacher Glenn Sterling (right) and pronunciation coach Don Childs at the white board on a Super Thinking plus Spanish course. The sentence  was written by a delegate who did not know a lick of Spanish just three days before.   Delegates were creating, speaking and understanding sentences like this after just four days.

This is not a gimmick nor a trick. At least three best selling books, Superlearning, the Mozart Effect and Superlearning 2000 have revealed insights about how we can learn and think more powerfully based on systems drawn from the Bulgarian, Dr. Georgi Lozanov.

In 1980 Superlearning sold over two million copies and showed how the Lozanov learning system blended long-tested sciences of yoga with contemporary physiology and psychology so people could learn faster and better.

This book exposed this fact and made the system so popular that Dr. Lozanov was allowed to visit the US from Bulgaria to teach this system to just a very few people so they could pass on this vital information on how to learn and think in a more natural, powerful way so we can enjoy life and enhanced memory more.

Merri was among those few who learned how and is licensed to teach the Lozanov system from this Bulgarian master. She has organized a practical course on how to learn faster and better.

With her modified system, you will learn how to think and learn more powerfully in just three days. To prove how good you will be with this process, you learn Spanish as a side benefit.

The learning system you gain expands on Dr. Lozanov’s original work and offers new insights into tapping human potential, drawing from ancient and modern tactics for quick learning such as subliminal memory, music, nutrition, and productivity.

There are three scientific reasons why this course will change your learning capacity forever (and help you speak Spanish in just four days).

This seminar uses frequency modulation (in music and a number of other ways) to integrate brain waves so the process of absorbing, processing and recalling information is vastly accelerated.  This brings forth the three C’s:  Calm, Clarity and Coherence.

FM Plus Frequency Modulation/Full Mode Plus

FM Plus works by focusing on the learner first… the data second.  FM Plus “grows the learner” rather than just expands the information.  The explosion of data we must all process everyday means there is too much information to process already.    Let’s view this learning in terms of plumbing to outline what “Growing the Learner”  means.

If you have 4.5 inches of information flowing through a 4 inch learning pipe, the solution is not to add another inch of information.  The answer is to first create a six inch pipe and then an even larger pipe…a never ending expansion of abilities!

FM Plus incorporates Frequency Modulation…  plus shortcuts to expand the learner’s thinking and information processing ability.

First you learn how to evoke the power of the senses thus super-charging memory. Ever hear a song from twenty, thirty or forty years past and in a snap know all the words, the tune and remember with who and where your heard it decades ago? Learn how to use ten cycle music to gain almost super human thinking powers.

Dr. Lozanov was totally committed to learning without stress, to enjoy the thrill of relaxed, leisurely learning. These are just two, whole learning, super-thinking tactics you gain at this course.

What is your desire? Do you want to speak Spanish, French, German, Chinese or any language? Would you like to golf better or accomplish more in school? Would you like to easily, quickly zip through projects, chores, reports? Merri’s “Super Thinking” course can help you learn any subject two-to-five times faster, in exciting and innovative ways.

The techniques you gain will help unlock the quantum potential we all possess. This evolutionary program shows how certain types of music can enhance learning and how even altered nutrition can make you a startling 25 percent smarter, how subliminal messages can increase your energy and thinking process, plus much, much more.

Merri’s system follows and builds upon what was taught in the Superlearning, the Mozart Effect and Superlearning 2000 books plus includes techniques and strategies that she has gained in her 42 years of global travel and study with educational masters around the world.

This is a course that shows you how to increase your mental power to better succeed in the 21st century when we can otherwise be overwhelmed by information.

The system you gain is built from old and new sources ranging from yoga to contemporary Russian science, and ultimate zone training already used by many Olympic champions.

“Super Thinking plus Spanish” presents new ways to use music to supercharge your mind. The knowledge you gain about smart food and super nutrition allows you to enhance productivity and creativity.

The tactics you gain enhance your ability to absorb… retain and recall information.

Once these concepts of enhancing your mental powers with music are understood, you will know how to create your own program and build new skills at work in study and play.

Second you gain seventeen, easy to use learning techniques that can help you gain any romantic language in much less time than traditional learning techniques.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21  Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17  Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

Why Spanish?

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world. Chances are a huge Spanish speaking population lives south of and around you. Yet our North American language system did not teach us how to communicate with or understand this culture. We can all do with a bit of Spanish.

Yet who has the time?

You do! Fluency in a language is considered to come when you know 1,200 words. To prove that it is possible to gain this and much more, let me share just one of the 17 tactics Merri taught me that gives you thousands of Spanish words in less than three minutes.

Here are the thousands of Spanish words lesson #1:

All words in Spanish and English that end in ION are almost identical,  just pronounced differently. For example action is accion, education educacion, manipulation, manipulacion, etc.

Now you already literally know hundreds of Spanish nouns. This is just one of seventeen Spanish lessons you gain. The next lesson teaches you how to pronounce each of these nouns. Then you learn in a third lesson almost as many verbs, almost as quickly.

Third, you learn how to avoid conjugating verbs by sticking with the infinitive (far easier than it sounds). This simple lesson leaves you sounding like a Spanish professor (believe me I know as I use this tactic every day when in Ecuador).

There are many other lessons. For example lesson five shows how to sound infinitely polite and yet get almost anything you want in Spanish. Lesson six gives you the valuable connectors and the seventh lesson triples your Spanish capacity with yesterday, now and tomorrow.

By the end of the three day course you will feel quite comfortable speaking Spanish without stress!

Yet your Spanish will just be one result from learning how to think better!  You will be able to use your new learning powers in amazing ways. For example this attendee at our last course wrote:

“Hi Gary & Merri, You two are the BEST!!! Your Seminar was fantastic! I am so excited. I had procrastinated fulfilling my continuing education for my Broker’s License and then just before my surgeries, I realized by expiration date isn’t Nov. 12th – it is Sept 12th. Well, as you can see prior to taking your course I had only completed 3 units of the required 45 units. I thought I would take your course and then complete my remaining 42 units over the next 2 weeks. However, I took one class exam on Saturday night, August 27th. I didn’t even take the cellophane off the required Course manuals until after I saw the two of you today less than 5 hours ago! I used your techniques and completed 39 units of continuing education today. I have now completed all 45 units. All of my test scores were in the 90.6-96% range. My course exam information is listed below. I just wanted to let you know how valuable your course was to me. Thanks again!” Suzy Kurinsky

Travel, accommodations and food are not included.

Gary

Here are what delegates wrote about  a recent Super Thinking + Spanish seminar. Hi Gary & Merri -  First, Merri, thanks for the great home made chili dinner. It was some of the best I have ever tasted. Also, thanks for the Spanish course. Merri’s technique is truly a breakthrough in learning.  I believe I learned more Spanish in four days than I learned in four weeks in a previously attended Costa Rica language school.  The Costa Rica school taught a very limited number of memorized words and phrases. Ted.

Another delegate at a Super thinking plus Spanish seminar wrote: Merri’s approach exposed us to a broad variety of works and the technique needed to expand the language.  Again, Thanks for the experience.

One attendee wrote: Thank you very much Gary! And I just wanted to say thank you and Merri so much for everything during the seminar. You guys are indeed a shining example of having a business that truly serves others. And thanks for the extra time spent and good things taught to me personally. I have begun to implement them already and will continue to apply them. And you might be interested that waiting for my flight home I ended up sitting next to a woman from Quito and could understand some of what she said in a cell phone conversation. We talked a little and she said that I should visit Ecuador!  Thank you again for your real graciousness and acceptance! I will also write to Merri and thank her as well. And I wish that I could do something for you two!

Another wrote: Thank you!  We  always look forward to spending time and learning about so many fascinating things. Like Minded people and Vivaldi! What could be better?  You and Merri are very special to us!

Another sent this note: Hello Merri,  Thank you for the wonderful workshop on Super Learning + Spanish!  I really enjoyed the workshop and getting to know you and Gary.  I am definitely going to take more of the courses that you and Gary are teaching.  I can see several ways to apply what I learned in the classes I teach.

Since I returned home, I have purchased some of the CDs of Baroque music and thought about which specific pieces will work best in different parts of my classes.  I am also reading Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra.  I found your discussion of this book to be very helpful in showing how to balance one’s life.  I have adjusted my daily schedule, and I can already notice a difference in my productivity.

Thank you for sending the file of the 4005 Spanish words.  This will be very helpful in my daily review of Spanish.

Another emailed this: Every day I’m becoming more proficient in Spanish.  As I get ready to do something, I think about how I would say it in Spanish.  Thank you again for a Super Workshop!  With love and blessings,

Another: Gary and Merri,  It certainly was an interesting and intriguing four days for me.  I enjoyed the Spanish but even more so, all the tentacles that extended during those four days that went into so many different directions.

I grew up in a very SQUARE box with loving  and intelligent parents but my world remained within this box, unable to see beyond those walls, as I was never encouraged to “think outside the box”..  Mike has been opening doors and leading me outside this box but because of my upbringing I have not completely embraced or understood what was beyond those doors he opened for me.  As I have gotten older I have become more open to the world outside those doors yet those old tapes continue to play and I have not been able to completely release myself and experience all that can be.

Another shared this: Listening to the two of you during our time together has suddenly got me to thinking, and although some of the ideas still seem foreign to me,  I am at a point in my life now where I can say, “anything is possible” and I am now willing to embrace and allow myself to experience the world of possibility and let it take me in directions I may have in the past resisted.  I really don’t know where all this is going to lead me but I am now willing to explore, develop and grow.

I found all the information you offered on healing, realigning the body, nutrition, etc. so fascinating, have you ever thought about doing a course on just that?  With the aging population and the health care issues I think it would be not only an interesting course but one that would be very beneficial to so many.  I, personally, would love to learn more about what you talked about and plan on purchasing the book, “Body Renewal, the Lost Art of Self Healing” for my Kindle.

Thank you again for a wonderful four days!!

Another: Hola Merri Y Gary, I was thinking about you this Remembrance Day, and I went to check emails and there you are!  We had fun at Disney World on Monday and sat beside several Personnes Espaniol.  We could understand them however I couldn’t make sentences quickly, but could say one or two word phrases that were understood.  We arrived home at 3am yesterday – the airlines were very late in Denver due to a crew incident.

I found myself making up sentences all day yesterday as I was running errands.  John knows more vocabulary than I at this point as he has studied Spanish previously.  Today I will begin to review the lessons and construct sentences to send to you and the group – as you suggested below.  Es en BUENO sugestion!!!  I also received the email Merri sent with the 4005 words and started to scroll through those yesterday.

Another: Thank YOU Merri, Gary, Don and Richard for everything you have done to create and bring this wonderful experience to all of us.  It takes a well sychronized team of people to put on an effective, change producing seminar!  I have given many seminars and enjoyed the experience immensely.  The outcome is even better!  Estoy une infantil de Super Thinking and Spanish, y es possible aprender en tiempo.

John and I both thank all of you for the wonderful experience – we are working now to clear up things so we can leave for the Galapagos and Ecuador November 25th – December 20th.  Nosotros tiene muchos appreciacion!  Gracias y Abrazos,

Another: Hello Gary,  Muchas gracias para la informacion!  I had a wonderful time at the Super Learning + Spanish weekend!… excelente!

I was impressed with your depth of knowledge on numerous subjects and your ability to speak about them with exceptional recall.  Con mucho apriciar,  P.S. Yo estoy enteresado en Espanol #2.

One delegate even explained how after our course they ended up as the accidental translator: Gary,  I have sent Merri a couple of messages, and  a story of Mike being able to translate yesterday for a Spanish person  who couldn’t understand what a man was trying to tell him!

We loved the seminar, and are excited to put the super learning to practice, and especially the great company of like-minded people (especially G & M!)  Muchas Gracias!  Tiene an excellante dias.

Another was able to write part of his thanks in Spanish. Gary Thanks so much for sending the course and the extra one ( that was an unexpected and delightful surprise!)  It was great seeing you and Merri again and we are looking forward to returning to Mt. Dora next year.  usted y Meri tengo un fantastico celabracion de la dar gracia y navidad

Finally another…. communicated entirely in Spanish…. after just our Super Thinking + Spanish seminar: Buenas dias nuestra maestra perfectamente, Merri!   Muchas gracias por la lista espanol.

Claro, David y yo aprendemous mucho espanol el fine de semana pasada. Gary y usted nos hacen espanol muy facil aprender. Es importante continuar a practicar espanol cada dia. Gracias tambien!  Buenas suerte…hasta la vista! Con mucho amor,

Comments from another delegate: I wanted you to know that the Spanish course has proven incredibly helpful. Dealing with internet service providers and shopping for appliances, etc., normally would have required me hiring a translator to follow me around. While it may not be pretty or 100% grammatically correct, I am understood. Thank you!  Saludos!

Whether your goal is to reduce your cost of living… increase your income… enhance the return on your investments or all, being able to speak Spanish… enhances your opportunity and does the world good.

Lose Weight and Inches With Frequency Modulation

See an example from a Super Thinking + Spanish delegate who lost 55 pounds after taking our course.   See how Jim Reed used our Super Thinking + Spanish course to enhance his health and wealth as well as speak Spanish.

The ability to speak Spanish… even if you never leave the US is valuable in this day and age.   Spanish opens access to a good labor force and helps you communicate with a useful part of the American population.

Beyond Spanish… knowledge is bliss. Ignorance is dangerous in these times of rapid change.  The more knowledge we can absorb, retain and recall… the better our chances of success… higher income… less stress…. better health and more fulfillment.

So it’s little wonder that the attendance at our Super Thinking + Spanish and Quantum Wealth courses have grown dramatically.   Our changing world not only reinforces the need to speak Spanish but also requires us to be smarter.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21 Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27 Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4 Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

Super Thinking plus Spanish courses are among the few I know that not only share valuable information but help the delegates become smarter so they absorb, retain and recall the education more effectively.  The course does this through the power of music… a power we all already have within. Let’s see some examples.   Meet Jim Reed.

Jim is a retired airline pilot who moved to Ecuador a year ago and lived in our Casa Blanca condos for a year.  He has become an Ecuador resident and built a house.   I interviewed him on one of our trips to Cotacachi.

Like so many others I have spoken with who have attended our Super Thinking + Spanish course… he claims to be much happier… more relaxed and has become healthier, shedding medication and weight.

Jim lost 55 pounds in the last year and, as reported by so many… without trying… without eating less… without any feeling of deprivation.

One fact that many who enjoyed wonderful positive changes when they have attended our Super Thinking course is they learned to use music in a very specific way to reach the quantum states of their intellect.

Music carries universal messages of emotion that go beyond cultural distinctions and learned experience.

A March 2009 report by World Science entitled “Language of music may really be universal”  says:  Na­tive Af­ri­cans who have nev­er lis­tened to the ra­dio be­fore can none­the­less pick up on hap­py, sad, and fear­ful emo­tions in West­ern mu­sic, ac­cord­ing to a new re­port. The re­sult shows that the ex­pres­sion of those three bas­ic emo­tions in mu­sic can be un­iver­sally rec­og­nized, the re­search­ers said. Stud­ies found that both West­ern and Mafia lis­ten­ers, who had nev­er be­fore heard West­ern mu­sic, could rec­og­nize emo­tion­al ex­pres­sions of hap­pi­ness, sad­ness, and fear in the mu­sic more of­ten than would be ex­pected by chance. 

“These emo­tion­al ex­pres­sions con­veyed by the West­ern mu­sical ex­cerpts can be un­iver­sally rec­og­nized,” the re­search­ers wrote, “si­m­i­lar to the largely un­iver­sal rec­og­ni­tion of hu­man emo­tion­al fa­cial ex­pres­sion and emo­tion­al prosody.” Pros­o­dy refers to the rhythm, stress, and in­tona­t­ion of con­nect­ed speech.

A three minute example of this human connection is the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” where 10-time Grammy Award winner Bobby McFerrin’s uses audiences to prove the chart-topper. This song is one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century.

A video of this states: Music is just “in there”…hard wired… in our being and just needs tapping into.

This is why Super Thinking works…  the course goes beyond teaching and taps into wisdom and intelligence that is already WITHIN!

As the speed of change increases… so to does our need for knowledge and the ability absorb, retain, recall and use what we learn in effective ways.

Here are more raves from delegates of this course:

Gary & Merri, Mike and I have so enjoyed attending your seminars.  I look at is as a place to gain  “tools for life” as well as  receiving a plethera of information on the topics at hand.

(So far we attended  Spanish and investing.) I get equally as much value out of the tools, and mindset in viewing the information that can be applied to life in general as well as the topic at hand. So thanks for enjoying what you do… it definitely shows up in real world application.

At each seminar we meet many interesting and unique folk – I think the audience you draw  can think out of the box at least a little bit! So again thanks for gathering such a wonderful array of resources for us.

Another emailed:  Dear Gary and Merrie,  We so enjoyed the language class last weekend at Mt Dora!

Carolyn came back with your simple, common sense approach and the new tools to start speaking.

Most remarkable is that she feels comfortable putting together sentences and ‘communicating.’ Somehow many of us seem to get caught in the trap of thinking we have to say it ‘right,’ and so we don’t even try. It is interesting that we do not see ourselves ‘creating’ communication in our native tongue; each saying it a little different than the other, and yet still all getting the ‘communication’ across the bridge in our own manner.

We delighted to know you both better, and greatly admire your passion for life and generosity sharing what you have learned.

We are planning to attend the next business seminar you offer. Carolyn is talking about returning for the Fall Spanish Super Thinking class with a girlfriend.

We are excited by the many new challenges we have found through your offerings.

Another a dentist said: I was so delighted with my experience at the Spanish training.  I felt more confident of ability to pronounce Spanish than I ever was of French or German.  Funny… I did not think I remembered any French or German but when I cannot remember the Spanish words the German and French popped up.  Practicing my pronunciation made my trip home go faster. I never enjoyed pronouncing either of the other two, but this was fun. It is hard to fall asleep at the wheel when you are moving your mouth to speak Spanish. It does work your mouth in a different way.  I realized that you have to say each syllable slowly and correctly(until you get it perfectly) and when you do it is impressive.

It was amazing to see us all writing such advanced sentences after a few days and so much more enjoyable than having to go through the alphabet to build the words to build the sentences.

Another Wrote: Dear Gary,  I intended to give it a few days before I wrote to you about my experience in the Spanish + SuperThinking  Course. However, I had such dramatic results today, in the physical rather than the cognitive realm, that I had to share this immediately.

I started my day with Baroque music. Before I began my Spanish lesson, I went through the Mayan Waves Brain Refresher (Brain Sync). I also played an alpha wave composition while I completed a lesson in the morning. I repeated the process this afternoon. Before my high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout in the evening, I put on a gamma brain wave video from you tube faster reading gamma waves help with exercise. I preformed the “Halo Of Sweat” workout from an online fitness site. Around the world, people complete the workout and posts their scores, striving to meet or beat the personal trainer. Frankly, my reps have rarely come close to the reps of the woman featured in the video nor have I ever beat her. Until today.

Not only did I come close to her performance, I surpassed her quite significantly with several exercises. I performed my best in the last exercise, Abs Burn Out. Her scores were 38, 34 and 33 and mine were 60, 40 and 47!

I believe several factors allowed me to achieve this acceleration in athletic ability today:

1. My left and right hemispheres are now harmonizing.
2. The meditation and relaxed concentration techniques I learned are coming more easily to me and effective.
3. My focus and concentration are greatly enhanced.

I am a Pilates professional so to have my exercise regimen improve so swiftly is remarkable. Not only am I now able speak Spanish but I am experiencing optimal health as well. I am deeply grateful to you and Merri for your SuperLearning instruction.  Be well,

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21  Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17  Sarasota, Florida  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

Read Time’s “Shhh! Genius at Work” by by Jeffrey Kluger

We can learn  great deal form this because this youthfulness is a great strength.

Merri’s and my Godson, Kinti Anaki, (the King of the Hummingbirds)  at his Christening.  Children are naturally happy but…  Western lifestyles often stop them from being this way… turning them too quickly into adults.

Ecuador children in the countryside are happy and I learned a lot from this fact.   The yatchak that Merri and I lived and worked with for years specialized in bringing children who had lived in cities (or North America) back to good health and happiness.  He explained that it required only three things… good nutrition… good work which brought the third…. good sleep.

We watched him bring numerous sullen… behavior challenged children, back to innocent, earnest joy.

This let me share one way to help children release the stresses of growing up in a distorted world and to learn more effectively.

The Power of  our Inner Child is one of our greatest assets.   Innocence. Earnestness. Eagerness. Willingness.  Enthusiam.  Whole brained. Unafraid.

These symbolize seeds of truly great power.

Children have fun even at work:

The children have it figured out. Here’s our grandson Garren “helping us with farm work”.  Work can be play.

There is value in playfulness that makes work… investing and life better.

We begin life being playful.    The rules of society beat this down.  There are seven billion of us living on this planet.  We cannot all do as we please.  Playfulness in swinging our hands has to end before the nose of our neighbor begins.

The teaching and the enforcement of social rules… along with the natural tendency to have a pecking order can stifle play.

In school we cannot talk.  Outside the lines we cannot walk.  In moving lines we cannot balk.  We have to conform… or else.

Bills can be  pressing… debts can grow… the IRS might call… there can be turmoil at work and  food and gas prices may rise.  How can we be playful?

These are typical questions I hear often so just wanted to share a quote from one of the websites we monitor on health.

There are several steps we can take to start making our work… our investing… our efforts… our lives more playful.

Jay Glaser MD gives us some clues in his book “Body Renewal: The Lost Art of Self Repair”.  He writes: Just watch puppies, kittens and kids. Wrestling, horseplay and tussles are their work. They have no clue they are stretching muscles, strengthening bones, sharpening reflexes and developing turbosities, the bony attachments for their muscles.

Jay then explains that children think they are just having fun, but in the bigger scheme of things this is serious work… developing their bodies and sense of self.

He goes on to write: Don’t Exercise, Just Play. A good research study showed that exercise is as effective as the anti-depressant Zoloft in relieving depression especially in the long run. More recently it was shown in a study of adults that being physically active just once a week for 20 minutes including doing housework and gardening is enough to lower the risk of psychological distress and improve mental health.

The Value of Play. Exercise done in this context is the wisest, because it is the most enduring and safest. It is harder to push yourself to the point of injury when you have the attitude, “I’m just playing”.

I’d like to recommend a link to Amazon.com where you can buy the book from our dear friend,  Dr.Jay Glaser, “Body Renewal: The Lost Art of Self Repair”. I recommend this book highly…see link below.

This is why Merri and I make “having fun” one of the main thrusts in our Super Thinking courses.  We promote a lot of laughter.

In our lives we have a routine that takes advantage of  the importance of play.

First, we make sure we walk in the woods or nature… or paddle on the lake and remain active in the garden doing things we love… planting flowers… crops…. harvesting. This for us is not work, it’s fun.

Second, we use techniques to modulate the frequencies of our mind. We experience the power of sound… every day…  listening to 60 cycle baroque music.   The power of music (frequencies in tune with the flow of nature) creates order out of chaotic days.

