Posts:
After Ecuador and the U.S. dismissed each others’ ambassadors last week, the future of diplomatic relations between the two countries remains strained although both sides say they already working on reconciliation. The U.S. State Department says that Ecuador has...
Diego Rivas has been gored in the shoulder, knocked to the dirt and trampled by snorting bulls. But the 29-year-old Ambato native has always dusted himself off, picked up his red cape and gone back to the only job he knows: being a matador. Now...
Besides its UNESCO designation as a World Heritage City, Cuenca also bears the distinction of being a “Healthy City.” According to the Pan American Health Organization, which bestowed the health honor, Cuenca´s policies to provide medical services to...
[Editor’s Note: On April 6, Cuenca High Life published an article by Lee Dubs, proprietor of the English-language Carolina Bookstore and long-time Cuencano, in which he classified expats to Ecuador from a long-timer’s perspective; Lee and his wife Carol...
By Dr. Lee Dubs Fact: North Americans are currently migrating in large numbers to Ecuador, and especially Azuay Province, where Cuenca is located. First Question: Why? Second Question: Who are these people? Not everyone has the same motives, of course,...
To date, the Cuenca Expatriate Benevolent Association (CEBA) has raised $650 through the inaugural session of Gringo Bingo, various “passing-the-hat” opportunities, and blog posts. This amount will be matched by a donor who has asked to remain anonymous;...
April 1 isn't April Fools Day in Cuenca. Rather, it's the launch day of several weeks of parades, art shows, concerts, fiestas, and the kind of partying that goes on in a city that's celebrating its founding a mere 454 years ago...
Tourism in Cuenca and the rest of Ecuador will benefit from a new owner and an alliance of AirCuenca with DAE, the Caribbean airline, according to tourist officials. Arnold B. Leonora, who recently acquired a majority stake in AirCuenca announced the alliance...
I've never seen anything like it. At least not without a coupon or a comp or a cook in my own kitchen. El Nuevo Paraiso comes about as close as you can get to a free lunch. I met Jim Rathjen there who, chatting (or more like shouting over the max-volume TV...
The image of the San Rafael waterfall is ubiquitous in Ecuador's Amazon region, appearing on everything from tourist brochures to the backs of buses, alongside the Virgin Mary meant to protect drivers. The waterfall, the country's largest, is in the Sumaco...
Two weekly Gringo Nights take place in Cuenca. One is on Fridays at Zóe restaurant on Presidente Borrero between Mariscal Sucre and Presidente Cordova starting at 5 p.m. The other is on Tuesdays at DiBacco restaurant on Tarqui between Bolivar and Gran Colombia...
A one-year project to resurface and upgrade the Camilo Ponce Enríquez Airport in Catamayo will mean increased air traffic in Cuenca and long trips by car and bus to Loja and the tourist town of Vilcabamba. The airport work is scheduled to begin in July or...
The decision to institute parking fees on Av. Remigio Crespo is not the solution to the neighborhood´s traffic problems say business and home owners in the area. With more than 13,000 vehicle trips per day, the street is Cuenca´s businest and most...
Cuenca´s “gringo invasion,” a term coined by an Ecuadorian news magazine, may not be all it´s cracked up to be according to numbers released last week by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the national immigration office. On the other hand,...
My luggage was already overflowing and I needed a new printer anyway, so I left my old printer behind, planning on buying a new one in Cuenca. My friend Greg Madeiros, an expat computer guy, recommended the store CompuFacil. Armed with the address on Remigio Crespo...
Among the first sights newcomers to Cuenca notice, along with the billowing white clouds, the rolling green hills, and the red-tile roofs, are the big blue buses that spew black diesel fumes into the otherwise colorless alpine air. Hundreds of them bomb around...
The ornate lobby of the nation’s vice presidential palace is teeming with people in wheelchairs and on crutches, mothers leading the blind and the developmentally disabled. Many are here because they believe that the man upstairs is one of their own. Ever since...
By Anne Carr Bienvenido to Ecuador as a new immigrant! We are the fortunate immigrants who got to choose our new country, our method of transport, our accommodations, and what belongings to bring with us. We are not an exodus frightened of regime change,...
Editor’s Note: Deke and Shirlee arrived in Cuenca for the first time on a two-week visit to Ecuador in early March 2010, and Deke promised himself he’d expatriate within a year. After he and Shirlee visited Cuenca for a month in October, Deke went home to...
By David Shukman On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, the director of the Darwin Foundation says there is only a decade to avoid an ecological disaster. In a BBC interview, Gabriel Lopez calls for limits on the level of visitors. In 2009, the number...
