As someone who spends part of the year in Ecuador and happened to be in the country during the recent protests that gained international coverage, I’ve been asked by numerous people: What was it like to be in Ecuador during the recent protests?
Some of my Ecuadorian friends told me a few days into the protest that this was just kind of a normal thing for South America. And surely, from my own experience, large-scale protests are just a fact of life in most any Democracy.
I experienced very little negative effects during this time, but there were a few. For example, the town I was in ran out of eggs to sell after a few weeks of the protests. And near the end of the demonstrations, the ATMs in town started to be short on cash. There were also a shortage of some types of vegetables and fruits but there was still plenty of others.
These shortages were caused by protesters blocking the roads out of the cities and even along the coast between some of the beach towns. The people were always friendly and I never felt unsafe around them. The featured image on this article shows one such road blockade I came across. The main roads were generally free again after around 6 or 7pm as the protestors returned home for the night by then. So if you needed to travel around it was still possible, just far slower.
This is pretty easy to prepare for, I always make sure to have about a month’s worth of cash on hand so even when I noticed there was a shortage at the ATM, I wasn’t particularly concerned. It was only for a few days and then they were filled again.
Additionally, the grocery stores should still take your card if the cash had truly run out. If you hear that there are some wide-scale protests starting near where you are, it’s probably a good idea to try to take out some extra cash sooner rather than later.
Also consider keeping at least a few weeks, ideally a month’s worth of dry goods in the house just in case of supply shortages. This is just a good idea in general. Shit happens. If you didn’t learn this from 2020, this is a good opportunity to learn from. You should always try to be prepared.
This is also why I think it is a good idea to have a place in a more rural environment as a backup or even primary plan. The effects you experience are far more minimized if you are away from the main urban centers. Most all of my day-to-day was the same during the protests besides a lack of eggs and some select vegetables for a few days.
I still had my classes in my local town. My favorite restaurants still had my favorite food. And life was more-or-less the same in town.
I was never particularly worried as I’ve been in numerous cities during times of social unrest, I know some expats were particularly worried and decided to leave during this event. But the reality is, these kinds of events are common in most Democracies, and South America in particular. After a few weeks, the government and the protestors reached an agreement and things returned back to normal.
If you live in most any democracy you should expect such events to happen every so often. Just be prepared for them, or you could always move to another country where such events are far less likely. But you generally are going to be sacrificing some personal freedom for that security.
If these kinds of things do concern you, or you want to be in a more major urban environment, then you should prepare yourself. You should have a plan B and know Where Can You Be in 72 Hours?