Yehudi Menuhin expressed this power of music in his book “Theme and Variations” this way: Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity of the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.  Thus a confusion surrenders to order and noise to music, and as we through music attain that greater universal order which rests upon fundamental relationships of geometrical and mathematical proportion, direction is supplied to mere repetitious time, power to the multiplication of elements, and purpose to random association.

We also meditate every day or use use relation techniques like the Tai Chi idea shown below.

We also have a nutritional routine that promotes a “heart and mind balance” including the food supplement theanine… an amino acid.   These steps… the relaxation, the classical music and the nutrition have been shown to integrate and balance brain patterns so one is more relaxed and intelligent at the same time. This helps reduce excess stress… a major enemy of play!

We teach these techniques at all our Super Thinking courses.

Merri & I attribute most of the business success we enjoy to the fact that we simply write about what we love.  This has worked because what we do has always been have interesting, fulfilling and fun… for us and others as well.

Help Your Children Play

Modern life makes it hard for children to play.

Children are bombarded by adult information.   A lot of media for kids has only one goal… to get them to buy something.  Some of these things (probably a LOT) are not good for kids.

Trading down… and economic pressure means that moms and dads have to work more and have less time to spend with children.

Numerous big pharma companies gain from creating disease that must be medicated at great profit for these concerns.

Zero tolerance concepts eliminate common sense and take discipline out of the teacher’s realm.  The web site endoftheamericandream.com  linked below shows 10 examples of very young children being arrested like a five year old who assaulted a police officer.

Examples include three nine-year-old girls and an eight-year-old boy arrested for fighting and marched out of their Baltimore elementary school in handcuffs.  The police department defended handcuffing these kids with “It’s our policy, regardless of the age, when a suspect is arrested by police, they’re handcuffed. And the reason is just not for the suspect’s safety but also for officers’ safety.”

In New Haven, Connecticut a 10-year-old boy was actually arrested by police for giving another student “a wedgie” on a school bus.

A 5-year-old boy at a public school in Stockton, California was arrested by police and handcuffed with zip ties because he was committing “battery on a police officer”.

I had some bad teachers growing up. Many children my age who attended Rockwood Grade School outside Portland, Oregon remember the steely eyed Ms. Arpin who wielded an arrow. We were either whacked or stuck depending on the seriousness of the offense.

This is a really complicated issue. I do not know the solution…. how to unwind this stress.   The point here though is that these conditions are not conducive to childlike activity.  They force children to become adults early on.

Yet there are some ways to help our children remain young and be more childlike ourselves.

This is a T’ai Chi Game for Learning called “Be the Chair”.

Be the Chair:  Be the Chair is a (guided) seated, Chinese meditation, and like all meditation, clears the mind, but with the added benefit of improving posture and energy. Students will have better focus after processing their mental chatter in stillness. A straight back while poised on the edge of the chair, as if sitz (sitting) bones are the feet during standing meditation, is essential. The crown point must be lifted and the shoulders relaxed. Concentration and focus on all subsequent exercises are improved from starting with “Be the Chair.”

There is a link below to numerous easy Tai Chi exercises for children like the Turtle Races -Follow the Leader, Lead the Follower  – Sword Fingers – Glider -  Full Moon/Empty Moon – Push the Turtle or Don’t Break the Chain and Dog Chases its Tail.

Another way to help children remain playful is to teach them Super Thinking.  In fact it is the kids helping s adults when it comes to these techniques because the master Merri learned from Dr. Greorgi Lozanov, was an  reknown educator.   He developed these intelligence enhancing routines for kids and had stunning results.

That is why we are making a special effort to help children learn Super Thinking + Spanish and why  want to let your children learn Spanish FREE.

Super Thinking + Spanish teacher Mark Frakes was formerly a teacher of Spanish in high school. He switched to Super Thinking because he saw fallacies in the old ways and understand how effective Super Thinking can be.   He has offered to let any of your children high school student and older attend the St. Louis Super thinking course free.

Here is the special offer.  See details of the course below… and the seven Tai Chi Exercises for Kids link below.   Enroll… one person or a couple for the St. Louis course and up to four of your children high school age or older can join you at no added cost.

Gary

Learn Spanish in Three Days

Last modified on 2012-05-17 15:11:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Learn how to speak Spanish in just three days using Frequency Modulation.

Today the key to success is the ability to keep up with change.

This is why we are increasing our focus on super thinking through frequency modulation.  We need to be smarter to adapt to faster change and frequency modulation can help us absorb… retain and recall information better and faster.  We prove this in our Super Thinking + Spanish course which teaches delegates to communicate on Spanish in just three days.

Delegates at a 2012 Mt. Dora Super Thinking + Spanish course… a Doctor attendee wrote:  Merri,

We want to thank you and Gary plus all the others for making the class such a fun and rewarding experience.   I took Spanish as an undergraduate and lasted two days before dropping the class due to my own anxieties.  Over the years I have tried to learn French, Italian, and Spanish yet again using a variety of methods such as Rosetta Stone, Berlitz etc. and was never successful.  I finally feel like I can be successful at learning to converse at Spanish–in fact already feel successful!  Thanks so much for teaching an old dog some new tricks.  We’re both looking forward to continuing the learning process, having fun doing so, and taking more classes.

We just competed our Mt. Dora super Thinking + Spanish course and qualified five new teachers.  Here are our Super Thinking teachers ready to serve you.

Enroll here.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21 Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27 Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8  Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott)  Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott)  Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

Our Super Thinking + Spanish courses are Spanish course that goes way beyond just learning to speak Spanish.

See how after just one weekend a delegate became an accidental Spanish translator.

There is a way to learn Spanish that enhances health and wealth. I call it Super thinking + Spanish and it was created by Merri using three secrets gained from years in language schools followed by 43 years of  living around the world.

Creativity, humanitarianism and prosperity come in many forms, but all of them require three things, understanding, communications and inspiration.

Here are shots of delegates at a Super Thinking Plus Spanish course in Mt. Dora, Florida.

Spanish is the second largest language in the world. Chances are a huge Spanish speaking population lives near you. Yet our language system did not teach us how to communicate with or understand this culture.

Learning Spanish is valuable and important.  Now there is way, to enjoy a long weekend as you learn Spanish at a very affordable price.

Here are the 40 delegates at this course enjoying a coffee break.  Delegates help each other learn.  They came from all over the world…  The USA, Canada, Europe…even South Africa. Sri Lanka & China.

To learn from Super Thinking is fun!  In three days you solve one of the biggest communications problems that faces a great deal of the English speaking civilization.

The course has two or three instructors.  Each Super Thinking Plus Spanish course has at least two teachers… one teaching the Super Thinking science and one native Spanish speaker… sometimes two teach the Spanish.   Don Childs was our Spanish teacher at this course.

Don & Merri. A delegate just created a great Spanish sentence on the second day. Congratulations!

Merri and I taught the Mt. Dora course along with our native Spanish speaker.

Unlock the power of your untapped knowledge.

There are numerous little known, but scientifically proven ways to enhance the speed, accuracy and efficiency of your decision making process for greater wealth, health and happiness. In just three days you can gain almost amazing learning skills.  Plus you become skilled in Spanish as a bonus.

In just three days?

Sound too good to be true?

Here is the photo of Spanish teacher Glenn Sterling (right) and pronunciation coach Don Childs at the white board on a Super Thinking plus Spanish course. The sentence  was written by a delegate who did not know a lick of Spanish just three days before.   Delegates were creating, speaking and understanding sentences like this after just four days.

This is not a gimmick nor a trick. At least three best selling books, Superlearning, the Mozart Effect and Superlearning 2000 have revealed insights about how we can learn and think more powerfully based on systems drawn from the Bulgarian, Dr. Georgi Lozanov.

In 1980 Superlearning sold over two million copies and showed how the Lozanov learning system blended long-tested sciences of yoga with contemporary physiology and psychology so people could learn faster and better.

This book exposed this fact and made the system so popular that Dr. Lozanov was allowed to visit the US from Bulgaria to teach this system to just a very few people so they could pass on this vital information on how to learn and think in a more natural, powerful way so we can enjoy life and enhanced memory more.

Merri was among those few who learned how and is licensed to teach the Lozanov system from this Bulgarian master. She has organized a practical course on how to learn faster and better.

With her modified system, you will learn how to think and learn more powerfully in just three days. To prove how good you will be with this process, you learn Spanish as a side benefit.

The learning system you gain expands on Dr. Lozanov’s original work and offers new insights into tapping human potential, drawing from ancient and modern tactics for quick learning such as subliminal memory, music, nutrition, and productivity.

There are three scientific reasons why this course will change your learning capacity forever (and help you speak Spanish in just four days).

This seminar uses frequency modulation (in music and a number of other ways) to integrate brain waves so the process of absorbing, processing and recalling information is vastly accelerated.  This brings forth the three C’s:  Calm, Clarity and Coherence.

FM Plus Frequency Modulation/Full Mode Plus

FM Plus works by focusing on the learner first… the data second.  FM Plus “grows the learner” rather than just expands the information.  The explosion of data we must all process everyday means there is too much information to process already.    Let’s view this learning in terms of plumbing to outline what “Growing the Learner”  means.

If you have 4.5 inches of information flowing through a 4 inch learning pipe, the solution is not to add another inch of information.  The answer is to first create a six inch pipe and then an even larger pipe…a never ending expansion of abilities!

FM Plus incorporates Frequency Modulation…  plus shortcuts to expand the learner’s thinking and information processing ability.

First you learn how to evoke the power of the senses thus super-charging memory. Ever hear a song from twenty, thirty or forty years past and in a snap know all the words, the tune and remember with who and where your heard it decades ago? Learn how to use ten cycle music to gain almost super human thinking powers.

Dr. Lozanov was totally committed to learning without stress, to enjoy the thrill of relaxed, leisurely learning. These are just two, whole learning, super-thinking tactics you gain at this course.

What is your desire? Do you want to speak Spanish, French, German, Chinese or any language? Would you like to golf better or accomplish more in school? Would you like to easily, quickly zip through projects, chores, reports? Merri’s “Super Thinking” course can help you learn any subject two-to-five times faster, in exciting and innovative ways.

The techniques you gain will help unlock the quantum potential we all possess. This evolutionary program shows how certain types of music can enhance learning and how even altered nutrition can make you a startling 25 percent smarter, how subliminal messages can increase your energy and thinking process, plus much, much more.

Merri’s system follows and builds upon what was taught in the Superlearning, the Mozart Effect and Superlearning 2000 books plus includes techniques and strategies that she has gained in her 42 years of global travel and study with educational masters around the world.

This is a course that shows you how to increase your mental power to better succeed in the 21st century when we can otherwise be overwhelmed by information.

The system you gain is built from old and new sources ranging from yoga to contemporary Russian science, and ultimate zone training already used by many Olympic champions.

“Super Thinking plus Spanish” presents new ways to use music to supercharge your mind. The knowledge you gain about smart food and super nutrition allows you to enhance productivity and creativity.

The tactics you gain enhance your ability to absorb… retain and recall information.

Once these concepts of enhancing your mental powers with music are understood, you will know how to create your own program and build new skills at work in study and play.

Second you gain seventeen, easy to use learning techniques that can help you gain any romantic language in much less time than traditional learning techniques.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21  Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17  Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

Why Spanish?

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world. Chances are a huge Spanish speaking population lives south of and around you. Yet our North American language system did not teach us how to communicate with or understand this culture. We can all do with a bit of Spanish.

Yet who has the time?

