La Yunta Photo Models

Since today the weather was very nice again, I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of our farm. Here you go…

The pigs were not aware that today is a photo shoot day. I guess, they would have had a bath otherwise.

We have 6 new chicks. They are adorable and very friendly. The love my shoes apparently.

The older chicken are getting fat and more relaxed. You can approach them and they stay put.

The 2 cocks are cool. Whenever one of the neighbor’s cocks come around, we have a bit of a fight. So far, La Yunta won most times. Inspired by that, I placed one of the figures that we sell in the garden and waited to see what would happen. The cock took quite a while until he figured out that the potential enemy was made of wood.

If coolness was judged, our rabbits definitely would win any prize. They don’t only have the coolest house around but are just the happiest and jolliest in our little farm. Since the sickness is cured, they are now awaiting some more members of their little Playboy family. Their mansion has a balcony that fits 3 rabbits (they love it), 3 living floors, Hef’s private bedroom, La Gruta (the cave) and some smaller rooms to hide away and do whatever bunnies do in private.

Our geese are growing up and settling in very nicely as well. That is partly good. A side effect of this is that they are getting very confident and protective with the surrounding they live in. They behave a bit like dogs. If you cross their terrain, they don’t really appreciate that. I hope that they will get used to the fact that we live in the same space and that they will not attack any of our customers. If they do, they will be put into the oven. Yummy :) However, they make a bloody good appearance on camera.

Finally, the cows. They are slightly boring. Eating, drinking and shitting all day. Anyway, they are nice and funny at times as well. Here is a picture where Miss Holstein tries to taste my camera. She only missed it by an inch or so.

Amazing weekend

Having a bit of a negative touch in my previous post, I have all reasons to cheer up. We had the most amazing weekend in our business. No problems, great food delivery, a very busy shop with constant sales and great weather. Really nothing to wish for more.
We have reached 300 friends on our Facebook page and have received the first orders and reservations via that page.

Now, I will enjoy my free day with great sunshine again :)

Rain, dead bunnies and a private change

Hi again,

I have decided to use the time of low business to keep my blog up-to-date. I can write while being in La Yunta and just copy the text to the blog at nights. Hope you’ll get more information like that :)

After more than 2 months of the business running, I can share some of the experiences we had with our business. We have seen some very good days – usually Sundays – and also some very low trading days. Those are during the week and seem to be not really foreseeable. Today is one of those. The weather is not very pleasant, it’s raining a lot and people seem to rather stay at home than travel towards the south. Some may be put off by our car park and the low temperatures we have in our restaurant. Having said that, we have put measures in place to solve both. Yesterday, we bought a truck load of gravel (14 cubic meters) to make our car park really nice and clean. Customers can now enter without getting their feet wet and dirty. It was long needed and is a great improvement. Also the temperature is now under control with two gas heaters, each with 4 kilowatts of heat production. It’s getting cozy :)

Our little farm has been extended. We now have rabbits and gees. Unfortunately, the some of the rabbits have not survived for a long time. We first thought that the biggest male is killing the little ones but now feel that some disease has killed the poor bunnies. The latest dead bunny is currently at the vet for autopsy. Hopefully, he will find the cause of the deaths.

Many of our customers are still first time visitors. We receive very good feedback on both, the goods we offer in the shop as well as our food offering. So, all good there. Also, we have already developed a good number of frequent customers. Our furniture is continuing to be the biggest driver of shop sales. We have thought about extending our business to furniture production, although this would be a big step and we are not sure it’s worth the effort. We’ll see.
I believe that currently the weather is the biggest harm to our business. Once it gets a bit more steady with longer intervals of sunshine, we should see the business improving as well.

On the personal side, I have very exiting days and weeks behind me. The most important part of my private life has been impacted by the fact that I got engaged with my girlfriend. Yes! I am getting married in October! What a change in my life. Not only the move from Europe to Ecuador but this. I am over the moon.

Jim and Sole threw us a surprise champagne round to celebrate our engagement. Nice!

Also, my father came over for a 2 week visit and we were travelling a couple of days through the mountains and to the rain forest. The country is continuing to impress me. It’s so beautiful and has so much to offer. Apart from these great news, I have started again to play football. Every Wednesday night from 9 to 11 PM, a group of work colleagues and their friends are playing the so-called “indoors”, which is a 3/4th size football pitch with artificial grass and a roof over it to cover from the rain. It was quite tough for me, not having done any sports for almost 6 months at the high of 2.500m – but I will get used to it and manage to add to the game. Yesterday, I was most of the time in the goal to not push my luck too much.

