CuencaHighLife
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 Biosphere Reserve, a lush site protected by the United Nations for its unique flora...
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 starting at 5:30 p.m. Both are great places and times to...
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 August. The airport, which currently handles two daily Tame Air...
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 congested, according to city statistics. Within the last two decades, according to city...
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, the numbers show that the city continues to be the most popular destination for new...
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 Toral near Avenida Loja, I checked my trusty guía...
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 town, from roughly 5:45 a.m. till 11 p.m. weekdays and 6...
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 a thief’s bullet ripped through his spine 13 years ago, Ecuador’s vice...
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, dangerous border crossings, or highly restrictive government requirements even if...
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 Reno committed to keeping the promise, and he returned...
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 of tourists reached a record of 173,000, a four-fold...
Unseasonably heavy rains in the Andes have caused airport closures in Quito and Cuenca and triggered landslides on dozens of mountain roads. Ecuador’s National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (INAMHI) blamed conditions on the La Niña effect in the Pacific Ocean and warned that there's more rain to come. As bad as the rainfall has...
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