You do! Fluency in a language is considered to come when you know 1,200 words. To prove that it is possible to gain this and much more, let me share just one of the 17 tactics Merri taught me that gives you thousands of Spanish words in less than three minutes.

Here are the thousands of Spanish words lesson #1:

All words in Spanish and English that end in ION are almost identical,  just pronounced differently. For example action is accion, education educacion, manipulation, manipulacion, etc.

Now you already literally know hundreds of Spanish nouns. This is just one of seventeen Spanish lessons you gain. The next lesson teaches you how to pronounce each of these nouns. Then you learn in a third lesson almost as many verbs, almost as quickly.

Third, you learn how to avoid conjugating verbs by sticking with the infinitive (far easier than it sounds). This simple lesson leaves you sounding like a Spanish professor (believe me I know as I use this tactic every day when in Ecuador).

There are many other lessons. For example lesson five shows how to sound infinitely polite and yet get almost anything you want in Spanish. Lesson six gives you the valuable connectors and the seventh lesson triples your Spanish capacity with yesterday, now and tomorrow.

By the end of the three day course you will feel quite comfortable speaking Spanish without stress!

Yet your Spanish will just be one result from learning how to think better!  You will be able to use your new learning powers in amazing ways. For example this attendee at our last course wrote:

“Hi Gary & Merri, You two are the BEST!!! Your Seminar was fantastic! I am so excited. I had procrastinated fulfilling my continuing education for my Broker’s License and then just before my surgeries, I realized by expiration date isn’t Nov. 12th – it is Sept 12th. Well, as you can see prior to taking your course I had only completed 3 units of the required 45 units. I thought I would take your course and then complete my remaining 42 units over the next 2 weeks. However, I took one class exam on Saturday night, August 27th. I didn’t even take the cellophane off the required Course manuals until after I saw the two of you today less than 5 hours ago! I used your techniques and completed 39 units of continuing education today. I have now completed all 45 units. All of my test scores were in the 90.6-96% range. My course exam information is listed below. I just wanted to let you know how valuable your course was to me. Thanks again!” Suzy Kurinsky

Travel, accommodations and food are not included.

Gary

Here are what delegates wrote about  a recent Super Thinking + Spanish seminar. Hi Gary & Merri -  First, Merri, thanks for the great home made chili dinner. It was some of the best I have ever tasted. Also, thanks for the Spanish course. Merri’s technique is truly a breakthrough in learning.  I believe I learned more Spanish in four days than I learned in four weeks in a previously attended Costa Rica language school.  The Costa Rica school taught a very limited number of memorized words and phrases. Ted.

Another delegate at a Super thinking plus Spanish seminar wrote: Merri’s approach exposed us to a broad variety of works and the technique needed to expand the language.  Again, Thanks for the experience.

One attendee wrote: Thank you very much Gary! And I just wanted to say thank you and Merri so much for everything during the seminar. You guys are indeed a shining example of having a business that truly serves others. And thanks for the extra time spent and good things taught to me personally. I have begun to implement them already and will continue to apply them. And you might be interested that waiting for my flight home I ended up sitting next to a woman from Quito and could understand some of what she said in a cell phone conversation. We talked a little and she said that I should visit Ecuador!  Thank you again for your real graciousness and acceptance! I will also write to Merri and thank her as well. And I wish that I could do something for you two!

Another wrote: Thank you!  We  always look forward to spending time and learning about so many fascinating things. Like Minded people and Vivaldi! What could be better?  You and Merri are very special to us!

Another sent this note: Hello Merri,  Thank you for the wonderful workshop on Super Learning + Spanish!  I really enjoyed the workshop and getting to know you and Gary.  I am definitely going to take more of the courses that you and Gary are teaching.  I can see several ways to apply what I learned in the classes I teach.

Since I returned home, I have purchased some of the CDs of Baroque music and thought about which specific pieces will work best in different parts of my classes.  I am also reading Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra.  I found your discussion of this book to be very helpful in showing how to balance one’s life.  I have adjusted my daily schedule, and I can already notice a difference in my productivity.

Thank you for sending the file of the 4005 Spanish words.  This will be very helpful in my daily review of Spanish.

Another emailed this: Every day I’m becoming more proficient in Spanish.  As I get ready to do something, I think about how I would say it in Spanish.  Thank you again for a Super Workshop!  With love and blessings,

Another: Gary and Merri,  It certainly was an interesting and intriguing four days for me.  I enjoyed the Spanish but even more so, all the tentacles that extended during those four days that went into so many different directions.

I grew up in a very SQUARE box with loving  and intelligent parents but my world remained within this box, unable to see beyond those walls, as I was never encouraged to “think outside the box”..  Mike has been opening doors and leading me outside this box but because of my upbringing I have not completely embraced or understood what was beyond those doors he opened for me.  As I have gotten older I have become more open to the world outside those doors yet those old tapes continue to play and I have not been able to completely release myself and experience all that can be.

Another shared this: Listening to the two of you during our time together has suddenly got me to thinking, and although some of the ideas still seem foreign to me,  I am at a point in my life now where I can say, “anything is possible” and I am now willing to embrace and allow myself to experience the world of possibility and let it take me in directions I may have in the past resisted.  I really don’t know where all this is going to lead me but I am now willing to explore, develop and grow.

I found all the information you offered on healing, realigning the body, nutrition, etc. so fascinating, have you ever thought about doing a course on just that?  With the aging population and the health care issues I think it would be not only an interesting course but one that would be very beneficial to so many.  I, personally, would love to learn more about what you talked about and plan on purchasing the book, “Body Renewal, the Lost Art of Self Healing” for my Kindle.

Thank you again for a wonderful four days!!

Another: Hola Merri Y Gary, I was thinking about you this Remembrance Day, and I went to check emails and there you are!  We had fun at Disney World on Monday and sat beside several Personnes Espaniol.  We could understand them however I couldn’t make sentences quickly, but could say one or two word phrases that were understood.  We arrived home at 3am yesterday – the airlines were very late in Denver due to a crew incident.

I found myself making up sentences all day yesterday as I was running errands.  John knows more vocabulary than I at this point as he has studied Spanish previously.  Today I will begin to review the lessons and construct sentences to send to you and the group – as you suggested below.  Es en BUENO sugestion!!!  I also received the email Merri sent with the 4005 words and started to scroll through those yesterday.

Another: Thank YOU Merri, Gary, Don and Richard for everything you have done to create and bring this wonderful experience to all of us.  It takes a well sychronized team of people to put on an effective, change producing seminar!  I have given many seminars and enjoyed the experience immensely.  The outcome is even better!  Estoy une infantil de Super Thinking and Spanish, y es possible aprender en tiempo.

John and I both thank all of you for the wonderful experience – we are working now to clear up things so we can leave for the Galapagos and Ecuador November 25th – December 20th.  Nosotros tiene muchos appreciacion!  Gracias y Abrazos,

Another: Hello Gary,  Muchas gracias para la informacion!  I had a wonderful time at the Super Learning + Spanish weekend!… excelente!

I was impressed with your depth of knowledge on numerous subjects and your ability to speak about them with exceptional recall.  Con mucho apriciar,  P.S. Yo estoy enteresado en Espanol #2.

One delegate even explained how after our course they ended up as the accidental translator: Gary,  I have sent Merri a couple of messages, and  a story of Mike being able to translate yesterday for a Spanish person  who couldn’t understand what a man was trying to tell him!

We loved the seminar, and are excited to put the super learning to practice, and especially the great company of like-minded people (especially G & M!)  Muchas Gracias!  Tiene an excellante dias.

Another was able to write part of his thanks in Spanish. Gary Thanks so much for sending the course and the extra one ( that was an unexpected and delightful surprise!)  It was great seeing you and Merri again and we are looking forward to returning to Mt. Dora next year.  usted y Meri tengo un fantastico celabracion de la dar gracia y navidad

Finally another…. communicated entirely in Spanish…. after just our Super Thinking + Spanish seminar: Buenas dias nuestra maestra perfectamente, Merri!   Muchas gracias por la lista espanol.

Claro, David y yo aprendemous mucho espanol el fine de semana pasada. Gary y usted nos hacen espanol muy facil aprender. Es importante continuar a practicar espanol cada dia. Gracias tambien!  Buenas suerte…hasta la vista! Con mucho amor,

Comments from another delegate: I wanted you to know that the Spanish course has proven incredibly helpful. Dealing with internet service providers and shopping for appliances, etc., normally would have required me hiring a translator to follow me around. While it may not be pretty or 100% grammatically correct, I am understood. Thank you!  Saludos!

Whether your goal is to reduce your cost of living… increase your income… enhance the return on your investments or all, being able to speak Spanish… enhances your opportunity and does the world good.

Lose Weight and Inches With Frequency Modulation

See an example from a Super Thinking + Spanish delegate who lost 55 pounds after taking our course.   See how Jim Reed used our Super Thinking + Spanish course to enhance his health and wealth as well as speak Spanish.

The ability to speak Spanish… even if you never leave the US is valuable in this day and age.   Spanish opens access to a good labor force and helps you communicate with a useful part of the American population.

Beyond Spanish… knowledge is bliss. Ignorance is dangerous in these times of rapid change.  The more knowledge we can absorb, retain and recall… the better our chances of success… higher income… less stress…. better health and more fulfillment.

So it’s little wonder that the attendance at our Super Thinking + Spanish and Quantum Wealth courses have grown dramatically.   Our changing world not only reinforces the need to speak Spanish but also requires us to be smarter.

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21 Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27 Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4 Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

Super Thinking plus Spanish courses are among the few I know that not only share valuable information but help the delegates become smarter so they absorb, retain and recall the education more effectively.  The course does this through the power of music… a power we all already have within. Let’s see some examples.   Meet Jim Reed.

Jim is a retired airline pilot who moved to Ecuador a year ago and lived in our Casa Blanca condos for a year.  He has become an Ecuador resident and built a house.   I interviewed him on one of our trips to Cotacachi.

Like so many others I have spoken with who have attended our Super Thinking + Spanish course… he claims to be much happier… more relaxed and has become healthier, shedding medication and weight.

Jim lost 55 pounds in the last year and, as reported by so many… without trying… without eating less… without any feeling of deprivation.

One fact that many who enjoyed wonderful positive changes when they have attended our Super Thinking course is they learned to use music in a very specific way to reach the quantum states of their intellect.

Music carries universal messages of emotion that go beyond cultural distinctions and learned experience.

A March 2009 report by World Science entitled “Language of music may really be universal”  says:  Na­tive Af­ri­cans who have nev­er lis­tened to the ra­dio be­fore can none­the­less pick up on hap­py, sad, and fear­ful emo­tions in West­ern mu­sic, ac­cord­ing to a new re­port. The re­sult shows that the ex­pres­sion of those three bas­ic emo­tions in mu­sic can be un­iver­sally rec­og­nized, the re­search­ers said. Stud­ies found that both West­ern and Mafia lis­ten­ers, who had nev­er be­fore heard West­ern mu­sic, could rec­og­nize emo­tion­al ex­pres­sions of hap­pi­ness, sad­ness, and fear in the mu­sic more of­ten than would be ex­pected by chance. 

“These emo­tion­al ex­pres­sions con­veyed by the West­ern mu­sical ex­cerpts can be un­iver­sally rec­og­nized,” the re­search­ers wrote, “si­m­i­lar to the largely un­iver­sal rec­og­ni­tion of hu­man emo­tion­al fa­cial ex­pres­sion and emo­tion­al prosody.” Pros­o­dy refers to the rhythm, stress, and in­tona­t­ion of con­nect­ed speech.

