Dave Nelson

Some thoughts on my 90th birthday and how I came to live a better life in Cuenca

July 1st, 2022

Editor’s note: Long-time expat Dave Nelson died early Friday morning in Cuenca. He was 93. Born in a small town on the Oregon coast, Dave spent most of his professional […]

Pain, recovery and a reckoning, then new Covid rules

April 28th, 2021

Surprise!! Perhaps it is a stretch to say, after a five month hiatus, that I am still writing my Cuenca Notes but here I am and that is what it […]

The caste system that perpetuates racial inequality

December 2nd, 2020

For many years I have believed there is systemic racism in the U.S. regarding our Black population. The needless deaths of Blacks at the hands of the police, the many […]

Those who listen and cooperate will thrive

August 15th, 2020

I look at Facebook daily and it is distressing to continually see the labels socialist, radical and now “Marxist” used as epithets, thrown at any idea or activity that does […]

One expat’s quarantine reading list

May 20th, 2020

I have always been a reader, taught to read by my mother before I started school in 1935, and have continued to read, although not as ardently as some. So, […]

Notes on the coronavirus lockdown: Sounds of silence and missing friends and rituals

April 1st, 2020

March 25. Silence. The lockdown on March 17 with the standard restrictions, also limited automobile traffic, and it got pretty quiet on the very busy street that my apartment overlooks. […]

An expat’s reawakening

January 3rd, 2020

I woke up on November 13 and, as I lay in bed before getting up, I realized that something was different. I felt alert and very alive but I had […]

Consider the power of a hug

December 12th, 2019

I grew up in a small town, Tillamook, on the Oregon coast in the 1930’s and 40’s in an intact family of mother, father and three evenly spaced boys. Aside […]

The protests by the world’s downtrodden give this expat hope for the future

November 20th, 2019

I am very encouraged by the number and intensity of the various uprisings and demonstrations going on around the world. The poor, the dispossessed, the mistreated, the left out, are […]

After a bad fall, the veil lifts for this expat as he visits family in California and rebuilds his health

October 1st, 2019

It feels so good to be not only sitting here typing but also wanting to. It has been a while since my last column so perhaps an explanation is in […]

How can you not love Cuenca?

April 9th, 2019

It was a great day in Cuenca. As usual, I woke up alert, the sun was shining and continued until mid-afternoon (although there would be rain later from the clouds […]

Life goes on even if it’s not what we planned

February 3rd, 2019

It has been three months since my last column and I have been sitting here in front of my computer screen for two hours trying to decide how to begin […]