Expat Life
Azuay Community Theatre, Cuenca’s original, English-language theater company, will present a six-show lineup of hits and lesser-known gems from Broadway and a staged radio play of one of Hollywood’s most loved holiday films, all previously unproduced here, and in a new, comfortable El Centro location. ACT will present the six plays, the most ever performed […]
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By Jeremiah Reardon How the mighty have fallen! My wife Belinda and I are not exactly mighty. But to give us our due, we made multiple changes to our lives and settled here in the Andean mountains of South America ten years ago. Back home in sunny Monterey, California, we held decent jobs affording us […]
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By Stacey Leasca An indigenous-owned tour company is offering something special to female travelers. In 2024, Alpaca Expeditions, a company specializing in sustainable travel in Peru, is launching its first-ever women-only Sacred Valley and Salkantay tour to Machu Picchu. According to tour operators, the seven-day hiking tour will provide guests with a mix of scenery […]
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By Blane Bachelor While it’s not quite a mass exodus, the number of Americans who live outside the US is not insignificant. About 9 million US citizens may live overseas, according to a 2020 State Department estimate. And about 15% of Americans polled by Gallup in 2022 said they wanted to leave the US permanently. According to those who […]
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By Eliza Relman In her 20s, Sara Hoy made close friends in her Central Pennsylvania hometown through an organization called Third Place. The group, named after what sociologists call any social setting that’s not home (the first place) or work (the second), was led by a local church leader and sought to help young professionals […]
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Reflecting as I do, especially on my 71st birthday, about life, the evolution of consciousness, and the path of mastery, I appreciate what has manifested around me. I began my search for this perfect paradise some 20 years ago. Eventually my search led me to the Andean highlands of Ecuador. As a Taoist, my definition […]
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By Stephen Vargha When one is asked what ethnicities outside of the indigenous are represented in Cuenca, Italian is certainly not at the top of the list. Obviously Spanish is at the top with its colonial past. Ecuador, especially Cuenca, has not been a destination for Italians. There are about 56,000 descendants of Italians in […]
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By John Olson Azuay Community Theater’s next production is Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted. It’s the funny and moving story of the brilliant, but abrasive screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who stubbornly held to his principles in the face of persecution by the US Congress and the film industry in the era of the Hollywood Blacklist that […]
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By Stephen Vargha Known as the Dean of American Cookery, James Beard once said, “Good cheese needs good companions.” Many expats in Cuenca yearn for that companionship. They found it difficult to get quality cheese in the city. Until now. “We started small with a place on Calle Rafael Torres Beltrán,” said Maria Augusta Naula. […]
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By Caitlin Dow “You’d think we’d have a one-sentence answer,” says Colleen Muñoz, assistant professor of health sciences at the University of Hartford. “But it’s much more complicated.” The usual advice to drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water a day—the 8-by-8 rule—seems daunting. But it was never about water alone. “The National Academy of […]
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By Sandra Beaumont It’s been a cold night. I can’t control the shivering that wracks my body. My bones ache as I pull myself from the hollow that’s been home for the last few months. I stretch, first one way, then the other, easing cramped muscles. I need to move. It’s time to leave. The […]
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By Sinead Mulhern On a rainy day, I find out about the kind of middle-of-nowhere adventure that I live for. Three parts of Ecuador’s Inca Trail happening on three separate weekends. One involves camping in the wild, another features a waterfall. My heart skips a beat. Already I know this landscape: the shark-tooth rows of […]
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Dani
Peters
Anubis
Sara
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The Cuenca Dispatch
Week of September 17.
Fabianos