A three minute example of this human connection is the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” where 10-time Grammy Award winner Bobby McFerrin’s uses audiences to prove the chart-topper. This song is one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century.

A video of this states: Music is just “in there”…hard wired… in our being and just needs tapping into.

This is why Super Thinking works…  the course goes beyond teaching and taps into wisdom and intelligence that is already WITHIN!

As the speed of change increases… so to does our need for knowledge and the ability absorb, retain, recall and use what we learn in effective ways.

Here are more raves from delegates of this course:

Gary & Merri, Mike and I have so enjoyed attending your seminars.  I look at is as a place to gain  “tools for life” as well as  receiving a plethera of information on the topics at hand.

(So far we attended  Spanish and investing.) I get equally as much value out of the tools, and mindset in viewing the information that can be applied to life in general as well as the topic at hand. So thanks for enjoying what you do… it definitely shows up in real world application.

At each seminar we meet many interesting and unique folk – I think the audience you draw  can think out of the box at least a little bit! So again thanks for gathering such a wonderful array of resources for us.

Another emailed:  Dear Gary and Merrie,  We so enjoyed the language class last weekend at Mt Dora!

Carolyn came back with your simple, common sense approach and the new tools to start speaking.

Most remarkable is that she feels comfortable putting together sentences and ‘communicating.’ Somehow many of us seem to get caught in the trap of thinking we have to say it ‘right,’ and so we don’t even try. It is interesting that we do not see ourselves ‘creating’ communication in our native tongue; each saying it a little different than the other, and yet still all getting the ‘communication’ across the bridge in our own manner.

We delighted to know you both better, and greatly admire your passion for life and generosity sharing what you have learned.

We are planning to attend the next business seminar you offer. Carolyn is talking about returning for the Fall Spanish Super Thinking class with a girlfriend.

We are excited by the many new challenges we have found through your offerings.

Another a dentist said: I was so delighted with my experience at the Spanish training.  I felt more confident of ability to pronounce Spanish than I ever was of French or German.  Funny… I did not think I remembered any French or German but when I cannot remember the Spanish words the German and French popped up.  Practicing my pronunciation made my trip home go faster. I never enjoyed pronouncing either of the other two, but this was fun. It is hard to fall asleep at the wheel when you are moving your mouth to speak Spanish. It does work your mouth in a different way.  I realized that you have to say each syllable slowly and correctly(until you get it perfectly) and when you do it is impressive.

It was amazing to see us all writing such advanced sentences after a few days and so much more enjoyable than having to go through the alphabet to build the words to build the sentences.

Another Wrote: Dear Gary,  I intended to give it a few days before I wrote to you about my experience in the Spanish + SuperThinking  Course. However, I had such dramatic results today, in the physical rather than the cognitive realm, that I had to share this immediately.

I started my day with Baroque music. Before I began my Spanish lesson, I went through the Mayan Waves Brain Refresher (Brain Sync). I also played an alpha wave composition while I completed a lesson in the morning. I repeated the process this afternoon. Before my high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout in the evening, I put on a gamma brain wave video from you tube faster reading gamma waves help with exercise. I preformed the “Halo Of Sweat” workout from an online fitness site. Around the world, people complete the workout and posts their scores, striving to meet or beat the personal trainer. Frankly, my reps have rarely come close to the reps of the woman featured in the video nor have I ever beat her. Until today.

Not only did I come close to her performance, I surpassed her quite significantly with several exercises. I performed my best in the last exercise, Abs Burn Out. Her scores were 38, 34 and 33 and mine were 60, 40 and 47!

I believe several factors allowed me to achieve this acceleration in athletic ability today:

1. My left and right hemispheres are now harmonizing.
2. The meditation and relaxed concentration techniques I learned are coming more easily to me and effective.
3. My focus and concentration are greatly enhanced.

I am a Pilates professional so to have my exercise regimen improve so swiftly is remarkable. Not only am I now able speak Spanish but I am experiencing optimal health as well. I am deeply grateful to you and Merri for your SuperLearning instruction.  Be well,

Here is our Super Thinking + Spanish schedule below.

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario   (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21  Vancouver, BC   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 15-16-17  Sarasota, Florida  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 29-30-July 1  Washington DC  Area (Teacher Karen Zhussanbay)

July 6-7-8 Sarasota, Florida (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July 27-28-29 Vernon B.C. Canada (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick) 

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for One $699. Enroll here

November 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Fl. (Gary & Merri Scott) Course for Two $899. Enroll here

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

See more on Tai Chi exercises here.

endoftheamericandream.com 10-disgusting examples of very young school children being arrested

There has been excellent feedback so far.

These photos of this luxury catamaran for 16 guests shows…

why.

The Ocean Spray is by far the best 16 passenger vessel cruising the Galapagos.

Incredible dining and…

space everywhere from the dining room to the lounge to the…

private rooms.

Already one huge agency is looking at buying most of the spaces from 2013 onwards, but at Ecuador Living we have a really special benefit.

The decoration was done by Kjetil’s wife, Jessica and her friend, so you can enjoy the Galapagos and the ultimate in cruise luxury.

Right now you can also save $500… plus even more.

See why you can save up to $1,249 on a Galapagos cruise in this luxurious yacht.

This ad below is one (unless you are a travel agent) is one you’ll never see because…

of four words… “All prices are comissionable”. This is an add for travel agents telling them that they can offer the prices above and receive a 15% commission.

We as publishers do not (and never have) accepted commissions on real estate, travel services, cruises, rentals or any of the services we write about.   Because we have a huge readership and because we have worked with Kjetil since he arrived in Ecuador over almost 2 decades ago… we could receive this 15% commission but pass it along to our Ecuador Living Club members in the form of a discount instead.  The savings is as simple as that.

Learn how to become a club member here. 

You can take a closer look at the Ocean Spray yacht here.

Gary

2012 – Ecuador Real Estate – Super Thinking + Spanish – International Business & Investing Course Schedule

Last modified on 2012-05-17 17:21:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

La Piedra, Bahia

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario  Super Thinking + Spanish (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   Super Thinking + Spanish   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 21-22-23  Coastal Real Estate Tour

May 25-26  Imbabura Real Estate Tour

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 14-15-16 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 17-18-19-20-21 Ecuador Export Tour

June 18-19-20 Coastal Real Estate Tour

June 22-23-24  Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

July 6-7-8  Sarasota, Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July  16-17-18  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

July 20-21-22  Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

July 27-28-29  Vernon B.C. Canada  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick)

Aug. 28-29-30-31-Sept. 1 Ecuador Export Tour

Sept. 1-2-3 Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

Sept. 3-4 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 6-7-8 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Sept. 10-11-12 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Join Ecuador agricultural consultants on 4 wheel drive farm tour (limit 15).

Sept. 17-18-19 Ecuador Agricultural Expedition

Oct. 5-6-7 Earning With Quantum Thinking in a Micro Businesses (Gary & Merri Scott)

Oct. 13-14-15 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Oct. 17-18-19 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Oct. 21-22 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Florida Super Thinking + Spanish  (Gary & Merri Scott)

Nov. 11-12-13 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Nov. 15-16-17 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Nov. 19-20 Imbaburra Real Estate Tour

Here are photos I took of Mt. Dora…

during…

its annual arts festival. 

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico  Super Thinking + Spanish (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

 Dec. 10-11-12  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

2013

January 18-19-20, 2013  Mt. Dora Florida Super Thinking + Spanish (Gary & Merri Scott) 

February 15-16-17, 2013 Earning With Quantum Thinking in a Micro Businesses (Gary & Merri Scott)

March  19-20-21, 2013  Mt. Dora Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Gary& Merri Scott)

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

See details about a multi tour discount.

Can’t Make this schedule? See details about a private personalized tour.

Learn how to attend a Super Thinking + Spanish course FREE as a Teacher’s Aid

See how one couple is earning from their home abroad

By A Ecuador team member and super thinking teacher, Ernest Neumann

Well, it is not Dublin. Nor is it sweet Molly Malone. And it most definitely is not “Cockles and mussels alive, alive-O!”

Nonetheless there is a river–and in fact, four of them! Yes, there is a wheel-barrow, and the contents do start with a “c.” So where is this?

This is the fair city of Cuenca. It is the Ecuadorian city where street hawkers are a fairly  common sight selling various goods such as umbrellas when it rains, drawings and paintings of famous personages or hand crafted jewelry.

At certain times of the year, however, a different breed of hawker busily chants through Cuenca’s streets encouraging passersby to make a purchase of their in-season pick-of-the-crop fresh fruit.

“Cerazas! Cerazas! Cerazas!” is the mantra as these Cuencanos sweet Molly Malones navigate their wheel barrows through Cuenca’s streets “broad and  narrow.”

Sweet fruit!

For those fruit lovers who hail from Northern climes where fresh fruit is expensive and lacks quality, the sight of a wheel barrow full of fresh cherries is an unforgettable vision. Oh!

But wait until you hear the price. A half kilo (a little over one pound) of these luscious fresh cherries is one or two dollars, depending on the vendor and the time of day.

When it is snowing in Northern Canada and the Northern US States, one would be hard pressed to find ONE Altulfo mango for ONE dollar. If you make a trip to Ecuador and catch a street vendor, you can probably find ONE DOZEN for one dollar!

What about some other street hawkers?

Here you can see an artist who is selling hand crafted jewelry and caricatures of famous personages. He has taken over a portion of a landing on the Escalinitas for his shop and is hoping a cloud burst will not interfere with his sales.

Cuenca’s street hawkers add a different flavor and color to this beautiful city and while you will not meet Dublin’s sweet Molly Malone here, you can buy some fresh cherries to enjoy something healthy and tasty that is better than  “Cockles and mussels alive, alive-O!”

Ernesto

ernest@ateamecuador.com

Visit Cuenca on an upcoming Cuenca real estate tour.  Learn Super Thinking + Spanish:

See the 2012 schedule below.

2012 – Ecuador Real Estate – Super Thinking + Spanish – International Business & Investing Course Schedule

Last modified on 2012-05-17 17:21:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

La Piedra, Bahia

May 19-20-21  Toronto, Ontario  Super Thinking + Spanish (Teacher Rick Brown)

May 19-20-21 Vancouver, BC   Super Thinking + Spanish   (Teacher Ernest Neumann)

May 21-22-23  Coastal Real Estate Tour

May 25-26  Imbabura Real Estate Tour

May 25-26-27  Fairview Heights, IL  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 14-15-16 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

June 15-16-17 Sarasota, Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

June 17-18-19-20-21 Ecuador Export Tour

June 18-19-20 Coastal Real Estate Tour

June 22-23-24  Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

July 6-7-8  Sarasota, Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teacher Mark Frakes)

July  16-17-18  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

July 20-21-22  Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

July 27-28-29  Vernon B.C. Canada  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Teachers Shawn & Suzanne Bandick)

Aug. 28-29-30-31-Sept. 1 Ecuador Export Tour

Sept. 1-2-3 Earning With Quantum Thinking & Writer’s Camp  (North Carolina Gary & Merri Scott)

Sept. 3-4 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 6-7-8 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Sept. 10-11-12 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Join Ecuador agricultural consultants on 4 wheel drive farm tour (limit 15).

Sept. 17-18-19 Ecuador Agricultural Expedition

Oct. 5-6-7 Earning With Quantum Thinking in a Micro Businesses (Gary & Merri Scott)

Oct. 13-14-15 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Oct. 17-18-19 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Oct. 21-22 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 2-3-4  Mt. Dora Florida Super Thinking + Spanish  (Gary & Merri Scott)

Nov. 11-12-13 Cuenca Real Estate Tour

Nov. 15-16-17 Coastal Real Estate Tour

Nov. 19-20 Imbaburra Real Estate Tour

Here are photos I took of Mt. Dora…

during…

its annual arts festival. 

