Posts:
France has made French language and civic exams mandatory for certain multi-year residence permits, long-term residence cards and citizenship applications from January 1, 2026, making it tougher for some foreigners to secure long-term stay or nationality. The new...
For the expatriate community, understanding Ecuadorian politics is often less about the heated debates in the National Assembly and more about the "math" of the Unified Basic Salary (SBU). As we enter 2026, the political landscape is defined by a significant pivot...
Bored? - (De El Mercurio del domingo, 4/1/2026) Nueva app UDA Book reúne más de 350 obras (New UDA Book app brings together more than 350 works) - <This would probably only be an antidote to boredom in Spanish.> The Universidad del Azuay launched a free, new...
There is a man on YouTube who says he is living in Ecuador on a budget of about $167 a month. His name is Steve W., a sort-of retired Canadian who moves around the country volunteering and doing odd jobs in various places, living a kind of free-range lifestyle with no...
For the global expat community, 2024 and 2025 have been years of mixed signals regarding Ecuador. National headlines have focused on a significant security crisis, primarily concentrated in the coastal provinces where drug trafficking routes and port access have...
By Mauricio Torres "No, the U.S. is not running Venezuela," the country's new leader Delcy Rodríguez said Sunday. The Venezuelan Supreme Court appointed Rodríguez interim president following Saturday morning's capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces. The...
Spend enough time in Cuenca’s cafés and you start to notice something subtle. The room is full, yet the tables rarely mix. Older expats often sit with people who arrived around the same time, share similar routines, and meet at familiar hours. Younger expats are...
By Rachel Fairbank Even if you are a long-time smoker, there are some surprising, and even immediate, benefits to quitting. Every year, half a million Americans die from smoking-related causes, while an estimated 16 million Americans are living with smoking-related...
Ecuador tops all Latin America countries for the highest rate of digital piracy, according to the internet monitoring company Origin. The company’s survey found that 65% of Ecuadorian households with fixed internet service access pirated content. According to Origin,...
By Jill Lawless The United States carried out a lightning military strike on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spiriting them out of the country. American officials say the pair will face narco-terrorism...
Feliz Año Nuevo a todos y espero que el año empazó con bendiciones para todos ustedes. Curious? - (From El Mercurio del miércoles, 31/12/2025) Ultiman tasa en pago de agua (Rate finalized in water bill) - La Empresa Municipal de Aseo de Cuenca (EMAC EP - the city...
Someone once asked me how long it takes for a package to be shipped from Temu in China to Cuenca, and the question simply is not that easy as it involves multiple actors, customs clearance in Quito, and taking into account factors like days of the week and public...
By Anthony Peregrine Across the road and up a path from our house you come to the edge of a small cliff. Below, the plain runs away to the Cévennes hills. When we arrived here 35 years ago, the plain was blanketed entirely in vines. Acres and acres of them. These...
One of the most satisfying parts of the "Ecuadorian math" for retirees is seeing the monthly utility folder. For many North Americans used to $300 heating bills or $150 internet packages, the Andean cost of basic services feels like a time machine to a much more...
By Liam Higgins An immigration researcher says Cuenca’s population of North American and European expats is growing again. “The numbers were steady for several years despite the bad news about crime on the coast, but they began to increase in late 2024 and this...
By Sanjay Mishra You know the feeling. You slurp that diet soda relishing the sweet taste without the guilt or calories associated with sugar. But a new study suggests that these artificial sweeteners may not be as harmless as once thought; they may even increase the...
Transitioning your financial life to Ecuador is one of the final "big steps" in the expat journey. While you can certainly live off a foreign debit card for a while, having a local bank account is essential for paying utilities, securing a residency visa, and...
Cuencanos celebrated the new year Wednesday night with concerts, fireworks, the burning of año viejo monigotes and plenty of holiday drink. The largest party was at Parque Calderon where celebrants were treated to musical performances on the big stage in front of the...
There was a restaurant I used to love in the historic center. It lived inside an elegant old hotel that seemed to have more character than customers. The dining room had tall ceilings, dark beams, polished wood floors, elegant skylights, and the confidence of a place...
By Barney Jopson Criminal drug gangs have become a grave threat to European security by flooding the streets with South American cocaine, seeking to corrupt officials and hiring a new wave of paid assassins, according to the EU’s drugs agency. Due to financial crises,...
