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Ecuador recorded the third largest gain among Latin American nations in the United Nations 2013 Human Development Index rankings. The index, which was based on statistics from 2007 through 2012, measures a country’s educational system, quality and length of life...
Boutique hotels in Cuenca’s historic district are sprouting up all over. The provincial association of hoteliers reports that 10 new hotels have opened in the past 18 months and that other projects are either under construction or in the planning stage. The new...
Editor’s note: Even though Ecuador’s adoption of the U.S. dollar as its currency in 1999 followed a period of near economic collapse, it continues to be controversial. Although almost everyone agrees that the country has undergone a period of unprecedented...
Azuay’s Red Cross and police have figured out a way to reduce response time as well expenses in the city’s historic district: put first responders on bicycles. Freddy Sempertegui, risk management coordinator for the Azuay Red Cross says the change can get...
Nine months behind schedule, a new Cuenca-based airline says it will try again in April to get airborne. The first aircraft of Línea Aire de Cuenca, or LAC for short, was delivered almost a year ago and the airline said it would begin flying in May 2012....
Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed ash and pyroclastic material into the air on Sunday, indicating some intensification since the latest eruption began Saturday morning. Significant ashfall was reported in the villages of Choglontús and El Manzano...
Seventy percent of domestic air travlers in Ecuador fly for business reasons, says the national Directorate of Civil Aviation. The other 30% fly for family, personal or touristic reasons. The directorate also said that the most popular destinations are Quito and...
By Lance Brashear Though they are marketed as tourism “excursions,” the pastoral trips along the Ecuadorean Railway, which first began more than a century ago, are probably as much an adventure today as they were then. The train originally opened a new...
Ecuador’s murder rate dropped for the third consecutive year in 2012, according to national police statistics. A police report released by the country’s Ministry of the Interior last week, shows the homicide rate to be lower than those in Central American and...
Editor´s note: The following is from the Smithsonian Foundation blog by Alastair Bland, "Off the Road: The Travel Adventures of a Nomad on the Cheap." Alastair Bland is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco who writes about international...
"Grandma, I won the Oscar," was the first thing Angelita Espinoza of Azoguez heard when her granddaughter, Fatima Ptacek, called her Sunday night following presentation of the U.S. Academy Awards. Ptacek, who is 12-years-old and best known as the voice of...
Police say they have nothing new to report in the murder investigation of a Vilcabamba expat. Glenn Sanderse, a 53-year-old Canadian, was found dead Feb. 20 at his Vilcabamba real estate office. Police investigating the crime believe he died two or three days...
Editor’s note: Steve Pomerance, a former Boulder, Colorado city council member, describes his first visit to Ecuador in an article in the Boulder Daily Camera. I just returned from a great trip to Ecuador. It was my first visit there before, although I've...
Cuenca’s Mariscal La Mar Airport has purchased equipment from Quito’s old airport, including three jet ways, and is planning several remodelling projects. Airport director Juan Pablo Proaño said the jet ways, or jet bridges, will be installed by...
Ecuador's president has vowed to deepen the "citizen's revolution" that has lifted tens of thousands of people out of poverty. "In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital," said Rafael Correa, who was elected to a third term...
Public investment in Ecuador reached $6.3 billion in 2012, a sixfold increase since 2007, according to the Ministry of Planning and National Development, Senplades. The ministry also reports that Ecuador has the highest rate of public investment as percentage of gross...
On a campaign stage, Rafael Correa is a dancing, singing, swirling tornado of energy. Ecuador's president doesn't make promises. He's way past that. With characteristic bravado, Correa instead reminds the enthusiastic crowd in a northern Quito suburb of...
By Alejandro Morales The Galapagos Islands, home to unique species that led Charles Darwin to establish his Theory of Evolution, continue to evolve with the world’s first environmentally friendly airport. The new airport is on the island of Baltra and required...
By John Otis Like many upper-class Ecuadoreans, Lenin Moreno rarely noticed people with disabilities. A successful businessman and politician, he was too busy being an overachiever. All that changed in 1998. After buying bread at a Quito grocery store, Moreno...
By Susan Schenck Cuenca now boasts an English-speaking marriage and family counselor and hypnotherapist. Cuenca and its immigrant community continue to attract interesting, professional, and caring people in search of new and improved lives. And when they...
