Posts:
By Liam Higgins When expats dream of retiring in Cuenca, the vision usually includes strolling along the cobblestone paths of the Tomebamba River, enjoying the spring-like weather, exploring the historic center, and stretching their retirement dollars in a beautiful...
Sherlock Holmes is almost certainly the most famous detective who never existed. He has been portrayed on screen more times than any other fictional character, which is a remarkable distinction for a man who lives only in print, but the version that fixed itself in...
If you have lived in Cuenca for any length of time, you have almost certainly had at least one close encounter with its sidewalks, pavings, steps, or street furniture, and if you have not, you are either very new here or unusually nimble, and the odds on the second...
By Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D., R.D.N. The necessity of understanding how to maintain good hydration is an important one for maintaining good health and needs to be reiterated due to the importance of adequate hydration for our well-being and health. A lot of misleading...
If you spend enough time observing relationships abroad, you may begin to notice something that is not always easy to define at first. It is not just how relationships form. It is what seems to sit quietly beneath them. At first, everything looks natural. People meet....
By Garry Vatcher Some projects begin with a plan. Others begin with a moment. The Amazon Fundraising Mural Project began with many moments - walking jungle trails, traveling rivers by canoe, sitting with community leaders, listening to mothers, watching children, and...
From time to time, an article or column surfaces or resurfaces warning expatriates that they will have to learn the hard way, that time works differently in Latin America. The warning is often delivered with the authority of someone who has just been embarrassed by...
Editor’s note: Originally from California, Rick Ingle describes himself as a “student of expatriation.” Rick has lived overseas since 1984 in the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Panama, and now Ecuador. He has lived parttime in Cuenca since 2011. He's currently...
Feeling heartbroken, in the fall of 1980, after breaking up with Gwen, my Vermont girlfriend, and with nothing to keep me there, I traveled west to try to reconcile with her. She had returned to her job in the oil fields of southwest Wyoming. My friends, Tom from New...
When V. S. Naipaul sat down to write The Enigma of Arrival, he was already some distance from where he began. Born in Trinidad, of Indian descent, he left his island and moved to England on the strength of a scholarship to Oxford University, and much later was awarded...
In a recent column, I wrote about the point where living in Cuenca stops being the question and becomes something more personal. If you stay with that idea a little longer, something else begins to come into view. Not all at once, and not in a way that calls attention...
There are restaurants in the city center where for $3.50, a man in a white apron will place before you a bowl of soup, a plate of rice with something on top of it, a small salad of red cabbage, grated carrot, and papaya with half an avocado pressed into a rough...
I was invited to speak at the monthly “Storyteller’s Night”, at IdiomArt (Mariscal Lamar 14-25 y Estevez de Toral the other night. It was a totally cool evening hosted by my new neighbor and soon-to-be good friend, Barry Callen, who mc’d this second-Thursday-of-the...
There are certain songs that do not so much belong to a period as continue living inside it, like a station clock that still keeps perfect time long after the timetable has ceased to matter, and Chattanooga Choo Choo is one of those, appearing simple on first hearing...
By David Morrill and Deke Castleman Despite the addition of new supermarkets, Cuenca's nine major mercados retain their prominence in the city's day-to-day commercial life. Lively, vibrant, and bountiful, they sell 250% more produce and meats than such upscale...
A curious thing happens when North Americans arrive in Cuenca. Within the first week someone will tell you that crossing the street here feels dangerous because there are no jaywalking laws. The assumption behind this remark is perfectly logical. If the United States...
At some point, living in Cuenca seems to stop being the main thing you think about. The routines settle in. The streets feel familiar. The small adjustments that once took effort begin to happen without much thought. And then, something shifts. It is not always easy...
There is a particular person for whom most travel writing is intended, and it is not, as far as I can tell, anyone I have ever met. This person is usually part of a couple, moderately energetic, comfortably funded, and in need of what is described as a break from a...
There was a time when Guyana rarely appeared in conversation unless someone had a personal reason to mention it. It was not a place that intruded itself into headlines or travel brochures, and if it did appear in the news, it was usually for reasons that did not...
Did you ever notice how no one on social media seems to have a bad day, an overflowing washing machine, or a disappointing experience? We live in an age of curated presentation that hides the messiness — but also the realness — of life. Azuay Community Theater’s (ACT)...