20.000 km in 3 months on a bike

We had the first motorbikers in for a lunch stop. They started their trip in Alaska and are making their way down south on all of the Panamericana. 20.000 km on a bike. I guess you have to be slightly mad to do that in only 3 months. Anyway, the guys appeared to be of good mental health and we had a nice chat on some of their experiences. As much as they would have liked to buy some souvenirs in our shop, their cargo capacities were a bit limited, so they had a burger and some local delicacies instead, and took off again.
The most amazing thing for me was the fact that they only travel through South America with the map you see on the picture below. Cool.

They have a blog and gave me their (tiny) card but I currently can't find it.

Main business update

Hi all,

It’s been such a long time since my last update that I really feel a bid guilty. Many of the readers here have contacted me by mail, Facebook and other means. The main reason for not posting was the fact that I didn’t have internet in my apartment as it seems to be very difficult to get hold of a decent internet supplier that actually delivers what they promise. Anyway, I am connected now and should be able to supply you with information about what is going on here.

First things first: we opened La Yunta in the second half of March. This means that we have been operating for more than a month now and it has been a fine ride so far. Today was by far the best selling day so far with many people stopping to buy Easter presents and treats for themselves. We had twice the revenue of our previously strongest day. Very promising. We will see if tomorrow – Easter Sunday will be equally successful.

You can find nice pictures of our products on our Facebook page: Link

I really don’t regret having come to Cuenca for the business. We are constantly promoting our business and will have the first 2 big events next Friday and Saturday. On the 29^th of April we will have a large group of English expats with the official UK representative in Cuenca to air the royal wedding in the UK. We offer Fish & Chips and other English delicacies along with Grant’s whiskey and beer. Should be a fun evening for our guests and ourselves. Saturday will mark the most important date in our short company history. We will host our official opening party with more than 250 invited guests. Surely, not all will show up but we will have a very busy time and should see some media coverage of our event in the press that day.

In terms of products that we offer, we have moved our main focus a little bid towards farm decoration and furniture. The latter has sold amazingly well in the last couple of weeks and we are very happy about that.  Also antique decoration sells really well. We currently have a 250 year old oil barrel, a large wine barrel (sold today) and a semi-complete copper distillery on show. The prices are very high but the people are nonetheless interested and I am sure we will move this stock quickly. The best part of those products is that we sell those on commission. So we did not need to buy before selling. Nice for our cash-flow ;)

Our kitchen is also doing well. Their performance has stabilized after a few starting issues and after a reorganization all is running smooth now. At peak times (weekends) we have 3 professional chefs operating the 9 flames and 2 fryers in the kitchen with the help of one help who washes the plates and prepares the yummy fresh juices that we offer.

Now I will find some pictures that show what has happened over the last months.

Happy Jim

A look into the shop

Wines and decoration

 Coffees and sweets

Juan Carlos - barman and shop assistent.

Part of the restaurant.

A peak into the kitchen...

Our church and fire station - home of 10 chickens and 2 cocks.

A bit of relaxing in our garden after a busy day...

Mr. and Mrs. Porky

The first time all seats are occupied. That Sunday, we had to send quite a few guests away as we had no more capacity.

My car has now advertising on it. And some off-road experience.

Building the pig house...

Leonardo working with the chili sauce - he is our Colombian contingent, making La Yunta a 4-nationality team.

We sponsored a local rodeo...

Many news, little time

Hi everyone.
I had quite a few emails and phone calls to ask how I am as there were no updates to my blog over the last 2 weeks. First of all, I am really fine. Actually, I am extremely fine :)

The reason for not posting anything is that I don't have internet in my new flat and am on our site all day every day. So, here is a short update on what has happened in the past 2 weeks.

We had quite a few issues with our lawyer regarding the registration and formation of the company. Some of the information we have received were wrong or we didn't get the information that we needed to do official steps. Also, my visa situation is different than explained to me before. Well, anyway, we are on the way and should everything sorted within the next 2 weeks. Our company is founded and registered. More or less what is left is the tax number that we need to start trading. I will receive a work visa for one or two years as investor visas in Ecuador make absolutely no sense because you cannot use the investment (so actually it isn't one in the first place).

Construction wise, we are more or less on track. The guard's room and office is completed, the security for the windows will be done today and the bar and checkout will be finished this week.
Yesterday, we started on the first chicken house. It was a lot of fun and learning. Jim's idea is to build a chicken village with fire station, police and a church. What a great idea!

Unfortunately, I misplaced/lost my camera charger, so I don't have a lot to share here. I hope to get hold of a replacement soon to be able to show you what is going on. Jim took some pictures with his camera a few days ago which I can share when I get hold of them.

Start of Constructions

The office is almost done. Next are the guard's room and the changing rooms. Those will be followed by the shower, the security measures, bar, counter, etc.... :)