Sylvan Hardy

By Deke Castleman and Sylvan Hardy The Spanish verb “to eat lunch” is almorzar. The noun is almuerzo (ahl-MWAIR-so). You notice the Arabic influence of the term in “al”; in addition, any Spanish spelling with a “z” in it is also a hand-me-down from the Arabic languages. Almuerzo has both. The traditional almuerzo, also known as menu del día, is a fixed-price fixed-menu lunch,...

By Sylvan Hardy A long-time expat tells the story from 2008 of a man from Texas who wanted to build a townhouse development in Cuenca’s northeast suburbs. The Texan wanted to partner with a prominent Cuenca developer in the project and made an appointment to present his plan. The expat and his Texas client showed...

By Sylvan Hardy Over the years, I’ve heard from dozens of prospective North Americans who tell me about the dream home the hope to find in Ecuador. A man from Georgia asked what he would pay for a house with a detached garage with an apartment above, set in the middle of a two acre...

Occasionally, I see a question posted on an Internet forum from an expat-wannabe inquiring about quiet places to live in Cuenca. If I were ever inclined to answer, it would be to deliver an emphatic “Don’t come to Cuenca!” . . . or anywhere else in Latin America, for that matter, if your number-one priority...

By Sylvan Hardy and Deke Castleman Children pick up language easily. Their nervous systems make new neural connections at lightning speeds. Computer simulations of neural activity in the early years of life look like all the cars in Los Angeles squeezed onto the Indianapolis Speedway racing at 200 miles an hour. Indeed, babies’ brains are...

By Deke Castleman and Sylan Hardy In his articles about Cuenca, former New Yorker editor, poet and food writer Calvin Trillin describes the joys of walking in the city’s historic district. In a November 2011 Condé Nast Traveler article, he wrote that Cuenca’s Old Town “doesn’t look like a 16th-century city that has been preserved;...