Of Trucks And Things: Ecuador- my pictorial history IV: Popacuchu Fire & Sugar Café y Pastelería

Must start the show with a view from our main window... sunset.

Our plan after moving to Ecuador was to open either a bed & breakfast or café. The bed & breakfast idea proved to be too expensive, so we went with the café. We landed in Ecuador on July 31 2012, and opened our doors to Popacuchu Fire & Sugar Café y Pastelería on Jan. 23, 2013. It caught on immediately; by the 2nd day the café began paying for itself. The previous two years we won the "Best Pastries" and "Best Guilt Pleasure" categories in an annual "Best Of Cuenca" voting competition in a local expat website.

When we opened we had four employees: three Ecuadorians and my step-daughter. Two of the Ecuadorians were brothers, and their friend. Within the first year their friend left, we hired the third brother for a short time, as well as a lady who lived down the street, a kid from the U.S. for three days, another Ecuadorian who lasted four days, and an Argentinian guy who started off gangbusters but ended up making our life hell. He ended up taking us to court trying to squeeze money out of us after he quit, but his case was based on lies and the judge knew it, his lawyer knew it, so we won the case quite handily.

Throughout most of the second year it was just the Argentinian and the three of us (me, my wife, and step-daughter), and by September it was just the three of us. My wife was the chef, cooking all of the pastries and food; maybe it would be easier if I just said, she cooked EVERYTHING. My step-daughter was the prep-cook and also waited on tables, and I did everything out front, or in the 'front-of-the-house,' in restaurant lingo. We lasted until July into the third year, 2016, before saying 'when.' We took our annual four-week vacation in mid-July, and never re-opened, selling the café in September.

The labor laws of Ecuador and the success of Popacuchu ultimately did us in. While my wife researched the heck out of doing business in Ecuador, there were labor laws and changes to the labor laws that we didn't know about until after we had opened. Figuring things out as we went along, it became clear after a short period of time that while we enjoyed having employees, we could not continue to hire them, and as they left for one reason or another, we learned to make due without. In short, the employees have all the rights, while the employer has none, regardless of the worthlessness of the employee, and we just couldn't deal with that. Trying to run the café with just the three of us became a nightmare; as our popularity grew so did our desire to kill each other.

We did make a few good friends while Popacuchu Café was open; I do not want to try and name everyone because I don't want to leave anyone out and offend. But I already miss you Mike & Tammy and I'm going to miss you Daniel, Dave, Paul, Bob, and Marie!