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By Liam Higgins When he was asked last week about the highlight of his first year in office, Mayor Pedro Palacios didn’t hesitate: “Obviously, it was the launch of the tram,” he said in a television interview. “2020 was a very difficult year because of the pandemic...
By Sylvan Hardy It was Cuenca’s quietest New Year’s Eve in memory. Although the skies briefly ignited with fireworks at midnight, mostly launched from private courtyards and driveways, and a few renegade dummies burned on sidewalks, city streets were mostly deserted...
Two and a half miles due south of the New Cathedral, offering much needed adornment to an otherwise unsightly and commercially developed hilltop, sits Iglesia de Turi. If it didn’t enjoy its commanding location, offering beautiful panoramic views of the city, it would...
Although spending on most large capital projects will be reduced in 2021, funding for bike lanes and trails will increase, Cuenca’s infrastructure office said Friday. In addition to 42 new bike lanes, trails and paths, the city will make improvements to at least 70...
We live to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. --Anaїs Nin. Let this book as it ends remember the hand that wrote it. the eyes that slowly learned its alphabet, the thumb that peeled back its pages. The days were marked beforehand: phases of the...
Intense Saturday afternoon thunderstorms closed highways, flooded houses and destroyed vehicles and crops in areas to the east and west of Cuenca. The Cuenca-Pasaje highway connecting Azuay with El Oro Provinces was closed for two hours as three landslides blocked the...
By Stephen Vargha Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.” Cuenca's Mauricio Bernal is proving the point by delivering Christmas to the children of rural areas of northern Azuay Province. The owner and chef of...
Instead of the traditional Pase del Niño parade, Cuenca's famous Niño Viajero soared over the city in an army helicopter early Thursday morning and then took a ride in the "popemobile" used by by Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to Ecuador. In all, the Catholic...
The municipal transportation authority (EMOV) said it will not issue safe conduct documents and will depend on drivers to observe the odd-even driving and curfew rules unless they have a valid reason to be on the road. “We are depending on the driving public to obey...
Editor's note: Long-time Cuenca expat Martha Mays died last week of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. She returned briefly to the U.S. for treatments but, when they failed, decided to return to Cuenca to spend her final days. Her son Daniel Palimeri and expat friend...
Representatives of Ecuador’s tourism industry are crying foul following the imposition of new health emergency restrictions. “We weren’t expecting this and it’s almost like a nail in our coffin,” says Holbach Muñetón, president of the National Federation of Tourism...
By Deke Castleman and Sylvan Hardy We’re all Gary’s children. Gringos lived and worked in Ecuador long before Gary and Merri Scott showed up in 1995, but the Scotts, almost single-handedly, put Ecuador on the radar screens of thousands of pilgrims to the Middle of the...
President Lenín Moreno announced Sunday night that the national Emergency Operations Council will meet Monday to consider “rapidly developing events relating to the pandemic.” Although the statement from the president’s office offered no details, a spokesman said...
It is difficult for me to describe the moment: it was like being drenched by a hard rain or feeling the chill of dread when you realize the novel you are reading may not have a happy ending. I met a friend in a local cafe last week. I invited her to come down and tell...
Although the Cuenca Emergency Operations Committee (COE) has canceled a number of large Christmas and New Year’s events, it says it does not have the authority to restrict gatherings of family and friends. “Without a national state of emergency, we cannot restrict the...
As I walk to and fro on the face of the earth, alone in those vast and desolate landscapes, the people, places and things I encounter shuffle the orderly deck of reality. They accomplish this by converting the abnormal into the norm. I move through the high paramos of...
By Stephen Vargha Where would we be at Christmas without Antonio Vivaldi? The Cuenca Symphony knows that answer: Vivaldi has made music magical for Christmas. The Italian composer’s renditions make us merry and bright every year. So, the symphony with the...
Jueves, 17/12/2020 Hola, Todos - Actividades - Otras cosas - Titular - Sin recursos propios las Prefecturas (Prefectures without their own resources) - The Provincial GADs are claiming debts and budget cuts from the Government. The prefects of Azuay and Cañar took to...
Editor's note: Cuenca for Expats, an Intercultural Experience is a comprehensive introduction to Cuenca taught in English and designed specifically for expats interested in learning more about their adopted home town. The instructors are experts in their fields, many...
Martes, 15/12/2020 Hola, Todos - Actividades - De la pagina cultural - Festival apunta a recuperar los villancicos tradicionales (Festival aims to recover traditional Christmas carols) - Singer Diego Zamora, Embajador Turístico del Ecuador, is organizing the Festival...
