Posts:
By Stephen Vargha English author and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” The author of the fictional priest-detective Father Brown could have easily been...
By Deke Castleman As Calvin Trillin wrote in a Condé Nast Traveler article a few years ago, colonial Cuenca “doesn't look like a 16th-century city that has been preserved; it looks like a city that has been in use since the 16th century.” Trillin describes himself as...
By Richard E. Cytowic We often comment and joke that our attention spans have dropped significantly in recent years with the rise of digital technologies and screen-centric entertainment, but there is sound science to back up this observation. In fact, a shorter...
By Jen Rose Smith Parisian bridges are weighted down with copycat "love locks," while visitors crowd cheek-to-jowl into Barcelona churches and Dubrovnik's historic center. In Italy, attempts to manage the impact of tourism range from segregating visitors to fines for...
By Roger Ellis In my 16 years’ experience as an expat -- three in Mexico and Panama, and 13 in Ecuador -- most of the things you don’t hear about in the glowing reports about life overseas turn out to be unpleasant. (“They didn’t tell me how hard it would be to learn...
By Stephen Vargha It’s part of the business… Restaurants come and go. In Cuenca, it seems to be at a faster pace. And without notice. That is why many people wondered what happened to Jose Ibañez and his restaurant, Calvo & Co. Ibañez was the owner of Calvo &...
By Jeremiah Reardon Some of you may remember Jean McCord due to fund raising efforts for her hip joint replacement surgeries. The expat community is to be commended for how it rallied a couple of years ago to help her. Her progress has improved to where she now gets...
By Shayla Colon Angel Lata Landi called his mother in Ecuador on Sunday, as he did every week. He told her he would not be able to send her money as he usually did because his bills had mounted. But he promised to make up for it soon. The following day, in the next...
By Diana Hubbell In June 2020, when many Americans were coping with the COVID-19 pandemic by stress-baking sourdough, Bryan Ford challenged them to think differently about it. In his book New World Sourdough, the Bronx-born, New Orleans-raised baker with Afro-Honduran...
By Gail Renfroe One of the enduring stories of Christian devotion is that of Elisabeth Elliot, a missionary who inspired generations of evangelical Christians by returning to Ecuador with her toddler daughter to preach the gospel to an indigenous tribe that had killed...
By Frances Hogg Lochow When she walked through the doors of her high school in Cuenca for the last time, Rocío Illescas knew that the world that opened before her was not big enough. Though she loved children, the life of a housewife did not appeal to her, nor did the...
As a traveler in the “developing world” one is reminded almost daily of poverty. The tired face of hunger, the plight of refugees and the limited prospects for the disabled are impossible to ignore or wish away. Ironically, one can observe similar misery in the...
I consider those of us expats who have been living in Ecuador for a number of years and have integrated well with the local culture to be the lucky ones. Especially in the campo, where I live, the locals are a wealth of important knowledge. Our village, named Jadan,...
By Stephen Vargha It is a global problem: Graffiti. In a 2017 technical paper, Valspar, a U.S. manufacturer of paint and coatings, said graffiti is a global problem. In the United States, it was a $13 to $15 billion per year mess. This was prior to the Covid pandemic....
By Helen Rosner Twenty-seven years ago, Texas Monthly, the venerable “national magazine of Texas,” published a ranking of the state’s fifty best barbecue joints. The magazine had named the state’s best barbecue before, but the Top Fifty was an extraordinary feat of...
By Tammy Ziv Dear baby boomers, we are sorry to tell you that these things were never cool, it’s time to accept that. In the 1950’s and 60’s there was a big rise in births in America, so much so, that it was dubbed a “baby boom”. The children born between 1946 and...
By Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed staff A study by the Research Unit of Epidemiology and Prevention institute in Pozzilli [Italy], in collaboration with the University of Casamassima, shows that high consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with...
Author's Note: Welcome to Black Lunch, Coffee & Sweets – A Cozy Executive Lunch Experience in Cuenca! Here, you can dive into an amazing journey filled with mouth-watering dishes and the warm, personal attention given to every guest. Black Lunch, Coffee &...
By Stephen Vargha Older adults are living longer than ever before and the need for care is growing. There are approximately 78 assisted living facilities in Ecuador. That is about one assisted living facility for every 233,000 people. As of September, there...
Welcome to ‘Expat Life in Ecuador: How Personality Types Correlate Across Cultures.” where we explore the ins and outs of relocating to Ecuador and the role that personality types play on how people adapt to their new environments. If you’re an expat or are thinking...