Nov. 26-27-28  Playa del Carmen, Mexico  Super Thinking + Spanish (Teachers Shawn and Suzanne Bandick)

 Dec. 10-11-12  Cuenca Real Estate Tour

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

2013

January 18-19-20, 2013  Mt. Dora Florida Super Thinking + Spanish (Gary & Merri Scott) 

February 15-16-17, 2013 Earning With Quantum Thinking in a Micro Businesses (Gary & Merri Scott)

March  19-20-21, 2013  Mt. Dora Florida  Super Thinking + Spanish  (Gary& Merri Scott)

For information more contact Cheri Hall at cheri@garyascott.com

See details about a multi tour discount.

Can’t Make this schedule? See details about a private personalized tour.

Learn how to attend a Super Thinking + Spanish course FREE as a Teacher’s Aid

See Ecuador earning ideas with Skygods

This is a photo I took of page 154 of the May 2012 issue of Elle Decor magazine (the magazine’s site is linked below).  See the significance of this shot for early retirement.

There is a huge emigration  from the USA and Canada to South America.  Thousands of my readers are in this process and they share a lot about their reasoning with me.

I see several main themes behind this movement.

#1: Lower cost of living.

#2: New expanded horizons and reduction of stress.

#3: Escape from government intervention.

#4: Escape from bad weather and the traditional options of  Florida and Arizona are no longer attractive.

#5: Fed up with big business… national distribution and dehumanization of service.

#6: Fear of high medical costs.

#7: Fear of lawsuits.

Not many people are immigrating to the Netherlands from North America but the article entitled “Going Dutch” by Gisela Williams tells of one couple who left Manhattan and moved to  a château in the Netherlands that is updated with modern comforts, but filled with old-world charm.

The point in the article that caught my eye is quoted here (my bolds):  Daniel Beauchemin and Marc de Laat have lived the golden life.  Beauchemin was a top decorators who helped decorate the apartment of Mayor Bloomberg. De Laat had a lucrative real estate business in the Netherlands that allowed him in his 40s to sell out to focus on his passion in photograph and graphic design.

But as Beauchemin approached 50 they decide to step off Manhattan’s fast track. “What do you do in New York if you don’t work? Hang out in cafes and galleries all day?”

This is one reason so many North Americans are leaving and headed south or elsewhere.  They perceive that life in the USA and Canada are no longer what they want. They see an overall drop in the standard of living… a dull grey existence has been forming and they want broader horizons.

Regretfully though I see too many who do leave not planning enough ahead for what they are going to do in their new home.

This is one reason we have been recommending investments in mini agriculture… not in the Netherlands… though the Dutch are fantastic farmers but in South America.

Food is one item that will rise in value with inflation and farming is enormously satisfying.

Now it is becoming easier to farm as farm management companies are catering to expats.

A law firm in Uruguay just sent this note: Uruguay: a top choice for farmland investing

Productive agricultural farmland is gaining increasing attention from investors worldwide, as global demand for food rises and arable land per capita decreases. The attractiveness of this new asset class lies in its non-speculative nature and steady yields, along with the consistent appreciation that the land is likely to deliver over time.

Uruguay, one of South America’s most stable and open economies, not only has the continent’s friendliest investment climate, but is also endowed with some of the most productive soil available, both for agriculture and cattle breeding. It’s no surprise that foreign investors are progressively focusing on Uruguayan land.
Among the factors that draw investors to Uruguay, we find:

• A well priced and transparent property market: Every property in the country is mapped, and that map is available online, so an investor can verify a property´s soil types and productivity index.

• Widespread availability of farm management expertise: This makes it easy for the absentee investor to purchase a farm and have a farm management firm oversee it and run the activity on the land, reporting to the owner as required.

• A very liquid and dynamic land-lease market: This enables owners who do not wish to exploit the farm, to simply lease it.

• Sound fundamentals underlying the investment: The asset will likely appreciate consistently and in the meantime provide stable returns: leasing agricultural land yields between 3.5 and 4% of the land’s value, and farming it yields –on average- 3 to 9%.

Our specialized farmland investment advisory unit assists investors of different sizes and from many corners of the world in farmland investing, by:

• Finding the correct farm, according to the buyer’s specifications.

• Structuring the purchase: our conveyance attorneys conduct the due diligence on the deeds and handle the documentation of the purchase through the recording of the deed.

• Incorporating an ownership vehicle (if required).

• Setting up the operational aspects of the investment: either helping secure a farm management company or a lease on the land.

• Providing the ongoing legal, accounting and tax support.

Ecuador Living Club members can get contact details for this law firm at your password protected site here

See how to obtain a password here.

Jean Marie Butterlin who heads up A Team Ecuador offers a farm management program in Ecuador.

Ecuador farming ranges from big to small.

Potato farming family near Otavalo.

Dairy for organic cheese outside Cotacachi.

There is an unimaginable variety in Ecuador agriculture.

Llamas for wool.

Corn is everywhere… huge farms and small concerns like this family plot nearby.

There is almost every type of vegetable… nut and fruit.

Ecuador food market.

Amazing varieties of flowers.

Ecuador tropical flowers.

A good case study for a specific and large Ecuador agri operation is the farming operation set up by Young Living Essential oils.

After creating a marketing system for the oils and farming in the USA, Gary and his wife…

moved to Ecuador… began a large farming operation as well as…

production.

Yet Ecuador agricultural prices are still low… especially on the coast.

Save $499 on agricultural tour.

Jean Marie began conducting four wheel drive agricultural tours last year.  Many readers wanted to attend this tour but also wanted to take real estate tours to see residential real estate.   So, Jean Marie came up with a great solution… any delegate on an ag expedition can attend a coastal real estate tour (normally $499) free.

Here’s the note that Jean Marie recently sent me.

Ecuador Agriculture Business Summary

A- Introduction :

We were all taught that Investing is all about relationship between risk and reward.

But the most important point is, that we are always looking FIRST for the return OF the money (safety) before SECOND the return ON the money (yield).

When investing, we are asking ourselves these 3 questions :

-       How safe is the asset and how much does it yield?

-       How liquid is the asset we are buying i.e. how quickly can we sell it for cash?

-       What happens if the USD drops or goes up ?  (Ecuador is a dollarized country.)

We have been studying the Ecuadorian agriculture business for some time now and have found out good opportunities for making some nice returns.  Right now we are investing our money in Ecuadorian land as we have in the past invested in Ecuadorian real estate esp. in Bahia, which is the cheapest coast in the world.

We have assembled a team of experts in agriculture i.e. agri-engineers, business management, sales and marketing, accounting, legal areas, but most importantly we have setup a network of locals in many parts of Manabi, whom we call  ”spotters”, that help us find the available properties at the best possible price.  These spotters live within the community and know the history, owner of each property.   They help us to sort out the deed issues and we get the also all the info :   good, bad, i.e. potential problems with water, neighbors, etc.

Our team allows us to minimize the risks associated with agri-business from knowing all about potential pest problems in an area to the date of last drought or flooding etc.

When buying an asset class, one has to ask also, how desirable that asset will be in the foreseable future.  Mankind just passed the 7 billion mark and arable land is decreasing every year.  China is buying all over the world big tracks of land to secure enough food production for their own people.  More and more land is allocated to making biofuel, which is one of the areas we are working also in Manabi.

Ecuador has still one of the best and cheapest land available in all South America.

What I have found in Ecuador is a nice RISK/REWARD combination:

-       land will never go down in price like housing has done in the past; no bubble yet

-       Ecuador law is pro-foreign ownership

-       land is still cheap : $500/hectare to $5,000/hectare depending on water availability.

-       Good labor : qualified and cheap

-       on site management by Ecuadorian experts supervised by a team of business people that have experience in managing businesses.

B- Profit potential in Ecuador Agriculture:

How much can you expect to make in Ecuador agri business?

It depends on 3 factors :

-       price of the land

-       combination of crops

-       quality of management

We have our own team of experts  that work for us. These experts have their own farms and teach at agri-engineers schools.  For example, one of them was born in Israel (Israel knows how to grow food in the desert…) and has managed a 15,000 acre cacao farm in Ecuador.  He now manages his own farms….

Here are the 2 big questions we are always being asked : If the agri-business is so good, why are not more people getting into it and why are most Ecuadorian farmers so poor?

The answer to Question 1 is simple : It is not easy to find good available property, with deeds, etc…. as Ecuadorians hold onto their properties and do not sell easily. That is why I have setup a network of locals that roam the countryside where they live and where they are respected.

The answer to Question 2 is a bit more complex but has a lot to do with access to funding for poor Ecuadorian farmers, as well as business education of these farmers and mostly the famous ” middlemen” that are one of the problems of Ecuadorian agriculture.

There are also a lot of rich Ecuadorian farmers….. and they are making a lot of money even by US standards.

When we talk about management :

•We choose to bring crops to the market at the ideal time of the year when prices are at the highest= timing of the planting.

•We choose crops where there is less competition and lots of demand.

•We choose crops that are ideal for the soil, water and sun.

•We choose crops that have clients ready to purchase before we plant.

•We choose crops that are least disease prone.

•We choose crops that are not too labor intensive.

•We choose crops that have big potential in the future.

•We select a combination of crops for each finca that will maximize income/cash flow and minimize risks.

•We think  ”outside the box” = Innovation!

The net income per hectare is about $2,700. We plant a minimum of 4 ha in a specific area.

Cost of acquisition of the land is about $3,000/ha.

This shows that initial land cost will be paid back in about just over a year.

Balsawood has a 4 year crop cycle. The wood is very much in demand worldwide as there only a few countries that can produce this kind of wood.

Acquisition cost per ha is about $2,500 on average  and can be a hilly type farm.

On a minimum 10 ha farm net income for 4 years is $139,000.

When acquisition cost of the land are deducted total cash flow on a typical 4 year period is : $114,000 and you still own the land.

For a typical $25,000 original land investment and a $17,120 investment in planting and growing (total $42,120) you will get $156,250 gross income fr the sale of the wood for a net cash flow of $114,000.

For the second 4 year cycle, the cash flow will be $139,000 as the land has aleady paid for itself.

We also can elect to farm other short cycle crops like Aji, (the red Pepper) that is sold exclusively to the Tabasco Company. Tabasco pre-buys the whole crop at a fixed price.

Cacao is another longer cycle crop as it takes 4 years to really start harvesting.  The Ecuadorian Cacao has a good reputation and sells well.

Papaya is also a very profitable short cycle crop.

An area that will see a big development is the bio-fuel and bio-diesel.  Ecuador produces already a lot of palm oil but pinon and linseed oil are extremely profitable crops as well.  The whole harvest is also pre-sold to companies that produce bio-fuel.  The price is a linked to the oil market price.

Bamboo production is also a good option on any farm and the Manabi climate is well suited for the constant growth of bamboo production.

3- Cash Flow Management:

In our development strategy, we aim to maximize regular cash flow i.e. combining on specific one fram short cycle crops like plantain or passion fruit and longer cycle crops like balsawood or cacao. This enables to minimize capital outlay to acquisition costs and first year production costs ; income from short term crops will pay for cost of longer cycle crops.

4- Management Package:

We offer a management package that we provide to our clients, who know nothing about agri-business.  It is all based on shared net revenues.

The client invests in a farm that he owns outright himself; minimum is $100,000 in order to have a nice size farm and operating cash flow.

5- Our Vision:

•Chemical free agriculture:

We only use organic and sustainable agriculture.  Organic pest control is a lot cheaper and healthier of course, the key being the ability to monetize the « organic » side of the business.

