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by Larry Schunk This is a hidden gem that serves a terrific lunch buffet for just $3.75. Alma Bendita means Blessed Soul and I find this place a blessing indeed! The address below gets you to the front door. From there, you have to proceed down the hall and up the...
Editor's note: Karla Freeman, expat, traveler, tango dancer, writer, currently lives in Cuenca and is the author of Creating Magic in Midlife: 101 Questions and Answers to Reinvent Your Work, Relationships and Life! Available on Amazon Kindle and in Carolina’s...
Editor’s note: Viktoria Vidali has been a piano teacher, publisher, TV and documentary producer, photographer, and executive director of an environmental and educational nonprofit organization. Her first children’s book, Francisco and Gabriel’s Blue Moon Adventure, a...
By David Morrill When I got my new U.S. passport in December, it also meant I needed a new Ecuadorian residency passport visa stamp. How hard can this be, I wondered, since I'd already been vetted by the immigration folks during the original visa process. The answer...
By Sylvan Hardy Uruguay has become the only country in the world with legal, regulated, recreational-marijuana sales, the world's first and only state-run marijuana marketplace. An omnibus marijuana law was passed in 2013, of which two major elements have gone into...
By Dr. Lee Dubs You can find a lot of articles that tell you that Ecuador is the perfect place to retire. Plenty of writers encourage you to move to Ecuador, and many want you to make that move for reasons of their own. Some even use words like “thousands” when...
[Editor’s Note: Pets are important to many expats. The following article is an excerpt from Expats in Ecuador: Life in Cuenca Second Edition by David Morrill and Deke Castleman. It mainly deals with bringing pets with you to Ecuador and was written about a year ago,...
By Deke Castleman and David Morrill Although most expats get by without a car in Cuenca, many own one. You’ll find prices for new cars to be about 20%-30% higher than in the U.S. For used cars, the markup is can be even higher, since most Ecuadorians can’t afford new...
Ecuador finds itself in a familiar position in International Living’s 2015 Global Retirement Index, released on Friday. The index rates it the world’s number one retirement country for the fourth time in seven years. International Living's index rates countries based...
By David Morrill Angel Salvador Ortega stowed away on a banana boat out of Puerto Bolivar in 1994 and was on his way, he hoped, to being an illegal alien in the U.S. when his fortunes took a dramatic turn. Life was hard in his native Oña, a town of 3,000, set in a dry...
By Mark Johnson I’ve met quite a few single expat men and women who have packed up life in the UK and headed overseas to search of a new life and who are desperately seeking new love. In many cases there’s a happy ending. A man or woman, perhaps jaded by the career...
Saying that the system that provides tax refunds to residents over the age of 65 has been abused, the government said Wednesday it plans to reduce the number of deductible items. The new rules will only affect value added tax (VAT) refunds, not those for real estate,...
National Assemblyman Gabriel Rivera has introduced legislation that would streamline the process for obtaining an Ecuadorian driver’s license, a move that could save expats time and money. Current rules require all applicants applying for a license to take 33 hours of...
The Special Foods of Cuenca 10 Alfajores 11 Aguardiente 11 Ají 12 Almuerzo 12 Babaco 14 Café 14 Canelazo 15 Ceviche 15 Chaulafán 16 Chicha 16 Chifles 17 Chirimoya 17 Choclo 18 Churrasco 18 Cuy 19 Encebollado 20 Empanada 21...
Introduction 1 Who Are We to Write This Book? 3 PART ONE: ATTRACTIONS AND DOWNSIDES CHAPTER ONE: Why Expatriate To Cuenca? Why Expatriate? 6 Why Cuenca? 6 The Rush to Cuenca 8 The Nature of Duality 11 CHAPTER TWO: Climate Why Can’t I Get a Reliable...
Introduction 1 A Note About Cuenca 2 How This Book Is Organized 3 Why We Wrote This Book 4 Similarities and Differences with English 8 Part One: Learning at Home Chapter One: What To Expect from the Spanish Adventure Acquiring a First Language: How We...
Introduction 7 People Watching in Parque Calderón 9 Abdón Calderón, Revolutionary Hero 9 The Park Scene 10 Around the Park 11 Shopping at the Mercados 15 The Mercados of El Centro 15 Feria Libre 17 The Coopera 19 Dining Out 21 Almuerzos 21 North American 23...
Ecuador banks are scrambling to establish rules for U.S. citizen account holders to comply with new IRS reporting requirements. The new rules will affect existing accounts as well as new accounts belonging to U.S. citizens. According to spokespersons at Banco...
This survey was completed by 352 people. Of the 318 who answered the first question, 55% took Spanish in school, with 42% taking French, and a surprising 23% studying Latin, while 20% took German. From the comments, respondents also studied Russian, Portuguese,...
By Deke Castleman This survey, conducted in January 2013, received 282 responses: 240 from Cuenca and 42 from miscellaneous places around the country (Vilcabamba, the coast, Quito, Loja, Cotacachi/Otavalo, etc.). Just over 200 respondents rented (73%); the rest (27%)...
