Posts:
By Larry Schunk Over the past four years, I’ve dined downstairs at the Restaurant El Jardin in La Victoria Hotel for many special occasions. I've never been disappointed. The nicely decorated room, linen tablecloths and great view of the Rio Tomebamba and the city of...
Cuenca’s Mall del Rio is getting bigger. New construction includes an 11-story Sheraton hotel that will be the city’s largest, as well as additional commercial and parking area. According to mall manager Juan Cordero, work on the new commercial space as well as 100...
Ecuador’s minister of telecommunications Jaime Guerrero says he has reached an agreement with the country’s largest cell phone service providers for use of the 4G cell phone and Internet network. The installation work for the network is underway and the service should...
By Larry Schunk A few years ago, I spotted this place across the airport parking lot and gave it a try as hunger had set in. I left my car in the airport lot. The airport wasn’t charging for parking yet. It was midday and the place was filling up. Seating was (and...
Cuenca college students are demanding that city officials follow Quito’s lead and keep municipal bus fares at 25 cents. Following negotiations with bus companies, Quito Mayor Mauricio Rodas announced last week that fares would remain at 25 cents, although the city...
A strong thunderstorm paralyzed parts of central and southern Cuenca Saturday afternoon, flooding streets, cars and homes, and briefly filling the Rios Tomebamaba and Yanuncay to their banks. Flooding caused minor damage at the both the University of Cuenca and...
What effect will federal budget cuts have on Cuenca in 2015? Not much, at least what you can see, say several officials. “This year and next year, there will be more major projects in development than any other time in the city’s history,” says Pabel Muñoz, director...
Editor’s note: CuencaHighLife restaurant reviewer Larry Schunk enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1960 and, following two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded, he was retrained in aviation electronics and pioneered the Marine Corps Computer Based Training...
Passenger traffic through Cuenca’s Mariscal La Mar airport dropped by almost 25% in 2014, a decline officials say is mostly the result of the opening of Quito’s new international airport. Officials report that about 381,000 passengers traveled through Cuenca in 2014...
It was an evening of spoofs and satire at Tuesday’s Mascaradas de Inocentes parade. Politicians, government policies, television personalities, expats, and even the dead, were lampooned during the three-hour procession down Cuenca’s Av. Huayna Capac. The parade,...
A significant number of Cuenca’s 3,600 taxis are out of service, according to some taxi drivers. The reason, they say, is that the fare scheduled programmed into taxi meters in 2014 has reduced the income for drivers, and some taxistas have taken other employment....
By Sylvan Hardy Although it appears that the final obstacles for Cuenca’s new electric tram system have been overcome, controversy surrounding the project continues. As one city transportation official put it, “The train has left the station, but there are still some...
The city has agreed to the demands of the Cuenca Civic Collective to reroute the tram outside of the historic district. City transportation director Gerard Fernandez said on Saturday that the decision was made to move the tram lines north to Av. Las Amercas from the...
Bar owners in Cuenca’s historic district are asking for a change to a 30-year-old ordinance that has been used to shut down eight bars and night clubs. Last week's closures were ordered under an ordinance adopted in 1985 that stipulates that bars and night clubs...
Ecuador’s National Police statistics show that crime in Azuay Province declined more than 14% in 2014 with a similar drop for the city of Cuenca. Azuay home burglaries dropped 23% while crimes against persons were down by 26%. The number of murders also declined, from...
Cuenca’s transportation office says it will have professional archeologists on site when tram construction begins in the historic district in January. In announcing steps it will take to reduce the impact on the district, Gerard Fernandez, transportation director,...
The city transportation office has opened an information kiosk in Civic Plaza, adjacent to the Nueve de Octubre market. According to Gerard Fernandez, Cuenca transportation chief, the kiosk is intended to inform the public about details of the tram, including its...
Almost everyone agrees that Cuenca’s historic district needs to improve its pedestrian friendliness. The problem is balancing the area's social, cultural and tourism needs with those of businesses that depend on motorized transportation. A group of planners from...
Cuenca Mayor Marcelo Cabrera has announced that the city transportation office will renegotiate contracts with the French consortium responsible for building the tram system. The move is necessary, he says, to establish a realistic construction schedule. The new...
Cuenca police chief José Valdivieso credits a multi-year drop in crime to the addition of more police officers, community training and the installation of security cameras and emergency buttons in schools, homes and businesses. Overall, according to Valdivieso, crime...
