Posts:
By Garry Vatcher On December 8th, 1993, as the plane ascended above Guayaquil, I thought I would never return to my beloved Ecuador again. It had been an incredible twelve years of travel, forming friendships, and falling deeply in love with its people and traditions....
Why are your beans so stubborn, your beef is gristly, and your salvation hisses like a steam engine? It’s no secret that some things can take a little longer in Cuenca. Buses. Bank queues. Getting your cedula laminated. But if you’re new in town, nothing quite...
By Stephen Vargha William Shakespeare wrote, “If music be the food of love, play on.” And the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra will be doing that for one of their beloved members. “Yackson has a love for music and is very knowledgeable. He is very open to sharing his...
Author's note: The OASIS Center for Conscious Living near Cuenca is offering weekly classes beginning in mid-July focused on the "Path to Mastrery." The following is an overview of Lesson 1, "Freedom from the Past.". Those interested in participating can contact Louis...
I used to carry an Alien Registration card. That isn’t a metaphor, or a bit of nostalgic whimsy. It was a real laminated rectangle issued by the United States government, tucked into my wallet for years, identifying me as a resident alien. It even had my fingerprint...
By Jim Smith Cuenca has long attracted retirees from North America and Europe with its pleasant climate, walkable streets, quality health care, and lower cost of living. But a growing number of these retirees are not just here to relax. Many are part of a growing...
By Deke Castleman and David Morrill Most foreign visitors start their first tour of Cuenca at Parque Calderón and many expats pass through the park on a daily basis. Despite the recent restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the park remains full of people, the...
I’ve spent a decent chunk of my life standing in government offices clutching a folder full of notarized, apostilled, cross-referenced documents, while someone behind a glass screen frowns at page 7 and tells me it should’ve been printed on A4 paper. If you’ve...
By Dorothy Neufeld Over the past decade, freedom has sharply declined in many countries. Authoritarian leaders have expanded their power by rewriting constitutions, silencing the media, and suppressing opposition. As democratic institutions erode, waves of protest...
How can older adults in Ecuador, lead healthy, active lives? How can they find competent medical care and other professional services they can trust? How do they tailor their living arrangements to the changing conditions of aging? These were the questions addressed...
By Stewart McCorvey Becoming an expat shapes your personality as it takes you through a journey of life struggles and challenges. Every expat goes through very particular circumstances, but there are certain things that almost all of them will have experienced. I have...
Opening a bank account in Ecuador used to be one of those bureaucratic escapades involving proof of address, proof of existence, and possibly a note from your grandmother. But things have loosened up, at least at Banco de Pichincha. I walked in with my resident's...
Cuenca universities will celebrate an academic and cultural 'Raymi': Cuenca will be the site of "El Raymi de las Universidades y Diversidades" from the 16 to 21 June. The events will be at various venues and include talks about ancestral knowledge, traditional...
I’ve lived in Cuenca long enough to know that numbers — especially when it comes to expats — are more art than science. Depending on whom you ask, there are either 2,000 foreigners living here, or 12,000, or a million and two if you include the ones who only come out...
By Scott Levine More twists and turns than a drive through the Cajas! Usually when couples disagree, they slam a door, drop a few F-bombs, maybe toss a platter or two. But rarely does one party decide that the correct solution is … murder! In ACT’s newest production,...
The Tranvía is Cuenca’s sleek, quiet, gliding answer to traffic and taxis — and also one of the few things in town that regularly runs on time. It stretches like a silver thread from the Industrial Park in the northwest to the southern suburb of Río Tarqui, passing...
By Mark Daffey We're 3600 metres above sea level and for reasons unexplained, there's a canoe on the lawn outside the Chilcabamba Mountain Lodge where I'm booked to stay the next two nights. As incongruous as that sounds, even a boat so far from water fails to steal...
In Cuenca, pharmacies are like bus stops. There’s always another one just down the street — and sometimes three or four clustered together like gossiping hens. It’s not uncommon to see five within sight of each other, each offering the same range of off-brand...
By Anastasia Piatakhina Giré We all come to our new country with some kind of luggage. Sometimes we bring with us some heavily charged suitcases, sometimes just a few books and a backpack. Even if we like to travel light, we still carry some pieces of our reality, the...
By Rachel Fairbank Many of us regularly wear an activity tracker, which counts the number of steps we take in a day. Based on these numbers, it can be hard to make sense of what they might mean for our overall health. Is it just the overall number of steps in a day...
Week of August 23
Ecuador’s economy grew 2% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to new Banco Central del Ecuador data.
Cuenca gets a prime view of next week’s deep partial lunar eclipse.
Ecuador’s economy grows 2% in the first half of 2026.
