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Strong thunderstorms rolled through Cuenca Tuesday afternoon, flooding several low-lying neighborhoods and dropping more than an inch of hail in some locations. The flooding affected streets in the Kennedy, Ochoa León, Paramarca and Ricaurte sectors and caused minor...
President Lenin Moreno’s massive economic reform law appears to be dead on arrival in Ecuador’s National Assembly and most legislators say there may be no way to fix it. Many claim that, by its sheer size, the plan is unconstitutional. The 190-page “Economic Growth...
Editor's note: This is the first of a four-part series about the impact of the human diet on the global climate crisis and strategies to deal with it. By John Keeble Meat eating's damage to global climates, forests and wildlife is forcing radical control measures onto...
Cuenca’s transportation office has reopened Padre Aguirre to vehicular traffic between Calles President Córdova and Sucre. The street, which runs besides San Francisco Plaza and the flower market, had served as a pedestrian-only mall for more than a year. Officials...
By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda The Chilean government has agreed to write a new constitution to replace one dating back to the Pinochet dictatorship, bowing to demands of protesters who have taken to the streets in often violent demonstrations in recent weeks. Interior...
By Mark Mahoney The Community Gardening Network, a project of Sustainable Tallahassee [Florida] in partnership with the IFAS/Leon County Extension Services participated in the recent 2019 Farm Tour by holding four community garden fall workshops/open houses. These...
By Lev Golinkin Thirty years ago, on November 9, the world was stunned to see ordinary Germans tear down the Berlin Wall, the dreaded symbol of totalitarianism. Seemingly overnight, Communist regimes across Eastern Europe dissolved; two years later, the Soviet Union...
By Kathy Cohen Whenever we return to the U.S. after living two years in Cuenca and the last eight on on a mountainside above Vilcabamba — an Ecuadorian pueblo of just 5,000 people — we feel like the Beverly Hillbillies or the Rip Van Winkles. We see unidentifiable...
In a survey conducted by the Swedish company EF (Education First) Cuenca ranks second behind Quito for English language proficiency. The survey was taken among high school and university students but its administrators say that it also represents English usage in the...
By Kathleen Peddicord My daughter Kaitlin, age 8 at the time, cried herself to sleep every night during our first year living in Waterford, Ireland. Kaitlin was fiercely opposed to the idea of leaving her grandmother, her cousins, her friends, and her school in...
Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned Sunday amid growing opposition after an international audit found the results of last month's election could not be validated due to "serious irregularities." Morales said he was stepping down "for the good of the country,"...
Bolivia's President Evo Morales has said he will call a new election after international monitors questioned the validity of his victory last month. The Organization of American States (OAS), which monitored the elections, called for the result to be annulled....
A tragic tale of murder, kidnapping and human trafficking ended Thursday morning in Cuenca with the arrest of two women in the Miraflores neighborhood. The arrests of Maryuri Alexandra G. and Yomayra Mercedes Ch. on charges of human trafficking of a 10-day-old baby...
By Jorge Ramos There is a rage brewing in Latin America. Aware that they don’t live in real democracies, the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia are taking to the streets. In Chile, Ecuador and Haiti, citizens are angry about social inequality and the lack of...
By Katy Watson I have one particularly large wrinkle between my eyebrows I put down to scowling while living in Mexico in my 20s, trying to ward off the hisses and catcalls in the street. There was one day, though, when I dropped the scowl and chose another tactic. A...
A three-judge National Court panel rejected an appeal by the attorneys for former president Rafael Correa and five other ex-officials in the so-called Sobornos 2012-2016 -- or Bribes 2012-206 – case that would have allowed the defendants to avoid pretrial detention....
By Mitch Anderson In July, a court in Ecuador issued a ruling with profound implications for the urgent fight to save the imperiled Amazon rainforest. The decision effectively blocked a planned government oil auction that threatened half-a-million acres of some of the...
Maybe you have seen my presentations on ‘best’ and ‘worst’ diets for weight loss. I always focus on eating for energy, and especially when you're working out, to fuel your fitness. I read recently that NBC’s USA Network was bringing back the television reality show...
Ecuador may soon take the first step to reduce the use of plastics. The proposed law of economic reform, currently being debated in the National Assembly, would tax single-use plastic bags 10 cents each. In its first phase, the tax would apply to bags used in larger...
I spend time each day, living in my rural paradise outside Cuenca, playing in the quebrada (mountain stream). I have a project, moving stones in the creek, creating a wading pool, and sifting through the gravel finding a variety of quartz. The myriad of colors of the...
