Posts:
After you start noticing the different tables in Cuenca, something else becomes harder to ignore. It is not just that people gather at different cafés or at different hours. It is that those tables often reflect very different assumptions about risk, visibility, and...
The head of U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil on Friday told President Donald Trump that Venezuela is “uninvestible” under current conditions, saying major changes were needed before his company would return to the country that has seen its crude oil resources sink into...
By Dani Blum Early clues suggest that this flu season could be particularly brutal. And while national Covid rates currently appear to be low, researchers expect the virus to circulate more widely in the coming months as people gather for the holidays. If you feel ill...
By Calvin Trillin "But haven't you been there before?" That's what people tended to say when they heard that I was about to spend a week or so in Cuenca. "Funny, I never get that sort of response with Paris," I would reply. If I mentioned that I was about to spend a...
An Ecuadorian court invoked Ecuador’s rights of nature laws in halting a highway project to protect the Jambato harlequin toad, requiring the government to prove construction won’t drive the species to extinction. The court blocked construction of a Cotopaxi Province...
Somewhere north of Panama they invented an app that tells you when to be hungry. It also tells you how much guilt you should feel when you order dinner. If you do not tip enough, the little icons turn sad and the universe frowns upon you. If you hesitate at the...
By Larry Scherwitz, PhD Those of us who live in Cuenca know how fortunate we are to have physicians who truly listen—doctors who take time, think carefully, and treat us as whole human beings. One of those doctors is Dr. Pablo Parra. For more than 35 years, Dr. Parra...
Moving to Cuenca involves a series of legal milestones, each unlocking a new level of integration and financial benefit. From passing the Spanish-only driver’s exam to receiving "Gold Card" senior discounts, the Ecuadorian legal system offers a clear roadmap for those...
Interior Minister John Reimberg said Thursday that the U.S. blockade of Venezuela could increase the flow of illegal drugs to Ecuadorian ports. “We are aware that this action and the capture of [Nicolas] Maduro could disrupt the flow of drugs in the Caribbean and we...
Ecuador is protesting a Spanish court's decision to release an alleged crime boss believed to have been the mastermind of an attack on a Guayaquil television station in January 2024. Ecuador had petitioned the Spanish government to extradite William Joffre Alcivar,...
By Jancee Dunn Before she stopped drinking alcohol eight years ago, Cecily Mak drank daily to “soften the edges of life.” She couldn’t socialize without a “boozy assist.” Mak, the author of “Undimmed,” an upcoming book about rethinking alcohol use, told me that many...
For medical tourists and long-term expats in Cuenca, the search for the "best dentist" often begins with a name. While finding a highly skilled individual is important, the reality of modern specialized dentistry—particularly for complex procedures like dental...
“People are dying of malnutrition, even starvation, at Litoral,” a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said following a visit to the Guayaquil prison last week. Alicia Diaz also said that inmates suffering from tuberculosis are receiving...
Curious? - (De El Mercurio del martes, 6/1/2026) Proyectan lluvias (Forecast for rain) - A high probability of rain in Cuenca is predicted for this week according to the daily forecast published by ETAPA EP based on information from The Weather Channel. <So if...
There was a time, and it was not so very long ago, when the Republic of Ecuador would hand you a retirement visa if you could prove an income of about seven hundred dollars a month. That was back when rotary dial phones still worked and avocado toast had not yet been...
By Steven Boykey Sidley In early December, in a corner of Yunnan Province near the Myanmar border, something rather extraordinary happened. While most of the Western tech world was busy arguing about whether AI would take their jobs or merely make them obsolete, China...
For expats entering the social and romantic landscape of Ecuador, the experience is often described as a journey back to a more traditional, romantic, and diplomatic era. Unlike the often blunt and direct dating culture of North America, Ecuadorian courtship is a...
To conserve water, management of the Mazar hydroelectric complex is operating only two of three generation stations downstream from the reservoir. CelecSur said Tuesday that the power generation shortfall is being made up by other generation plants in the country as...
By Ryan Zickgraf Fictional vampires are dark, dangerous, and, crucially, sexy. From Bela Lugosi’s hypnotic stare in the first Dracula film to the tortured emo vibe of Edward Cullen, the silver-skinned heartthrob of Twilight, the undead have often been seen as the apex...
Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Tuesday declared seven days of mourning for members of the military killed in the U.S. raid over the weekend to capture leader Nicolas Maduro. "We have officially declared seven days of national mourning for the...