•Help the local economy and local communities in Ecuador.

6- FAQ:

Why are not more people investing in Ecuador agriculture ?

a) Ecuadorian campesinos are not business people.  They are not entrepreneurs as they lack basic skills outside their trade and they do not have easy access to cheap crédit to finance their production costs.  They often prefer a low income lifestyle than high stress work….

b) A lot of Ecuadorian farms are highly successful when run by smart educated people.

c) The big investors are just finding out about how cheap and how fertile Ecaudor land is.

What is the rate of return on the investment ?

On a 10 year average,  a good managed farm can produce between 20 and 30% return.  Cash flow is generated at the end of each crop cycle. This takes into account 2 bad years of production every 10 years, due to unpredictable weather pattern like a strong el niño.

What are you providing?

We provide the following services:

- Selection of the land: with pros and cons

- Selection of the crops for maximum cash flow and lowest risks

- Management of the farm including sales of the crops

What is our business model?

We only make money when our Client/Partner makes money. We take a percentage of gross sales payable only when money is received from the crop buyer.

Appendix 1 :Balsawood

The balsa wood tree, scientifically named Ochroma lagopus, is a relatively fast growing plant found primarily in Central and South America. Balsa wood trees grow best under the conditions found in rainforests, ideally in mountainous terrain between rivers. The country of Ecuador is perhaps the largest exporter of balsa wood, although many local farmers consider the plant to be little more than a weed.

Balsa wood is one of the lightest varieties of wood available, but not the absolute lightest. It is remarkably strong for its weight, however. Originally, the US military sought out balsa wood as a substitute for cork during World War I, but it soon proved more useful as a lightweight construction material for gliders and shipping containers. Hobbyists also began to work with balsa wood because it could be carved easily with standard woodworking tools and bent into a number of shapes without sacrificing strength.

Balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale, or O. lagopus) of the bombax family (Bombacaceae), native to tropical South America and noted for its extremely light wood, which resembles clear white pine or basswood. Because of its buoyancy (about twice that of cork), balsa has long been used for making floats for lifelines and life preservers. Its resilience makes it an excellent shock-absorbing packing material. Its insulating properties make it a good lining material for incubators, refrigerators, and cold-storage rooms. Because it combines lightness and high insulating power, it is a valuable construction material for transportation containers for dry ice (solidified carbon dioxide). It is also used in the construction of airplane passenger compartments and in model airplanes and boats.

The main farmers’ motivation to establish small balsa plantations (between 10 and 30 hectares) has been the demand by a local balsa handicrafts producer company that sells its products in the national and export market. On the other hand, the fast growth of the species allows obtaining economic benefits after approximately 4 – 5 years and also allows demonstrating its advantages to farmers, what is difficult to achieve in the case of species which require much longer time.

It is important to note that, to establish a plantation diminishing management costs the first year, farmers associate balsa with an agricultural crop (e.g. cassava, bananas, orito, and maize); they plant 625 to 830 balsa plants per hectare. An important point to considerer is that the plantation has to be near a road, or by a road, since this would facilitate exploitation activities and diminishes the operation’s costs, increasing in this way economic benefits.

The opportunity to supply the demand of a local market and the of crop’s quickness of returns are the features that make this case relevant. This is a practice that contributes to the development of a forestry culture with small initiatives such as those detailed in the case study.

It is very profitable business that tree is growing very fast, only 3 years old to maximum of 4 years old to be cut.

This year 2011 the domestic demand from balsa factories in Ecuador are very high, so the thousand of acres planted can not fill with the high demand from USA and China in particular. Of course the prices here have risen from $ 0.30 per bd.ft. as a balsa raw material but not dried or processed, up to $ 0.55 per bd.ft.: If before planting balsa trees was a good business, today is one of the best and fastest ways to make money with short-term forestry.

With the explosion of nuclear reactors in Japan, tendency will be for renewable energy and one of the most popular is eolic energy is applied, which are wind vanes fillings made ​​of balsa, so expect a very large demand for this wood, where our country is world leader in quality, productivity, history and extraction techniques.

Jean Marie

See a report on Jean Marie’s last Ecuador agricultural tour here.

Jean Marie Butterlin has created a new agricultural property Expeditions May  14-15-16 and September 17-18-19, 2012.

The Agri Business Expedition fee is $1,990/single $2,990 couple.

Attend the Agri Business Expedition and attend a coastal tour free. Save $499.

Manabi Ecuador Agri Business Expedition

Last modified on 2011-08-27 15:46:07 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Here is an update on Jean Marie Butterlin’s Manabi Ecuador agriculture/business expedition.

The Manabi Ecuador Agri Expendition will be in 4 wheel drive SUVs

This is the second farm outlined in our Agri business series. See the first farm at “Agricultural Tour“.

The Manabi Agri Business Expedition will show many farms… small… large… and some that can be divided.

Here are the first three farms (Jean Marie will be sending more) to be seen:

#1: Big Ecuador farm!  Here is a 1,000 acre farm that covers an entire enclosed valley.  550 acres are farmland.

This farm has water and computerized irrigation. 

Only part has ever been farmed. The soil is very rich.  Last year 14 acres alone produced 25 tons of papayas per week.

This property has a beautiful hacienda with a little fruit garden that includes 48 species of tress from cashew trees to coconut, citrus mango, etc….

Cashew.

Cashew fruit.

This property can be divided into smaller lots, 60 to 100 acres each.   There is a  private 4.5 mile road that runs through the valley. 

There are also possibilities in the eco-tourism for the part that is hilly where you can see Howler monkeys, many species of birds.

Ideal for growing balsa wood, cashew trees as examples.  Our agri-engineers are thinking outside the box…cashew tree, especially organic, brings one of the highest incomes per acre of all.   Importers in California pay up to $7,000 per ton for dried, organic cashews.   Not many Ecuador farmers know about growing cashews in Manabi where the climate is close to optimal for some of the species. Cashew trees start producing in the 4th year and are good cash flow producing trees as is balsa wood.   Balsa trees take only 4 to 5 years to reach maturity.

There is a big demand for organic produce and we have met recently with US clients who are eager to buy exotic organic fruits from Ecuador.

This valley has easy access to a very good asphalt road and is only 1hour and 30 minutes from the port of Manta.

#2: 250 acres farm in Manabi with year round water, river and very rainy area. This farm is ideal for papaya and mango, with an off season watermelon crop.

Papaya.

This farm can also be divided in 3 to 5 lots and has a good road and easy access.

Hacienda.

#3: 90 acre farm close to Canoa with water.  Ideal for cattle or fruits.  This farm can also be divided.

Farm house front porch.

There is also good opportunity for Biodiesel crops in the dryer areas with pinon or a species of flaxseed. On the Manabi Agri Expedition we include farms best suited for these types of crops.

The prices for all these properties; range between $800 and $1,500/acre; they are all dividable so no-one needs to take the whole property.         Jean Marie

Learn how this week could be a pivotal week for the global economy and Ecuador.

Learn How to Earn in Ecuador.

Earn with Ecuador agriculture.

Learn about 4 wheel drive Ecuador agricultural tours.

Earn with Ecuador Exports

Ecuador exports include Ecuador produce… cocoa… chocolate.. coffee…. blackberries… and much more.

Learn about Ecuador Export Tours

Export Ecuador textiles

art and…

many other products.

Learn about Ecuador Export Tours

Learn about 4 wheel drive Manabi Ecuador Agri Expedition.

See Elle Decor website here

Now a Uruguay law firm is offering farm management.

See full details here

About  two years ago I received a catalog in the mail from Fair Indigo.  As I flipped through the pages, an item immediately caught my eye.  It was a tagua bracelet,  identical to the ones I routinely buy in Ecuador and have been buying and selling for several years.

I know the wholesale price of the bracelet, their retail price was $24.50.  This allowed for an extremely generous markup for both the catalog company and a middleman!

A few days ago, I received an email  ad for the  new Spring Fair Indigo catalog.  I clicked on the link and  started looking at their new offerings.   Look at what I found:

Two pages of tagua jewelry!

Those same bracelets were featured, but also many more necklace styles.  And, again, I recognized all of them.  I have been buying those same necklaces for  several years from the artists who make them!

Bonnie Keough with piles of Tagua jewelry.

Looks as if the market for tagua jewelry is gaining recognition and momentum.

I have been buying and selling tagua pieces since my first trip to Ecuador in 2006.  I liked it for myself  and  so did my customers.  It is a profitable, fast selling item with a great story.

It’s a “green” product, natural, renewable and so versatile.   Now it seems, tagua is catching the eye of many businesses and enterprising Ecuadorians  as well.

When I first started buying tagua, it was very difficult and time consuming to track down high quality tagua items and then negotiate acceptable wholesale prices.  It still is.  Although it is very easy to find tagua items now, there is a vast difference in quality.

I have several small, family owned tagua businesses that I have been doing business with for years.  Originally, many artists were working at home and selling to market vendors.  Eventually, some of them opened shops, but many still work from home with help from their families.

Recently,  I have noticed a huge increase in the number of tagua shops opening.  Just like anywhere else, Ecuadorians are catching on to the trend and opening these shops.   But, there is a huge difference,  they  are not artists selling their own work  or  hand- crafted  items locally made;  they buy in bulk and resell.

I can’t fault them for trying to make a buck, but buyer beware.   I look in the new shops, but  I have yet to  find the quality, originality and fair pricing I find with my  favorites.

Tagua jeweler... a jewel.

“My” tagua shops are always a popular stop on my export tour.  Because of a long-term relationship with the owners,  everyone is given fair wholesale prices.   Often, we are invited to visit the homes of the artists and shop owners.  Many tour delegates can’t believe the bargains they find.  Even those who don’t intend to buy tagua often fill a bag or two!  And, when they get home, many are surprised to find that  tagua items are always popular and  sell quickly.

Tagua seed.

For those of you who have been patiently wondering  “What is tagua?” It is the large seed that grows inside an even larger pod (basketball size) on a tree that’s a member of the palm family.   The tree grows in many regions of Ecuador:  rainforests,  cloud forests and the Amazon.  The tagua nuts (seeds) are  harvested, dried, carved, cut and colored  with natural dyes.   This provides a source of income for many  families along the way from tree to finished product. Tagua trees are no longer being cut down since they provide a valuable product,  and of course this aids in stopping deforestation.   Tagua is nicknamed “vegetable ivory” because it is as versatile as the real ivory and can be used as a replacement.

Tagua is one of many products you will learn about on our export tour.  Join me in exploring the unique products of Ecuador,  meet the wonderful people and  enjoy the beautiful  scenery.

Join Bonnie Keough and  A Team Ecuador for the next  Import Export Tour in Cotacachi.

Ecuador Exports Tour

Last modified on 2012-05-15 18:27:14 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Ecuador Exports Tours

An Ecuador export

Ecuador Exports Tours

June 17-21, 2012

August 28 – September 1

Ecuador Exports tour for one  $749

Reserve here for a couple $999

The tour starts in Quito.  Then you travel to Cotacachi and visit markets and manufacturers in Peguche, Otavalo, San Antonia de Ibarra, Cotacachi, Atuntaki and throughout the province of Imbabura.

Join the Ecuador Export Tour directed by Bonnie Keough who is actively exporting from Ecuador now.

Meet the artists, designers, creators, craftsmen, wholesalers and visit them in their workshops, homes and markets.

Improve the quality of your life, expand your horizons and reduce the tax you pay as you increase asset protection by having an overseas company and overseas income!

Join other like minded souls in Ecuador.  Learn how to gain freedom and self fulfillment through an Ecuador export business.

