Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador

Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture Series #31

by Judy Blankenship

While many baby boomers are downsizing to a simpler retirement lifestyle, photographer and writer Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins took a more challenging leap in deciding to build a house on the side of a mountain in southern Ecuador. They now live half the year in Canar, an indigenous community they came to know in the early nineties when Blankenship taught photography there. They are the only extranjeros (outsiders) in this homely, chilly town at 10,100 feet, where every afternoon a spectacular mass of clouds rolls up from the river valley below and envelopes the town.

In this absorbing memoir, Blankenship tells the interwoven stories of building their house in the clouds and strengthening their ties to the community. Although she and Michael had spent considerable time in Canar before deciding to move there, they still had much to learn about local customs as they navigated the process of building a house with traditional materials using a local architect and craftspeople. Likewise, fulfilling their obligations as neighbors in a community based on reciprocity presented its own challenges and rewards. Blankenship writes vividly of the rituals of births, baptisms, marriages, festival days, and deaths that counterpoint her and Michael's solitary pursuits of reading, writing, listening to opera, playing chess, and cooking. Their story will appeal to anyone contemplating a second life, as well as those seeking a deeper understanding of daily life in the developing world.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2013

About the author

The most interesting thing about me at the moment is that I live in an indigenous community in Ecuador, Cañar, six months of ever year, and six months in Portland, Oregon. My partner in this adventure is my husband, Michael Jenkins, and this is our eighth year of our bifurcated life and the subject of my recent book: "Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador."

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this memoir even more than I did the author's first book, Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador. This one tells how Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins built a second home in Cañar, in the highlands of Ecuador. I enjoyed reading the whole process of building the second home and their dealings with locals and neighbors, who were mostly friendly and helpful, but sometimes confrontational. It was fun to read the dynamics between the author and her husband, which were quite entertaining. Although I don't think I'd like the cold of the "eternal late fall" in Cañar, at an altitude of 10, 100 feet, I would certainly enjoy the "eternal spring" of Cuenca, at 8,370 feet elevation. I hope to make it to the Andes in Ecuador as soon as the strikes are over and things have calmed down (June, 2022).

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read! A true (name changed to protect identities) story of couple Judy Blankenship and Michael Jenkins, who live in Canar, Ecuador for half the year and Portland OR the other half. This book mainly chronicles the few years it took to build their house, from negotiating for the property through design, construction, and the huge housewarming - Wasipichana. As the only gringos in the town, Judy and Michael are learning all the time. Judy is a photographer and writer and Michael does construction. A good companion read to A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle.