Posts:
By Drew Wood A $2,000-a-month retirement in Ecuador is not a fantasy, but it is not a blank check either. It works best for someone who chooses the right city, keeps housing modest, has a plan for the years before Social Security begins, and understands that visa...
The other day I was sitting in Parque Calderón watching a group of teenage girls taking selfies beside the cathedral while an abuelita marched past submerged under a sack of potatoes. It occurred to me that a surprising number of young American women now look at...
Daily rituals in Cuenca rarely begin with dramatic moments. Most expats discover they belong through ordinary routines that quietly become part of someone else's day. Long before they think of themselves as locals, someone else has already started treating them that...
Riley, an Airedale Terrier, was my trusted companion for sixteen years. I no longer mourn his passing that ended many years ago, but every now and then about this time of year, a whisper of melancholia will brush my cheek, reminding me of a dog who was once my best...
Every July 4th I find myself with a slightly uncomfortable question. Exactly what is it that Americans celebrate other than fireworks, barbecues and watermelons? The easy answer is freedom, but the harder answer is freedom for whom and from what? Growing up in...
Provenance, Psychology, and the Painting Above the Chimney Over the past two weeks we have followed Han van Meegeren from his garden shed in the south of France, through the Rijksmuseum's acquisitions committee, and into the art collection of Nazi Leader Hermann...
Most people who move to Cuenca know about the first suitcase. It holds the practical things. Clothes. Documents. Medications. Chargers. A few favorite items from home. Maybe a sweater for the mountain evenings and a pair of shoes that will survive uneven sidewalks....
One of the many head games I play while wandering in the kaleidoscope of mayhem surrounding the Rotary Market is imagining (and occasionally wildly exaggerating) the personal lives of couples who capture my attention. High on my list of likely suspects are couples who...
By Victoria Waldersee Daniel Northover left his home in Liverpool this month, which marks the 10th anniversary of Britain's Brexit referendum, to move in with his 80-year-old mother in Turre, a town of 4,500 people in Andalusia in southern Spain. After his stepfather...
I had spent much of the day supervising the head of housekeeping at Larga Towers who had today arrived with a five-year-old assistant already surprisingly competent in wielding a broom and a mop. The child attacked the rugs and the floor with the focused seriousness...
Most of us arrive in Cuenca carrying a list. We may not write it down, but it is there. A better climate. A lower cost of living. Less stress. More freedom. A fresh start. For some, the list is practical. For others, it is deeply personal. A difficult chapter has...
There is a particular kind of energetic expat who hits the ground running in Cuenca on Monday, buys him or herself an alpaca wool hoodie on Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning is ready to reorganize the bus system, modernize the electrical grid, improve customer...
My long-ago girlfriend, Sherry, finally won me over. I remember distant times when I could hardly wait for my girlfriend to get home so I could re-play the latest singer-songwriter album I found that moved me nearly to tears; I was always scouring the bins of our...
A few weeks ago I nearly became part of an inauguration ceremony myself, though not through any ambition on my part to mingle with visiting heads of state. I was halfway across the road when a presidential motorcade rounded the corner like a fire brigade racing to a...
Author's note: This is the third of a four-part series about how an expat with no culinary credentials somehow found himself judging one of Cuenca’s most beloved traditional. It’s also a story about the generosity of strangers and the adventures that begin when you...
There are people alive today who genuinely cannot imagine a world without television. To them it is like asking somebody to imagine life without weather. Television simply exists and as far as we know has always existed. It lives on walls in airport lounges, above...
Most of us arrive in Cuenca paying attention to the big things. The lower cost of living. The colonial architecture. The mountain views. The promise of a different pace of life. We compare prices. We admire the churches. We take photographs of blue domes and flower...
Author's note: This is the first of a four-part series about how an expat with no culinary credentials somehow found himself judging one of Cuenca’s most beloved traditional foods. It’s also a story about the generosity of strangers and the adventures that begin when...
My father ran a grocery store in England in the 1950s. At some point he converted it to self-service, which is what we would now call a minimarket. He did not do this because he had read about consumer psychology or operational efficiency. He did it because his shop...
History reveals that for countless generations, a practice of remarkable simplicity commandeered the ebb and flow of urban life throughout Europe and large swaths of the developing world. It was a principal source of immeasurable personal comfort while simultaneously...
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.