See Ecuador export potential  in Ecuador.

In wood products.

In Ecuador’s art.

In jewelry and all types of exports.

This tour goes to the high Andes.

You’ll see products from Zuleta where they create handmade “green” cotton-one-of-a-kind tableware, shirts, specialty items.

Here you see them in hand sewn embroidery from the village of Zuleta. In this Andean community near us hand embroidery has been an important form of artistic expression and adornment for centuries. Andean cultures have long boasted superior textiles, far surpassing those of Europe. The weavers of the Andes could produce material with as many as five hundred two-ply woolen wefts per inch compared to one hundred in Europe.

The women of Zuleta are renowned for unique hand embroidered designs and colors. Their styles are so unique they have become a form of cultural identification.

Flowers are popular in Otavalan sweaters as well.  Plus the ladies of Intag make flowers from plant fiber.

On the subject of flowers… you’ll earn how to import through the Rose Club of America.

The wonderful thing about Ecuador is that everything grows here. You often see tropical plants and flowers growing right next to flowers you would normally expect only up north. This is one reason why Ecuador exports are so good.

Roberto Ribadeneira with Ecuador roses.  Ecuador roses are among the finest in the world.

As a delegate on the export tour, you’ll learn why flowers from Ecuador are superior to those commonly available. You’ll hear about many opportunities available to those who are interested in exporting Ecuador’s premium flowers.

You’ll travel everyday to see different markets, crafts people and masters who create special products that will make your eyes gleam with delight…both for their uniqueness and attraction.

In addition, over the years we’ve combined this knowledge and experience with contacts in the form of American and European readers who now live and work in Ecuador. Working with them Bonnie and Jean Marie have set up office and business facilities to create an export support service that we can now offer to you.

They have even created a one of a kind post office channel so you can ship  goods quickly and safely from Ecuador to the USA or worldwide.

You learn from tour leaders who have practical experience.  They will tell you about their shipping experiences and what they have learned from them, good and bad.

Merri and I cooperate with Bonnie and Jean Marie by offering our 180 year old hacienda hotel, Inn Land of the Sun,  as a business center for Ecuador export delegates!

Inn Land of the Sun courtyard

Here’s the hotel. This is where Bonnie and Jean conduct the course when not visiting markets. Rooms are only $59 a night + tax and including a full served breakfast…  free internet and free calls to the US,  Canada and Europe.

Plus Jean Marie provides experienced English-Spanish speaking business people who live in the area who can act as your local backup for the business.

This combination makes it possible for you to have your own Ecuadorian import/export business, which can be run from your home or in your own Ecuadorian hideaway you’ll be able to buy with your extra profits.

Timing for such a business has never been better!

Exporting has already created fortunes for a few sophisticated individuals. Now because of our knowledge, experience and contacts, a special business is available for you. Until recently, operating an overseas business took a great deal of time and effort to start. This is no longer true.

Technology makes it possible to take your business where opportunity is best and allows you to run this business from anywhere in the world.

This tour offers an extra $897 + bonus value. When you enroll in the Ecuador export tour you are entitled to five bonuses, our three $299 emailed courses “Tangled Web How to have an Internet Business course” Self fulfilled how to be a Self Publisher” and “International Business Made EZ”, plus a 52 lesson course on “How to Build Your own Web site and a video from our webmaster David Cross on “How to Use a Website to Generate Income”. 

You gain this $897 + value FREE.

In a special advertising arrangement we have with Bonnie and the tour conductors we allow them to offer this $299 emailed course to all delegates  FREE.   This teaches you how to develop an internet and publishing business that supports your exports.

These courses teach marketing and business theory to enhance your Ecuador export business.  Your export tour gives you hands on experience in the actual markets.

You can run your export business from an office or at home! The internet makes this more possible than ever before and at the course we’ll share ideas on how to develop and use your website to enhance sales.

The internet is the Colt 45 of business, the great equalizer. If you choose to have your own import-export business you too can let the internet help your business grow for wealth and freedom.

This internet training is invaluable. You’ll learn how, even as a small business,  to find buyers for your products.  For example Merri’s and my tiny business is able to rank twice, on the first page of Google for the Phrase “Ecuador Exports”.

Our Tangled Web internet course is normally $299, but is yours free when you enroll in our Ecuador export tour.

The tour’s mission  is to help you actually find products that:

#1: Can be sold to easily identified markets.

#2: Can be marked up many times while allowing a fair trade for the indigenous.

#3: Can be imported in a suitcase.

The tour lets you see in a practical way  how to achieve the goals we teach in the course.

You learn the problems encountered and how to avoid them. (This alone will save you far more than the course tuition.)

Which products? On the tour you visit carved wood, architectural and decorative woods designs in San Antonio de Ibarra.

Textiles from Otavalo.

Here is one of the vendors in Otavalo photographed by delegates at an Import-Export course.

Religious Santos and Icons from San Antonio de Ibarra

Jewelry from San Goqui.

Paintings from all over Ecuador.

Here is an example of one type of art that a previous course delegate is having made from recycled paper and a metallic paint. Their Reiki symbol line of art is selling as fast as they can get it produced.

Leathers in Cotacachi.

Here are flowers I imported that were grown in Imbabura.

I regularly import roses from Ecuador at a fraction of the price you normally pay. Here I am with 250 roses we had delivered to our home in North Carolina for our own use.

You will visit many of these places and more so you can start your business directly from the tour.

Learn how to enjoy the finest things in life because of international friendships plus how to develop them.

Bonnie and Jean Marie have developed contacts with top Ecuador businessmen, bankers, accountants, attorneys, marketing experts, business consultants, agents all over the country that can help you, large or small, full or part time.

There you have it, valuable contacts and knowledge about timely and fulfilling business opportunities that you can cash in on now. Regardless of whether you want your business to make millions, or just add excitement and adventure in your life, to reduce tax or even live abroad, the  Ecuador Export Tour can help you get involved with something you love and turn after tax costs into tax deductible expenses.

Whether you have a successful business, want a part time business for change or as job security, this course can be of enormous value to you.

The $749 is nominal compared to the incredible education you gain and the importance of the knowledge for you and your family’s wealth now.

One delegate who attended our Ecuador export expedition wrote:

“Our business of selling Ecuador products is still going well. We are now appointing Agents across Australia and should have the whole country covered by mid-August. Our initial shops continue to re-order on a regular basis. The best shops seem to re-order every two weeks.

We have also received inquiry to provide buying services for people in a few other countries. So we will be seriously thinking about starting our own brand name to market globally. If successful, it should help many Ecuadorians.”

Another  couple who attended this expedition sell the goods they export at flea markets.

They wrote: “Good Evening Gary/Merri.  Speaking of a small business, we have opened All American Enterprises, LLC (AAE) which includes selling products from Ecuador at a trade days operation about 200 miles East of Dallas.  I don’t know if we are off to a “bang” but we are sure having fun.  See attached pictures to include our model Consuella trying to look indigenous.

Please tell Merri we have made profit on our inventory and the big sellers are alpaca silver jewelry and Octovalo alpaca ponchos.  We will visit  at the end of September and would like to restock to include blankets/ponchos/throws from Hilana. “

Space makes it impossible to explain everything in the course, but I am convinced if you try it, you will find it improves your entire way of life! There has never been a time when the risk of higher tax, greater unemployment and investment dangers were higher in North America , but neither has the opportunity for small businesses abroad been so outstanding.

Here is one of the silver workers we visit.

Another jewelry workshop does interesting work in silver and ostrich eggs!

Todd Smith, another attendee, wrote this:

“Gary recommended a printer in Cotacachi, Ecuador, for me to use to print my photographic greeting cards.  I was quite skeptical about doing business in Ecuador, both for the hassle of sending money, shipping the product, and most importantly the quality of the printing.  As a photographer, I am quite picky about printing.  But, after three years of good experience with Gary, I decided to take another risk and try the printer.  The results were outstanding–better than many press jobs I’ve seen in the US, and the price was terrific.

I’ve learned that Gary likes to push his students to try things they thought were too risky.  Gary lives on the cutting edge.  But, interestingly enough, I don’t think he is really a risk-taker, because his feet are always firmly planted on the ground.  I’ve learned over time that I can trust Gary’s thinking, and that he really does come up with some unusual, and very effective, solutions to problems that I’ve tried to solve on my own.

My suggestion is simply to try out Gary.  You may have to risk some money, but my experience has been so positive that feel safe in saying that the risk will be well worth it.  Of the $1000 or so that I invested , I have earned many thousands in return, and have created a lifestyle for myself that is far more fulfilling than anything I had previously.

I did the import/export course last year in Cotacachi, though I was in Ecuador mainly for photography.  While I was there, I met one of Gary’s contacts in the rose business.  We went to his plantation and he was very willing to work with any of Gary’s students to export flowers to the US or Canada.  He showed us prices that appeared to me as if they would form the basis of  a very profitable floral business.  He also explained how the flowers are shipped FedEx directly to you, and they are cut fresh before the shipment.  This means that the flowers you resell will last much longer than those that have been sitting in a florist’s shop forever.  This could be a significant advantage over the competition, and could generate some very satisfied customers.  Sincerely,  Todd Smith”

Here I am with Todd Smith trying new tailor made Ecuador suits  that cost $135 to $200…an excellent Ecuador export.

Expand your borders now! Increase your economic security freedom, independence and success. Gain a fortune, enjoy life more and help those who are less fortunate.

Here is Bonnie Keough who orignally attended the export expedition when Merri and I conducted these tours enjoying an open air breakfast at our hotel Inn Land of the Sun (Formerly El Meson de las Flores), the center of our expeditions. Bonnie wrote:

“My name is Bonnie Keough. In March 2006, I went to Ecuador to attend Gary and Merri’s import/export course.

I was hoping to find items to bring back to the States and sell. I love to travel and was looking for business ideas that would enable me to do that.

I had never been to South America (never even considered it) before so it was an adventure. I didn’t know what to expect, but I had been reading Gary’s newsletter for a while and I was impressed with the Scott’s honesty and integrity. They don’t promise overnight success or try to sell you a business opportunity. They share their wealth of experiences, open doors for you and educate you on the possibilities and opportunities available. It’s up to you to implement what you learn.

I found so much more than high quality products in Ecuador, the people I deal with are kind, hard-working folks who truly appreciate my business and I appreciate their honesty and skills. I have returned to Ecuador 6 more times since my first trip and each time I leave I’m anxious to return.

I always personally select all of the items I sell. By doing this, I’ve learned a lot about quality, prices and sources and I enjoy interacting with the people. But it is hard work and not everyone enjoys that aspect of the business. You will have to decide how much you want to participate.

Don’t expect to find mass produced items in Ecuador. If you have an idea for a product, it is a great place to have items custom made. It’s possible to find high quality labor intensive pieces, such as hand knit sweaters or hand woven rugs, at very reasonable prices.

If you have a genuine interest in pursuing an import business, whether in Ecuador or elsewhere, I’m sure you will benefit from the import course. It’s a great introduction to the country and opportunities available there and provides a background on the nuts and bolts of the business. It opened a doorway to a new life for me.

You tour and the internet course combine theory and practicality…but this is a true expedition! You’ll be having fun as you view products, interview, bargain, meet, search and many will even buy. Those who are just looking for a “classroom experience in a hotel” should not attend. Everyone will be out in the field looking and examining and finding. Bonnie”

Enroll in the Ecuador Export tour today.

Ecuador Exports tour for one  $749.

Reserve here for a couple $999.

Gary

Save on a Ecuador multi tour adventures See details here.

Reserve here with Morya Ecuador Discovery S.A.