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Editor's note: This is first in continuing series of interviews with Cuenca expats. By Susan Schenck SS: TC, My tarot card reading with you was amazing. You told me things that were happening in my life and about who I am that couldn’t have come from the...
According to a former official of Ecuador’s Banco Central, last week’s run on a large financial cooperative in Cuenca should serve as a cautionary tale for those who deposit money with the country’s financial cooperatives. Based, apparently, on a...
By Susan Schenck When my husband and I came to Cuenca a couple of years ago, though we did not know it at the time, we met one of Southern Ecuador´s most intriguing residents. Humberto Chica, along with his wife, owns and operates Cabañas Yanuncay, a...
Cuenca airport and business officials are worried about the affect Quito´s new international airport, scheduled to open in October, will have on local air service. The new airport, located 20 kilometers east of downtown Quito, near Tababela, will be one of the...
Life just got easier for Cuenca's English-speaking foreigners. According to its director, Ana Lucía Serrano, Cuenca's new immigration office means that foreigners will no longer need to travel to Quito to conduct their visa business. It also means...
Ecuador customs officials announced Saturday that they would delay enforcing new rules for the importation of cell phones until details of the new plan have been worked out. The new restrictions, adopted June 15, impose import limits and new taxes on dozens of...
Relocating school-age children to a new country, especially one with a different language, is the biggest challenge confronting most expat parents. "It's a huge decision and one that any parent needs to think hard about," says John O'Neil, father of...
New government taxes and restrictions on imports will mean higher prices on some items at the check-out counter and leaders of Ecuador´s major business organizations are cyring foul. The measures announced June 15 by the government´s Committee of Foreign...
According to local builders and real estate agents, more Cuencanos are buying apartments than ever before. Cuenca Chamber of Construction president, Diego Monsalve, says the trend is an indication that people are eager to simplify their lives by avoiding the upkeep...
Sacagawea, make room for the U.S. Presidents and Susan B. Anthony. Thanks to the United States mint, Ecuadoreans will soon be using dollar coins bearing the likenesses of 20 U.S. Presidents as well as civil rights pioneer Susan B. Anthony. Distribution of the new...
By Ellen Creager This is one rain forest the world may have saved. After donors around the globe pledged $116 million by the December 2011 deadline to prevent oil drilling in the biologically fragile Yasuni National Park, the Ecuadorian government agreed to leave it...
By Sylvan Hardy Ecuador at Your Service is on the air. The radio program, aimed at English-speaking residents and prospective residents of Ecuador, debuted earlier this year on the Overseas Radio Network. The program, which airs Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., is...
The first aircraft for Línea Aire de Cuenca, Cuenca´s new airline, has arrived in Ecuador, although a start date for flights to Quito and Guayaquil remains to be established. The airlines, call letters LAC, said it has begun hiring airport staff and hopes...
A year ago, in Action Comics, Superman declared plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship. 'Truth, justice, and the American way' — it's not enough anymore," the comic book superhero said, after both the Iranian and American governments criticized...
In 1897, 16-year-old Rosalía Suarez carried ice from Mt. Imbabura to her home in Ibarra in northern Ecuador. In a large copper pail, she mixed tropical fruit juices with the ice, inventing “helados de paila,” or copper-pail sherbet. Nearly 115 years...
Health care, both the quality and the cost, is a prime concern for anyone approaching retirement. Some retirees are moving abroad in order to get access to top-notch health care at affordable prices. Here’s the good news: You have an excellent option for...
Cuenca may quietly be establishing itself as an international center for civil and system engineers, according to Ramiro Crespo, editorial board chairman for Analytica Investments. Crespo cites the story of Javier Ordóñez, a consultant for the risk...
The lands of the Shuar Indians in the Amazon are rich in wildlife such as tapirs, toucans and red howler monkeys. They also hold treasures more coveted by outsiders: rich deposits of copper and other minerals that the government is eager to cash in on. Projects to...
Editor´s note: Christine Collins and her husband moved to Cuenca in August, 2011, after vacationing here several months earlier. They had lived in a large expat community near Lake Chapala, Mexico prior to relocating. She is thrilled to report that they have...
There are no ivy-covered walls at Alfredo Pérez Guerrero University. No quad. No soccer fields. The entire campus fits in four small, rented buildings on the fringes of a modest residential neighborhood. Its main entrance is on a busy street, between a...
