Expat Life

A field guide for people who just want to pay and get on with lunch. In Cuenca, garbage collection used to be one of those civic services that functioned so […]

Dear Charlie, My significant other and I are coming to Cuenca for two months and would relish any advice on finding a reasonable place to stay with easy access to […]

In the early months, Cuenca feels like a backdrop. Beautiful buildings. Mountain light. Cafes that feel new each time you sit down. Life feels like a long vacation with errands […]

Most people in Cuenca have never heard of Gary Stevenson. He is not a president, a pop singer, or a football manager. He is a British economist who used to […]

By Lucy Hancock We’ve all lived through the blackouts. I don’t need to remind anyone. Last September I was late to the party. By the time I got to MegaKywi […]

Flora Thompson was born in 1876 in a tiny Oxfordshire hamlet in England called Juniper Hill. Finishing her education at the age of 14, she worked as a housemaid, which […]

The first six months in Cuenca can feel like a dream. The buildings look old and beautiful. The mountains feel close enough to touch. The prices seem unreal compared to […]

When you live in Cuenca long enough, someone will eventually lean across a café table and whisper, “Have you joined IESS yet? You get a free funeral.” They usually say […]

I keep seeing the same couple in Cuenca. Or at least I keep seeing their online clones. He is always about sixty-one and grizzled with a baseball cap that says […]

By Jim Smith Arriving in Cuenca often feels like a fresh start filled with color, mountain air, and possibility. Many people come here to slow down, to breathe, or to […]

By Garry Vatcher Some call it giving — I prefer to call it investing. “Giving” often suggests something you’ll never see again. But when you invest in reputable non-profit programs, […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a four-part series about Married at First Sight, the international reality television show. The show originated in Denmark in 2013 and now has […]

If you sit with newcomers at a café near Parque Calderón, you can almost hear the expectations they carried when they first arrived. Some imagined peaceful days where everything feels […]