By Lance Brashear Visitors arriving in Ecuador are often amazed at the country's wild and exotic fruit. Both strange and delicious, many varieties bear little resemblance to what they know and love back home. An example is the granadilla, cousin of the passion fruit. To eat it, one is required to...
By Lief Simon Living or doing business in another country, how should you handle requests for a little something on the side to help grease the wheels? A friend, a businessman in Ecuador, told me about a survey carried out in that country a few years ago. That survey found that something close to...
By Martin Simmons On a recent visit to Loja Province, a man and his wife described a home invasion they had suffered earlier this year. Although the couple lost a television, cell phones and several hundred dollars in cash, they were unhurt except for bruises they received from being tied up. When...
By Molly Hodgdon To live in Vermont is to be smothered by nature’s beauty on a daily basis. Everywhere you look is another peaceful pond, another shimmering lake or emerald hill or misty field graced by a family of grazing deer. It’s almost obnoxious, like that one friend you have who’s so pretty,...
By Liam Higgins Ecuadorians living on the country's north coast were reminded once again last week that they live in the seismically active zone known as the "ring of fire" that encircles the Pacific Ocean. Over an eight-day period, more than 100 earthquakes were recorded, several of them...
By Sylvan Hardy and Deke Castleman A statue of Garaicoa Abdón Calderón marks the heart of Parque Calderón, which marks the heart of El Centro, which, in turn, marks the heart of Cuenca. To get your bearings in Cuenca, this is where you start. Abdón Calderón was born in Cuenca in 1804. At the...
By Sylvan Hardy As they do every year, a small group gathered Friday on the banks of the Paute River, near the town of Paute, to remember those killed 26 years ago in what has become known simply as the Josefina disaster, a giant landslide that blocked the Rio Paute. The blockage created what was,...
By Liam Higgins Almost every expat arriving in Ecuador has heard the pitch: You can hire a maid, gardener, or cook in Ecuador for a fraction of what you would pay in North America or Europe. This is true, although the cost has gone up considerably in recent years. What you don’t hear, however, is...
By Liam Higgins A little before three in the afternoon on December 9, 1995, a screaming came across the sky that was heard by almost all the residents of Cuenca. In the Cajas Mountains, just west of city, the shrill sound was described as “una mujer en el terror,” or a woman in terror, by a farmer...
By Sylvan Hardy Get ready for fireworks, cookies, candy, honey bees, and general craziness. Cuenca’s Corpus Christi celebration, commonly known as Septenario or Setenario, kicked off yesterday with a Catholic mass and procession followed by the sales of pastries, culminating in a fireworks show in...
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