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Text and photos by Doug Hansen You don’t have to be a hard-core bird watcher in order to be mesmerized by the dazzling display of hummingbirds, and various other tropical birds, that swarm to the feeders at one of Ecuador’s special nature preserves, Buenaventura. For...
I ended my last column with a quote from Jonathan Livingston Seagull about becoming a finder. What exactly does this mean? It is worth our exploration, as our personal awakening is the most important accomplishment possible as humans. Eckhart Tolle was very clear...
Editor's note: One of our favorite things about living in Cuenca is not having to worry about ticks and mosquitos. A few flies, yes, especially when it's warmer. Enjoy this column from the Washington Post that suggests some nontoxic methods to protect yourself against...
Edie and I were laughing about our constant need to know what’s over the next hill when El Fantasma was almost swallowed by a truck-defying pothole. As we lurched through to the other side, hot coffee was sloshing about the cab and onto my bare legs. I wasn’t...
Editor's note: I've had the honor of being appointed the Country Representative from Ecuador of the International Association of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics (IAAND) of the U.S. I have been networking with nutritionists here in Cuenca, learning more about...
Personal transformation is difficult. The way of transformation involves legitimate suffering, and it is the design and purpose of the egoic mind to avoid suffering. The ego brandishes two tools, denial and projection, in order to avoid suffering. In doing so it...
By Susan Burke March The stevia plant is a perennial that does best in sunny, warm climates with plenty of rain. In the battle of commercial sweeteners, consumers who want to enjoy the taste of sweet without calories and without artificial ingredients have...
By Catherine Saint Louis Efforts to improve what children eat should begin before they even learn to walk, a series of nutritional studies published on Tuesday has found. Taken together, the data indicate that infant feeding patterns persist far longer than has been...
By David Morrill No one knows exactly when the guitar-making tradition began in San Bartolomé, a picturesque village 20 miles east of Cuenca. Local historians agree, however, that it dates to the Spanish colonial era, at least 200 years ago, and many of the area's...
The Journal of Wild Mushrooming is a fascinating resource for all things mushrooms. They say there are 10,000 described species in North American alone, but that may represent only a third to a fifth of what’s really out there! In percentages, 50 percent are inedible,...
Hailing from Louisiana, I’ve weathered many summers with 90-plus straight days of temperatures above 100 and humidity to match. A quick trip outside my home would have sweat droplets as big as buckshot scattered across my forehead and rivulets of the same running down...
By Steve Clark I’m a Genetically Modified Organism. That is the reason I’m alive and writing this essay. Several years ago, I had several serious bumps on my head, which turned out to be active melanoma tumors. My doctors sent me in for scans and they located several...
I always tell my clients who see me for weight loss that their weight may be an important number, but it doesn’t tell you everything. Weight doesn't always prove how healthy someone is — more important numbers include blood pressure — a critical number to measure —...
Editor's note: Michelle's Foods of The Americas series continues this week with the first of a three-column series on squash, the noblest of vegetables. By Michelle Bakeman The following is an excerpt from “The Pumpkin,” by fireside poet John Greenleaf Whittier: On...
Back in the early 1980s, I was living in New York City. At the time, fish on the menu was ho-hum, usually a tasteless, overcooked filet. Suddenly, Chilean Sea Bass appeared and was all the rage, commanding a pretty high price. Why had no one ever bothered with it...
By Editors at dLife.com Sugar does not improve mood and, on the contrary, it can make people less alert and more tired after its consumption, according to a new European study. The research team set out to examine the myth of the “sugar rush,” and attempted to answer...
By Nancy Clark For most of the past 40 years, dieters have been told to limit dietary fat, believing it leads to obesity and heart disease. Today, dieters hear messages to indulge in a very high-fat (ketogenic) diet and limit the carbohydrate-based foods that fueled...
The experience of solo hiking in the Caja’s range of the Andes has cost more than one adventurer their lives. Several months ago, according to CuencaHighLife and local newspapers, an experienced hiker in his mid-sixties went missing while hiking there. The man was a...
By Delthia Ricks In the first published example of how the gut may play a role in autism, scientists have found that a “fecal transplant” helped to substantially improve behavior and gastrointestinal health in children with the neurodevelopmental disorder. The...
In the first part of this series on Conscious Living and Dying I referred to my early involvement with the Taoist philosophy as represented by the Tao Te Ching. I remember learning about the key principle of Wu Wei and being totally perplexed. As a young man this...
